Sacred White Rocks
by Robert C. Waggoner
Copyright 2002 Robert C. Waggoner
Smashwords Edition
Sacred White Rocks
Robert C. Waggoner
2002
Chapter 1
Kenya, Africa circa 1929
He was standing in the door way, leaning on the door jamb, head scrapping the top of the door, a black patch on one eye and he was missing a leg. He was grinning through a mouth with no teeth. He was big and black, very black. He was tapping his wooden crutch against the floor. Something rolled up was under his other arm. He was trying to get the two white guys sitting at the table near the door their attention. Both white men were dinking warm beer and talking too loud to each other with arms flying around like they were swatting flies. Sean looked up and said, ‘Jesus Christ, what is that standing in the door?’
The other guy, known as Slim, who was younger than his partner, turned around and looked at the strange, huge scary looking black man in the door way smiling at him. ‘Jesus, what the hell,’ he said.
The black man with an eye patch tried to hand him the rolled up item he carried. He couldn’t come in; it was a ‘Whites only’ tavern. Sean said to Slim, ‘He wants you to see that rolled up cowhide in his hand.’ ‘Man, I’ve see a hundred of them touting the treasure map to the lost diamond mine.’
‘Ya, I know, but hell, give the guy a half a guinea and let him go away.’
Slim said, ‘We don’t have money as it is, why give that scary looking medicine man our last money?’ Reluctantly Slim reached into his pocket and gave him a coin. Slim took the old rawhide from him and the black man disappeared as if he had two good legs.
Slim unrolled the rawhide and they both looked at it. Sitting at the wooden plank bar were two other white destitute men and behind the bar, the bartender looked like he had seen better days twenty years ago. They were turned on their stools looking at the two guys who were suckered in, smiling and poking each other making fun of them by the black guy with the fake patch and his other leg tied up behind him.
The light was not too good and the rawhide map was faded with age. Sean said, ‘Hey, let’s take this back to the hotel where I have a glass to make it clearer.’ They finished off their warm beer and got up and left. They walked into the hot African afternoon where the wind was blowing dust down the street. Two boys, naked, were playing kick the can. No other people were in sight; it was just too hot and they were huddled up inside waiting for the cooler evening to come.
Walking quickly, heads down to shield their eyes from the dust, they entered the dilapidated hotel where they were staying. The rent had been due a week ago and the hotel witch of a woman who owned the place was always waiting for them to come back so she could hound them for money. Lucky for them, this time, she was nowhere to be seen. They hurried up the old creaky steps to their room. Slim laid the rawhide map out on a small wooden table that rocked back and forth on uneven legs, while Sean dug out his magnifying glass. He came back and both of them inspected the map with deep concentration. Sean handed the glass to Slim and Slim went from top to bottom, side to side and laid the glass down on the table. Slim said to Sean, ‘I think this is the real McCoy. I heard about this map down in the Outback some years back, a fable of sorts was passed around the gold camps down there. Damn, could this be the real thing?’ Sean scratched his head, he needed a bath, and the lice were getting bad in his scalp. ‘Well, partner, even if it is real, what the hell do we do for money?’ Slim came back with, ‘Let’s go to Nairobi and see if we can find some.’
Sean and Slim had hooked up just after the First World War. For more than twelve years they had struggled to make a living as big game guides on the African Plains. It was now nineteen thirty and the stock market crash had severely affected their business. A few movie stars were the only ones left with any money. Times were tough everywhere. Now, scrapping the bottom, they resorted to chasing a dream. Nothing to lose, throwing caution to the wind, they headed for the big city looking for something that was next to impossible to find: money.
The land lady was still no where around. What little they owned was packed up in a few minutes and they sneaked out the door to their old truck. They had acquired the truck after the war and it was pretty much worn out then. Now held together with bailing wire and rope, it struggled to start. They saw her coming down the street at a quick walk for a fat woman, the land lady. She knew what was happening and come hell or high water, she was going to get her rent money. Sean was trying to start the truck and Slim was yelling at him to go. Finally the old relic fired off in a cloud of blue smoke that drifted on the wind towards the now too close land lady. Sean found first gear and let the clutch out only to kill the motor. The land lady was running now only fifty feet away yelling at the top of her lungs. People were coming out of their houses to see what the hell was going on. Sean got the rig started and they took off in a cloud of dust with the land lady beating on the truck with a bag of vegetables. Vegetables flying in pieces on the ground and now kids and young men were running after the truck. Sean found a higher gear and left the black runners behind.
Bouncing down the road, if you could call it a road, Slim asked Sean, ‘How much petrol do we have? Sean looked over at Slim and said, ‘Damn if I know. When did we last put fuel in? I seem to remember that when we came back from a fruitless trip looking for the elusive Black Rhino, we were running on empty then.’ After a bone jarring, head against the roof chuck hole, Slim just turned quiet. He knew it was about a hundred miles to Nairobi and they would never make it without running out of fuel. They had about ten pounds between them. Counting food and petrol, maybe they could make it to the city. They could sleep in the truck, pay for a bath and have their clothes washed, then go on a hunt for money. Maybe, just maybe they would get lucky. It was due, way over due for them to find a gold nugget on the streets of Nairobi.
