Shooting Butterflies

by T. M. Clark

  ‘Thanks,’ Wayne said, ‘I have to admit that I never imagined that in so few years we would be the proud owners of three huge mobile cranes as well as ten specially fitted out trucks that could transport just about any kind of wild animal.’

  ‘Can you move elephant?’

  ‘We’ve had one so far, but we are contracted to move a few in a couple of weeks. Of all the animals, they are the ones that we have had to spend the most outfitting for. They are so hard, and Donovan been spending time with Parks Board too, ensuring that he is up to date with dosages for them. You have to knock them out then, using their feet and legs, you lift them with a crane and move them up onto the truck, and manoeuvring them into their crates for transportation is not easy. They need to be at least semi-awake in their crates. They are a specialised move, but I can see a future in being equipped for them, so does Jamison.’

  ‘Seriously, you are moving elephant? Josha is going to be out of his mind when you tell him that one. He’s mad about elephants.’

  Wayne smiled. ‘It will be after your operation, from Addo Park in the Cape. Most likely to the Transvaal, that’s where the bigger game farms are expanding already. But if he’s here to spend more time with me cooped up in the truck, I’m happy to take him along.’

  ‘He’s going to love you more for that one. Huge brownie points coming your way.’

  Wayne grinned.

  ‘You know, in a few weeks we are moving some rhino. They are up for a catalogue auction from a well-known farm in the area. This farmer has so much excess wildlife that he’s selling and he thought it would be worth his while to cut out the live pens. So he’s a first, with an onsite auction on his farm. You can view the animals beforehand on his property, and then bid, or you can look at the pictures in his catalogue. After the auction, we will move the rhinos to their new home, wherever that is.’

  ‘I think I’d like to go with you on that one. Would love to see how you move the rhinos.’

  ‘Serious? That would be amazing. It will be after your operation,’ Wayne said and he hugged her to him.

  ‘I want to come back,’ she said, ‘afterwards, if you will have me here. I will have a long time to recuperate, but I want to come back, stay here.’

  ‘I would love to have you with me. But you have to be coming back for more than just the rhino being moved because I have to tell you, the white rhino is gentle, like a domestic cow, they tame down pretty fast. They are full of mock charges, but because they can’t see and can’t hear that well, they tend to run away from danger rather than confront it.’

  ‘I’m not only coming back for the rhino!’ she said as she smacked him lightly on his arm. ‘Your life is so different to mine in Cape Town. I want to come back because I want to be here, but I can’t stop thinking that I’m going to lose Josha to you because he’ll love it here so much, and want to stay here. And I know it won’t be your fault, but I’ll just be the boring mother and you the fun dad.’

  ‘No. That’s not going to happen,’ Wayne said, and she could feel that he was shaking his head. ‘You are underestimating your own son. He will love it here, it’s all new, it’s all wonderful, but he loves you, and he loves Gabe. I wouldn’t take him away from you guys. I want to share him with you, but not have him totally. That wouldn’t be fair on anyone. Believe me, I won’t be the cool dad for much longer, I bet the first time I have to put my foot down on an issue it’s going to be interesting …’

  Tara smiled. ‘I hope you are right, Wayne, I seriously hope so. But I want to come back, be with you—’ But her voice was starting to drift away, as if she was just nodding off. He kissed her gently on the lips.

  ‘Have a good rest my love,’ he said as he felt her breathing change and he knew that she was asleep. ‘I’ll wake you at six-thirty so you can get ready for dinner.’

  After a while he wiggled his arm out from under her head, and covered her with the blanket, then he looked around his room. It looked right with her stuff on the dressing table, and he liked that it smelt like her.

  He picked up the ring that she had barely looked at. The three diamonds he had chosen, one for each of his family, sparkled back at him. He snapped the box shut. He had told her not to give him an answer yet, but he’d laid his card on the table that he wanted the fairy tale ending.

  After what they had just shared he didn’t think they needed time to work things out and get reacquainted. They still fitted just perfectly together.

  But time might be a factor they were going to run out of.

  Ten days and counting to her operation.

