When Zinovy decides he needs to find out why Grace is so sad.
They found Grace sitting by the river watching a herd of gazelles grazing on the other side. A cheetah crouched beside them at the edge of the stream, lapping the water, his eyes raised to the human visitors across the way, his tongue sending ripples of concentric circles into the gentle current with each dip of his head.
The three watched the animals together for a while. The cheetah, his thirst finally quenched, stood up, licked his lips, and blinked at them a time or two. The herd of gazelles wandered a few feet closer to the cat, seeking greener pastures, and he turned his eyes in their direction, his long tongue still working the last of the moisture from his whiskers. Then he sat down and began a leisurely, rhythmic cleaning of his entire body, beginning with the bottom of his right paw.
They fell into place at the end of the line behind Simon and Ruben who plodded steadily along with Caleb galloping and whinnying between them. A few paces into their journey, Zinovy looked at Sara over Grace’s head and raised his eyebrows. She nodded imperceptibly, but continued to walk without speaking for some time. Zinovy assumed she was searching for the right words.
Grace stiffened slightly. Zinovy saw tears forming in the corners of her eyes. He looked at Sara, willing her to do something.
“If I only knew something about what happened to them,” Grace went on. “I think that would help. As it is I can’t bring closure to the pain because I don’t know. . .” She trailed off and wiped her eyes again. After a minute Sara took her hand and the three of them moved on.
“He’d planned to, but at the last minute the government decided he needed to stay in Shanghai. We talked three days before we were scheduled to come down. He told me they would be in Shanghai when I landed.” Her shoulders slumped again.
“Why did you live with your grandparents? Where were your parents?” Sara asked.
“But you weren’t killed,” Zinovy pointed out.
Sara rolled her eyes. “Duh!” she said.
Zinovy looked at Grace. Her face glowed with a contentment he’d not seen in days. A softness touched his heart and tears came once again, unannounced, to his eyes. He blinked them away and frowned.
He stood, still as a stone, and looked at both women. What to do? His feelings boomeranged back and forth between relief and agitation. He was glad Grace felt better, but Sara’s allusion to her imaginary companion had reminded him that their biggest morale problem was nowhere near being solved. It had, in fact, developed a disturbing new angle. He was not ready to admit it, but his own dream by the riverbank bore a suspicious resemblance to Sara’s vision of the man walking with her by the river.