A Plume of Dust

by Wynne May

  ‘Yes. I’ll put my name down, on the off-chance. There, it’s down, Jake. Are you satisfied?’ she laughed lightly.

  ‘I don’t want you backing out at the last moment,’ Jake said.

  ‘I won’t back out. All right, then. I’ll see you tomorrow, Jake. Goodbye for now.’

  As she replaced the receiver Lyle Cunningham looked up and greeted her stiffly and she noticed the flicker of interest in his eyes before she began checking figures again.

  She had known perfectly well that she was in a position to accept Jake’s challenge because, in any case, had the trip up the Pass not cropped up she had intended driving into Thabana in the morning and she was not expected to help at reception in the afternoon.

  ‘Michelle,’ Liza said in a loud voice, ‘I wish you’d warned me that you and Jake Gobbi were finally drawing your long, intimate chat to an end. I wanted to speak to him about those spare parts for the station-wagon.’

  Michelle took a breath while she calmed herself. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said,

  ‘I didn’t know you wanted to speak to him.’

  ‘That’s ridiculous - of course I mentioned it. Anyway, let’s not waste any more time. Are those figures ready for the adding machine?’

  ‘Yes, they are.’ Michelle’s voice was very quiet. How baffling Liza Monatti was! There always seemed to be a lot of hostility behind her words and the expression of those dark eyes - especially if Lyle Cunningham happened to be within earshot.

  Coming over to the desk, Lyle asked, ‘What parts are those, Liza?’

  It was a moment before Michelle could trust herself to continue working, although she made a pretence of writing something down on a small jotter. Had she been imagining it? Had she detected Lyle’s annoyance and, if so, was he annoyed with her - or with Liza’s abrupt manner?

  Glancing in Michelle’s direction, Lyle said, ‘Was Jake talking about tomorrow’s trip up the Pass?’ There was challenge in the question.

  ‘Yes,’ she replied. She hoped her face showed nothing. ‘He was just checking.’.

  ‘I see.’

  As she waited on the arrival of the Land-Rover the next morning she felt tense and apprehensive. She had heard so many stories about this trip up the Pass that her heartbeats quickened when she saw the rest of the party - two girls and two men. They were obviously a foursome who were out for kicks. To Michelle they looked the type, especially the girls, who would cheer Jake Gobbi on if he did decide to show off a little. They would dare him on with their laughter and their brashness.

  The Land-Rover drew up at the foot of the shallow steps leading to the foyer and Michelle went outside to greet Jake, and caught her breath sharply as Lyle Cunningham jumped down from the vehicle and took the steps two at a time. His eyes swept over Michelle and then, beyond her, to the foyer where the rest of the party was waiting.

  Stunned that he was going to drive the Land-Rover himself, she stared at him in disbelief before she pulled herself together.

  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I take it we’re all set to go? Come through to the foyer, Michelle, while I check for necessary documents.’

  She found herself doing as he said and then stood watching as Lyle examined the travel documents, which included passports. When he came to her he said, ‘May I see your vaccination certificate?’ His eyes dropped to her bag which she had not opened.

  ‘I’m not sure about going up,’ she told him in a voice that was not quite steady. ‘I really haven’t made up my mind.’

  ‘No?’ There was scorn in his voice. ‘But you arranged with Jake, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes, but,..’

  ‘And you’ve paid, haven’t you?’

  ‘Yes, I have. But I’m not sure I want to go. As I’ve just told you, I haven’t really made up my mind about going up.’

  Lyle’s face altered, but he merely said, ‘I see.’ There was a slight pause, then he went on, ‘In that case, allow me to make it up for you.

  You’re booked to go on this trip and so you’ll go.’

  ‘I was expecting Jake.’

  ‘That means - what?’

  She met his hostility with silence and then he said, ‘Jake had to go off somewhere else - at the last moment. I’m standing in for him. This is a kind of routine with us.’ His eyes swept over her. ‘Satisfied, Michelle?’

  Without a word she opened her bag and took out the necessary papers and handed them to him, then watched while he went to the counter and looked through them, along with the others which had been handed to him at the last moment.