  Until the dice of life were tossed.

  CHAPTER

  25

  The Operation

  Cape Town, South Africa

  25th March 1998

  ‘Hi, Mr Brits,’ Josha said politely to the man who had just walked into Tara’s private suite at the neurological unit in the Newlands Hospital, where she was recovering from the surgery. But his voice chose that time to remember he was a racing bag of hormones and it came out squeaking. He coughed. Mr Brits smiled.

  ‘I’ll be outside,’ Wayne said as he stood up from the chair next to Tara’s bed.

  ‘No. Please stay,’ said Tara. ‘Emile, this is Wayne, Josha’s father.’

  Wayne and Emile shook hands.

  Emile turned his attention back to his patient. He looked over at the heart monitor and scribbled on her chart. ‘I have results, would you rather I come back?’

  She shook her head slightly. ‘No, you can tell us all at the same time. Just Gabe is missing, but we can fill him in.’

  ‘You sure?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Wayne noticed Josha grab hold of his mum’s hand and squeeze it tightly. If the neurosurgeon was hesitating, it couldn’t be good news.

  ‘You were lucky. We got the whole tumour out. It was benign. There’s no cancer. You are going to be just fine—’

  Josha threw himself into a huge hug of his mum. ‘Oh Mum, I thought you were going to die.’

  Wayne’s legs crumpled beneath him and he sat down heavily on the chair.

  Emile was speaking in slow motion as all the blood rushed to Wayne’s head. He felt hot and cold at the same time.

  Tara wasn’t going to die from her brain tumour.

  He could hear Emile talking further to Tara but no coherent words reached his brain.

  She was going to be okay.

  She was not going to die.

  Wayne’s tuned in again to Emile Brits’s voice. ‘… so your pituitary gland is producing the appropriate levels of hormones again and we won’t need to do any drug replacement on that side. I have scheduled you for an MRI in the morning.’

  ‘Another one?’ Tara asked.

  ‘Get used to them, they are about to become part of your life. Initially I’ll order another in six months’ time, to ensure that there is no regrowth, then depending on how that goes, once a year, to ensure that you have no recurrence. It’s all precautionary from here on.’

  ‘Thank you so much!’ Tara said.

  ‘I’ll check back in with you tomorrow after the MRI. I want to keep you in for another day or two, have a look when those bandages come off, just to be certain everything is perfect. We can’t rush it, healing a body takes time.’

  ‘Thank you, Emile,’ Tara said.

  ‘Pleasure. It’s cases like yours that make my job worthwhile. Now I’m glad to see you talking, and having company. Make sure you eat dinner. See you on my rounds tomorrow, Tara,’ he said.

  ‘Wayne,’ Emile said, and shook his hand. He turned and waved at Josha. ‘You did well over the last two days, Josha. Wish more teenagers were like you, being so supportive of their mums.’ He walked out the door.

  An eerie silence descended on the room. Then suddenly the three of them were talking at once.

  ‘Wow, Wayne. Hear that? I’m in the clear!’

  ‘Yippee,’ Josha was chanting.

  ‘Oh thank God!’ Wayne said.

  They were l
aughing and hugging each other, all together.

  ‘I need to call Gabe!’ Tara said. ‘We need to tell Gabe!’

  Josha picked up her private telephone that sat on the locker next to her bed. He pushed the buttons for the number, and waited.

  ‘Hey Lucretia, it’s Josha,’ he said then there was silence while he listened to her on the other side. ‘No, it’s good news, Lucretia. But can I speak with Uncle Gabe?’

  Again silence.

  ‘No, I haven’t.’

  Silence.

  ‘Awww Lucretia, no I don’t.’

  A much longer silence.

  ‘Okay, I will. Thanks. Bye.’

  ‘Mum, Uncle Gabe is already on his way here, and Lucretia told me that when he goes home I have to go home too for a shower tonight because she can smell me from there.’

  Tara and Wayne both laughed.

  ‘That’s a sound that I haven’t heard for too long,’ Gabe said as he walked through the door.

  ‘Gabriel!’ Tara said.

