Love Patterns

by Michael B. Malone

  “The boss is in the office,” the mechanic indicated with his thumb.

  I found the pilot in a tiny office and introduced myself. I’d already confirmed the arrangements the precious day.

  “You’d better help yourself to a jacket.” The pilot pointed to a row of fur lined leather jackets hanging from pegs. “It can get pretty cold. There are all sizes. We should be ready soon.”

  Jerie and I took photographs of each other, standing beside the plane. The pilot, appeared, ushered us to our seats, and showed us how to strap ourselves in. As the engine started and revved up and the plane began to move, Jerie gripped the arm rests with a panic-stricken look on her face. I tried to reassure her, stroking her hand and she gave me a tight smile, but when the plane bounded off the ground with a lurch, she turned white and I hurriedly got a sick bag ready. She recovered once the plane reached its cruising height and after a while seemed to enjoy the new sensation, pointing out the tiny figures of people and animals far below. We circled Mount Kenya at a distance and the plane climbed above the clouds, so we could see its peak. I took a photograph of the summit with Jerie’s smiling face in the foreground. After completing the circuit of Mount Kenya, we returned to the airfield. As the plane came in to land, Jerie again gripped the arm rests, looking worried until we came to a stop. I took a very subdued Jerie back to the hotel. During a late lunch she recovered, with her non-stop chatter interspersed with words like amazing, stupendous and fantastic.

  The next day I took her to be photographed and receive her passport with myself listed as her guardian. She spent the rest of the evening reading it again and again as if she at last had written proof of her existence.

  The next day I took her to see the film the “Wizard of Oz.” I spent most of the two hours watching the expressions on her face.

  For the next week I took her on various escorted tourist excursions, including a three-day safari into the bush where we saw elephants, lions and giraffes in the wild.

  When I took her back to the boarding school, she was clutching a wad of photographs to show to her friends.

  Excerpts from Jerie’s diary.

  Bill took me up in an aeroplane. I was so scared the plane might fall, but after a time, I got used to it. I saw cars and buses and houses far below and they looked so tiny. We flew around Mount Kenya, which is sacred to my people. I got a bit scared again when we started to land, as the ground seemed to come up far too fast, but we only felt a small bump.

  We went to see a film about a girl, a tin man, a scarecrow, a silly looking lion and witches. I didn’t understand it, but it was still good. We went on a safari and lions came right up to the van, so I could see right down their mouths. I love Bill.

  Chapter 13

  I arrived back in Dundee tired. Kathleen was waiting for me at the station and told me there was a pile of mail waiting for me and my agent had been phoning. When we arrived home. Kathleen went off to prepare dinner while I unpacked. I started on the pile of mail. There was another huge cheque for royalties from my first book and another almost as large for my second book. A later letter asked me to contact my agent as soon as possible. I looked at my watch. It was far too late to phone the office. I went through to the kitchen.

  “Kathleen?” She turned. “What did Mr. Green say when he phoned?”

  “He asked you to phone as soon as possible, he left his number, it’s by the phone.”

  “Thanks love.” I found the number and phoned.

  “Yes?” A voice at the other end queried.

  “It’s Bill Munro here Jack.”

  “Bill! I’ve been trying to contact you. M.G.M. want us to go to Hollywood right away to discuss making a film about your Kenya novel. How soon can you be ready?”

  “I’m just back from two weeks in Kenya.”

  “There’s a pile of money involved.”

  “How much?”

  “Over half a million dollars.”

  “Good God! Can I phone you back tonight?”

  “Okay, but don’t delay.” I staggered through to the kitchen.

  “Kathleen?” She turned smiling. “We might have to cancel our holiday in Copenhagen!.”

  Her smile faded. “Why? What’s happened?”

  “M.G.M. want me to go to Hollywood to discuss making a film about my Kenya novel. My agent said it might be worth half a million dollars!”

  Kathleen sank into a chair. “Hollywood! Half a million dollars! We will have to cancel our holiday.”

