Nature of the Lion

by T. M. Clark

  ‘Good. Would hate to have my blood brother die from bleeding,’ Mike said, then slung his arm over Enoch’s shoulder. ‘Come, if we’re quick, we can still catch the tractor to the dam where my father is fishing.’

  They ran out from the old ikhaya, down towards the compound.

  ‘Enoch,’ Mike said suddenly, pulling on his arm to stop him. ‘Promise me that no matter what happens, first you’ll be my brother, then you’ll be my friend.’

  ‘I promise,’ said Enoch.

  ‘Me too,’ said Mike.

  A sound outside the dining room brought Enoch back to the present; he wiped his eyes, clearing away the old images.

  Xo walked in with Chloe. He had to tell them they needed to leave. To flee. He just had to find the right words in his pounding head.

  Chloe rushed in and gave her dad a hug, then she turned to Enoch. ‘It’s good to be home.’

  ‘Dad,’ Xo said, ‘good to see you home.’ He touched his shoulder.

  Enoch flinched.

  ‘What happened? What did they do this time?’ Xo asked, frowning.

  ‘They were having a pissing contest,’ Enoch said. ‘Excuse me, Chloe, Ethel, that was not for your ears. I am sore and tired.’

  ‘With reason too, by the look of it,’ Chloe said, and she touched her forehead to his instead of hugging him, unsure where he was hurting, a gesture he was grateful for.

  She sat down next to Mike. ‘Hi, Ethel,’ she said as she took the plate from her and began feeding her dad.

  Mike opened his mouth, and he ate like a young child, chewing and swallowing slowly. ‘Thanks, Ethel, for looking after Dad while I wasn’t here,’ Chloe said as she passed her the empty plate.

  ‘I’m happy to see him eat; he’s not been eating well,’ Ethel said.

  ‘I see that,’ Chloe said, as she picked some invisible fluff off Mike’s shoulder. ‘He has no choice now; his bossy daughter is home again.’ She patted him on the arm. He took a while as he fought for control over his muscles to put his hand on hers.

  Enoch laid his head on the table and released a sigh. Perhaps he had been overreacting. Perhaps Mike was going to be okay. He looked up at Xo and Chloe to see they were both looking at Ethel, and it didn’t look like they wanted her to bring them food. They were waiting for her to leave the room.

  They wanted to talk too. Even he couldn’t be reading those signs wrong.

  ‘Ethel, we will do the dishes tonight. Take the rest of the night off—you need a break,’ Enoch said.

  ‘Are you sure?’ she asked.

  ‘I am sure. You have your church meeting tonight, so go and get ready and Xo will run you there in the bakkie so that you are not late. My head is pounding, so it is best he drives you if you do not mind.’

  ‘Thank you, Enoch,’ she said, already undoing her apron ribbon.

  ‘Of course, Dad.’ Xo grabbed a bread roll from the middle of the table. ‘Chloe, don’t you and Dad eat all the dinner before I get back, I’m starving. Come on, Ethel, shake a leg, that preacher will be singing a song for your sins if we are late,’ he called as he shoved the bread in his mouth.

  * * *

  Mike was already in bed and fast asleep when Enoch, Xo and Chloe sat in the dining room.

  ‘We need to leave, go home to Zimbabwe,’ Chloe said.

  ‘I agree with Chloe,’ Xo said.

  Enoch nodded. ‘You know what? It must be what is right because as I sat at the table tonight, I was thinking that we need to take Mike home. We have to leave this place, go back to Delaware.’

  ‘That was too easy,’ Chloe said.

  ‘No. Not easy. It is a necessity, and we are all in agreement,’ Enoch said.

  ‘Yes,’ Xo and Chloe said in unison.

  ‘We need to go soon. Like tonight. Tomorrow, I dread the thought of the police taking you away and hurting you again. I hate the thought of them coming to shoot Marin. We need to leave immediately,’ Chloe’s voice was getting louder and louder.

  Enoch nodded, and he put his hand on Chloe’s arm. ‘Keep calm, nothing is ever accomplished when we are uptight and rush things. Besides, my head is still sore, and shouting is not helping it.’

  ‘Sorry,’ Chloe said. ‘I didn’t mean to shout.’

  ‘I know. So, the question is, when do we leave? And how do we get back?’ Enoch asked.

