First World Problems

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

 

Lena returned with a bowl of cold, yellowish-brownish mush with lumps in it. I stared at it, then stared pointedly at her.

“That looks like vomit,” I said. “I’ll take the Power Bar.”

Lena shot a nasty look at me. “Looks like Ari cooked before she left. It’s curry chana.”

“Gezundheit.”

Arielle rolled her eyes as she ambled in. “Chickpeas and curry sauce. Local delicacy. And no, you won’t take the Power Bar. They’re used for emergencies only. Eat up,” she ordered before slumping onto the bench.

I would have asked what kind of emergencies would necessitate Power Bars, but I had the sense that I had pushed my confrontational nature far enough today.

I pushed the edge of the white rice into the center of the plate. “White rice. It’s not even good for you.”

“It’s calories. More than a lot of my patients have,” Arielle said.

I supposed a crack about how she sounded like my grandmother would have been going way too far, so I dipped the tines of my fork in the yellow sauce, trying to focus on getting it down. While I fussed, Callum sat at the table and served himself a heaping plateful.

“After we finish, can you and Sofia work on soaking the pots?” Lena asked, speaking only to Callum. “You need to find a new assignment for her and it’ll give you a chance to talk.”

Callum grunted his assent.

“Why doesn’t Margaret soak the pots?” I grumbled.

“She’s seven-and-a-half months pregnant,” Arielle jumped in. “She shouldn’t be lifting things. She has a bit of placenta previa.”

I had no idea what that was, but it sounded completely disgusting.

“So why don’t you just get a new cook?” I asked.

“Maybe that’s what you do back home,” Callum said, almost snarling. “But here each person needs a job to survive. If we give hers away, she’ll never get another one. And her husband was a Jeep driver who died in an accident on the roads back there, so she needs all the support she can get. So we soak the pots for her, because if we don’t, she’ll starve to death.” His voice had risen throughout his little speech so that his voice boomed with the last word.

I stared at him, holding the gaze he’d started. He knew I had no way of knowing all that about Margaret’s situation. And I’d be damned if I was going to say I was sorry.

Finally, after what was probably a full thirty seconds, Callum broke the silence. “So you’re not teaching anymore. Pulled out, apparently?” I couldn’t tell if there was judgment or sick pleasure in his voice at the fact that I’d failed my first assignment on my first day. “What are your plans for tomorrow?”

Forget that it was his job to decide that. If there was a time for Callum the Project Manager to step up to the plate, it was now.

But my sparring with Callum had to end now because I had to start the manipulation. “Hopefully making a phone call. I need to talk to my Dad.” I placed my elbow on the table and leaned forward ever so slightly. A small adjustment in arm placement made a big difference in how much cleavage I flashed.

Arielle shook her head. “We tried placing an order for more meds today on the hospital line. The connection was so bad we literally couldn’t get two words in at a time. We had to give up and spend way too much sending a messenger via bus and plane up to Georgetown, unfortunately.”