  “Forget the holiday, we are going to Hollywood”

  “Oh Bill!” She burst into tears.

  I rushed to comfort her, “I thought that you would be pleased.”

  “I am.” She smiled through her tears. “It’s just too much to take in.” She paused then became business-like. “When do we have to leave?”

  “When can you be ready?”

  “I’ll have to buy clothes, and get my hair done and …”

  I interrupted. “We can do all that when we get there.”

  I saw her eyes look inwards, “Tomorrow afternoon?”

  “Are you sure?” Her eyes looked upwards considering, “Yes.”

  I phoned Jack back. “We could be ready tomorrow afternoon.”

  “That’s great, take a plane to London. I’ll try to book the flights for tomorrow night; That’s you and your wife?”

  “Yes.”

  “Does she have a passport?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you give me her full name.”

  “Kathleen Elizabeth Munro.”

  “Phone me once you know which flight you’re taking, I’ll meet you at the airport. I’ll brief you on the flight.”

  “Okay.” I sank onto the settee in a daze. Kathleen joined me. “We’ve to take a plane to London, and Jack Green will meet us” I turned to her mopping my brow. “I was looking forward to a rest after my flight from Kenya.”

  “My poor dear,” she grinned. “Well dinner is about ready, have a wash. I’ll put your clothes in the machine.”

  I staggered to the bedroom, stripped, had a good wash then in my pyjamas and dressing gown went down for dinner.

  Kathleen met me. “I’ve managed to book a flight from Edinburgh. We’ll have to catch a train about one in the afternoon.”

  “Thanks Kathleen, I’m just too tired and dazed. Remember the passports.”

  “You have dinner and then go to bed. I’ll get everything ready.”

  Kathleen woke me the next morning, I got dressed, had breakfast, carried the luggage to the taxi that arrived; waited while Kathleen bought tickets at Dundee station, caught the train, all in a dream, then fell asleep on the train. Kathleen woke me as the train pulled in to Waverley Station in Edinburgh.

  “Feel better?” she asked.

  “A bit,” I replied. I still felt exhausted.

  I came fully awake to the thunder of engines. “Where are we?” I asked Kathleen, who was looking out of the window. She shrugged.

  Jack’s voice came from the seat behind. “Kansas.”

  I tried to piece together my memories. Taxis, airports, departure lounges, meals, flying over New York.

  “What day is it?”

  “Thursday,” Kathleen smiled. “Early afternoon. How do you feel?”

  “Human again,” I smiled back.

  “I had to lead you about, you were dead on your feet most of the time.”

  “Thanks love.” I looked past Kathleen’s head at the vast yellow plains below. “When do we arrive?”

  “In about four hours.” Jack’s voice came from behind me. “I’ve booked us into a hotel. We’ll go to M.G.M. tomorrow.”

  I turned my head. “What do I have to do?”

  Jack grinned. “You won’t recognise your own novel once they’ve finished with it. You’ll have every chancer on the set, trying to push their own ideas and even when a script is agreed, the actors will want to push their ideas.”

  I felt appalled. “What do they want me for then?”

&
nbsp; Jack shrugged. “My advice is to say, ‘That’s a good idea, I’ll think about how it fits into the story’ and then forget about it.”

  We touched down at Los Angeles Airport. In a daze I followed Jack and Kathleen, collected our luggage then caught a taxi to our hotel.

  We registered, then Kathleen went on a mad round of hairdos, beauty treatments and buying outfits, with Jack supervising. Later we faced a barrage of reporters. Jack did most of the talking. Kathleen and I posed for photographers. Wishing I had never written the novel, I was glad to get to bed for a decent night’s sleep. The next morning, I had recovered enough to listen to Jack’s ideas about what would happen that morning. After a huge breakfast a ridiculously stretched limousine arrived to take us to M.G.M. headquarters. We were introduced to the director and the producer of the proposed film. I left the negotiations to Jack. Later in the day when we entered the stretched limo to return to the hotel, Jack gave me the thumbs-up sign.

