One Grave Less

she was afraid the person she had chosen to take her to her mother might not be up to the task. Maria made an effort to relax. She was frightened. How much more scared would Rosetta, a child, be? Maria smiled and squeezed her little hand.
    “I’ll sleep in a few hours. I want to get farther away from this area. We’re doing fine. You made a good plan—an amazing plan. We’ve come a long way and managed to collect supplies and weapons while escaping. I’ll get you home. I promise.”
    Rosetta nodded and put her head down, taking small bites of bread. She looked up after a moment.
    “You won’t leave me, will you?” she whispered.
    Maria scooted next to her and put an arm around Rosetta’s shoulders, pulling her close.
    “No, I won’t leave you. You have my promise.” She paused for several moments. “Your mother didn’t leave you, you know. Everyone in our profession heard the story of what happened to Diane Fallon. We all heard how she looked for you until she collapsed and had to be carried away. Everyone thought the same thing happened to you that happened to the others at the mission.”
    “I knew she didn’t mean to leave me. They said she didn’t want me anymore. But I didn’t believe them.”
    “When people say things like that, it eats at you, doesn’t it? That’s why mean people talk like that—to hurt you and make you sad. No, it wasn’t true. Your mother couldn’t work for a whole year after she lost you. She became very ill from her sorrow . . . but she is doing well now,” Maria said quickly, lest she give the little girl another worry. “She is going to be so happy to see you. I promise you that, too.”
    They ate the rest of the meal in silence.When they finished, Maria washed out the pan and soup cups with the whiskey left in the bottle and they started on their way again.
    The terrain gradually changed from the half-muddy soil that had worried Maria throughout the trip to a dryer, harder soil and less vegetation. They had left the intense flora that had encroached on them from all sides. The path they followed had a slight but steady incline. She expected it. According to the map, they should be approaching a higher elevation.
    She checked the map before she started out again. As the crow flies, they were on the right track. But they weren’t flying. She would like to make it to a clearing so she could see the stars. She wanted to compare her compass reading with the Southern Cross star constellation to verify true south. Not that she didn’t trust the compass, but she trusted the stars more. She wasn’t lost, she didn’t think, but she wasn’t certain of her navigation—not while she was so scared.
    Maria had driven about fifteen minutes when she spoke to Rosetta. “Ariel,” she said, using her real name.
    “Rosetta. You have to remember. If anyone hears Ariel . . .” She let the sentence trail off.
    “All right. Rosetta, you hinted that we can’t go to an embassy because someone from there was involved with the horrible things that happened at the mission. I know that remembering is painful for you. I haven’t pressed you about that, and I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think it was important to our success in getting home. But I need you to tell me what happened.”
    Rosetta didn’t say anything. Maria let the request hang out there for the little girl to think about. Several minutes passed before Rosetta began to talk. When she spoke, her voice was so low Maria had to strain to hear it over the noise of the truck.
    “Mama was gone for a long time. She was doing her work. She had left me at the mission.”
    Rosetta stopped talking and Maria wondered if she was going to continue. But she didn’t push.
    “It seemed like she was gone a long time then,” she began again. “Maybe it was just two or three days. The day she left I got a bad feeling. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but in my mind it seemed like the bad stuff started then, the day she left. I was just a little kid then. I don’t remember everything.”
    Maria smiled and patted her hand. “I know, sweetheart. Take your time.”
    “It seemed like the grown-ups were in a bad mood. Maybe not all of them, but some were. I don’t remember who exactly. But that day I heard Father Joe arguing with one of the people Mama worked with but who always stayed at the mission. I didn’t understand what it was about and I don’t remember what they said.”
    They ran over a hole and Rosetta cried