  Wayne watched as Gabe strode into the room, and drew Tara into a huge hug. He didn’t seem worried about the bandages, or the IV drips, or that she had just had an operation two days before, and he felt nothing but joy that Gabe was such a good friend to her. That he had been able to help her when he couldn’t, that he was her friend, and her cousin. Even if it was just second cousins once removed or whatever the connection was that Tara had tried to make him understand.

  ‘Gabe,’ Tara said, ‘I can’t breathe.’

  He immediately let Tara go, and although he still held her he no longer held onto her as tight. ‘Better,’ she said.

  ‘I saw your Mr Emile Brits in the foyer, and he was happy to share your good news with me. Amazing. So totally amazing!’ he said. Then he hugged her tight again for a second time, before releasing her.

  ‘Great news, hey, Josha!’ Gabe stretched across the bed with his hand up for a high five.

  Josha slapped his palm to Gabe’s. ‘The best, Uncle Gabe!’ They did a little hand slapping combination thing after the high five, and Wayne hadn’t seen that series of slides and waves before.

  Wayne laughed. A few short weeks ago, he might have been jealous of their relationship, but not now.

  ‘Right, I have an article to finish writing, so I need to go home, but I had to see you tonight.’ He bent and kissed Tara on the forehead above the bandages. ‘You keep out of trouble, you hear. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  He shook Wayne’s hand. ‘You look after her tonight, she is after all your responsibility again.’

  Wayne grinned.

  ‘Come on, Josha, say bye, you need a decent night’s sleep tonight, your dad is on duty,’ Gabe said.

  ‘Bye, Mum,’ Josha said as he kissed her softly.

  Then he walked up to Wayne. ‘Bye, Dad,’ he said and lifted his fist just like he had seen Jamison and Wayne do countless times. Wayne touched his fist to Josha’s, and Josha breezed out the room.

  Wayne stared after him, grinning.

  ‘Alone at last,’ Tara said.

  ‘Yes, but I don’t think you are up to any monkey business in your state,’ Wayne said and grinned, but he sat on the bed next to her, holding her hand.

  ‘Guess what, I’m not dead, and I’m not going to die in a hurry,’ she said and giggled.

  ‘It’s a good day,’ Wayne said and he lifted her hand and kissed it.

  ‘So, can I answer a question you told me not to answer a week ago?’

  ‘No, Tara you don’t have to. I said when you were ready—’

  ‘I was ready then and I meant it then, and I mean it again today. Yes, Wayne, I will marry you. I’ll wear a white dress and I want the together forever after with you.’

  ‘You have remembered that there still might be a man hunting you?’ Wayne said.

  ‘I know and I don’t want to wait for him to strike or not strike, to live my life in limbo. This was bad enough. My wake-up call to re-prioritise my life. I want you in it. Permanently. I don’t want to wait for a better time, for another opportunity, or anything else. I want to be with you. Forever. I love you, Wayne Simon Botha, and yes, I will marry you.’

  ‘This time I’m accepting,’ he said, and he dug in his pocket, ‘this time you are putting this ring on and not taking it off ever again!’

  He pulled the box from the zip pocket in his jacket, and opened it. Then he took the ring out and slipped it on her finger. ‘I love you, Tara. I will love you forever and always.’

  He bent down and he sealed their pledge with a kiss.

  CHAPTER

  26

  The Bush Drum

  Kujana Farm, Hluhluwe, South Africa

  12th February 1999

  Jamison’s telephone rang at twelve minutes past one in the morning. He dived out of bed, and rushed to silence it before it woke the children.

  A loud scream came from the nursery, and Ebony groaned as she too rose from their bed, and trudged down the passage to the nursery. ‘That better be a life and death situation,’ she said.

  ‘Hello,’ Jamison said.

  The operator on the other side was asking him to accept a reverse charge call from Gibson Ncube.

  ‘Yes, put him through,’ Jamison said, and he ran his hand over his eyes to try and dislodge some of the sleepiness.

  If his cousin Gibson was calling him at this time of the morning it was important.

  He sat down on the stool, and put his elbows on the dressing table as he waited.

