Strange Allure

by Susan Lewis

  ‘Oh yes, yes,’ he assured her. ‘I take care of it now.’

  ‘No,’ she laughed as he started to get up, ‘finish your drink. Everyone’s asleep anyway. And besides, I think now is a very good time to tell you how indebted we all are to you for the way you’ve helped us with this shoot. In fact, we couldn’t have done it without you, and if we do manage to get Sunday off, it’ll be largely down to you and your outstanding organizational skills.’

  His cheeks flushed with pleasure. ‘Ah, yes, Sunday,’ he said. ‘I arrange for all equipment to go to Sultan’s Palace Hotel, early in morning. Then all the people can take bus into Stone Town for the sightseeing and shopping, or stay here and make diving. Later Land Cruisers take everyone to Sultan’s Palace when shopping and sports is finished.’

  ‘Perfect,’ Carla smiled, wondering how to broach the subject of Chrissie again.

  Brimming over, he said, ‘Mr John, he ask me to rent him car on Sunday. So car coming early, same time as bus.’

  Carla’s insides fluttered as she wondered where John was intending to go. ‘Good. Very good,’ she said.

  Jaffah raised his glass, and after saluting her, drained it in one go.

  At the sound of a splash Carla looked down at the pool, and watched the diver glide along the bottom, then slowly surface, to begin lapping with a grace and style it was hard not to envy. She’d barely had time for any swimming herself, and secretly she’d been hoping that on Sunday she and John might go somewhere together … But she had to stop thinking that way, it was the route to disaster, and besides, the hire-car obviously meant he had other plans, which was good, because if they were alone, and so scantily dressed, it would be just about impossible to suppress the physical yearning of her body, and as powerfully as she wanted it …

  ‘Mr John!’ Jaffah cried, suddenly leaping to his feet.

  Carla started, then turned to look over her shoulder, and, seeing John coming towards them, felt a wave of pure pleasure coast over her heart. ‘I thought you’d be sleeping,’ she said.

  ‘Funny, that’s what I thought you were doing,’ he responded, sitting down next to her. Then to Jaffah, ‘Any luck with the car?’

  ‘Oh yes. I tell Miss Carla. It come Sunday, early, when bus come.’

  John nodded. ‘Good man. So did you manage a siesta?’ he asked Carla.

  ‘Of sorts,’ she answered, meeting his eyes and remembering those few minutes she’d spent lying on the bed. ‘Actually, there’s something I need to talk to you about,’ she told him.

  ‘You please excuse me,’ Jaffah said, with several little bows. ‘You talk in private.’

  ‘It’s OK,’ Carla assured him, as more crew began strolling up from their beach-front bungalows. ‘Stay and finish your drink.’ Then to John, ‘Let’s go over to my room.’

  His eyebrows waggled, making her smile – and only wish that it could be that easy.

  As they strolled along past the pool, and down the steps to the peppery-white beach, he began talking about the drama sequence they were shooting the next day. ‘I’m not worried about our guys,’ he said, ‘most of them will have done this kind of thing before. It’s the extras we might have a problem with, so I’m going to try to shoot it in a way that calls for no more than three, and just have them wading ashore.’

  She nodded thoughtfully. ‘That should work,’ she said. ‘In fact, we really only need to see Gary, don’t we?’

  ‘And Phoebe,’ he reminded her.

  ‘Of course.’ Then she added, ‘Do you think I’ve been over-optimistic telling everyone they can have Sunday off? I mean, if we run over tomorrow …’

  ‘If we do, we’ll just have to cancel the day off,’ he said. ‘But we won’t.’

  She looked at him. ‘You seem rather definite about that.’

  ‘I’m trying to be,’ he responded.

  They walked the next few paces in silence, winding through the palms and mangroves that were growing up all over the beach, and feeling the soft warm sand seep in between their toes. She was wondering about the hire-car, and if it would seem too inquisitive to ask what he had planned for the day. Probably not, though in the end all she said was, ‘Well, I hope we don’t have to cancel. Everyone needs a break, and it’s going to be a bit tough coming to a place like this and not having any time off.’

  After glancing at her briefly, he said, ‘So what are you planning to do with Sunday, if it does stay free?’

