The story of a missionary girl, a charming innocent, in a land alive with
tensions between innocence and evil—on both sides of the color bar.
"There’s two things could’ve
happened," Ron Roberts went on. "Local chief over there could’ve had her
kidnapped. He wanted Elizabeth for her son and Lucas Jenkins wouldn’t hear of it. But
I don’t think that’s it. He’s always supported our work and Dave patched
him up one time after he’d had an accident."
"Have they talked to him?" I asked. "Yes.
Talked to him. And his daughter who’s a pal of Elizabeth. They say they have no idea
what happened to her and Dave thinks they don’t. Lucas Jenkins isn’t so sure,
but that’s what you’d expect of him."
"Could she have run away?" George asked. "She
was pretty young to marry."
"Where’d she have gone?" Ron Roberts asked.
"She didn’t take any clothes. Didn’t take any money, not that she had much.
Didn’t leave a note."
There was a silence. For some reason I knew what was going
to fill it. I took up my plate again and forced the tuna casserole into my mouth.
"The other possibility is—" Again the silence. It created a hollowness in
me. Finally he spoke the words, "Cannibals got her."
George put down his plate. I did the same; it would have
been a kind of sacrilege to touch food while these words hung in the air. Once more the
silence. It slowly faded and I again became conscious of the crackling voices from the
radio in the living room.
"These things happen," Ron Roberts said. |