Then She Roars

by Vanessa Evetts

  “We got an email from a guy who’d seen pictures of Kuponya and had this grand idea of whisking his fiancée over here for a surprise wedding. That’s part of the reason we have so many volunteer crews arriving this week. Some of them are here for the wedding and decided to lend a hand to throw the bride off the scent.”

  “That’s crazy – who does that?”

  “I know, but this new venture could work out really well for us, so I’m definitely not complaining.”

  “So, what do you need us to do?” Sally asked.

  “I’ve got a list of things that need to be picked up from town, then organised here on base; I’ll organise a car and driver for you. I’m happy for you two to take my notes and run with it. Does that work?”

  “Of course.”

  The next three days flew by. With the construction well underway on base and Libby, Cooper and Harry busy with all the medical crews’ comings and goings as well as their commitments in the city, we barely saw them. We had a huge list of jobs to do in preparation for the top-secret nuptials.

  Sally and I had a great time imagining who might be coming to get married, specifically focusing on well-known couples and stars who would have no problem paying for their family and friends to fly halfway around the world to witness them saying I do.

  There will be a wedding in Kenya, and I’ll give you away.

  I entertained a moment of suspicion that Harry was the mysterious man, but all hope was dashed when he informed me that he’d be leaving later that night to prepare for an important appointment tomorrow. When I considered using my wily charm to convince him he needed to attend the wedding with me instead, he told me there were other medical specialists from all over the world flying in for it, so it was too late to reschedule.

  “Will Cooper be there too?” I asked, slightly annoyed that he’d been just as busy as Harry gallivanting around saving the world. Harry nodded.

  I would’ve been lying if I’d said I hadn’t enjoyed my time here, and I wasn’t naïve enough to think Harry could witness the need around him and then have something as simple as a romantic holiday. He was Dr Harry Whittaker for goodness sake – a world-renowned superhero. I was the first to know that if the two men I loved joined forces, there would be nothing that could stop them. It was like ‘The Avengers: Medical Corps’. Damn, I’d watch it.

  I was drawn out of my ponderings when Harry slyly placed his hand on my knee underneath the table and squeezed. “I’m all yours next week, baby. I promise.”

  “Really?” I looked up when Cooper cleared his throat across the table and gave Harry the stink eye. I narrowed my gaze and fired daggers, but he intentionally avoided me.

  Harry returned both hands to the table, shoulder bumped me and picked up his knife and fork. “Really.”

  Cooper burst into our room early the next morning bashing a pot with a spatula as loud as he could and told us to get out of bed ’cause the beautiful day was wasting away.

  “I thought you were headed out with Harry early this morning?” I asked suspiciously.

  “Plan changed. We had an emergency at the clinic last night, so I decided to stick around to give Libs a break. Come on, get up!” he yelled again, banging on the pot and dancing around the room like a member of the Hare Krishna movement. I giggled like a schoolgirl.

  Ten minutes later, Libby, Sally and I were loaded into the car and whisked away to one of the luxury hotels in town for a day of pampering.

  “What’s this for, Libs?”

  “Well, not only is my favourite sister-in-law here … and my new bestie,” she linked her arms with ours and led us through the foyer, “I also haven’t had a day off in months, so with Coop staying in the clinic today, I intend to take full advantage.”

  I squeezed her arm. “Well, I think that’s a fabulous idea. Sal?”

  “Heck, yes!”

  Four hours later we’d been massaged, waxed, primped and preened and were relaxing by the pool when Libby was approached by one of the hotel staff speaking in Kiswahili.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  “Time to get ready for the wedding; our room is ready.”

  “What do you mean, our room is ready?”

  “You’ll see … come on.”

  We’d been in the luxury suite for five minutes when there was a knock on the door.

  “Can you get it, Ave?” Libby called from the bathroom.

  Nothing could have prepared me for what I found on the other side of that door. I stood there dumbfounded staring at Maggie.

  “Surprise!” She threw her hands up.

  “What?” I mumbled, frozen in place.

