by Linda Ihle
“I agree,” Angela quipped. “You sure enough don’t.”
Devin concentrated again on the track, looking for….she had no idea what. Maybe there will be a strange bump of dirt or something like that? she wondered. In about a mile she found a hefty fig tree adjacent to a huge red anthill, next to the track and in a small clearing. “There’s the ticket,” she said, and pulled over under the tree. Angela got out with the baby and took off his nappy. It was still dry, but she sensed he might be wanting to poop again and she was right. She held the little body, cradling his head and neck with one hand, thighs with the other, over a nearby granite rock.
“Devin? Please help me here - bring the roll of toilet paper.” Devin complied. “Alright now, tear off a couple of sheets and just gently wipe his bottom with them.”
“What?”
“It will stimulate him to poop,” Angela explained.
“Are you serious?” Devin exclaimed. “You know what, shame, Angela; you would have made such a good mother.” Devin reached out and briefly hugged her before doing as she was told. In seconds they got the results they were expecting including a good long stream of urine. Angela cleaned him up and, lying him on the running board, put Kobus’ vest/nappy back on him.
“I have a tin of pilchards opened and there are still some Marie biscuits left,” Devin told her as they clambered back up into the cab of the lorry.
The two ate, slowly, savouring the meal, before washing it down with half a warm beer each.
“Do you know where we are, Devin?” Angela asked, drowsy in the extraordinary heat of the day and now with a relatively full stomach.
“Yeah, I think we might have bypassed the crossroads near Gokwe, but there is another way. We’ll just have to veer more to the east a bit. Hopefully, this track will take us in the correct direction.” She shoved the lorry into first gear again. “OK, let’s see how right I am.”
They traveled more quickly following the track that did indeed seem to take a more eastward direction, slowing for another fairly large herd of buffalo, then a breeding herd of cow elephants.
“Wish I had my camera!” Angela muttered as she was jolted out of a light sleep again by the slowing of the truck.
“Ja, this is really mushie[41] to see so many of them,” Devin said quietly. She glanced down at the baby. He was fast asleep in the sling Angela had fashioned for him, breathing evenly, not sweating, so probably cool. She pushed the lorry into low gear as they began to climb again. At the top of the hill, she brought the lorry to a halt. “Listen,” she said.
Angela woke fully and gently pulled herself upright in the cracked seat. “What is it?” she whispered in alarm.
“It’s a chopper, way back behind us,” Devin told her. “Maybe those monsters came back for dear old Kobus? But, I dunno, I don’t think we would be able to hear it from here.” She tapped her bottom lip, a gesture with which Angela had become quite familiar. Turning back to the track, she gasped. “Oh, yes! Cooool! Look, it’s the road!” Sure enough the track T-boned a wide, unpaved road. “Yes! Let’s go!” Devin reached over and squeezed Angela’s shoulder, as the throb of the chopper blades came closer and closer.
She guided the lorry along the remnants of the track and onto the road. “Hell, I didn’t even use my signals!” she laughed as she made a left turn onto the road and ground the gears through to top and brought the old Bedford up to 45 MPH. “Hooray! Zippity do dah! Angela this is too cool.” She grinned at her companion who grinned right back.
Within less than a mile of having entered the last stretch to Gokwe (I hope), the thudding of the helicopter blades engulfed the straining roar of the lorry engine. It flew low over the top of the truck, then dipped to the left and back to the right, an airborne salute of sorts.
“It’s an Alouette! It’s our guys!” Devin crowed. She waved her arm outside the window and the craft dipped again. “Almost there, Angela! Whoopee!” She grabbed a cigarette out of the pack on the seat and lit it with the lorry’s lighter. “Crack me open one of those beers, please.” Angela grabbed a dumpy bottle out of the grub box and opened it with the bottle opener that seemed to have been welded into the middle of the dashboard, just below the steering wheel.
She took a swig and handed it to Devin. “Celebration time! Oh, my word, this is sooo exciting, Devin! Thank you for getting us out.”
“Pleasure, but don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched, hey. We still have to actually get to Gokwe. Keep your eyes peeled for anything that might look like it doesn’t belong in the road, OK?”
“OK.”
They handed the bottle back and forth as the road improved slightly, Devin accelerated, keeping up with the helicopter, and blowing smoke rings out of her window. The chopper had darted ahead about half a mile, then turned slowly and retraced its course, coming back around behind the truck before swooping overhead and forward of them again. The door gunner waved jubilantly as they passed and the women waved back just as enthusiastically. After a third pass, the aircraft dipped a salute again and sped off, traveling at much greater speed and finally disappearing from sight.
“You know, Angela? I don’t think we should tell them about the bastard who was down there by the river; the one I shot.”
“Why?”
“They are going to ask how we got hold of these AKs. I will tell them how I got mine, but I don’t know how they will react to my actually having killed a mu…terr. He was a terr, you know, and I know. But what if they think maybe he wasn’t?”