  Chloe kept her voice low. ‘Xo and I spoke about this on the drive here,’ Chloe said, launching into an explanation of what they had discussed.

  ‘That could work. You are licensed to drive the cattle truck so you and Mike can drop us, and then take the excess baggage with you and go through the Beitbridge border post. Just past the airport on the Fort Victoria road—no wait, it is now called Masvingo. You will need to take the turn-off to drive through to Chipise and down to Sengwe. From there you will find a small road heading south. You will need to trust your instincts to fetch us as close to the Limpopo as you can, without bringing attention to the fact that you are down there in the first place, and obviously looking for something.’

  ‘That’s a good idea—I like it,’ Chloe said.

  ‘What about Ethel? Do we ask her if she wants to come with us, or leave her here?’ Xo asked.

  ‘We give her the choice. I don’t think she has much family, so she may want to come with us,’ Chloe said.

  ‘I am not so sure. If she wants to say goodbye to anyone she could jeopardise our leaving. I think that if the SAP got wind that I am leaving town, they will issue an arrest warrant. They are too determined to pin Sebastian’s death on me.’

  ‘I know,’ Chloe said, having witnessed the South African Police in action, ‘but Ethel has worked for us nearly the whole time we’ve been here. She came to us because she wanted a family to look after, so we need to return the kindness. We need to ask her. I depend on her to help Dad.’

  Enoch nodded. ‘I have to be guided by you on this one. I would leave her behind if you were not championing her. I worry that if she is with us and we get caught, she will be in the same amount of trouble as we are, and she does not deserve that.’

  ‘There’s other logic to my reasoning—if she’s with us, I can help watch for lions and other dangers, I can carry a gun and help protect us. I won’t be the one always looking after Dad. Three of us doing the protecting is better than two. Besides, we all know Ethel cooks so much better than I do.’

  Xo grinned. ‘What? You don’t want to be the little woman?’

  Chloe threw a cushion at him.

  Xo said, ‘So, when do we leave?’

  ‘Tomorrow night,’ Chloe said. ‘That way we can go into Pietermaritzburg in the morning and buy some supplies, and if anyone sees me, I’ll just tell them I’m stocking up the house after being away for a week. No one will suspect anything.’

  ‘How about this?’ Enoch said. ‘We pack tonight; it will not take us more than three or four hours. We only take what we really need, and then we stop on the way for any supplies, and to clear out our bank accounts in Vryheid in the morning. Chloe, do you have any unpaid bills in town?’

  ‘No. And the rent here is paid, so we won’t leave a debt.’

  ‘Fine, then all we need is what we really feel is essential, the rest is just possessions and can be replaced. The horses, any tack and feed that needs to go. Chloe, make sure you have our Zimbabwean bank books and passports, and all of Mike’s medications,’ Enoch said.

  ‘Let’s do this,’ Xo said.

  CHAPTER

  10

  Chloe went to her room and stuffed her clothes into the only suitcase she owned—they all fitted in with ease. Not that she thought they wouldn’t; she wasn’t one for excessive clothing. Everything was functional and long-lasting.

  First packing the pictures of her mother and a few of her knick-knacks, she put on her mother’s wedding band, on her right hand, and frowned at how it looked on her finger, before removing the gold ring and hanging it on a chain around her neck, with her father’s, not sure why she hadn’t put them tog
ether until today. Moving into her father’s room, she opened his chest of drawers and looked through his clothes, deciding what she wanted to take.

  ‘Let me pack this up,’ Enoch said from the door. ‘It cannot be easy for you, bending over with your nose still healing.’

  She shook her head. ‘It’s not, but I’ve taken the drugs the doctors gave me—they’ve dulled most of the pain. You okay?’

  ‘I will be. Once we get over that border and are home in Zimbabwe. I know it is not perfect what we are heading into—the war is raging in Matabeleland—but it has got to be better than being hunted for a crime I did not commit,’ said Enoch.

  ‘Even in death, Sebastian’s being a doos,’ she said.

  ‘Do not swear. It is not nice,’ Enoch said automatically, causing them both to smile.

  When she’d packed them all, she took the bags to the cattle truck outside. Xo and Enoch had already started to load the front section with feed and hay. She left her bags there and began transporting the saddlery and all the tack she could take from the stables, and piling it up next to the truck.