  “Mum’s a midwife. She’s in the medical crew.”

  “Tracey’s here?” I asked. What the hell was happening?

  “Yes.” She smiled. “And Dad and Tom have been working with the construction crew all week.”

  Some of them are here for the wedding and decided to lend a hand to throw the bride off the scent.

  “Tom’s here?”

  “Sure is, Hollywood. There was no way he was letting me have all the fun.”

  “Maggie?” My question was swallowed by a tsunami of doubt and knowing what I’d hoped couldn’t be true.

  “Avery?” she teased, leaning on the doorframe.

  I just stood there staring at her, unable to budge. I hadn’t even invited her in. I knew it, and yet, I couldn’t seem to form the words on my lips. I looked down at the camera bag hanging off her shoulder.

  “You’re here for the foundation. Doing photography,” I added in a futile effort to convince myself.

  She smiled. “Yes, but that’s a happy coincidence. I’m here to photograph a wedding, and I’m inviting myself in, because you’re obviously not going to.” Maggie picked up her bag and pushed her way into the room.

  I spun around and followed her. “But why would you travel halfway around the world to photograph a stranger's wedding?” I said, the cogs turning a million miles an hour, each new thought contradicting the one that preceded it.

  Maggie laughed. “Hey, Libs.”

  The familiarity of the greeting surprised me. “You must be Sally – nice to meet you,” she said, giving her a quick squeeze.

  There will be a wedding in Kenya, and I’ll give you away. Cooper’s voice punched me in the chest, and Maggie’s name burst from my lips in a gasp.

  Sally and Libs sat on the bed watching with expectation.

  That is my biggest fantasy of all.

  “The bride and groom are no strangers to me. I know them very, very intimately,” she said, making sure to exaggerate each and every word.”

  A soft cry escaped my lips just before another knock sounded.

  Maggie stepped to the side. “The bride should probably open that, don’t you think?”

  I swung the door wide.

  “Hey, Hollywood! I heard you were finally putting Prince Charming out of his misery.”

  Hysteria took the place of shock as I wrapped Sammie in my arms.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “You know I hate to miss a party, especially one I get paid to attend.”

  She ignored my confusion, stepped passed me and approached Maggie. “Where should I set up, boss?”

  “Boss?”

  “Damn straight. Sammie here received high honours in her fine arts degree and is a magician with hair and make-up. I made sure I scooped her up before anyone else could.”

  “Wow, Sammie. That’s amazing!” I said.

  “I know,” she joked.

  A sense of awe came over me as I watched Sammie lift and open her multi-tiered makeup kit, which had masqueraded as a suitcase. Once shackled to pain, sickness and grief, she’d rediscovered herself, and it was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.

  “Now sit your butt down here, Hollywood, and let me work.”

  I did as I was told as the others bustled in and out of the bathroom.

  “I came. I conquered,” Sammie announced an h
our later, stepping back from her masterpiece and giving me a complete once over. “Now you listen here, Hollywood …”

  I laughed when she started wagging her finger.

  She raised her eyebrows, causing me to put on the most serious expression I could muster.

  “You’re prepped and ready for the red carpet; don’t you go ruining my hard work with all your dramatics.”

  I grimaced. “Oh, hun … it’d better be waterproof.”

  When the bathroom door opened and Libby and Sally stepped out in their brightly coloured bridesmaid dresses, I was glad I hadn’t made any promises.

  “Your turn,” Sally said, handing me a silver box.

  “Well, this is my kind of wedding,” Maggie announced taking a sneaky shot of the pearly white lingerie in the box.

  “Go on,” Libby said, pushing me into the bathroom.

  Five minutes later, I stepped back out of the room, still wrapped in the dressing gown, my gift from Sally hidden beneath.

  “So, give us a peek?”

  “Says the lady with the camera.” I jiggled my eyebrows, then gave them a quick flash.

  “Nice choice, Sally,” Sammie announced, but I do think there’s still something missing.

  “Yes, same. It’s called a dress,” I offered.