“I think if you just tell them the truth and show them what he had in his pockets, especially the old German man’s wallet, they will believe you and know you were saving my life and your own.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Devin mused. “OK, we’ll deal with that if and when it comes up.” She rubbed at her eyes as mirages bounced and flattened and slithered on the road ahead of her. “I reckon we should be alright if the chopper’s gone on ahead. I mean in terms of landmines. I….” She didn’t get to end that sentence as a huge hole just left of centre of the road appeared and she swerved hard to avoid it. “Eish! That was close, hey!”
“Landmine?”
“Looks like it. Jeez. And now what is that?” She pointed up the road, above the heat shimmer. Nearly two hundred yards ahead, a large, dark alien-insect looking object loomed.
“Oh, good Lord!” Angela whispered. “What is that? Are we OK, Devin?”
“Hell, I dunno. The chopper would not have left us if we weren’t.” Devin gritted her teeth and accelerated while keeping a close eye on the road for any more landmine craters. The distance between the truck and the object fell away rapidly and she could finally see it in all its bizarre glory. “Pookie!!” she cheered. “What a gas!”
“What?”
“It’s a Pookie, Angela! They use them to find mines. They don’t look anything like real pookies, though, you know, nagapies or night apes; they look like….tok-tokkies.” She laughed as she shifted down to second, slowing the engine of the lorry and finally came to a stop.
Two members of the Security Forces were leaning on the shady side of the pookie, FNs slung casually across their shoulders. They both approached the lorry at the same time.
“Howzit?” A tall, thin, white man with a full beard, bright blue eyes and shaggy brown hair approached the driver-side door and climbed up on the running board. “Nick Taylor. You have to be Devin Gray?”
“You have to be right!” Devin crowed. “Jeez, it’s good to see you! You going to give us an escort?”
“Ja,” he nodded.
“Too cool!”
The other soldier, a little shorter, but heftier, clean-shaven, freckled, with dark green eyes and thick auburn hair under a camo cap, had climbed up on the running board on Angela’s side. “Barry Goodwin,” he introduced himself.
“Angela Brown,” she replied.
“Off the Viscount?”
“Yes.”
“Your baby?” He nodded toward the infant
who stared back at him.
“Long story,” Devin cut in. “He’s less than a day old. Needs medical care. Can we get him to Gokwe and get him some help?”
“Ja, no, sure,” Goodwin assured her. “Ready, Nick?”
“Yes, let’s get these okes home.” He grinned at Devin and she smiled back. Goddamn there’s some talent she told herself and here I am looking and smelling like who knows what!
“Thanks. Just give us a seccie here to get the baby’s nappy changed.” They nodded and climbed down off the running boards and watched as Devin and Angela repeated the same procedure, with expected results, replaced the vest-nappy, and got the infant back into its sling against Angela’s chest. She mixed up a little more of the water and powdered milk and fed him a small amount. “He just seems so satisfied with whatever I give him,” she marveled. “You’re a good little guy, you know that?” She smiled down at him as he popped his thumb back into his mouth, gazing up at her with wondering eyes.
Devin smiled at her. “Remember now….” she warned gently.
Angela smiled ruefully, but the glitter of suppressed tears was in her eyes. “I know,” she said. “I know.”
38.
The pookie pulled ahead of them and they followed a good fifty yards back to reduce their exposure to the red dust rising and pluming in its wake. Within about ten miles, two strips of tarmac became available and Devin caught up with the pookie, traveling closer behind it. Signs of civilization soon became apparent. Far off to her right, she could see a PV, smoke rising from cooking fires behind the massive fences. Keeping them in or keeping the terrs out? She shook her head. Another fifteen miles sped by and the strip road curved to the west slightly. Far ahead, Devin could make out the Rhodesian flag flapping in a slight breeze, then the pole materialized and beneath that, suddenly, buildings and fences and stones painted white to demarcate pathways and wistful gardens, struggling for life in the red soil and the baking heat. Standing outside the DC’s office offset from the PATU barracks was a crowd of soldiers, patrol officers, and the DC. Alongside him, his wife, wearing a bright summer frock of green and gold, and behind her a black nanny holding a white toddler on her hip. Devin recognized both the DC and his wife immediately - Roger and Evelyn Cotswold - both friends of her mother and father.
“We have a welcoming party, Angela. You better be on your best behaviour. Half of these buggers are fuzz.” She grinned. Angela burst into tears. “Sis, man, don’t cry!”
“I’m just so relieved, Devin, but I’m scared too,” she sobbed as Devin pulled the lorry up close to a rudimentary kerb, composed of large rocks, painted black and white, under a gnarly old flamboyant tree.
“Don’t be scared of them, Angela. I will be taking care of you. They will accept you just as they will accept me. Hey! I know that bloke.” She pointed at a PATU officer. He saw her gesture, waved back, and trotted over to the lorry. “Well, well,” she exclaimed, “if it isn’t Geordie MacLaren!”
He climbed up on the running board and pulled the heavy door open. “Wow! Miss Gray! Is that you?” he crowed. “Hell, man, this is so lekker! Jimmy Gosford told me they had found the missing women, but he has no idea it’s you! I didn’t know either!”
“‘No way Jose’ Gosford is here too?”
“Ja, he is the chopper pilot!”
