Without Borders (27 page)

“This is great.” Annie’s face cracked into a brilliant smile, sending a wave of relief through him. “But I don’t think you need me for anything.”

Felipe stomped out the urge to say he needed her for everything. Even if everything only spanned a few more days. “I do. When we go back to my mother’s house, I will have to tell her what happened.” He wiped the sweat from his brow. “She will not be happy—”

“Because of me.” Annie’s shoulders sank.

“No. Because I let you go to that house. Because we were chased away. Because I made you feel bad for trying to help. Because of all of it.” He willed away the gut-twisting memories. “But if I can show her a plan and tell her I have learned something, she will not be so upset.”

“You think she might give you
Ahora
? If she likes it?”

He shook his head. “No. But she might let me keep going on the brigades.”

“She wouldn’t keep you from them, right? You’re too good.”

“After the last one, she threatened…” The words wouldn’t come.

“Then we’re coming up with a plan.” She tugged a supply pack over her shoulder. “Let’s go.” They hiked to their temporary home as fireflies flickered in the distance. She smiled and waved her arms as she threw out idea after idea for the class.

“You are a real
Nica
now,” he said the third time her elbow jabbed his forearm.

“What?” She cocked her head, and a clump of hair clung to the sweat on her forehead.

He pushed it away and forced his thumb not to trace her cheekbone. “You talk with your hands now.
Mucho
.”

“Ha. I think I got used to no one understanding me. This. Seems. To. Help.” She accented each syllable with a random gesture.

By the time they reached the house, everyone else had finished dinner. Juan, Phillip, and their host played a game of UNO by flashlight, and Marisol had her face in a book. Annie and Felipe made themselves plates of lukewarm
gallo pinto
as they brainstormed.

“Like with the lady who was
really
into the sex ed classes?” Annie asked between bites.

“
Sí
. Bianca.” He sat next to her on the yoga mat. “If we have an educator in the villages, the people will be more open. Because the information is coming from someone they trust.”

Annie’s face puckered, and he could practically see her brain spitting out the ideas. “Maybe you should have two educators in each village. I mean, if they’re going to be dealing with people like Rosa’s dad, they might want to have some backup.”

“
Bien
. Do you still have the paper? Write that down.”

She smoothed the crinkled page and printed the words in her perfect handwriting. “Oh! Idea.” She looked up at him with a grin so wide he nearly kissed her. “What if—”

“You are funny.”

“No, I’m excitable.”

“I cannot read with all your excitability,
Anita
.” Marisol kept her eyes focused on her book. “You should go outside.”

“Sorry,” Annie whispered. She plucked the flashlight from Felipe’s hands and tucked the pen and paper under one arm. “Let’s go. Bring the yoga mat.” She darted out the door before he had time to stand up.

Marisol finally put down her book and looked him straight in the eye. “
De nada.
Do not waste your last moments,
hermano
.” She pulled the pages up to her nose without waiting for him to respond.

Outside, Annie paced back and forth, tapping the pen to her lips. Her perfectly curved, soft lips. Felipe threw down the yoga mat and sat. His sister’s words spun in his mind. “Tell me your grand ideas,
Americana
.”

She sat beside him, and his skin buzzed as her knee brushed up against his.

“So what if…”

“…We could have a…”

“…No, that won’t ever work…”

“…Money. It is always a problem…”

“…It’s a fundraiser…”

They went on and on, throwing out ideas and scribbling the best on their single sheet of paper. Sleep weighed on Felipe as Annie talked, but he didn’t want to lose this moment. He stretched out, staring up at the sky with the damp grass tickling his neck.

Annie lay beside him, and he was acutely aware that no part of her was touching him. Her ideas slowed, and the silence between them stretched on.

“I think we have a very good plan,” Felipe said.

“Yeah.” Her voice softened at the end, and he could tell she was fading into sleep.

Last moments.
He took a deep breath, and his throat went dry. There was no reason this should be so hard. No reason he should be so worried. No reason he should be so wrapped up in a girl who was leaving in a few days. “Annie?”

She didn’t respond, and he turned to look at her. The flashlight still lay in her palm, pointed limply at her feet, and the steady rise and fall of her chest told him she was already dreaming.