  “It’s in the bag,” he said. “I’ve negotiated three hundred thousand dollars plus two percent of the gross. Is that okay with you?”

  Bewildered at the sudden riches, I agreed it was fantastic.

  “You will have to go back tomorrow to meet the scriptwriters. Is that okay?”

  “Whatever you say,” I agreed.

  “I’ll be with you to steer you in the right direction, don’t worry,” Jack assured me.

  After a good night’s sleep, we left to meet the scriptwriters. Kathleen was given a guided tour of the studios and given a lady escort to show her around Los Angeles. I tried to follow Jack’s advice over the next five days, but found the scriptwriters a very professional bunch and agreed to many of the suggestions when the reasons were explained to me. I found that many of the scenes were to be shot in Kenya.

  “Well,” Jack said. “That’s done, we can go home now.”

  “That’s it over?” I was surprised.

  “For now,” Jack said. “You’ll be getting phone calls and revised scripts for a few months yet and then it will start again when they begin shooting.”

  Kathleen. was agreeable to going straight home, saying she could do with a few days rest before she started school. Our flight back to London and the train journey to Dundee were uneventful. We had a lazy few days to recover, then Kathleen started school.

  Chapter 14

  Excerpts from Jerie’s diary.

  Bill arrived for my long summer vacation and took me to a hotel in Nairobi. We stayed for a week then he took me to Great Britain. The aeroplane was much bigger and not so bumpy, so I was not scared. We went on underground trains to a railway station and caught a train. There were crowds of people and cars everywhere, so I held Bill’s hand all the time. I watched the countryside out of the window and everything was so green. We caught another train and Kathleen was waiting for us in a car and took us home. It was so cold, and I felt myself shaking. Kathleen called it “shivers” and told me she would buy me some warm clothes. They showed me my bedroom which was nice. When I asked if I had to sleep in the bed all night Kathleen laughed and told me, only if I wanted to, but I was to wear my nightdress, because it was cold. They sleep in different bedrooms, so I don’t think she is a real wife, maybe because of the dark patch inside her. When I am old enough, I will always be a real wife to Bill.

  Kathleen took me to her school where she is a teacher and I told her class about Kenya and answered lots of questions. Bill took me to some hills and showed me snow and we had a snowball fight. We stayed in a hotel in Edinburgh and went to a museum where I saw lots of stuffed animals and fishes and pressed buttons on machines and watched them working. We went to a castle on a hill and walked along Princes Street.

  Kathleen was on holiday for Christmas, so I helped her put up paper and silvery decorations. They bought a small tree and hung decorations on it. They took me to a pantomime, which was very funny, then on Christmas day I got lots of gifts and we went to church.

  Kathleen went back to school and Bill took me back to Nairobi. I am starting to like flying in aeroplanes. I like Kenya, I am never cold here. Bill said he and Kathleen would come back at Easter. I wonder when I will be old enough for him to love me? I love Bill and Kathleen.

  Chapter 15

  As Jack had warned me I spent the next month dealing with phone calls about the film and flew to Los Angeles twice to review the script. The calls tapered off for a while then started again when the production moved to Kenya. I flew out and managed to get a bit part for Jerie and four of her friends from the school. Miss Robertson, who was very grateful for the advanced copy of my book, kindly agreed to let them have a day off when their presence was required, and I drove them to the location which was not far from Nairobi. I watched them during the takes and thought they performed their small parts very well. I took photographs of them posing with the stars then took them back to the school, listening with half an ear to their excited chatter.

  Jerie’s holidays were coming up so I stayed on to watch the progress of the film. Kathleen’s holiday overlapped with one week of Jerie’s, so she was flying out to join us. I found the production of the film intensely interesting and the way they took seemingly disconnected sections with different backgrounds. I knew the cutting team would connect them afterwards to make a seamless film, but it gave me a sense of disorientation to watch the different small snatches of my novel.