“Lend me your shirt, Geordie. I can’t climb out of here like this in front of all these people.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he responded, quickly pulling it over his head. He handed it to her. He was in disbelief. No-one had told him who was among the missing from the latest shootdown and yet here she was: his favourite teacher and one upon whom he had had the most major crush. Not that he was the only one; he knew for a fact that Gosford had been similarly smitten.
Devin pulled the shirt over her head. “This lady here is Angela Brown,” she told him. “Angela, this is one of my Form 6 pupils, Geordie. And you know what? The chopper pilot is another one!” She took Angela’s hand. “It’s going to be OK.” Angela nodded and wiped at her tear-streaked face. “Alright then, let’s get this show on the road.”
She handed the guerilla’s knife to MacLaren, grabbed her trusty hat and her AK-47 and climbed out onto the running board. He took her hand as she jumped down. His shirt reached to just below what her father would have called “see level” and she was grateful for that. She slung the rifle over her shoulder and walked around to help Angela and the baby down. A boisterous “Hurrah!” and applause greeted them as they faced the crowd across the dusty strip road. Two of the soldiers waiting there could not contain themselves, rushing out to meet them in the middle of the road, Jimmy Gosford, having now recognized her, leading the way.
“‘No way Jose’ Gosford,” Devin said with a broad grin, “how lovely to see you! And, I must say, bloody good flying, ek se!” He threw caution and decorum to the dusty, sunset breeze that was making a vain effort to lift Devin’s filthy dreadlocks, and hugged her.
“No way Jose! It’s you, Miss Gray! It was you!”
“Ja, and I’m probably quite fragrant right now, Gosford.” She gently released his hold and said, “Who were the other guys in the chopper?”
He pointed over to them. “Sarge - Kevin O’Connor. You remember him?” She nodded. “Mike Belson - he went to Guinea Fowl - and Goodwill Manyika. There’s Shadrack, and the door gunner is Willem Pretorius, a Falcon boy.”
“I have to say hello to the DC, first, then I’ll thank those blokes.” Devin took Angela’s hand in her own and led her over to the group. “Hello, Uncle Roger, Aunty Evelyn,” she greeted them.
“Devin Gray!” the DC exclaimed. “You know, when I heard it was you out there in the bush, I knew it would turn out for the best. Jolly good to see you, my girl.” He hugged her and Evelyn grasped her right arm and kissed her on the cheek. “He didn’t even tell me it was you, Devi,” she cried. “My goodness, he kept that one very close to the vest. You scoundrel, Roger!” She playfully smacked his backside and he blushed.
“It’s fabulous to see you too. Uncle Roger, Aunty Evelyn, this is Angela Brown, and this little one,” she pointed to the baby, “is an orphan we found in the bush.”
“More like delivered in the bush,” Sergeant O’Connor interjected. “I reckon you guys saved this baby’s life.”
“Hello, O’Connor! Long time no see, hey? I must say, this is a super homecoming, well..almost home. Actually, Angela here delivered the baby. I just helped by not kotching while she did it! If you know where this baby came from then I reckon you must have found Kobus?”
O’Connor shook her hand vigorously, holding tight to it, incredulous at how small and bony it was, yet powerful. “We did.” He laughed. “He was in the chopper when we did our fly-by. Oh, he was moaning and whinging like a baby. Apparently some goblin shot him in the arse and tied him to the tree and then painted dogs attacked him!” He roared with laughter, which was echoed by the others in the group. Devin joined in.
“That reminds me,” she said, “Uncle Roger, you might want to secure that lorry; it’s packed with poached ivory.”
He nodded and called over one of the pookie pilots, instructing him to drive the lorry around to the back of the barracks in the PATU compound. “Get some of the boys to help you unload and make sure we get photographic evidence, please. Hurry it up because curfew is now now.” He turned back to Devin. “We have that man contained right now. Tomorrow, he will be transported over to Ukunkwe and placed in custody there, until he can be taken up to Salisbury. You and Angela will be in the same convoy tomorrow, but well away from him. He is a nasty specimen. The doc took care of his gunshot wounds - I believe you had something to do with those?” His eyes twinkled as she nodded.
“Ja, he had it coming. Right now, though, I would kill for an ice-cold Coke, then maybe a gin and tonic, and half a fruit cake, but first, Aunty Evelyn, is there a wet nurse around or someone who can take care of this baby? He came into the world in the most awful way and he needs real breast milk or formula
. Angela has been feeding him water and powdered milk.”
“Yes, of course, dear.” She took one of her children from the nanny’s arms and sent the nanny off to collect the peripatetic clinic doctor. “You’re lucky he’s in Gokwe today,” she told Devin. “I believe you know him too, Doctor Oosthuizen?”
“I believe I do! Cool! OK,” she raised her voice and turned to address the men standing around, smoking and chatting, “thanks, you guys! You helped us make sure we got on the right way home, and here we are. Thanks for keeping the faith, hey! But now, my filthy friend and I need to get into a bath and try to make ourselves presentable.”
They laughed as one. “What happened to your clothes, Miss Gray?” Geordie asked. “Have you been walking around the bush in just your under-rods?”