Stalking Ivory

by Suzanne Arruda

  She shook her head, and her sweaty black curls slapped her forehead. “If there’s a problem, I might be able to outrun them. You couldn’t.” She shot a look at his artificial leg to emphasize her point. “Look,” she added when she saw the stern set of his jaw, “we can’t risk losing their trail. We have to be close. But the rules have changed now. We don’t have any decent weapons. They even took my knife. Maybe I can slip in at night and free Jelani. But I at least have to follow them, and I need you to bring reinforcements.”

  Sam nodded. “I don’t like it, but I’ll do it.” He started to turn back in the direction of the Dodge, stopped, then spun around and enveloped her in a tight embrace. Catching her off guard, he tipped her back and pressed his dried, cracked lips to her mouth and kissed her. Her lips opened and his kiss enveloped her own wind-whipped mouth.

  Jade tasted the salt from his skin and smelled his own musky aroma mingled with the faint remnants of whatever hair tonic he’d last used several days ago. His two-day-old beard scratched her chin, but instead of causing her to pull away, it inspired her to return the kiss with a firm pressure. Her head swam as she slid her left hand up and let her fingers explore his hair.

  “Ouch.” Sam released Jade from his kiss but kept a firm grip on her waist. “The chain is caught in my hair. Ouch!”

  “Quit pulling,” she counseled. “Let me get it.” She freed the errant locks from the chain and brushed his hair back in place. “This scene isn’t playing quite like a Theda Bara movie.”

  “Hmmm,” Sam purred.

  “What?”

  “Oh, nothing. Just imagining you in her role as Cleopatra or Salome. Very exciting costumes.” He leaned in to kiss her again.

  Jade felt her face flush and turned away. “Haven’t seen those. I was thinking of when she played Cigarette in Under Two Flags.”

  Sam inhaled deeply, took her by the shoulders, and kissed her on the forehead this time. “You take care of yourself, Simba Jike. Find Jelani, but watch out for yourself. I’ll be right behind you as quickly as I can.”

  Jade watched Sam head back at a limping lope towards the abandoned Dodge before she turned towards Biscuit’s last heading, suddenly feeling very much alone. She needed water, food, and a decent weapon, but none of that measured up to the need to find Jelani alive.

  “YOU MUST BECOME a mundu-mugo.”

  Jelani knew then that he was dying, because these words came from the gigantic elephant looming over him. “I must be a warrior. I must kill….”

  “No!” The word blared like the trumpeting blast from a bull, issuing a challenge. “If you kill, then you will also kill your inner spirit. Study from the old mundu-mugo. You will lead your people through difficult times.”

  “Yes,” whispered Jelani. Then he passed mercifully out of consciousness.

  CHAPTER 21

  Elephant tusks are more than weapons. They are tools. With them the beasts dig up plant roots and peel the bark off trees for food. Perhaps their most important use is to gouge out holes in the ground for hidden pools of water during the dry seasons. Even other animals depend on the herds to uncover water.

  —The Traveler

  THE ALREADY INTOLERABLE LANDSCAPE degenerated into a veritable furnace as the rocks soaked up the sunlight. Heat waves shimmered upward, writhing like ghostly dancers and distorting any chance for a clear vision of people on the horizon.

  Jade stretched her hand, palm out, her thumb level with the horizon, and measured how many hand widths had passed since she and Sam had separated. She estimated three and perhaps two more fingers. That meant she’d been walking for at least three and a half hours. By now she wasn’t even sure she was on the right path beyond the fact that she was heading north towards Abyssinia. Only once had she found any fresh camel dung, and that was two hours ago at least.

  Her throat burned; her head ached; her legs moved only out of habit. She closed her eyes against the heat and sent up a silent prayer, gladly offering to endure her sufferings for the sake of the boy’s safety. “Help me find him, Lord,” she whispered. “Alive.” After all, she thought, it was her own arrogance that had put him in danger. She should have listened to Beverly and left the region. Too late for hindsight. Only one option now—save Jelani—and to do that she had to keep moving.

