Tinderbox Read Online Free PDF Page B

and monkeys. She was surprised when Adam
     informed her that although Iquitos is landlocked, accessible only by boat or plane,
     with a jungle market where you can buy everything from crocodile meat to the hallucinogenic
     ayahuasca, it is, nonetheless, a modern city with Internet cafés and banks, the avenues
     teeming with motorcycle-driven rickshaws.
    A look of confusion passes over the girl’s face. For a moment Caro wonders if Eva
     speaks English, as her mother was assured by Ursula. Or perhaps Eva is experiencing
     the shock Caro can still recall from her first weeks in Paris, when her college French
     seemed unrelated to what she was hearing, the words stuck together so she couldn’t
     tell where one started and the next ended.
    “I’m Caro, Myra’s daughter.”
    Slowly, Eva’s face clears. “I know. I know the whole family. Mrs. Ursula explain everything
     to me. There is your mother, Doctor M., and you and your brother. His wife is also
     a doctor, and the child is Omar.” Eva smiles when she says Omar’s name, revealing
     a front tooth with a little chip. “I love children! I have a present for him.”
    She drops the duffel bag at her feet and digs inside. When she stands up, there is
     a red stuffed animal that looks like a monkey under her arm.
    “Mrs. Ursula tell me the child is six. When I work at the jungle lodge, I babysit
     many children five, six, seven years of age.”
    “That’s adorable. I’m sure he will love it,” Caro says, though, in truth, it is hard
     to imagine Omar, whose phone conversations at four were about the extinction of dinosaurs
     due to the climate change caused when a meteorite crashed into the earth, playing
     with this toy.
    “We have these monkeys nearby where I come from. They are called howler monkeys because
     they scream all night. Me, I am used to it, but the Americans, when they stay in the
     lodges, sometimes they complain they cannot sleep from all of the noise.”
    “I’ve seen photos of them.” One of her teachers had come back from Belize with slides
     of howler monkeys, no larger than cats, hidden in the upper branches of a thicket
     of trees—too unlike the picture-book monkeys the children knew to capture their interest.
     “Let’s get your luggage.”
    Eva points at the duffel. “I have everything in here. Mrs. Ursula buy me two jeans
     and this jacket. My friend, he give me the suitcase. You know the Lakers?”
    “I’m not much of a sports fan.”
    “You know Shaquille O’Neal? He is my favorite player.”
    “I’ve heard of him.” Caro picks up the duffel and slings it over her shoulder. “With
     traffic, it’s about an hour’s drive back to the city. Do you need to use the bathroom,
     get a snack before we go?” She points at the food court ahead. “We could stop and
     get a sandwich if you’d like.”
    The frightened expression from when Caro tapped Eva’s shoulder returns to the girl’s
     face. Eva lowers her chin, covering her nose and mouth with her hand. Caro can see
     the oyster color of her scalp. “Are you okay?”
    “I smell something burning. There is something burning over there.”
    Caro inhales. There is the slightest scent of cooking meat. “I think that’s hamburgers
     on a grill. Would you like to get something?”
    Eva bolts ahead so that Caro, weighed down with the duffel, has to struggle to catch
     up with her. There is a bead of sweat at Eva’s hairline. Caro shifts the duffel to
     her other shoulder and takes Eva’s elbow. “Slow down. You’re going to lose me.”
    “I don’t like the smell…”
    Caro points to the coffee stand on their right, the candy kiosk on their left. “There
     are plenty of other places. Are you hungry?”
    “Hungry?” Eva tilts her head. It is hard to tell if she is contemplating the meaning
     of the word or the state of her gut.
    “Yes,” she whispers. “I am very, very hungry.”
    13
    By the time Caro arrives at the brownstone with Eva, her mother has finished