  Moodily, Michelle’s eyes followed two members of the kitchen staff carrying out the food hampers which were to travel in the Land-Rover up to the Mountaineers’ Chalet situated just inside the Lesotho border - the highest licensed hotel in Africa. The hampers would be handed in at the kitchen at the Chalet where they would be opened up and the food prepared for lunch by the staff there.

  After handing back all the other documents Lyle came back to her and held out her papers which she put into her bag. As their eyes met she felt herself flooded with longing for him and she immediately loathed herself. ‘Have you brought something warm to wear?’ he asked, his eyes going over her. ‘You’ll need something warmer than that by the time you get up top.’

  ‘I have something in here,’ she told him, holding out her spacious bag. She stared back at him from beneath the brim of her black linen sun hat.

  ‘Good. It can be bitter up there.’

  ‘So I’m told.’

  ‘Your mood can be seen in those blue eyes,’ he said. ‘Sometimes you’re so transparent.’

  ‘Really? And yet you find me totally baffling.’

  ‘Too bad Jake Gobbi couldn’t make it,’ he laughed lightly, ‘but it happens sometimes.’

  Michelle had herself under control now. ‘Especially if you have anything to do with it?’

  At that moment one of the girls of the party came up to them. ‘What kind of driver are you?’ she giggled. ‘Good, I hope?’

  ‘Terrible.’ Lyle’s voice was mocking, then he laughed dutifully as the girl shrieked, ‘Oh - noooo!’

  ‘But I’ve learned not to show it,’ he added, for her benefit.

  ‘Tell me,’ the other girl sauntered up, ‘how are the brakes? The reports I’ve heard about this trip are enough to make my hair stand on end.’

  Playing up to them, Lyle smiled, ‘Don’t you worry about it. Leave the worrying to me.’

  From behind the desk, Liza Monatti gave Michelle a hard look.

  The seating arrangement sorted itself out the moment they went out to the Land-Rover. Immediately the party of four climbed into the back and Michelle found herself having to occupy the front seat with Lyle, even though there was room for her at the back. She was quick to notice the flicker of amusement in Lyle’s glance as he opened the door for her.

  The Sani Pass, she discovered, appeared to have been hacked out of the terrifying mountains, leaving a roughly scarred wound, and right from the start, the noise was deafening as the Land-Rover rattled and shook itself over corrugations and boulders, but the going was easy and the thick tyres ate up the road.

  So far, Michelle thought, beginning to relax, it was nothing like the film which she had seen at the hotel. In fact, it was fun.

  Over and above the engine and rattling noises the girls in the back shrieked and giggled and there were hoots of laughter from the men.

  However, they remained quiet and interested every time Lyle explained points of interest. ‘Let me know,’ he had to shout to make himself heard, ‘if you want to take photographs and I’ll stop and you can get out.’

  Loose sand was licked up by the tyres, and left a plume of dust behind and almost obliterated everything from sight. A lot of it found its way along with the stifling heat, into the Land-Rover. The vibration inside the vehicle increased, if that was possible.

  They were climbing steadily and there was a lot of gear work. In the distance, the mountain peaks were blue and slashed with
snow in those places which never saw the sun. The bends in the dusty track were becoming more frequent now and, often, Lyle hooted as he approached them.

  Sitting beside him and trying to hear what he was saying, as he kept up a kind of commentary for the benefit of his passengers about the history of the Pass, Michelle looked at his vibrating tanned hands and accepted that the physical attraction she felt towards Lyle Cunningham was overwhelming. Her thoughts went to the time he had helped her to buy her Mini - everything had seemed so right then. Her mind came back with a jolt as the Land-Rover skidded and the girls in the back shrieked and laughed loudly, clinging to their boy-friends. Michelle looked over her shoulder and laughed too, but Lyle, his eye wonderfully blue-green and alive, scanned the track for more potholes, although he seemed utterly relaxed behind the wheel.

  ‘I’m immensely thrilled,’ one of the girls was shouting. ‘I love this senseless speed - so reckless over this crazy track. I’m so glad we came. I wouldn’t have missed this for anything!’