  Vibrating hot air shimmered in front of her, imitating a rippling stream of water. Don’t think about it. Think about something else. Think about music. She conjured up some little ditty she’d heard playing at the Muthaiga Club and began to hum. Images of gaily dressed women and men outfitted like penguins crowded her mind. Over that, she saw Blaney Percival’s face and heard his voice. “I’ll even send word up to Isiolo.” Oddly enough, in her hallucination Mr. Percival wore a loincloth like Tarzan, only he added a starched collar and black bow tie. Jade shook her head. “Blasted Muthaiga Club. Silly place, full of silly people.”

  Then another vision took form out of the wavering air, a person. A hallucination? The apparition strode closer to her with a liquid grace, and Jade blinked. Who else would be walking alone out here in the middle of land that even hell had rejected? Must be another mirage. She wished she had her hat for some shade.

  Slowly the human shape took on recognizable features. Boguli! Jade wanted to laugh out loud and run to him, but her legs didn’t want to move, and her throat managed only to eke out a hoarse cackle. The vision beckoned to her.

  “Simba Jike. You must go this way. The boy is hurt.”

  “Jelani? You found Jelani?” The news that he was still alive lent fresh vigor to her limbs and she broke into a stumbling trot to follow the aging nomad.

  They moved about a hundred yards east of Jade’s previous course before she spotted the boy. He lay facedown in a crumpled heap among the rocks. Lying next to him, sheltering him from the sun with his shadow, was Biscuit.

  Jade choked back a sob. “Jelani! Jelani!” She knelt beside the youth and carefully ran her hands over his body, checking for serious wounds. The worst were on his feet and hands, but he suffered most severely from lack of water and blood loss. A few flies buzzed around his torn heel, attracted by the dried blood on his makeshift shoes. She started to brush them aside, then saw the chain dangling from her own wrist irons and thought better of it.

  “He needs water,” she said. She looked to Boguli and saw he had no water bag himself. How does that man travel without water?

  Boguli pointed to a winding depression in the dirt beside her. “It is an old watercourse. All the water is underground. Here it is not too deep. If you dig for it, you will find some.”

  Jade looked around for something to use as a digging stick. With no vegetation in sight, she resorted to a chunk of basalt, breaking off a sharp sliver by banging it against another rock. A fragment dug into the heel of her left hand, slicing a shallow slit. Jade flicked out the sliver and ignored the cut.

  Then, using her new stone tool, she dug with a vengeance, pouring every ounce of energy into stabbing the hardened earth. As she worked, the hole became a little deeper and wider. Biscuit caught the scent of water, moved beside her, and dug like a dog with his sharp claws.

  Within fifteen minutes, a puddle of water seeped into the hole. Jade let Biscuit take a few drinks as a reward for protecting Jelani, while she tore off the bottom half of her shirt. Then she gently nudged the cat aside and dipped the torn shirt into the water to soak it up. She carefully cradled Jelani in her lap and squeezed the wet rag, dribbling water into his mouth. After the third attempt, she saw his throat move as he swallowed. This time, Jade didn’t fight back the tears. She let them flow down her cheeks as she continued to squeeze water into the boy’s mouth.

  “Thank you, Lord,” she whispered. Then she looked up to Boguli. “Thank you. I might have missed the boy but for you.”

  Boguli inclined his head slightly and continued his gentle side-to-side swaying, which Jade had come to know. “The men who traveled this way have gone on. They will not come back, but the one who took him, he is on my m
ountain again. I will search for him. When you return to the mountain, I will help you find him.”

  Boguli turned and strode away in his slow, stately manner. Jade watched him go until he once again became a blurry vision in the rippling air.

  Her own thirst hollered for attention. Jade gently laid Jelani back on the ground and deepened the shallow hole until the water filled it a few inches. Then she cupped her hands and pulled up handful after handful of water into her parched throat before turning the hole back to Biscuit.

  Jelani stirred next to her. She dipped the rag into the pool and squeezed another few tablespoons into his mouth. He opened his eyes. For a moment, he stared at her as if trying to comprehend who she was. Then recognition dawned in his soft brown eyes.

  “Simba Jike,” he whispered.

  Jade put her finger to his lips and shushed him. Then she scooped him back into her arms and cradled him, rocking back and forth and humming softly to soothe both of them. He’s alive!

