“Any idea how many farms like this there are? Information on that was nonexistent in the short time I had to search.”
She shook her head. “No. Whatever is here, however, is going to be toward the outside edge. The further in you go, the less reputable the people are.”
“If we don’t run into complications,” he tacked on.
“Correct. I’m more worried about running into drug traffickers than getting lost. In a perfect world, if we just keep heading north, we’ll hit the edge eventually.”
A young girl stepped outside of the house. She wore a colorful, homemade dress, and her hair was braided back along her head and gathered into two poofs up top. Glennon guessed her to be somewhere around twelve years old.
She called out in Spanish to the girl. “Good evening. Your hair is very pretty. I wish I had pigtails like that.”
The girl smiled, preening a bit.
“We’re hoping you have drinking water for sale,” Glennon added.
The girl nodded shyly. She replied, “Fifty dollars American.”
“Can you do forty?”
The girl repeated, “Fifty.”
Glennon looked to Triumph, hoping he understood the game she was playing. While they had the money to pay the girl’s price, it wouldn’t pay to take the first offer. Haggling here was a way of life in South America when not in the large cities, and those who didn’t engage were suspect.
“We won’t have much left,” he whispered loud enough for the girl to hear.
Good. He understood.
The little girl wouldn’t understand English, most likely, but she’d be able to guess what they were discussing.
Glennon looked back at the girl. “If I give you fifty, I’ll only have ten dollars left for when I reach the other side.”
The child shrugged. “If I take less, my father will beat me.”
There was no way to prove the accuracy of that statement, although her arms, legs, and face showed no evidence of it. Still, she refused to chance it.
With a nod to Triumph, she approved the price. He dug around in his pocket and pulled out the required amount. After he handed it to her, she turned on her heel and led them to the house instead of the well. Once there, she handed them each a gallon jug of purified water that they could have bought in a traditional store.
“I like this better than well water,” he said.
“Yes. It’s sealed, too, so that means it’s completely safe to drink. Out here, that isn’t always the case, and bad water is a good portion of why people die here.”
Both rigged the jugs to their backpacks. As they were finishing up, the girl approached Glennon, motioning her to crouch down. “What is it, little one?”
The girl motioned for her to turn around. She flashed a questioning look at Triumph but did as the girl asked. His posture was loose but watchful.
The child pushed her to a sitting position on the wood floor. Quickly, hands threaded through her hair, parting it into two sections. Within a few short minutes, Glennon’s hair was braided back from her forehead, then looped into buns atop her head, just like the girl who’d sold them the water. She finished the knots off with two cloth strips that dangled like ribbons.
The gesture was sweet and innocent. She reached up to touch the new hairstyle. “Thank you, little one. I feel very pretty now.”
Smiling, the girl turned her attention to Triumph. Shyly, she tapped the leather bracelet on his wrist.
“She’d like it in trade for my braids,” Glennon told him.
Without a second’s thought, he unsnapped the cuff and helped the girl put it on her wrist. Laughing, she impulsively hugged him, then Glennon.
With a wave and a “Goodbye,” they headed out the door and continued onto the next leg of their journey.
“Sorry you had to sacrifice your cuff.”