  ‘Good thing we only have five horses,’ Enoch said. ‘We need to take all this, but it is going to make the journey slow. Xo, it is time to go fetch Ethel. Take Chloe with you so that you can talk about the offer in the car, but make sure she knows that if she does not come, she cannot tell anyone where we have gone, and if she decides to come she cannot call anyone to say goodbye.’

  * * *

  Two hours later, Ethel stood next to the cattle truck, her eyes large, carrying two Checkers packets containing all her belongings.

  ‘I don’t suppose you have a passport?’ Enoch asked her.

  Ethel shook her head. ‘I have my dompas.’

  Enoch nodded. ‘Then you will need to cross over some of the bushveld with Xo and I. Have you ever ridden a horse?’

  Ethel shook her head again.

  Chloe swore that her eyes grew even larger. ‘We’ll put you on Pampero, she’s very gentle. You’ll be fine, Ethel, trust me. She’s like riding a big barrel because she’s pregnant.’

  ‘You sure about this, Ethel?’ Enoch asked. ‘This is your last chance to change your mind.’

  ‘You are my family. I go with you,’ she said. ‘I must look after Master Mike.’

  Chloe smiled. ‘Did you get the CB radio home base packed into the truck?’

  ‘Yes,’ Xo said. ‘We’re almost done.’

  Xo and Enoch loaded her father’s ex-Grey’s Scouts horse, Diablo, first. He was so battle-hardened he went up the truck and was tied up in his own cornered section without any problems. His beautiful grey-dappled coat shone. Next into the truck were her pregnant Arabian chestnut, Pampero, and the bay stallion Marin. Followed by Xo’s horse, Sirocco, a white-and-brown skewbald with a long mane and tail, and finally, they loaded Kimberlite, the horse that had kept Enoch safe all those years ago, a black horse, with one white sock.

  ‘Go on, my boy, we are moving again,’ Enoch said gently, and Kimberlite neighed softly as if answering back.

  Chloe watched Enoch check the horses one more time to make sure they were secured into their stalls, and then he closed the big door with Xo’s help.

  She looked around.

  The truck stood silhouetted against the dark night sky, and the stars shone brightly. She felt alive for the first time in many years. They were going home. ‘It’s twelve-fifteen,’ she said. ‘A brand-new Friday and a good day to move.’

  ‘If we push through we might be able to get just this side of Messina by sunrise. The horses are fit, and they are conditioned well for travel. I know that we will be pushing them, but I am sure they will be okay because it is a cool evening,’ Enoch said. ‘We can figure out our border crossing once we know if the SAP put out a bulletin on us. Let us see how far we get. We have the horses’ vaccination papers, and we can probably pay for stock permits if we get stopped. If we go through Nelspruit and up that way, we will be able to rest once and still make the border tomorrow.’

  ‘And if the SAP does put out a police bulletin? Then what?’ Chloe asked.

  ‘We will hear about it on the CB. We will be listening. If it happens, we can use the back roads and stay close enough to Swaziland, then we can cross the border and get into Mozambique through the bush. It will be easier to avoid the landmines and freedom fighters in Mozambique than get away from the SAP; they are a lot less organised there.’

  Chloe checked that her dad was buckled in properly in the middle seat as Xo was helping Ethel into the front to be next to her dad. She touched his arm before climbing out of the driver’s side to take her place with the horses in the back of the truck.

  ‘Well, this is it. Onwards and upwards to our next adventure in our lives.’

  * * *

  ‘Shhh. Listen,’ Chloe said. ‘Turn that up so we can hear in the back.’

  Enoch turned up the volume on the police radio.

  ‘… Believed to be travelling north in a ten-tonne truck, registration NP 464,’ the voice said.

  ‘That’s us!’ Chloe said.

  ‘Considered armed and dangerous.’

  ‘Now what?’ Xo asked.

  ‘They cannot identify us. Not after that visit to the scrap yard outside Vryheid. Our truck is from the Transvaal, right down to the disk for the dashboard. And they have no idea how many people are travelling together. They will also assume that Chloe and Mike would be in the front, and us blacks in the back, so to have me driving and Ethel in the front, we can drive past any police station and they will not realise it is us,’ Enoch said.

