Pigment by Renee Topper Page B

racing she is realizing he’s right. She was reckless. They can’t go to the camp. They’ll put everyone there in danger. What has she done? She thinks to herself. This wasn’t what she wanted.
    “We should go see Rhadi.”
    “I don’t give a f...”
    “I’ll get him to come in with us...You’ll see.” She knows she won’t be able to get him to come in. She’s still not sure she will turn herself in. She needs more time to think about this. And she wants to speak with Rhadi about it. He will have another solution. He wouldn’t have set her up to have to take the fall for this...even though it looks exactly like that’s what happened.
    Kennen is swayed by her pleas...He submits there is a little time before they’d be named and tracked down. He pulls back on the road and heads for Kuchuna, but deep inside he doesn’t feel this is right.
    #
    Kennen and Aliya park about 20 yards from Kuchuna. It’s dark and the street is quiet. There is no light on in the office and it’s locked up tight. Aliya gets out of the van. “Where are you going?” Kennen asks.
    “I think he’s next door.”
    Kennen follows Aliya to the hut next to Kuchuna. As they approach, Kennen sees one of the miniature flags from the festival hanging in the window.
    Aliya knocks on the door. A small elderly man opens the door a sliver. Rhadi sees them from his spot on the floor and nods for the man to let them in. Rhadi’s leg is elevated on a footstool while he sits upright on the floor with his back to the wall. The small man finishes applying some herbal healing mixture to the wound then starts binding it with a clean cloth. Rhadi stops him and nods for him to leave the room, which he does.  Then Rhadi wraps the wound himself as he speaks with them. Aliya kneels at his side, takes the cloth from him and wraps his lower leg.
    “Are you okay?” Aliya asks very concerned.
    “I will be fine. And you are?”
    “I’m fine. I wasn’t shot. I’m fine.”
    Rhadi is lucky he’s hurt or Kennen would punch him. Then, Kennen reconsiders when struck with the notion that bullet could just as easily have hit Aliya and taken her life. He grabs him by the neck and punches him in the face at the meaningful and smart point where his uncle the boxer had taught him. Rhadi doesn’t fight back, but puts his arms up to block Kennen’s attack. Aliya puts herself between them. She didn’t know he was capable of violence. The horrified and shocked expression on her face stops Kennen. She sees how angry he is. She doesn’t want to mean that much to him or anyone. She doesn’t want to upset someone loves like this, to bring out their rage.
    Kennen blows out of the hut, combing the rage out of his head with his tense fingers, and goes for a long walk.
    Aliya puts a cool cloth on Rhadi’s new shiner. “He wants us all to turn ourselves in.”
    “All of us? ’Crazy white man. What did he do?”
    “His name is on the hotel and flight records. The authorities will assume he’s involved. You have to know this. Didn’t you?”
    “What?”
    “Know this?”
    “I didn’t set him up. He’s one of us anyway.”
    “But if we all get arrested, what will Delila and the kids do? They need us.”
    “What we did, we did for them. That’s what they needed from us. To break the rules to get them some attention.”
    “Maybe Kennen is right.”
    Rhadi shrugs, “What are you saying?”
    “This is all so short-sighted.” She looks toward the door after Kennen.
    Rhadi moves to her on his good leg. “Yes, things could have gone better,” mostly referring to the wound to his leg. “We’ll do better next time. But we can’t have a next time if we turn ourselves in. We need to stay together and do better. We need each other.” He kisses her on the forehead. She turns away at first. He softly kisses her cheek. She gives in and they embrace each other and kiss passionately.
    #
    Kennen walks for hours. When he gets back to the hut, he can’t go in. He can’t