“Grandchildren,” she said with a smile. “Bless you, my dear.”
Uzuri looked about. Many of the places and many of the people reminded her of the love and companionship of her husband. But she did not know these lands well enough to hunt them masterfully. At best, she would be a helper. Perhaps even a beater to drive prey toward the ‘real’ hunting party. She could learn the land, but it would take years, and she was not growing any younger. Maybe it was best that she take care of the young and leave hunting to the ones who did it best.
Suddenly, she heard a roar. It was not an angry sound, but what a male lion does when words are not enough.
“Togo!!”
She broke into a run. Togo hurried to meet her, rearing up and putting his arms around her neck and nuzzling her.
“Mother!!”
“My little boy! I know you’re a lion now, but you’ll always be my little cub! Oh, I could just eat you up!”
“Marrie said you’d come,” he said, his eyes shining like diamonds. “Welcome home, Mom! Oh, I’m so happy I could just burst!”
She nuzzled him again. “My special little boy! I heard all about Ambia and what you did, and I’m so proud of you! So how are you??”
“Fine! Never better! You saw Marrie, didn’t you? She’s my wife, now. You’re going to be a grandmother soon.”
“I know!” She kissed him. “You be good to Marrie, you hear me? She’s a fine lioness.”
“Yes ma’am!”
“I hear Kombi is king.”
“Yeah.” He half laughed. “I like this Prince Consort thing well enough, but I don’t want to be a King. Besides, now that Kombi is King, it keeps him out of trouble.”
Amara rubbed full length against her husband the way Uzuri used to do with Ugas. “Well, Honey Tree, aren’t you going to show the Queen Mother her new home? She can have my old spot now that I have a nice soft mane to snuggle on.”
“I know where my spot is,” Uzuri said gently. She lithely climbed to the top of Pride Kopje. She went to the spot where she would spend hours talking with Ugas about the stars. His scent had nearly vanished, but as she lay on her back and looked up at the skies, she could almost feel his warm, strong body lying next to her. “I’m home, beloved,” she murmured. Makaka settled next to her and put his arm around her neck, and the two of them slipped into their mid-sun nap.
CHAPTER: NO PLACE LIKE HOME
In the meanwhile, Rafiki tried to find a place of his own. It wasn’t like he expected to find another baobab just waiting for him to move in, but he needed a quiet and private place to go when he wanted to think. Sleeping on the ground with the pride was a romantic notion but not a viable option; he had to set up the paraphernalia of a shaman and paint protective icons. Also, some of his herbs could kill as well as heal. They had to be kept away from small paws.
He invited Makaka to come along with him, but he also had a number of uninvited guests as well. He was crowded with boisterous young cubs. Rafiki was fond of children, but they made so much noise and bustle that he could hardly hear himself think. Sh’aari also tagged along, trying to control the cubs that got seriously out of line, but doing little to curb the incessant noise and endless questions. And all the usual questions came pouring out.
“Why do you have those stripes on your face?”
“May I touch them?”
(“Yes, you may.”)
“Are those stripes on your bottom the same?”
“May I touch them?”
(“No, you may not touch them!”)
“Will you do a magic trick?”
“Do it again!”
“Is Makaka your son?”
“Are his Mommy and Daddy in heaven?”
“Does he have any brothers and sisters?”
“Will we see them some time?”
“Why do you walk with that stick?”
“Say something in monkey language!”
“What’s in the gourd?”
“Can I have one?”
“What’s that smell?”
“Can you really tell the future?”
“Can I watch?”
After the first hour or two of this, Rafiki began to wonder if cubs were more rough and tumble than they used to be, or if he was just getting older. “Probably both,” he thought, sighing.
Rafiki yelped as a furry bundle nipped playfully at his heels and darted away, giggling madly. “Ohe! Watch it! That hurts, you little scamp!”
“Saieti!” Sh’aari said sharply. “That was rude. Now apologize to Rafiki.”
The cub stopped and looked up at the mandrill with bright eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said in a small voice. “I was just playing.”