  ‘I haven’t really thought about it,’ she answered. ‘Maybe work. Sunbathe. I’m not sure.’

  It was a moment before she realized he’d stopped, and, turning round to see why, she felt her heart leap when she found him looking at her with the same intense dark eyes that haunted every one of her dreams.

  ‘Spend the day with me,’ he said. ‘Just the two of us.’

  Immediately her insides turned weak and as her heart started to pound she said, ‘You mean …?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said quietly, ‘that’s exactly what I mean.’

  Desire seared through her, and, knowing she was incapable of any other answer, she nodded, then turned to walk on.

  Though she questioned her decision a thousand times over the next twenty-four hours, the dread she harboured that the shoot might run over was so beyond a producer’s normal concern that really, there was never any doubt Sunday morning would find her right where she was, in a state of high anticipation, as she showered and dressed for the day ahead. Though she’d been awake half the night, concerned by the way her self-protection was rolling back like a tide, leaving her vulnerable and exposed, she kept reminding herself that John wasn’t Richard, in fact was nothing like him, and the last thing she wanted was to give in to the fear of ever trusting again.

  ‘Am I mad? Am I completely insane?’ she demanded of Avril, as she plugged her mobile phone into her computer’s modem. ‘I mean fantasizing about it, and longing for it is one thing, but actually going through with it, when there’s so much at stake … Shall I wear that hat, by the way, or does it look a bit OTT? God, this thing takes ages to connect. Do you have any sunblock, I’ve used all mine?’

  ‘Here,’ Avril said, tossing a tube of Clarins on to Carla’s bed. ‘What time are you leaving?’

  Carla glanced at her watch and felt her stomach turn over. ‘In fifteen minutes.’

  ‘Do you know where you’re going yet?’

  ‘I know the Jozani Forest Reserve is our first stop,’ Carla answered. ‘After that …’ Her breath gave out, and, laughing, she said, ‘So what are your plans today? Has Masud managed to find a few square inches you haven’t yet explored?’

  Avril grinned. ‘Actually,’ she said, ‘I’m going diving with Kit and a few of the others.’

  Carla looked up in surprise, but Avril was already disappearing into the bathroom. ‘So the romance is over?’ Carla called out, picking up a brush and pulling it through her hair.

  ‘No,’ Avril answered, ‘though I wouldn’t call it a romance.’

  ‘Really? Then what would you call it?’

  There was a moment as Avril thought, then she said, ‘An understanding. Yes, that’s what I’d call it. Masud understands me in a way most men fail to, and the remarkable part of that is that we don’t even speak each other’s language.’

  Carla was intrigued, though probed no further, as she watched her computer making the on-line connection.

  ‘By the way, I talked to Gus about Rosa,’ Avril called out.

  ‘Good!’ Carla shouted back. ‘Is he willing to do what you’re suggesting?’

  ‘Yep. He’s a good guy.’ She popped her head round the door. ‘Do you need any condoms?’

  Carla’s insides dissolved. ‘Stop that,’ she laughed.

  ‘I’m sure John’ll have some,’ Avril said, already back in the bathroom. ‘Any mineral water left? I need some to clean my teeth.’

  ‘On the nightstand.’

  There was only one message, from Richard.

  ‘I don’t know why you’re doing th
at, when you’re about to go off with John for the day,’ Avril remarked as she came back into the room. ‘Or are you looking for an excuse not to go?’

  Carla’s eyes were on the screen. ‘I’m going,’ she said firmly.

  Avril picked up the water, and was about to return to the bathroom when Carla murmured, ‘That’s so strange. He’s still saying he was here.’

  ‘Did you talk to Jaffah again?’ Avril asked.

  ‘Not yet.’

  Tucking her towel in tighter, Avril went to read over Carla’s shoulder. ‘“… wish with all my heart that I could be there with you, watching your face as you drink in the island’s beauty, and feeling your heart beat with the pleasure of discovery. Maybe you are now in places that I have already visited, when in my foolishness I thought I loved another woman more than I loved you. So much has changed for us, and the love I feel …”’ She stopped as Carla suddenly closed down the screen.

  ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’ she declared, ‘whether he was ever here or not, but I’ve got no intention of spending a single moment of today trying to work it out.’

  ‘Good for you,’ Avril cheered. ‘You just go have yourself a wonderful time with a wonderful man, because God knows you deserve it.’

  Carla’s eyes softened, and, getting up from the chair, she turned her back on the computer and thought of John, whose reality as a man was so much more appealing right now than Richard’s poetic, but disembodied attempts to keep their love alive. ‘I’m so looking forward to this,’ she confessed.

  Avril smiled, then took a step back to cast a critical eye over the sleeveless silk georgette dress Carla was wearing, which fluttered to the ankles, but split right up to the thigh, the soft pale green fabric of the bodice and shoestring shoulder straps showing that there was no bra underneath. ‘He’s a lucky man,’ Avril told her. ‘But I don’t think he needs me to tell him that.’

  An hour later Carla was beside John in the car, gazing out at the passing countryside, where local women, shrouded in brightly coloured robes, drew urns of water from wells, while others ground maize on primitive stone wheels, and still others transported fraying baskets of fruit, or charcoal, on their heads. The small villages of mud-and-stick huts were mostly tucked into the shelter of trees, where cows with flesh like worn rags stood silently enduring the heat, and children scuffed footballs about in the dust. Overhead the sky blazed an impossible blue, while plantations of mangos, papayas, coconuts and bananas soon gave way to those of cloves, cumin, ginger, coriander and saffron.

  Since the road was hard to travel with so many boulders and potholes, they rarely spoke, though occasionally their eyes met, and knowing they were thinking the same thoughts seemed to intensify the already charged air between them.

  ‘Did you tell Avril about today?’ he asked, when finally they began travelling a smoother road.

  She turned to look at him. ‘Do you mind?’

  His eyes lingered a moment on hers before he turned back to the road. ‘Why would I mind?’ he said, pulling out round an ox-drawn cart.

  Her eyebrows drew together. ‘I’m not sure how to answer that,’ she responded.

  ‘I don’t mind,’ he told her. Then, looking at her again, ‘I’m glad you came.’

  Her chest felt tight, and a spasm of desire cut through her with such force that she started to wonder how she was going to get through the next few hours without begging him to take her right there on the roadside, or in the car, or against a tree, or … Reaching into her bag for the guidebook, she quickly flicked through to the relevant pages and began reading aloud. ‘“The Zanzibar red colobus monkey is one of Africa’s rarest primates, and is to be found in the Jozani Forest …”’

  ‘Are you nervous?’ he interrupted.

  ‘Yes. Are you?’

  ‘No.’

  She turned to find him laughing; then, laughing too, she tossed the book over her shoulder and, lifting her feet onto the dashboard, returned to gazing out of the window, where the trees were becoming denser now, and the ramshackle mud-and-stick dwellings ever more humble. Yes, she was nervous, and excited, and very glad she’d come, despite the occasional thoughts of Richard that made her feel strange about being with another man. Fortunately, they were easily ignored, though she wasn’t naive enough to believe that the damage of past experience wasn’t going to try playing some kind of part in the day. However, she wasn’t going to encourage it, so maybe it would help pacify her concerns about trust and honesty, and any other issues that might be lurking, to try taking her mind off it for a while. The guidebook hadn’t worked, so maybe the programme would.

  ‘OK,’ she said, ‘I know we weren’t going to talk shop today, but I’m breaking the rules. Has anyone been out to the forest yet to get some footage? Maybe we should have brought a camera.’

  ‘Verna did it before you arrived,’ he answered. ‘You haven’t seen the rushes?’

  ‘I’ve only had time to see the ones you’ve shot. Did she get any monkeys?’

  ‘About a dozen. Apparently they’re not hard to find, or not for the guides.’

  ‘What about a dhow under sail, and footage around the reef?’

  ‘Avril and Kit are doing it, possibly as we speak.’ He glanced over at her. ‘Did anyone give you a copy of the schedule?’

  Chuckling, she said, ‘I just want to make sure it’s all happening. So how about giving me a rough rundown of how you’re intending to put all the modern sequences together?’