Felipe clicked off the flashlight. “I miss you already,” he whispered.

The sun was bursting on the horizon, and a low cover of thick fog hung over the damp grass. A bird sang in a nearby tree, and Annie honed in on the sound. She’d been awake for a while now, reliving last night’s brainstorming session and making mental notes to add ideas to their list. But between thoughts, she found herself staring at Felipe. Memorizing the line of his jaw and the smooth curve where his neck met his shoulder.

“Good morning.” His face dipped into a sleepy, dazzling smile.

It was her undoing. Her heart thumped against her ribcage, begging her to both stop and go. To kiss him and to run away.

“Annie, I—”

She pressed her lips to his, giving in to the loudest of her body’s demands. And after half a stunned second, he kissed her back. And then he was pulling her on top of him, all hands and warmth moving against her.

“I missed you,” she said.

He pulled her top lip between his teeth, and she pressed harder against him. Her skin felt electric and frenzied, like she might combust if she couldn’t lay her bare chest to his.

“You are beautiful.” His fingers inched up her side, until he stroked the sensitive skin beneath her breasts. Their tongues explored each other, and Annie forgot where she was or who she was. The smell of morning dew and the taste of Felipe’s mouth and the feel of their skin sticking together combined to overwhelm her senses and her mind.

“You should go into the woods. Or at least do not lie in the way of the
baño
.” Juan’s voice trailed behind him as he stepped over their wild tangle and headed toward the outhouse.

Annie rolled off of Felipe, scrambling to find her composure. “We can’t do this.”

Felipe sat up beside her and brushed the curls from her forehead. “Why not? I do not care that you are leaving. I care about right now. This.” He slipped his hand around the back of her neck and traced her cheekbone with his thumb.

She grinned, even though his eyes were soft and serious. “No. Not that. He’s coming back.” She jerked her head toward the outhouse, where Juan had reemerged. His whistling grew louder and more obnoxious with each second. But he stepped around them and into the tiny house without a word.

“He’s going to wake everyone.”

Felipe nodded, still running his thumb along her cheek.

“Do you think he’s trying to get us back? For the underwear thing?”

“No.” Felipe chuckled. “He will do something worse, I think.”

“We’ll maintain constant vigilance.” Annie leaned forward and kissed him again, softly this time, trying not to lose herself or this moment in the taste of his lips.

“Annie?”

“Yeah?” She kept her eyes closed as she nuzzled into his shoulder. Behind them, the sound of the others waking and shuffling around made her stomach sink.

“Tomorrow, Marisol and I will go to a resort. We go there after every brigade for a few days. Come with us. We can cancel your hotel in Managua, and you can go to the airport from the resort. It is beautiful there. I want you to see it.” He swallowed, and Annie felt the movement along her forehead. “I want one more day with you.”

“Really?”

“
Sí
.”

“Will Mari mind? Is it like a sibling tradition?”

He laughed. “I think my sister will murder me in my sleep if I do not invite you.”

“We can’t have that.” She kissed him one last time before she stood. “It’s a date.”

• • •

The house was exactly as they’d left it four weeks ago. Exactly as Felipe had left it six years ago when he moved across the country. Fans perched on every open space. The worn couch with its faded blue pinstripes and sagging cushions. It was all the same. But something felt different…off, like this was a replica of his old home rather than the real thing.

As he stared at the awards lining the walls, it hit him. For the first time since he started going on the brigades, Felipe wasn’t relieved to return home. He wasn’t happy to dump off the Americans and have a week off to rest and relax away from the worry of medicine. Instead, he was nervous and excited and energized. And he would have gladly hopped back in the boat if it meant another month to put his plan into action. Another month with Annie.

His mother jumped up from her desk to greet them and knocked a stack of forms to the floor. “
¡Hola!
I am so happy to see your faces.” She hugged every one of them, enveloping them in her familiar scent. Felipe dug through a pile of envelopes on the rickety kitchen table, and Annie lingered with his mother.

“Can I use your phone to call my dad?” Annie asked.