  ‘The chances that we reach the top are improving all the time,’ Lyle called back, and then suddenly Michelle knew the journey was just beginning.

  The rock faces were ominously near. She was alert to danger. It all seemed so carefree and yet she knew that the possibility of skidding and going over the side of the track - rolling down, down, down, was highly possible. Lyle’s tanned hands on the wheel were strong and capable and it was amazing to see that his fingers rested only lightly there. One would have expected them to be tightly clenched so that the knuckles showed up whitely.

  For all that, however, she had to struggle to convince herself that the speed Lyle was travelling was not outrageous.

  A trickle of fear went down her spine as she saw the cab of a truck in the distance, where it had rolled down. Turning briefly to look at her, Lyle said, ‘That was caused by a rockfall only seven and a half months ago. The truck was hit by a boulder. There’s the other part of it, down there.’

  ‘It’s getting steadily worse,’ she said. ‘I’m scared to look out - the wheels actually seem to be hanging over space.’

  ‘They are.’ His smile was mocking.

  The Land-Rover skidded again and she watched him fight for control, wrenching the wheel, and when the moment was over, he turned to grin at her. They appeared to be hanging in the air one moment, Michelle thought, or making for the side of a mountain the next. The huge tyres bit into the boulders on the track jolting the passengers in the Land-Rover unmercifully.

  Proteas, clinging to the mountainsides, flashed past. Wild flowers, scarlet beneath the sun and undefeated by the dust, blazed back their colour.

  Lyle was giving his full attention to the hair-raising bends, almost jockeying the Land-Rover as he raised himself slightly from the seat.

  Suddenly he braked sharply and brought the Land-Rover to a halt, then opening the door on his side, he jumped out on to the track.

  ‘Ooh, look! He has a snake,’ one of the girls screamed.

  In a moment they had all joined Lyle and stood looking at the snake which he had caught and dropped into one of his socks. ‘You must have got that sock off pretty quick, man!’ Everybody laughed as the young man made this statement. ‘What do you intend doing with it?’

  ‘They make very good pets,’ Lyle answered. His mocking blue-green eyes went to Michelle. ‘It’s a skaapsteker.’

  He went to the door on the driver’s side which was hanging open, and put the sock with the snake in it in the flap on the inside.

  ‘Don’t tell me we’re going to travel with a snake in the Land-Rover?’

  one of the girls said loudly.

  ‘He’s quite safe there. Besides, if he escapes he’ll bite me first,’ Lyle answered, still in the same mocking tone.

  ‘Why do you want it?’ the girl persisted and, irritated, Michelle found herself asking the same question. Was Lyle doing this on purpose?

  she wondered. Was he trying to make her nervous as she sat there in front with him, so near to the snake?

  ‘I don’t want it. I want it for someone else who has a private snake park. I often catch them.’ Immediately he seemed to forget about the snake. ‘Here’s a chance to take some more photographs. You’re lucky, those packhorses are approaching just at a convenient moment.’

  Now that they had stopped it seemed very quiet, apart from the laughter and conversation of the girls and their escorts, who had started to take photographs.

  Lyle went to lean against the Land-Rover, crossed his ankles, crossed his arms and said softly, ‘So? Have you nothing to say to me, Michelle?’

  There were cooling down noises, now, coming from beneath the bonnet of the Land-Rover.

  ‘Aren’t you asking for trouble?’ she asked. ‘I can’t say I relish the idea of travelling with that snake in the front of the Land-Rover.’

  ‘It’s quite safe there,’ he told her, smiling. ‘It’s not the first time I’ve had a snake as a passenger.’

  Michelle’s eyes dropped to his feet. ‘One sock on and one sock off.

  I’m surprised you don’t carry a - a little bag or something with you for this sort of thing.’

  ‘That’s an idea.’ His smile was mocking.

  She started to take off her jersey. There was the hot smell of oil and simmering metal as the Land-Rover baked in the hot sun. ‘You’ll begin to need that jersey when we get going again,’ Lyle said.

  ‘I’m boiling hot. It doesn’t seem possible that I’ll need it.’

  They fell silent and Michelle watched a lizard dancing on a rock.

