One Grave Less

Maria. She didn’t say anything for a long moment. She could see Rosetta was upset. Everything considered, she was surprised the kid hadn’t lost it before now. Maria couldn’t imagine making a daring escape plan and executing it when she was Rosetta’s age.
    It was important to find out if Rosetta knew who had kidnapped her. Maria didn’t know much about the massacre at the mission. She was under the impression it was the work of some rogue rebel gang. If a government or embassy personnel had a hand in it . . .
    Maria gently tried to coax the little girl to explain, but gave up quickly. It was clear Rosetta didn’t much want to talk about the traumatic events surrounding the attack on the mission. Maria would respect that.
    She turned her full attention to the way ahead. It was still dark under the canopy, though she was beginning to see flashes of emerald, glimpses of color yet to come. Never driving above fifteen miles per hour, she frequently checked the compass and the map in the dome light.
    Rosetta busied herself sewing. Maria marveled at her ability to do it in the dark.
    “What are you sewing?” she asked.
    “Our money into our clothes. Some of it you can put down your top, but the rest I will hide in a lot of places. If we’re bushwhacked, maybe they won’t get all of it.”
    “Bushwhacked?”
    “It’s a movie word. I like it. It’s a holdup.”
    “You like the movies?”
    Rosetta nodded. “Mama and I watched a lot of movies. She got them in the mail. We watched them together, sometimes with popcorn. Do you know about Indiana Jones? He’s an archaeologist like you.”
    “He’s more of a pothunter.”
    “What’s a pothunter?”
    “He’s someone who takes artifacts out of their context at a site.”
    Rosetta looked sideways at her. “What does that mean?”
    “Archaeologists want to find out about the people who lived in ancient ruins. To do that, we have to study artifacts—the things we dig up—in the place where they are found. Pothunters want the artifacts because they are valuable or pretty. They don’t care about what the things meant to the people who made them.”
    “I’ll bet you are a lot of fun at the movies.”
    Maria laughed. “I like movies. I just have issues with Indiana Jones being called an archaeologist.” She paused. “I did enjoy his movies, though. What else did you watch?”
    Rosetta put down her sewing and counted on her fingers. “ The Little Mermaid —that was my favorite. I liked Cinderella and Snow White . E.T. was a little scary, but fun. I liked The Wizard of Oz . We watched a lot of cowboys and Indians—they were old movies made in olden times.”
    “All of those are good movies.”
    “Mama likes science fiction. Do you?”
    “Well, I like mysteries best. But I like adventures, too. I like movies about horses, and I’m a big fan of Tarzan .”
    “ Tarzan ?”
    “He was this guy raised by apes in the jungle. Swung on vines, ran with the wild animals. Cool guy.”
    “You must be having a great time here.”
    Maria laughed. Rosetta dug out some jerky and a canteen of water from her backpack and shared it with Maria. It was a good, much-needed meal. When Rosetta finished, she took up her sewing again.
    “Why don’t you get some sleep?” Maria said after another long period of silence.
    Rosetta looked up at her, needle in hand.
    Maria smiled. “When you finish your project, of course. You said you have clothes for us?”
    “I got you a skirt and a shirt like people here wear. You can put them over your jeans. You need to look a little more like you live here. That’s going to be hard. You’re tall.”
    “You’ve made very detailed plans,” Maria said.
    “I’ve been planning a long time. Like E.T., I want to go home.”
    “Well, like E.T., if we can get our hands on a satellite phone, we can phone home. Maybe one of the villages we pass will have phone service of some kind. If not, the bigger towns and cities will.”
    “Have you got a plan? Besides the train?”
    “If the train doesn’t work out, I was hoping we might find some tourists. Right now, I don’t know exactly where we are in terms of civilization. Just our location in terms of the map.”
    Rosetta made a face. “What do you mean? Are we lost?”
    “No, not lost. I know the direction I want to go. I just don’t know when we will get to a town that has a place we can get help. Most of the places listed on the map seem to be villages. But one of them may have a