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I nodded "He crawled like a crab because his knees were bloody," I said,her baby They hadn'

t named hiht he was a newborn because he was so s Her breasts," I said, my voice a whisper "She had no milk left They were like deflated balloons"

Then, I couldn't go on and covered el finished the story for me

"We put them in the back of the truck and took them to the camp Once Chinua knew they were safe, and that they had food and water, he up and died despite everything they did for hiel turned to me and squeezed my shoulder "We were able to save Alika and her baby Maya, though They got IVs and food and the last ti well"

A , and I s the story I saw the ca for only a feeeks, but it was enough At times, they were terrible places of death, especially when the fa and dozens, if not hundreds, died each day

I wrote objective, journalistic pieces that described in stark language the horror of the wars and human-induced famine What my pieces didn't reveal was the human behind them, horrified by what I saw, so much so that I had a breakdown

My father – former Marine – se of tears That was how he'd been all my life, blind to my true emotions like an idiot

"Excuse roup, ere now speaking a photos I went down the hall to et a hold of myself

Then, the door opened

Drake

I glanced away, er that he followed me, partly in embarrassment that he'd see my tears

"I'd like to be alone," I said

"Being alone is the last thing you need right now" He sat beside ainsthis elbows on his knees, he turned to look at me "I'm sorry Your father doesn't seem to understand how upset Africa still makes you"

I frowned Drake understood

"He always sees everything, every event, every word, for its strategic purpose How it can aggrandize him and our family – or hurt us He doesn’t really pay attention to people What he said about those photographs being key to what reat huel offor a topic for ot myself into"