  Thinking about the snake, she began to feel irritated. ‘Don’t you catch lizards, too?’ she asked, with sarcasm in her voice. ‘You could put it on my side of the Land-Rover, just to make things really zing for me.

  Why only partly destroy my peace of mind?’

  He gave her an easy look. ‘Why all this falling apart?’ he asked. ‘Are you really so nervous of a snake? You didn’t particularly strike me as nervous the day I saw you frolicking in the snow with a sheer drop to the valley below - only metres away.’ His voice had an edge of ridicule to it.

  ‘I don’t want to hear a remark like that again.’ She spoke with frustrated annoyance. ‘I already know your opinion of my character, so you don’t have to go into detail. All I’ve said is that I happen to be nervous just knowing that there’s a snake in the front seat - I mean in the front of the Land-Rover - with me.’

  ‘It’s on my side,’ he mocked her.

  ‘Well, see that you keep it there.’

  ‘If that’s the way you feel about it.’

  ‘It is.’

  The others came back and they climbed into the Land-Rover and got going again.

  Nothing was too small for Lyle to point out - a brilliant bird on a rock, a sparkling waterfall and, later, a frozen waterfall in a dark crevice. He also kept up a kind of good-natured running commentary with information regarding the Sani Pass. Even from her position in the front of the Land-Rover Michelle found it difficult to hear him over the noise of rattling, flying stones and groaning engine noises.

  The huge spare tyre on the bonnet steadily collected more and more dust. Colossal boulders loomed up as the Land-Rover approached the hairpin bends. Being in the front seat Michelle was able to notice all these things more and she also nursed her fear of the snake, glancing in the direction of the flap on the inside of the door on Lyle’s side.

  Once again Lyle stopped so that the party in the back could get out and take more photographs. ‘Would you like to get out?’ he asked her.

  Outside, there was a strong wind now, laced with cold, and reaching for her bag Michelle said, ‘You were right, I’ll need a jersey.’

  ‘I’m usually right,’ he replied easily.

  ‘I couldn’t help but notice,’ she said, ‘you didn’t put your handbrake on.’

  ‘It isn’t working,’ he told her, and she studied his eyes for mockery.

  Was it that he wanted to see her nervous and unhap
py today just because he was at the wheel and not Jake Gobbi? ‘But in any case,’

  Lyle went on, ‘it does happen to be in gear.’

  ‘Thank you for that,’ she answered sarcastically. After a moment she said, ‘All the same, it could run back, couldn’t it? I mean, it is so steep.’

  ‘I think that’s unlikely - but,’ he shrugged, ‘it’s a possibility.’ He reached over and opened the door on her side and Michelle got out and immediately began to shrug herself into her jersey. Then she walked round the Land-Rover and went to the edge of the track on the other side where she tucked her hands, thumbs out, in the pockets of the white denim jeans she was wearing and surveyed the Pass. The wind caught at her linen hat and sent it flying and she ran to retrieve it, the wind blowing her hair about her face.

  The Pass writhed its way up to where they had stopped and then continued up and up, to where they still had to go. The mountains over and around it ruled it, ever threatening it with their landfalls and the unpredictable weather conditions which they constantly drew towards them.

  It took cool courage, she thought, to be a driver of one of these vehicles and courage - or plain pig-headedness - to be a passenger in one when there was really no need. She was acutely aware of the possibility of an accident and her face was serious as, moodily, her eyes rested on the two girls who were spending more time giggling and getting in the way than posing for photographs.

  There was the sound of an engine some time before another Land-Rover, labouring and. protesting and packed full of Basotho men, came into sight. Behind it there was the inevitable plume of dust. No wonder they had called the film A Plume of Dust!

  High up the peaks stood remote from them, like a maze of minarets and towers - aloof, unsmiling, ageless, lonely, isolated and waiting for them with their wind and their cold and the snow in the crevices where the sun couldn’t reach. She felt another sudden surge of fear.

  Lyle came to stand beside her and she did not turn. ‘What did you expect when you so flippantly made your arrangements with Jake Gobbi?’ he asked softly.

  Shaking back her hair, she said, ‘This is exactly what I expected, as a matter of fact.’