“Of course. Let’s have a debriefing afterward. Everyone all together. I’m sure there are things you want to talk about.” A debriefing meant telling his mother what had happened. Every last detail. Felipe’s shoulders crept toward his ears, and he could already hear his mother’s pointed lecture.

“Okay.” Annie slipped outside with the phone.

“
Madre
.” Felipe put down the mail, and gathered up his courage. “Before we have a group debriefing—”

Her face sank. “What happened?”

“It is okay. We had some trouble in one of the villages.”

“Trouble? What kind of trouble? Felipe, I don’t know—”

“We should wait for Annie.” Without her at his side, bubbling over with her excitement and ideas, Felipe wasn’t sure he could pull it off.

“Why?”

“Because…” The anxious pit in his stomach grew deeper, swallowing his voice box. “I will go check on her.” He rushed out the door without waiting for a reply.

Annie sat on the front stoop with Phillip, the phone dangling at her side.

“No worries. I’ll get back to school. There’ll be plenty of chicks to choose from there. And if not, there’s talk of doing a
Barnyard
spinoff.
The Farmer’s Wife
or something like that. They’ve already asked me to audition.”

“Sounds great. But I shouldn’t have said anything. It was between you and Mari.”

Annie’s voice trembled a little at the end, and it made Felipe want to scoop her up and kiss away her nerves.

“I guess it wasn’t anything I didn’t already know. I mean, she lives here. I live in America. It’s not like it could have been anything, right?”

Felipe’s hands went numb, and his heart sprinted harder. He didn’t want to hear Annie agree, even if he already knew Phillip was right. “Annie? Did you get ahold of your father? My mother wants to talk about the class, and…” He swallowed hard. “And I need you.”

She shot up. “No answer. I’ll try again tonight. You think everything’s okay, right?”

Felipe could practically see the medical terms swirling through her mind. Decompensation. Shortness of breath. Ejection fractions. “I am sure he is fine.”

“Okay.” She slipped her hand into his and squeezed.

He led her inside, and his mother made no effort to hide her shock at their intertwined fingers.

“This is new.” She motioned to the chair across the table. “Sit.”

Annie perched on the edge of her chair and let go of his hand. Felipe slid in beside her.

He stayed silent for a long second, his pulse thudding in his temples.

“Anything you want to share?” his mother asked.

“No.” Felipe relaxed a bit. “Well, yes. We had some trouble—”

“I got us run out of a village.” The words spilled from Annie’s mouth, and she tugged at the hem of her t-shirt. “I’m so sorry, Melinda.”

“Annie that is not the entire story.” Felipe leaned in closer to his mother. “We—”

“Wait.” Melinda’s forehead creased. “Which village, Annie? Start at the beginning, please.”

“There was this little girl. Her name is Rosa…” The story tumbled out, all jumbled together and full of heavy sighs. Felipe interjected when he could, but once Annie got started, it was hard to fit a word into the conversation.

His mother’s face was indecipherable.

“
Madre
,” Felipe began. “We can work our way back into the village. We have done it before. And you always say there is no way to know how many people we impact with our actions.” He glanced at Annie and nodded. “When Annie stood up to that
borracho
some of the people were on her—our—side. I heard the things they said. Those are the people we want to start with.”

“Start with?” Melinda sat back in her chair. Felipe’s stomach turned over. He waited, expecting her to tell him this was the end for him. That he didn’t have the personality or the right skillset to lead a multicultural group into the rainforest. But she stayed silent.

“
Sí
.” Felipe laid out their plan for child abuse education classes, unfolding the creased sheet of paper where they’d jotted it all down. “We start with the people who believe it is wrong. Give them the information so they can teach the others. This is our way, no?”

“Hmmm.”

Annie jumped in, pouring out her ideas and throwing around words like grants and fundraisers and social workers. Felipe clenched and unclenched his fists as they awaited the verdict. As he waited to see whether he would lose his dreams.

Melinda zeroed in on Annie. “So you think your reaction was the wrong thing to do?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know.” She chewed her bottom lip. “I wish I had handled it differently, I guess. The thought of all of those kids going without medical care now makes me sick.” Tears streaked her face, and Felipe squeezed her knee under the table.