  “Nope, that’s not it. Hmm …” She riffled through her bag, tossing things around dramatically. “Here they are!”

  I fist pumped, “Yes!” when she pulled out a brand-new pair of sexy red-soled white stilettos and handed them to me. “They’re perfect.” I slid them on my bare feet. “Although they’ll be brown by the end of the day.”

  “I got a special coating put on them – they’ll be sweet,” Sammie announced triumphantly.

  I shook my head in wonder. “You guys have thought of everything.” I snuck an exaggerated peak down the front of my dressing gown at my near nakedness. “Almost.”

  “Did someone order a wedding dress?” The familiar voice wrapped me in a warm embrace as Tracey entered the room with an unmistakable bridal dress draped over her arm.

  “I’m sorry, Sammie,” I said as soon as Maggie had relieved Tracey of her precious package and I could wrap her in my arms, my eyes glistening with gratitude.

  With four girls fussing over me, it didn’t take long for the final touches to be made and this bride to be standing in all her glory in front of the full-length mirror wrapped in a wedding gown. I couldn’t help the overwhelming sense of the miraculous passing over me.

  Libby swatted me on the shoulder. “What are you sooking about now? This is meant to be the happiest day of your life.”

  I raised my head and inhaled through pursed lips in an attempt to reduce the damage to my face. Hands slipped into mine and I looked up to see Tracey on one side and Sammie on the other, both with glassy eyes.

  “We made it,” I whispered.

  “We made it,” they chorused and squeezed me tight as the room bulged with the impossible becoming possible.

  “What’s going on here then?” Cooper’s voice boomed from the open door.

  Without a word, I broke away from my girls and made my way over to my brother. “Well, it looks as though I’m getting married.”

  “I told you, Riri.” His eyes brimmed with emotion.

  “Thank you.” I clasped his hands in mine and raised them to my heart. “Thank you for believing.”

  Cooper wrapped me in a bear hug. When he released me, Sammie announced I was a disaster and dragged me back to the bed where she could dab and fuss with cotton balls and powdered brushes.

  “Alright,” Cooper announced when Sammie stepped away. “If you’re done with all the girly stuff, your chariot awaits.”

  “Are we ready?” I asked.

  “Let’s not make that poor man wait any longer,” Sally said, taking the lead.

  I couldn’t have agreed more.

  52

  The minute I heard the angelic voice pirouette down the aisle, I knew Harry’s surprises were far from over. I wrapped my arm around Cooper’s and paused to gain control of a fresh surge of emotions.

  “You okay, sis?”

  “I know that voice,” I whispered. “But it can’t be, there’s no way she—”

  “This moment seemed pretty impossible two years ago.”

  “I just can’t—” I started, but what could I say? That I couldn’t believe all these people had travelled halfway across the world for this moment. Or that I couldn’t believe this day had actually come. The truth of it, the miraculous power of it, hit me full force in the heart.

  “This is happening, Riri. You made it.”

  I made it. I closed my eyes and watched our movie playing over in my head as Abi’s voice wrapped itself around me.

  Cooper pressed a light kiss to my temple. “I love you, sis.”

  I took both of his hands in mine, raised them between us, pressed my forehead to his and breathed in the moment. When a new song touched our ears, Cooper stepped back and draped my hand over his forearm. “It’s time.”

  We made our way through the divine canopy of jacarandas which stood in splendour in the centre of the compound, their purple petals decorating both the sky and the earth beneath our feet.

  When we exited the trees and I caught sight of the red carpet, a bubble of childish excitement rose in me. Hollywood.

  “Look up, sis.” Cooper raised my chin. “Let him see you.”

  I found Harry watching me and stopped. The hoots and hollers of our loved ones, bright flowers adorning the aisle, the soulful music reverberating through the air around us, the flash of a camera … everything faded with one glimpse of this man who had given me everything – the man who had given me a reason to fight, to dream, to live.

  Don’t hide from me.