“I know, Honey Tree.” Rafiki smiled and bent to pick the cub up, but she skittered away. “What’s wrong? I won’t hurt you.” He peered at Saieti as she huddled against the lioness’s side. “What’s that on your side?”
Sh’aari licked the trembling cub. “Ambia’s handiwork,” she said. “That’s just one of the marks he left on our pride.”
“My Gods!” Rafiki knelt and stroked the wide eyed youngster. “You needn’t fear him any longer, child. Togo and Kombi have set things right again, and this old monkey will certainly never hurt you.”
Saieti looked at him carefully, measuring him. It drove a thorn in his heart to see the look of guarded suspicion on one so young. “Even if I sit in your favorite spot?”
He nodded. “Perhaps we have the same favorite spot, eh? We’ll just have to share.” He reached into his gourd and got a piece of Tiko root. Saieti sniffed, inhaling the wonderful fragrance. Her tongue licked out and her eyes followed the treat as Rafiki moved it about.
“Who do you love?”
“You, Rafiki!”
“How much do you love me?”
“Bunches and bunches!”
The correct answer was, of course, “more than life.” There would never be another cub quite like Taka, but there would also never be another cub quite like Saieti. “Good enough!”
Rafiki dropped the Tiko root and Saieti snapped it up. She savored its goodness, then swallowed it. Then she looked up at him and grunted affectionately.
The mandrill picked up the cub, kissed her and hugged her tightly. “You poor baby! If anyone tries to hurt you again, I’ll kill ‘em!”
She cuddled under his chin and purred. Overcome, Rafiki began to sob, kissing her repeatedly and whispering loving names in his old tongue. “Why do they have to suffer?” he asked Sh’aari. “Why the helpless and the innocent?? She deserves so much more out of life, and if I could take those stripes from her and bear them myself, I would!”
Saieti wrapped her large cub paws around his neck and nestled her head against his shoulder, a faint purring tickling his neck.
Rafiki’s thoughts went back to a different time and place before old age had set in and when all things were fresh and new. He remembered picking up Ajenti and holding her, and asking his new wife, “Isn’t she beautiful, Asumini?”
Asumini had smiled. “Our child will also be beautiful, like its father.”
Dearest Asumini! It was on their wedding day, the beginning of a brief dream of happiness and fatherhood. He kissed Saieti again and closed his eyes, listening to her small heartbeat. Poor Asumini, poor Penda, gone! Spirits in the Kingdom of Aiheu separated from him by every breath he drew, every beat of his own heart.
He clung to the cub, sighed deeply, and remembered. Then he looked in her eyes and kissed her again. “I see the beauty of Aiheu in your smile and the way your eyes shine. I feel the warmth of Aiheu in your soft fur. Never turn from your Uncle Rafiki, my dear. I love you, Saieti.”
“I love you too.”
Sh’aari nuzzled him and smiled, giving him a long, slow lick up the cheek. “Oh, look what I did to your beard!” She quickly began grooming his right side back into some semblance of his left.
Rafiki’s eyes half closed and he felt very much at peace. The realization came streaming through that hi
s happiness had always been there--it had only taken many different forms. “Thank you, Aiheu,” he prayed silently. “You always take care of me. Now if I only had a home of my own....”
At that moment Amara came in. “I hear you need a place to live,” she said. “You can have my old place. I’m staying with my husband now.”
He looked up and sighed gratefully. “That was fast.”
Amara led the crowd down to her small cave in the side of the kopje. It was not much to look at, but it had made her the envy of all the other lionesses.
“Here it is!” she said with obvious pride. “Your new home!”
Rafiki looked inside. It was damp and wet, though Marrie was clearly making a great sacrifice for him.
“You ought to know when it rains, water comes through this crack in the ceiling.”
“I can fill the crack,” he said, thinking aloud. “It will require some work from time to time, and maybe a little straw on the floor will make it a little dryer and warmer. Makaka has lung trouble, so I’ll let him take this side when he sleeps over.” Idly running his fingers through Makaka’s hair, he told Amara, “He’ll usually sleep with you girls if that’s all right. Uzuri is his mother, you know.”