Slim feel asleep and when he woke up they were on the outskirts of the city. ‘Man, I don’t remember a thing, must have fallen asleep somewhere back there. Did we stop for petrol? Let’s eat something, I hungry as hell.’ Sean laughed and said he stopped for fuel and a bite to eat way back at some roadside place that held him up for ten gallons of fuel and a dried out piece of road kill meat.
‘Here chew on this for awhile. Let’s cruise around for a place to hang our hats for the night. Maybe your old girlfriend is still in town. She could put us up for the night.’ Slim mulled it over remembering the last time he saw Jasmine. A smile crossed his face. Their last night was a good and bad one.
He still had had some money in his pocket after one of their more successful trips taking some producer fat guy and his wife into the bush. All the fat guy wanted to do was ride around and shoot some game from the truck. Then in the hot late afternoon sun, he wanted to sit around the camp and drink himself into a stupor. Which was fine with Slim and Sean because the fat guy would share his booze with them as long they humored him? The fat guy’s wife stayed in the shade lying in a hammock with a mosquito net around her. A black porter standing next to her with a large fan making sure a breeze flowed over her once beautiful body, but now, age displayed the wrinkles and weathered skin of too much California sun. They never saw her eyes due to the fact she always had on sunglasses day and night.
Slim saw Jasmine in his mind. Tall for an African because she was originally from the Massai tribe and her legs were the longest Slim had ever seen on a woman. Her black eyes penetrated to the core when she looked at you. He lips on the small side for blacks; her hair short and curly characteristic of her heritage. She was angry at Slim. He promised to take her with him the next time they went out on safari. Instead, he and Sean slipped out early one morning and
now, pulling up to the small hotel which doubled for a place to sleep and for favors offered at a small price.
Like the surrounding buildings, this hotel resembled the falling down look of a shanty town. Clothes still hanging in the windows along a small veranda; kids playing in the streets; drunks were walking or sitting down against the walls in the hot night.
They got out and stretched themselves. The smell of unwashed bodies and stale beer floated on the stagnant air. Sounds of cursing and laughter made Slims ears hurt. He could feel the urge to bust through the door and find Jasmine waiting for his return. ‘What a fool I am,’ Slim said to no one in particular. Slim followed Sean into the hotel and turned right into the bar. Cigar smoke greeted them at the entrance. The place was full as usual on any given night. Slim spotted Jasmine at the end of the bar talking to some red headed guy whose face looked like it took a direct hit from a ten gauge shotgun. Pock marks the size of moon craters surrounded a mouth full of bad and missing teeth. His shirt was open down to his belly and red hair protruded giving the look of a skinned fox glued to a body. Slim slowly walked up to the bar. Jasmine looked up from her watered down drink and saw him coming. She stared at him with a look that was like a knife in the heart. He sat down on the corner half facing her on the other corner of the bar. She never took her eyes off him. He couldn’t meet her eyes. He looked to the bartender and he walked over with a tired look on his not to friendly face. Slim and Sean both ordered a beer. The red haired guy looked on with a face that evil drooled from. Slim knew he was in for a little trouble. Without a doubt, red face knew something was between his girl and the skinny white guy with a shit eaten grin on his face. Red face was none too worried about the kid, but felt the guy sitting next to him was worth showing some respect to.
Jasmine broke the ice by throwing the rest of her drink in Slim’s face. Slim never blinked an eye. Jasmine continued to stare and not move an inch. Slim motioned to the bartender to bring her another drink. The bartender sat the new drink down and she raised it to her lips and a wide smile broke through the previous look of hate. Slim smiled and Red stood up and moved around to the corner of the bar. He was going to protect his investment regardless of the outcome. He had spent good money and he figured he was due some bounce with the tall black girl. Quicker than most could believe, and it was the talk of the bar for days to come, Sean had a knife at Red’s throat and was whispering in his ear. Red thought it prudent to take the hint and move on. Meekly he walked away down to the other end and started talking to another bar fly.
Jasmine stood up and towered over Slim. She moved closer and when it looked like she was going to put her arms around him, a round house right knocked Slim off his stool onto the filthy floor. Dazed, but aware, Slim shook it off and stood up brushing his dirty clothes off. Sean was laughing and so was the whole bar. Louder than all was the laugh of Red. Jasmine was smiling down at Slim and pulled him to her breast. She was fully a head taller than him and he drank in her smell between her breasts. He knew he was home free, but he would tread lightly in the future. His right cheek stung and still hurt. Everyone back sitting down now and Jasmine asked Slim where he had been since he sneaked out almost six months ago.
