Free Collision by Stefne Miller Page A

who are sexually
assaulted—”
    “I don’t think I want to hear this.”
    She looked up at me with the end of a candy worm peeking out of the corner of her mouth. Giving a shrug, she chewed as she waited for me to say something more.
    “Okay. I do.”
    She swallowed before starting again. “Infant rape—”
    “Hold on.”
    My hands flew over my ears as I took a deep breath and tried to prepare myself to hear the rest. I wanted to hear the truth, but I didn’t. I knew that once she told me, I wouldn’t be able to ignore the reality anymore. I knew that the information would change the way I saw the world forever.
    My hands lowered to my still-in-pain lap region. “Okay. Go ahead and tell me.”
    “You certain?”
    I nodded slowly.
    “Infant rape is rampant in some areas because witchdoctors have told men with HIV that if they have intercourse with an infant, it will cure them. Then, of course, not only does it not take away the man’s AIDS, but it infects the child. Some say that AIDS has killed more people in Northern Uganda than the twenty-year war has.”
    “It’s horrible.”
    “I know.”
    “And you’re around that all the time? Aren’t you in danger?”
    “Who’s to say I’m in any less danger here?”
    “We don’t have stuff like that going on.”
    “You’re making a joke, correct?”
    I shook my head.
    “Cabot, people are murdered here every day. Children are molested by relatives or abducted and tortured by strangers on a regular basis. The elderly are abused. Women and children are trafficked across the country for use in the sex industry. It’s all happening here. It might not be under the instruction of a witchdoctor per se, but it’s happening. Evil is everywhere. It’s not limited to certain continents or colors of skin.”
    “But we don’t sacrifice our children in the name of some god.”
    “Parents murder their children here too. They might not bury them alive, but they drown or stab them and say that God told them to do it. I’ve heard of it happening. Certainly you have to.”
    “You’re right. I never thought about it like that.”
    “I believe people from first-world countries like to look at other countries and point fingers while at the same time tell themselves they aren’t as bad, aren’t as evil as others.”
    “We don’t have the wars and we aren’t abducting children and forcing them to kill.”
    “No, they aren’t doing that. But they are ignoring that it’s happening other places. So doesn’t that make us somewhat
accountable?”
    I still couldn’t think of an intelligent response, so I said nothing.
    Her face drooped. “I apologize. I got serious and totally sacked the night again. I don’t know what it is about me that must turn so serious all the time. Maybe I’m just a depressing individual. Have I depressed you beyond reason?”
    “Yeah. This is by far one of the most depressing campouts I’ve ever been on. Actually, it is the most depressing, hands down.”
    She slapped her hands over her face and fell back onto the sleeping bag. “Bollocks!”
    “Yep.”
    Uncovering her face, she looked back over at me. “Let’s try this again, shall we?”
    “I, for one, would appreciate that. You can do it, Kei. Humor me and rally back.”
    “I don’t know what ‘rally back’ means.”
    “Un-sack the night.”
    “Oh,” she said with a nod. “I can do that.”
    “Prove it.”
    “Okay…the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen?” She sat back up and grabbed some more worms out of the bag. That time, she used them to make a circle in front of her on the sleeping bag. “It would have to be the time a witchdoctor in one of the IDP camps did some sort of chant or incantation and then threw himself down on the ground and started writhing around like a snake.”
    “Shut. Up.”
    “On my honor. It wasn’t just shaking; he was literally moving like a snake along the ground. It made the hairs all over my body stand on edge. Utterly freaked me out