“We’d be delighted!” Amara said, nuzzling Makaka until he had to giggle. “He’s so sweet!”
“We’d have to raise a bed here to keep out the water.”
“I’m sorry we don’t have anything better.”
Rafiki put his arms around Amara’s neck. “Oh gods, It’s the most wonderful present I’ve ever received! Thank you, dear Marrie!”
Still, it was not exactly Busara’s cave....
Old Busara! How long ago those happy days seemed! Once Rafiki thought he would be chief of the mandrill village where he lived. Then Busara brought him to a state of enlightenment, a favor he would buy with his own blood when the priest of the old ways found out. The fever to be a shaman consumed him and transformed him, and finally sent him to his third home. That was supposed to be his final haven, a place to spend the rest of his days in loving service with his wife and children and the people of Ahadi.
Fate was not so kind. With no wife to comfort him, no children to raise, he had lost the home itself with all its memories. Makaka and Uzuri were his only ties to his old life. At his advanced age, he was starting over.
CHAPTER: NIGHT COMES
As the sun began to set, the lionesses gathered for their hunt. Adhama came and nuzzled Uzuri. “Time to gather up,” she said cheerfully. “I’ve looked so forward to the honor of hunting with you, Zuri.”
“I’m flattered,” Uzuri said. “But I’m unfamiliar with the area. Tonight, let me sit with the children.”
“Zuri, don’t be timid! We don’t expect you to bring down a buffalo by yourself! Just tag along and learn the land tonight.”
“Maybe tomorrow,” Uzuri said. “Good hunting, sister.”
Adhama nodded, and before she left she added, “Don’t get used to it. I look forward to seeing you in action out there.”
“I won’t.” Uzuri smiled and pulled a sleepy cub a bit closer.
Adhama nodded and paced away silently, vanishing into the dark. From another clump of brush, Makaka emerged, humming a tune to himself as he meandered over. He sighed and slipped his arms around Uzuri’s neck, hugging her close.
She smiled and kissed him with her warm tongue. “Busy day?”
“Busy week!” He slid down, resting his head on her side. “We walked everywhere! Rafiki found this really cool place to set up in. It’s kind of damp, though.” He yawned hugely. “We had to cut brush and fill cracks. The dampness hurts his joints, you know.” His voice dropped off to a buzz as he slowly nodded off.
Uzuri continued to groom him absently, turning this over in her mind. After all the times Rafiki had rubbed her stuff joint without complaint! She had no idea his joints hurt!
Eventually the warmth of Makaka and the cubs sank into her and she drowsed lightly, head still erect and ears alert for any disturbance. Before too long she detected the familiar tread of Rafiki as he eased through the grass towards her; his distinctive gait barely registering before she relaxed again.
Very quietly, Rafiki bent down next to her face and ever so softly planted a kiss on her cheek. He whispered, “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, girl. If this doesn’t prove it, I don’t know what will.”
One of her eyes opened to look at him.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to wake you!”
“That’s all right.” She patted with her paw and winked. She didn’t have to ask twice--he settled next to her. “You look tense. Relax.” She took a paw and controlling her great strength with finesse, began to rub his back and shoulders. “You need to relax. This day has worn you out.” When she heard the grunt of relief, she knew she’d found the source of his pain and she concentrated on loosening him up. What her paws lacked in dexterity, they made up for in gentle persistence. And only when Uzuri was content with the results did she let him up. “If you feel tense again, you come see me.”
“I will,” he said, kissing her brow. “Thank you.”
She managed to stay awake until the hunting party came back. She had an important job to do, but she was restless and wondered what she was missing on the trail. She also wondered how her own Pride Sisters were faring, and if they caught anything. She glanced back in the direction of Pride Rock and sighed.
When the lionesses returned victorious, she woke the cubs and shared her first meal with her new family. Not knowing many of them well, she heard snatches of gossip and idle chatter that sounded only distantly familiar. As a result, she said very little.
