Free Pushing Up Daisies by Melanie Thompson

an accident.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œThey were only after the helicopter. We were just there. You know kind of an opportunistic find.”
    Sarah nodded. “Then maybe they will ransom us. As far east as they’ve traveled, they could have some contact with Somalis. Maybe they’ve learned white people have value alive.”
    â€œI sure as fuck hope so.”
    Sarah clucked. “Language like that will get you punished among Muslims. They don’t curse or swear and rarely drink alcoholic beverages.”
    â€œHow do you know their language?”
    â€œI know lots of languages. There’s not much to do locked behind embassy doors when you’re a girl. They speak a kind of Arabic. I can understand most of what they say.”
    The women trooped into the tent carrying empty trays. They went out through the rear entrance and returned with more food. The small group sat down to eat. Sarah listened to them talk. Mostly it was about their children, their husbands and where they would go tomorrow. One commented on the captured stranger and they all began an excited spate of speculation about what the men planned to do with the captives. Their ideas ranged from torturing and killing him, to ransoming him to making him a tribal member.
    When the women finished eating, they tossed the remains of their meal on one pewter plate and handed it to Sarah. Sarah held it without touching the food until all the women had left the tent. The sun had risen. She saw the bright light of day through the tent flap when they left.
    She offered Daisy the food. “They were talking about us,” she said around a bite of what she easily recognized as camel meat.”
    â€œWhat kind of meat is this?” Daisy asked.
    â€œYou don’t want to know.”
    She nodded. “Probably right. So what did they say about us?”
    â€œThey saw House and think he’s pretty hot…for a white man. They were speculating on the size of his man parts.”
    Daisy snorted. “That it?”
    â€œNo, they think the tribe elders will contact someone they know who might pay for him. The tribe is very poor. They’re running from war in Sudan with the Misseriya, another tribe of nomads. That’s why they are here. Their tribal elders are tired of fighting. The Rizeigat seem to think we’re in Kenya, by the way, or at least that’s what the elders think.”
    â€œThe who?”
    â€œThe Rizeigat. That’s who these people are. But the women aren’t sure whether they will ransom us or not. They believe the men will want you and me and keep us. They believe they might ransom House.”
    â€œBut not us?”
    Sarah nodded as she swallowed a mouthful of rice. “We’re just women. We have no value.”

Chapter 8
    House sat comfortably among the elders of the Rizeigat. He knew who these people were just not why they were in Ethiopia. They thought they were in Kenya, but House knew better. He’d seen the road to Mogadishu. It skirted Bale Mountain Park connecting eastern Ethiopia to Mogadishu on the Somali coast. Most of the road was a dirt track across miles of arid desert, but he’d traveled it before and recognized it. Kenya was close. A piece of the country jutted into Somalia and Ethiopia.
    One of the men brought the water pipe out of a corner and loaded it with tobacco. They smoked it from tubes connected to the body of the pipe. They passed around the tubes. When House was offered one, he gratefully took it and sucked in a huge lungful of apple-scented tobacco. One hit off a water pipe was like smoking a pack of cigarettes. House enjoyed the occasional cigar. He sat back and let the tobacco work its magic.
    The men were relaxed, laughing and talking about the day. They’d scavenged parts and some gasoline for their truck off the helicopter along with weapons and the two big packs House and Daisy had carried. House hadn’t forgotten about the helicopter