My family silently bumps along the road toward an African village we’ve never heard of. Neither had Dean. Mom holds courage-red flowers the priest’s wife presented at the airstrip, the priest who performed my brother’s last rites on the barge that was mired somewhere near here. Dean’s Zairian fiancée holds a similar bouquet. We weren't supposed to meet her until the wedding. We hear singing. Villagers line the road, voices strong, waving those same flowers. They’re crying too, for us, the Canadian family of the stranger they buried two weeks ago. Dean found home in Africa. Now I know why.
Andrea Montgomery is a fifteen-year member of the Restless Writers. She writes plays, poetry, and short prose in her cozy home in Burlington, Ontario. Facebook: Facebook: Andrea Montgomery Instagram: @amonty_32