That night as she finally settled to sleep, time and time again in her dreams she re-enacted the parting from her Pride Sisters.
“I give you the most precious possession I have. I gave a lot of thought to what I would say when I left you. In the end there is nothing I can say, and so I leave you with silence. But I can never forget the time we spent together on the trail....”
That was the crux of her problem. She could never forget the time they spent together on the trail. Would she ever be that happy again? And did she have the right to subject Rafiki and Makaka to this?
CHAPTER: CHOOSING A PATH
The next morning, Rafiki dropped by cheerfully but a little stiff. “How did you sleep?”
“Fine.”
“Uh huh....” He looked at her dusty, disarranged fur. “That’s nice.”
Makaka took Rafiki aside. “No. She moaned and tossed all night. She’s not happy here. I heard her crying. Rafiki, I want to go home! I have some friends here, but this place is not good for us.”
Rafiki sighed and made his way back to her. “So, my dear, how do you like it here?”
Uzuri looked pensive. “Fine. But do you think I’ve left my sisters in the lurch?”
“No. They’ll have to adapt, if you really want to stay. Admittedly, it won’t be easy.”
“So you think it’s wrong my being here?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Well, what DID you say?”
“I said--and I will say again--I cannot choose your path. You must go where your heart leads you.”
She shuddered. “I hope you won’t be disappointed, but my heart is leading me back to Pride Rock.”
Rafiki sprang to life. “I’ll get my things!”
“But I have to say good bye.”
“Of course you do. But if we do it quickly, we can make it back in time for tonight’s hunt.” He hugged her tightly. “We can’t have you unhappy, my dear!”
That afternoon, an article of her faith became very real to her. Pain was indeed the brother of pleasure, and in loving Ugas and his pride, she had opened herself to the pain of farewells. Adhama and Amara were dear friends and she would miss them terribly. And there were her sons who must remain behind in the kingdom of her dead husband. But as Aiheu had told all who dared to love, the pleasure was worth the pain--it gave her nobi
lity and inner beauty that shone brightly from her hazel eyes.
Makaka was impatient to leave, hopping from foot to foot at the delay as Uzuri and Rafiki nuzzled each cub and spoke to each of the lionesses.
The brothers insisted on escorting them back to the border, and Uzuri was glad of the company.
“You will visit us, won’t you?” Togo asked.
“Of course I will, if the King permits.”
“The King insists,” Kombi said. “Oh look, I can see the stream from here.” The sadness behind his smile was obvious to her and she nuzzled him.
“There’s no stream deep enough or wide enough to keep us apart,” Uzuri said.
Reaching the bank, she couldn’t help but feel her heart sink as her sons stopped short of the water. She kissed each of them on the cheek, inhaling their scent and holding it in her memory. “I’m so proud of you both! Your father is too, I know it.”
Kombi nuzzled her one last time, then stepped back. “Aiheu abamami, mother. Take care.” Togo bid her farewell, and then joined his brother as they turned and headed back home. Uzuri watched them leave, then slowly turned towards her own home that lay shimmering in the distance like something out of a dream.
The three splashed through the water, then stood once again on their old ground. Without looking back, Uzuri led Rafiki and Makaka past the spot where young Sarabi and Taka used to play. They went through the field where Ahadi lay his feverish body to die with his beloved Akase. She passed the spot where Misha had made her first kill and first made love with Tanabi. And she saw the spot where Pipkah crawled away to die after the great battle. She half smiled when she thought about the tricks she pulled on him. Maybe he learned a little humility at the end--maybe he’d even found peace.
They arrived at Rafiki’s baobab a little before sunset. The reddish hue sparkled from his cheeks as he reentered his old home, each limb and notch calling to him like an old friend. Reaching up, he ran his fingertips gently along the runes painted into the trunk, tracing gently over the Eye of Aiheu with one hand. Making his way to the hollowed alcove where he stored his things, he reached in to put his medicine pouch inside--and stopped, pulling out an ivory tooth, well worn and familiar as his own.
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