She looked down at the floor, then back up. “I haven’t done much here yet. I’m getting to know Sabin—that’s Lauren’s husband, or life partner, I guess. He’s offered to take me to the National Mall and see the government stuff. I’m not sure I want to get back into one of those automated cars yet.”

Kate smiled. Automated cars. She didn’t like them either.

“I thought there might be quite a few books to read here. But they don’t have any books; everything is on the Grid. I’ve tried it, but it’s not the same as curling up in a hammock with a book.”

Abby stood up and started to pace. “I haven’t gotten to know Lauren very well yet. She’s busy with her work. Everything here seems very busy. I miss how, in the jungle, someone would come from another village, and we’d spend the whole afternoon just sharing stories. Things aren’t that way here.”

She stopped pacing. “Last night I dreamed that my village was burning, like it was when we flew away in the helicopter. Except I and everyone else were still there. I heard Miraba screaming, and I kept running into the huts, but I never could find her.” She paused. “I’ve had several dreams about Miraba and my village dying. Maybe it will help when you hear something from the lab about the disease. Let me know if you’ve heard anything, okay, Kate? And has the chief been buried yet?”

The chief. Kate was loath to admit to Abby that the chief was still lying on a steel slab in a morgue. Maybe by the time Kate heard back from the lab, she could say that arrangements had been made for his burial.

Abby sat down on the bed, and Kate thought she could see her blinking back tears. “Kate, when I get back, maybe you could go to the jungle with me…help me settle in a new village. I’d like to take you to the places I loved growing up. There’s a stream that leads into the river that ran by our village. We used to sit on logs in the water, thinking, talking, listening to the macaws, looking into the sky. I’d talk to God there. I know you’d enjoy that spot.”

Abby rose off the bed. “Well, I guess I’ll tap you again in a few days just to check in. Thank you again for all you’ve done for me.”

The message ended.

Abby was lonely. And bored. And discouraged. Kate found herself wishing she had taken time off to accompany Abby to the States. Being there alone—how would she possibly cope with life in America? Still, Abby had traveled down the Sepik in a canoe to save her village. Somehow she’d find a way.