  He could hear Ebony in the nursery as she put Joy back to sleep, and quietened down Blessing, who had woken at the alien noise in the house.

  ‘Hello,’ Gibson said.

  ‘Gib,’ Jamison replied.

  ‘He’s coming for you,’ Gib said. ‘He left the farm in his sheep bakkie yesterday, and before he left, he went to his shrine. I followed him.’

  ‘His shrine?’

  ‘I’ll check properly when he is gone for a day or so more, but he collected something from his mushroom shed before he went and was muttering about the time being right to find the angel to save Impendla.’

  ‘Where are you?’ Jamison asked.

  ‘I walked to the main road, then caught a bus into Tsholotsho last night. I waited until there was no one around, and then I came to use the pay phone here in the street. I didn’t want anyone in Nyamandhlovu seeing me using a phone.’

  ‘So you are safe?’

  ‘Yes. He is gone. But I think he knows where you are.’

  ‘How? After all this time?’

  ‘Last week, we took a road trip back to Chinoya and we visited Amarose again. This time he went as a hunter. He took three days just to shoot a lion. Three days. I tracked it in one morning, but he was in no hurry. He was talking to all the staff about how he once knew you and how good you were at your job, and how he wanted to employ you, had to find you …’

  ‘Oh no …’

  ‘He spoke of hearing how you had built up the farm for the Widow Crosby so many years ago, and how he was looking for someone like that, someone reliable.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Someone told him that they think that when Moeketsi had left, he might have gone to South Africa to find you. To join you.’

  Jamison hung his head.

  Not now. He looked down the passage where Ebony had just snuck out of the nursery and came towards him. His family.

  Tara’s operation had been a success, and she had married Wayne, and moved to Kujana. Josha was so happy at the farm, and he was beginning to refer to Wayne as his dad to everyone.

  He pinched the top of his nose between two fingers. ‘Moeketsi is from a large family. Did he take anyone from his clan?’

  ‘I don’t know. Buffel dropped me home, and then he went off again for another two days alone. I suspect he went back, because he came to his farm really late at night, and went straight into his mushroom shed. That is never a good sign. I will dig around a bit in there soon too, but I have to be careful that the other two worke
rs here don’t get suspicious of me. They all know me as his tracker. No one knows that I was once a policeman. That I am your cousin.’

  ‘You stay safe, Gibson. You hear me?’

  ‘You too.’

  Jamison put the phone down. He stared at Ebony.

  ‘He’s coming, isn’t he?’ she said.

  ‘I think so. He had already been gone for over twenty-four hours before Gibson could call this time, so he might already be here.’

  He crossed the short distance to his wife, and hugged her close to him. ‘Eb,’ he said, ‘look at me—’ He raised her chin gently with his finger. ‘We have state-of-the-art security now, an alarm that would wake a hippo underwater, and smoke detectors, Eb, he can’t get to us in our house. We have game guards positioned outside, and travelling with you. We are armed to the hilt. We have made sure that we have everything we needed in this new house. He can’t get in without us being able to react. But I need to warn Wayne.’

  ‘I know. Poor Wayne and Tara, just when they are so happy. Now he is coming,’ Ebony said. ‘Go call him. I’ll be here waiting for you.’

  CHAPTER

  27

  The Trigger

  Game Auction, Hluhluwe Outskirts, South Africa

  17th February 1999

  10:30am

  Buffel stood at the edge of the crowd at the onsite game auction. He had on the felt hat he always wore when he was going hunting, only now it was pulled down low over his forehead. He had forgone his usual safari suit and worn denims with a white shirt. To anyone else he looked like a farmer who had come to the game farm for the auction, to buy game for his own ranch.

  But he was here for a different prey.

  The brother of Moeketsi had sung like a Burchell’s coucal, warbling on about how Moeketsi had a better life now that he had moved away, and he was now a professional hunter, and he lived on a farm that belonged to a white man who treated his black workers like kings, all the while he and his family were almost starving under his Zimbabwe government. About how unfair life was that he was getting beaten up for his lucky brother again. Just like when they were children together.