Free A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

and frustrations. W
hat if my father leaves the hospital without telling anyone where he is going?
W
hat if I get there too late?
I
will never be able to find him again....
    At last, all the forms were filled out, and all the paperwork was in order. Salva flew in a jet to New York City, another one to Amsterdam, and a third to Kampala in Uganda. In Kampala, it took him two days to get through customs and immigration before he could board a smaller plane to go to Juba, in southern Sudan. Then he rode in a jeep on dusty dirt roads into the bush.
    How familiar everything was and yet how different! The unpaved roads, the scrubby bushes and trees, the huts roofed with sticks bound together—everything was just as Salva remembered it, as if he had left only yesterday. At the same time, the memories of his life in Sudan were very distant. How could memories feel so close and so far away at the same time?
    After many hours of jolting and bumping along the roads in the jeep—after nearly a week of exhausting travel—Salva entered the shanty that served as a recovery room at the makeshift hospital. A white woman stood to greet him.
    "Hello" he said. "I am looking for a patient named Mawien Dut Ariik."

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Southern Sudan, 2009
    "What do you think we are building here?" Nya's father asked, smiling.
    "A house? Nya guessed. "Or a barn?"
    Her father shook his head. "Something better," he said. "A school."
    Nya's eyes widened. The nearest school was half a day's walk from their home. Nya knew this because Dep had wanted to go there. But it was too far.
    "A school?" she echoed.
    "Yes," he replied. "With the well here, no one will have to go to the pond anymore. So all the children will be able to go to school."
    Nya stared at her father. Her mouth opened, but no words came out. When at last she was able to speak, it was only in a whisper. "
All
the children, Papa? The girls, too?"
    Her fathers smile grew broader. "Yes, Nya. Girls, too," he said. "Now, go and fetch water for us." And he returned to his work scything the long grass.
    Nya went back and picked up the plastic can. She felt as if she were flying.
    School! She would learn to read and write!
Sudan and Rochester, New York, 2003–2007

    Salva stood at the foot of one of the beds in the crowded clinic.
    "Hello"' he said.
    "Hello"' the patient replied politely.
    "I have come to visit you"' Salva said.
    "To visit me?" The man frowned. "But who are you?"
    "You are Mawien Dut Ariik, aren't you?"
    "Yes, that is my name."
    Salva smiled, his insides trembling. Even though his father looked older now, Salva had recognized him right away. But it was as if his eyes needed help from his ears—he needed to hear his father's words to believe he was real.
    "I am your son. I am Salva."
    The man looked at Salva and shook his head. "No" he said. "It is not possible"
    "Yes," Salva said. "It's me, Father." He moved to the side of the bed.
    Mawien Dut reached out and touched the arm of this tall stranger beside him. "Salva?" he whispered. "Can it really be you?"
    Salva waited. Mawien Dut stared for a long moment. Then he cried out, "Salva! My son, my son!"
    His body shaking with sobs of joy, he reached up to hug Salva tightly.

    It had been almost nineteen years since they had last seen each other.
    Mawien Dut sprinkled water on his son's head, the Dinka way of blessing someone who was lost and is found again.
    "Everyone was sure you were dead" Mawien Dut said. "The village wanted to kill a cow for you."
    That was how Salva's people mourned the death of a loved one.
    "I would not let them" his father said. "I never gave up hope that you were still alive somewhere"
    "And ... and my mother?" Salva asked, barely daring to hope.
    His father smiled. "She is back in the village"
    Salva wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. "I must see her!"
    But his father shook his head. "There is still war near Loun-Ariik, my son. If you went there, both sides would try to force you to fight with them.