  As they continued to talk she felt at least some of the tension leaving her body, and before long they were both so absorbed in the programme’s structure that they were still discussing it when they turned into the Jozani Forest Reserve, and bumped along the track to the ranger’s station.

  The instant they stepped out into the thick, humid air the noise of the forest assailed them, twittering, chattering, squawking, buzzing, a symphony of tropical sounds that was both haunting and shrill. Carla looked around at the rickety palm-thatch hut and various wooden boards that made up the station, where sketches and photographs of the forests’ inhabitants were pinned up alongside grubby T-shirts and oversized shorts that were presumably for sale. While John went to negotiate with a guide she picked up a few brochures and postcards that would help with writing the commentary, then, after taking them to the car, she strolled over to where he was just closing a deal.

  ‘This is Akili,’ he said, introducing the gangly, solemn-faced youth who was to be their guide.

  ‘Akili mean wisdom,’ the boy gravely informed them.

  Carla held out a hand to shake. ‘Jina langu ni Carla,’ she said. ‘Ninatoka England.’

  John’s eyes were dancing. ‘Jina langu ni John,’ he added, but didn’t attempt to shake hands, since Akili was shouting something at one of his colleagues.

  ‘You follow,’ he said, apparently unimpressed with their Berlitz Swahili.

  Carla glanced at John, whose ironic smile matched her own, then she started after the boy who was already moving off along a narrow, shady trail that twisted through the rubbery foliage of giant banana palms that overhung the path like fat green tongues. Though Akili wiped away the cloying nets of spiders’ webs, Carla was glad of her hat, since many of the silvery strands were left dangling and seemed all too keen to make her acquaintance. However, the trail soon widened, and they were better able to see the way trees and vines writhed and tangled in a choking struggle to reach the sun, while tiny blue butterflies flitted amongst the shrubs like confetti. With Akili’s expert guidance they soon began identifying the high-pitched screech of hornbills, and the rich fluted tones of a red-capped robin, even the click and trill of a dark-backed weaver. The boy certainly knew his birds, Carla reflected, as she listened to him mimicking their calls, and apparently getting along rather well with a little greenbul. Since a host of other creatures could be heard bleating and hissing and scuttling about in the underbrush, she tried not to think of snakes and trod carefully into Akili’s footprints as he finished m
aking a date, or whatever he was doing, and moved on.

  Finally, about three-quarters of a mile in, they came upon a cool, sunny glade, where an old tamarind tree had entwined its limbs with those of a wild fig, to provide a blissful shelter from the midday sun. Akili was at the foot of the fig gazing up into the shadowy umbrella of leaves. ‘See, there,’ he said glumly.

  Removing her hat, Carla stepped round behind him, frowning as she tried to find what he was pointing at.

  ‘There,’ he said, pointing harder. ‘You see him. He see you.’

  ‘I see him,’ John said softly.

  Then Carla did too, and broke into a smile, for the monkey’s leathery black face and startling shock of spiky white hair were exactly like those she had seen in the guidebook, so she knew it was a red colobus – though quite what he might be making of the strange faces staring up at him was anyone’s guess. ‘Do you think he considers us to be another species of animal?’ she whispered.

  ‘No, he knows we’re humans,’ John answered glibly.

  She turned to look at him. ‘What I meant was, do you think he feels threatened by us?’

  John looked at Akili, who shook his head. ‘He know we not hurt him,’ he said. ‘He used to people. Maybe family in almond tree, over there.’

  As he lumbered off Carla returned her gaze to the monkey above and was about to whisper again when John moved closer and her breath was lost in a sudden swell of desire. Her eyes remained where they were, able to make out the long red tail now, and lugubrious blink of his eyelids, though all she could hear was the thump of her heart. When she finally felt able, she said softly, ‘You can’t look at him without wondering if we were like that once, can you?’

  ‘I was never that ugly,’ John assured her.

  Choking back a laugh, she said, ‘I think he’s cute.’

  They continued to look up, though were so intensely aware of their closeness that it startled them both when the monkey suddenly swung itself up to a higher branch. ‘I wonder how evolution fits in with reincarnation and past lives,’ Carla said, in a voice that wasn’t quite steady.