  ‘How far are we from Nelspruit?’ Xo asked.

  Enoch heard Chloe rustle the map she had resting on the hay bale.

  ‘An hour away,’ she said.

  This is where they’d planned to drop in on an old Grey’s Scouts friend, Nigel Smoothy, on his citrus farm just outside of town. His farm was situated between Karino and KaNyamazane, a little towards the Kruger Park, but off the main freeways. They’d planned to rest there for a few hours before pushing on past the R40 and into the Northern Transvaal in the cooler part of the day. They’d already spent just over thirteen hours travelling, including their four-hour rest stop in Vryheid to sort out all their supplies.

  ‘We stick to the plan, meet Nigel at his place, and figure out our next move from there,’ Enoch said.

  ‘You sure that Nigel will still provide us sanctuary?’ Chloe asked.

  ‘We will have a rest, but we cannot stay there long. After we leave Nigel’s, I think that we head east. If we cut across, perhaps we can get close enough to the Komatipoort border post. We can ditch the truck and go through the bush if necessary. It will be heavy going, but we can make it,’ Enoch said.

  Chloe looked at the map. ‘Or we can telephone Nick Davis. He’s at Crocodile Bridge. Here.’ She showed Xo on the map. ‘He said I could call on him if I ever needed help.’

  ‘Chloe, how well do you think you know Nick?’ Enoch asked.

  ‘Come on, Enoch, he was always around in the holidays with his mum when we were growing up. Until she died at least and then it was just him. Xo and I spent lots of time with him. He was always nice to me,’ Chloe said. ‘I remember he was at our farm the night Dad got hurt, but he left for South Africa soon after that—and he’s the only person other than Aunty Grace who sends me a birthday and Christmas card every year.’

  ‘Hold on to that memory of him,’ Enoch said. ‘Because I’m not so sure he will help us. He believes that your dad and I dragged the Grey’s Scouts’ name into the mud the day your dad got hurt.’

  ‘Did you?’ she asked.

  ‘In a way. But it was not because of what he thought.’

  ‘What happened?’ she asked.

  ‘It is a story for another day,’ Enoch said.

  ‘I just think that if we can get him to help, perhaps we could get further north before ditching the truck. Having a game ranger with us might work to our advantage if we have to go into the bush,’ Chloe
said.

  ‘We are getting desperate enough that I am going to say something I never thought I would say. Ask him for help, but I doubt that he will,’ Enoch said. ‘Especially now that we are on a bulletin.’

  CHAPTER

  11

  Mozambique Hunting Concession

  Douglas ground his teeth but grinned politely. He’d known from the moment the man had opened his mouth that fitting a three-day hunt into Coutada 16 concession in Mozambique, right before the leopard hunt in Zimbabwe coming at the end of the week, was a mistake. His latest hunting client, Payden Martinez, was from the South in the United States, and his nasal accent was getting on Douglas’s nerves. Even if the money was good.

  ‘When?’ Payden asked as the elephant thrashed his way through the hunting concession. Though his larger tusks were heavy, he held up his head regally, as if he was the king of the bushveld. The trees in his path were merely an inconvenience as he made his way northwards on his migration. He was in musth, and the dark stain ran down his light-grey skin.

  ‘Soon. There’s a waterhole not far from here. After he drinks, he’ll cross into the hunting concession, and you can claim your trophy,’ Douglas said. ‘This isn’t the first bull we have waited for to come north, and they are worth waiting for. Trust me.’

  ‘He’s taken his sweet time getting here,’ Payden said.

  ‘Good things are worth waiting for,’ he repeated. ‘You couldn’t ask for a better specimen for your collection.’

  Payden nodded. ‘I know. He’s worthy of the wall in my den.’

  ‘That he is. Another old man of the bush. This area is known for these big tuskers.’

  ‘You sound like you’re sorry he’ll die,’ Payden said.

  ‘I’m not sorry that he won’t suffer what old age has in store for him, that he’ll slowly starve when his teeth are so worn out, he’ll no longer be able to chew his food. Not sorry that when he lies down the wild dogs might tear him apart. No, he’ll be spared that. But I do have total admiration that he’s been on earth for many years and has won the respect of all who have met him. See how his ears are torn and the scar lines on his rump? Probably from a lion attack when he was younger.