#arnold cunnighamn

[elderxprice]

There’s a trampoline in the middle of a papaya farm. Kevin has no idea how Arnold found it, but he did, and now the two of them are jumping on it - higher; higher.

He needs this. They both do. Life in Uganda is hard; harder than he thought it would be, and even harder now that they have no support. What money they have left is quickly dwindling, and the District is down to posho, beans, and what fruit they can scavenge from the landscape. Kevin has had to make two new notches on his belt, and Elder Cunningham can almost squeeze into Elder Neeley’s shirts.

Everyone is hungry. Everyone is tired. Everyone is homesick. Which is why he and Arnold are here, jumping their problems into oblivion, fingers sticky with Papaya and sweat. It is the happiest Kevin has felt since he’s been here, and while he wishes Arnold had found this place sooner, he is just happy Arnold found it at all.

“Hey,” he says, after landing a back-flip; “– thanks, pal.”

Their hands come together and they continue to jump until Arnold fumbles his landing and they fall to the mat in fits.  Kevin feels like a kid, again. 

He feels nineteen, for the first time in his life.