  “I’m sorry, Memsabu,” the boy whispered. “I let myself be captured. I have shamed my mother.”

  “Shush. Don’t you say that.” Jade had learned that Jelani was the only child of his mother. She knew that his birth had brought dignity to the previously barren woman and that his death before becoming a warrior would be viewed as a terrible tragedy.

  “I did like the wolf caught in a trap,” the boy whispered. “I remembered what the fable taught me.”

  For a moment, Jade couldn’t comprehend what he meant. Then a horrifying recognition dawned on her. She immediately inspected his feet, half expecting to see a raw stump on one of his legs. She carefully unbound the bloodier rag on his right foot, mindful not to break open any scabs and restart the bleeding. Instead of a heel on his foot, she saw a sloping gash slicing off the end. The side anklebone also carried a large gash with a flap of dried skin hanging down.

  Fully aware of what the boy had endured in order to escape, Jade felt her stomach lurch. She fought back the rising bile, grimaced, and gently rewrapped the wounds. “I will tell you a story,” she said. “I will tell you the fable of the lioness.”

  Jelani’s eyes glowed with expectation as Jade began the tale. “There was an argument among all the smaller animals as to which one deserved the most praise and honor for producing the most whelps at a birth. Three, said the mother warthog proudly. Five, said the mother hyrax. Four, said the mother mongoose. Finally, they rushed to the lioness and demanded that she settle the dispute, for they knew that she usually had only one child. They asked her, ‘How many sons have you at a birth?’ The lioness looked at them and laughed. ‘Why,’ she said, ‘I only have one, but that one child is a thoroughbred lion and worth more than all your broods.’”

  Jade stroked Jelani’s head and blinked back another tear. “So you see, Jelani, your mother will always be very proud of you. She had only one son, but she gave birth to a lion!”

  CHAPTER 22

  Motorcars have a difficult time crossing this type of terrain. Camels are definitely a better, albeit less comfortable, choice for transportation.

  —The Traveler

  THE SUN HAD ALREADY SET and released the night’s cool blackness before Jade began the long trek with Jelani in her arms. As much as she wanted to leave immediately, she knew they were all badly dehydrated and wouldn’t make it far in the heat. Add to that the fact that they were sitting on probably the only reachable water source for miles around and they had no way of carrying any back except inside of them. So Jade and Biscuit took turns drinking from the seep, and Jade kept squeezing water into Jelani’s parched mouth until the boy had enough liquid in him for beads of sweat to form on his skin. Only when she felt able to stand without her head swimming did she risk lifting the boy into her arms.

  Biscuit led the way back through the night, at times with his sensitive nose sniffing at Jade’s recent trail, but mostly by some unerring sense of direction and excellent vision. Jade followed trustingly, Jelani cradled in her arms. She tried not to think too much, because every time she let her thoughts wander, they flitted right back to her young burden. Then she grew angry and ground her teeth, which didn’t help her pounding headache one iota.

  She tried thinking about Sam Featherstone instead, but that only confused her. No one had ever been able to best her in a staring match before. Was she losing her touch? Or did she just get weak-kneed over pilots? Her stubborn, independent nature rose to the forefront and taunted her with a terrible play on their recent situation. Do you really want to be chained to a man?

  That does it! He’s not teaching me to fly. I’ll get Avery to do it, or better yet, I’ll hire a complete stranger. If she ever met Mr. Featherstone after this was over, it would be on equal turf. She wouldn’t be beholden to him for giving her access to the sky. If she was going to have feelings for someone, she wanted to be certain it was for the man and not for what he stood for.

  Jelani moaned softly, and Jade made gentle shushing sounds to quiet him. Once he muttered something about an elephant, but Jade assumed he was speaking in his sleep. Biscuit glanced up at them and made a high, staccato churring sound before he turned back to the trail, invisible to Jade’s senses. At this point, she could barely make out the cheetah, his slender shape flitting like a specter in the starlight.