  I raised my face to the sun and rested in her warm rays, then I took my first step into our new life. It was a rebirth, the shedding of an old skin which I’d outgrown.

  When we reached the foot of the altar, Cooper and Harry embraced as brothers … an unbreakable bond had forged in the fire which had raged around us for the last two years.

  Cooper moved to Libby’s side – I raised my palms to my groom’s face and my eyes to his as Abi’s haunting voice breathed the last note … silence, pregnant with gratitude and promise.

  A Kenyan pastor conducted the service. Vows were spoken directly from the heart, and I hung on every single word, committing them to memory. When we were introduced as husband and wife and given permission to kiss, it felt like the first time.

  Harry moved forward in slow motion and touched his lips to mine. The intimate crowd went wild when he lifted me off the ground and spun me around in celebration, our bodies and mouths as one.

  Jacaranda flowers and coloured rice rained down on us as we ran back down the red carpet followed by our guests, all of whom celebrated and danced with us right into the night surrounded by floor-shaking Kenyan drums played by some of Kuponya’s staff.

  I snuck up behind Abi while she and Sammie chatted, piling their plates high with desserts.

  “Hey, sneaky.” I dug a finger into her ribs.

  She spun around, a wide smile painting her face with a beautiful contentedness. “Hey yourself.”

  I pulled her in for a quick squeeze.

  “You look beautiful, Doc.”

  Even though my relationship with Abi and Joanne had transformed into a deep friendship over the last two years, Abi had never called me anything but Doc.

  “Your voice ruined me, gorgeous girl.”

  “Oh man, me too.” Sammie gave Abi a good shoulder-bump. “Where did you learn to sing like that?”

  Abi’s eyes lit up with pride. “It’s in my blood.”

  “Well damn, girl – you gonna do something with it?” Sammie asked.

  “Actually, I am.” Abi glanced my way. “I got into the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University.”

  “You did?” I pulled her in for another hug, the emotion of the day overwhelming me.r />
  “I did,” she whispered.

  “I’m so proud of you, Abi.” I wouldn’t say I said the words … more like they snuck out of my pursed lips as I was trying to control myself. “Seriously proud.”

  Sammie shot me a tortured glance when I pulled back and wiped my cheeks with the back of my hands.

  I grimaced. “I’m sorry; I’m a mess.”

  “Oh, Hollywood, that ship set sail hours ago. Magz will have to fix your face in the editing suite.”

  “Thank God for technology,” I said.

  “Mm-hmm,” she murmured, shoving a doughnut in her mouth.

  I picked up a plate and perused the delicious offerings. “So, you’re moving to Welly then?”

  “Sure am,” Abi answered. “Mum too. She’s decided to run next year and wants to be closer to Parliament.”

  “Of course she has.” That woman was a force to be reckoned with, and I couldn’t think of a better person to fight the good fight.

  “So, Sammie’s here because her boss paid for her ticket. Why did you and Mum make the trip?”

  “Other than not wanting to miss the wedding of the century?” she asked.

  “Yes, other than that.” I followed the girls into the canopy tent, which had been erected for the reception.

  “Well, that was the main reason. But also, there was a youth convention last week in Johannesburg on teen suicide and mental health that Mum had been asked to present in. Two birds, one stone.”

  “We’d talked about that. I didn’t think she was going.”

  “She wasn’t until Sally called.”

  “Well, I’m very happy to have you here.” I lowered myself to a seat beside her. “It wouldn’t have been the same without you.”

  Abi turned towards me, and I watched as she studied me. “Doc, I wouldn’t have made it without you.”

  I raised my hand and touched the loose strands of hair that had made their way out of her braid and tucked them behind her ear. I didn’t have any words. I knew. She knew.

  We sat there, communicating silently until my new husband leant down behind me and pressed a seductive kiss to the skin below my neck.

  “Hey wifey.”

  My whole body lit up like a firework. Not one of those cheap family versions, but the ones you buy a ticket for and sit huddled under a fleece blanket, alongside thousands of others, for hours on a freezing night just to catch a glimpse of its majesty.