  I collected Jerie. The film crew had moved near to Mombasa for a few takes so we spent a few days watching the progress, then I moved back to Nairobi to wait for Kathleen. When she arrived, we stayed for a day then travelled North to Lake Victoria where the film production had moved for part of the film. We travelled by train to Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria, booked, into a hotel and hired a guide with a station wagon to show us around. When we visited the lake, Kathleen and Jerie cried in amazement at the thousands of pink flamingos feeding on the algae on the surface of the water. We also saw white pelicans diving for fish, the occasional hippopotamus surfacing with a splash and groups of impala watering on the shore. We were lucky enough to be there when the production team caused a large bang over the lake and the thousands of flamingos took off as one, turning the sky dark with their numbers.

  Back in Nairobi we had an early dinner and went to bed early, suffering from a surfeit of excitement. After a lazy couple of days, we took Jerie back to school and flew home.

  Excerpt from Jerie’s diary.

  During my English lesson a message came for the teacher and she called me out and told me to see Miss Robertson. I was scared that I had done something wrong but when I saw her she was smiling. She told me Bill had asked her if four of my friends and I would like to have small parts in the film that everyone has been talking about that Bill had written. She said that Bill would call the next day to collect us and that we could have a day off school. She asked that as a special favour to her could I choose Njambi who was the education minister’s daughter. So, I chose her and three of my special friends. It was fantastic. We got our photographs taken with the stars and everyone was very nice to us. Bill took us out for a posh dinner and Njambi was very impressed and is very friendly to me now. All the girls in the school are jealous.

  Bill took Kathleen and I to Lake Victoria on the train and I saw flamingos and hippopotamuses. There was a loud noise and all the flamingos flew into the air at once. I have never seen anything so fantastic.

  I love Bill and Kathleen but mostly I love Bill. I wonder when I will be old enough?

  Chapter 16

  Over the next year I continued my psychic exercises and enjoyed the occasional few weeks of supply teaching. I took Kathleen to the premier of the film of my novel in New York and she performed the part of a gracious lady when we were introduced to the actors and celebrities. The critics were unanimous in their praise and Jack thinks it will be a great success.

  The premier in Britain coincided with Jerie’s holidays, so I flew out to collect her and brought her back to Britain and took her to the premi
er. She was a model of correctness when she was introduced to all the celebrities, and when we were interviewed for a few minutes for television, she did me proud.

  I flew out for her holidays and when Kathleen’s holidays coincided I took her as well. We travelled around Kenya exploring the country.

  I rented a chalet for Jerie’s fifteenth birthday in the new tourist area of Nairobi then called to pick her up, her luggage and her bike. I took her shopping for groceries as she decided she was going to cook for me. Some of the dishes she prepared were superb, but others tasted strange. It was the rainy season and it was growing dark. Jerie had gone riding her bike and was still not back. At last I saw her, cycling slowly, head down against the rain. I ran out to take the bicycle and waved her into the house. I followed her wet footprints to the bathroom to find her naked and running a bath. A pile of wet clothes was sitting on the floor.

  “I’m tired Bill,” she moaned. “Will you wash me?”

  I eyed her mud caked face and arms. “What happened?” I asked.

  “I fell off my bike,” she complained.

  “Okay, jump into the bath.”

  I started on her hair and face, giving them a good soap, then got her to duck her head under the water to rinse the soap off. She stood to let me wash her body and I looked around for the sponge or a cloth, but they had disappeared.

  “Use your hands Bill,” she suggested.

  I shrugged and started to wash her. I tried not to notice but her body had developed to the full voluptuousness of womanhood. I tried to wash her breasts as quickly as possible and move on, but she smiled in my eyes and drew my hands back saying,

  “They are not tickly any more Bill!”

  She started giving small moans then reached up and drew my head down and I felt her lips enclose my own and her tongue exploring my mouth. She pushed my soapy hand down between her thighs and started arching her hips.

  “I will always love you Bill,” she murmured, her voice husky.