  They plodded on, mile after mile, Jade’s legs moving again with a will of their own, fueled in large part by the deep welling of dread and anger that pooled in her heart. She turned Jelani’s life and health over to God, Biscuit’s keen tracking ability, and her legs in that order, but the anger didn’t diminish. On the contrary, it grew and festered into something beyond rage, which flashed out as a sudden lashing, then died away, its energy spent. No, this feeling had a life of its own, gestating deep inside her, feeding on her current anguish and on the sight of the limp body in her arms. It fed on every plaintive groan Jelani uttered and each painful step she took as she stumbled over invisible obstacles.

  You’re not a killer, Jade. That was what Avery had told her. Right now, she wasn’t so sure, but she’d certainly welcome the opportunity to find out.

  Just before dawn, Biscuit stopped and raised his head, ears flipped forward, eyes scanning the horizon. Then the big cat chirped loudly and loped ahead. After a few yards, he turned and ran back to Jade, butting her from behind.

  “Easy, Biscuit. Don’t knock me down. Do you see something?”

  The cheetah chirped again. This time when Jade searched the horizon, she saw what had agitated him as a vague, blockish shape with two faint glowing eyes took form. What kind of animal is that? In her exhausted stupor she mistook the glowing lights for the night shine of a nocturnal beast’s eyes. Then she heard the beast’s sputtering chug.

  A car! “It’s a car, Jelani,” she cried out to the unconscious boy. “You’re going to be all right.”

  Jade wanted to run the rest of the way to meet the car, but suddenly she couldn’t trust her legs. Instead, she planted her feet farther apart for increased stability and sent Biscuit to greet whoever was behind the wheel. “Biscuit, fetch,” she said, and the cat took off at a gallop. She could tell the exact moment when the driver spotted Biscuit and hit the gas.

  As the vehicle came closer, Jade recognized it as Sam’s truck with Sam behind the wheel. Bev and Avery bounced in the seats beside and behind him.

  “Jade!” yelled Beverly. “Jade, darling, we’re here.” Her soft blue eyes rested on Jelani, and she sobbed. “Oh, praise heaven, you found him.”

  The car lurched to a stop a few feet from Jade, and Avery leaped over the rear side and relieved her of her delicate burden. “Is he alive?” he choked out.

  Jade nodded. “Yes, but he needs medical attention and water.”

  Beverly clambered out of the front seat and headed straight for the boy. Jade smiled. Good old Beverly. She knew exactly what to do and who had first priority.

  “Put him in the backseat,” Bev ordered. “Sam, get the canteens.”

  “Already got them,�
�� he replied as he hefted two canteens and handed one to Beverly. He delivered the other personally to Jade. As he approached, her exhausted legs faltered for just a moment and he quickly grabbed hold of her waist and held her up, his right arm clasping her tightly to him. “Easy, Simba Jike,” he murmured as she unscrewed the lid and drank. “A little at a time or your stomach will reject it.”

  Jade sipped and held the water in her mouth, savoring the taste, before she swallowed. Sam lightly kissed her hair, and she felt another tremor ripple through her. She forced herself to regain her legs, took two good swallows, then handed the canteen back. “Thank you, Sam. Please give some water to Biscuit. He did guard duty. Used his own body to shade Jelani.” She looked around at the rescue party when Sam released her to tend to the cat. “Where’s Abasi?”

  “Abasi and Avery got their Overlander running and didn’t wait like we asked,” said Sam. “Met me just as I made it back to the Dodge. Good thing. They saved me a lot of time going back for them. We gave Abasi a driving lesson. He’s taken the Overlander back to Chiumbo.” Sam led Jade to the car and sat her in the driver’s seat. Then he found an enamel basin used for sponge bathing and poured water into it for Biscuit. While the cheetah drank, Sam questioned her about the rescue.

  “I didn’t expect to find you this quickly.” He wiped his sleeve across his forehead and shook his head. “Frankly I didn’t expect to find you at all. I thought I’d lost you.” He reached for her, but Jade forestalled him with a soft touch on his chest.

  “Don’t think about it. We’re here and safe. Thank you.”

  “How did you find Jelani? How did you free him?” asked Sam.

  Jade briefly related her trek along their last heading and her encounter with Boguli.

  “Boguli again?” said Avery in an incredulous voice. “Don’t you find it just a bit more than a coincidence that this old African happens to be around whenever you have a run-in with these slaving poachers? Are you sure he’s not one of them?”