Slim told her the story and begged her forgiveness. Like most good women, who forgive most thoughtless males, she forgave Slim. She’d been around long enough to have the experience of two life times. Since she was fourteen she had been on her own. Her real father left soon after she was born. Her mother remarried his brother and when Jasmine was fourteen, her mother died leaving her to the whims of a step father. Shortly after her mother died, the step father took away her virginity and she packed up what she owned in a tied up shirt and left never to return. It took almost four months to make her way to Nairobi. Begging for food and selling firewood along the way, she nearly didn’t make it. On the outskirts of the city, sitting under a tree that barely gave her much shade, a girl about her age was walking down the road and stopped and stared at Jasmine. The girl came over and gave her some water to drink and a bite of stale bread. Jasmine gratefully accepted the gifts and the two girls begin to tell each other their stories.
From that time on they became best of friends. Tonight her friend was down at the end of the bar hoping to make a few dollars off a patron. They lived together in the hotel in a room tucked behind the kitchen. Next to her room, another small room was used to store firewood for the cook stove. That is where Slim and Sean spent the night.
After closing up the bar and going to her room, Jasmine listened with interest to his story of the lost diamond mine. For the next hour or so, she told Slim and Sean about the legend of her people and the very place he showed her on the map. She related the story to them, ‘Our people have known about that place for generations too far back to remember. We are not to talk about it to strangers. It is kept secret in the Massai way. Only the elders know the place. The location is passed on to the head men at the time the medicine man chooses. Ever since the white man arrived here, it was clear they only wanted some valuable things not important to us. We saw them kill each other looking for the white rocks.’
Slim nodded his head and said nothing. Sean asked Jasmine, ‘Do you know the location or the general area where they might be?’
Jasmine replied with a frown on her face, ‘Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you or show you where it is. The place is sacred to us and not spoiled by the white man.’ Sean knew it was time to leave it alone and get some rest. He said good night and went to the wood shed leaving Slim alone with his girlfriend. Slim faked a yawn and said he was tired too. He looked to her bed and she told him to follow his friend to the wood shed. Slim meekly got up and followed his friend to the lonely place next to the firewood and rats that kept warm and dry next to the kitchen.
That night Slim had a dream of finding the diamonds. He and Sean were sitting in the middle of a cave looking at the white rocks sticking out of the rocks. The huge black man minus the patch and a newly grown leg was with them. Bats were flying everywhere and strange sounds like the wind blowing through tight places making a howling sound. Jasmine was telling them we must leave or we will die.
Slim came awake to the sounds of the cook opening the door and a rooster crowing. The clucking sound of hens could be heard around the open door. Soon the hens would want to come in and lay an egg in the wood pile and straw. Sean woke up and said, ‘Hell of nights sleep, don’t you think?’ Slim grunted a reply and laced his boots up. Sean suggested they find a place to clean up and look presentable for their search for some backing money for a long safari.
Chapter 2
Walking down the street a sign saying ‘Baths’ hung from a doorway by one wire. You had to cock your head to read the faded washed out lettering. On the door it said there was hot water available at five pence extra cost. Entering the shop a small black women glanced up at them. Sean asked how much to take a bath in hot water and have their clothes washed. The toothless old woman mumbled something and Sean gave her a silver coin. It disappeared somewhere in her dress and walked through a back door with the two treasure hunters in tow.
In a lean to with a Zebra hide hanging in front, the old woman led the guys into a small area with a tub made out of a big old storage drum for oil. However, it was clean looking and a fire was heating some water just out back. Sean looked out back and saw an old man tending the fire with two young girls standing at his back. The girls heard the sound of them coming and turned to look at them. Sean and Slim both noticed their totally white eyes that they were blind. Strange thoughts ran through both of their heads wondering how the girls became blind. It was doubtful both were blind from birth as they appeared to look alike. More correctly the answer was that they were blinded at a young age for the purpose of washing the customers.
The girls started to lug the water in and fill the huge tub. The tub was half full of cold water and the hot boiling water would heat the cold in no time. Both guys stripped down and got in. The hot water kept coming and in no t
ime the water turned black. Soap was plentiful. The old lady came back with some scissors. Sean hung his head over the side and the old lady faster than you could say, thank you, his hair was all gone. He soaped up again and the lice were gone. Slim was next and all his hair was floating on the wood floor. The old man came in and drained the tub. The boys shivered a little and the two girls came in with warm water and poured it over their heads. Two more times and they were rinsed off. A towel of sorts was given them and they sat out back waiting for their clothes to dry enough to put on. They relaxed and talked about what they would do next to find some money.
Two hours later they were sitting in a café eating. Both left their hats on not wanting to show their shaved heads. Clean shaved faces showed white on the cheeks and brown on the foreheads from the sun. After a bowl of beans sopped up with fresh bread and goat’s butter, they headed out on a search for a sucker with money burning a hole is his pocket. The ‘his’ turned out to be a ‘her’ just after the sun went down.
About to give up and head back to the hotel bar and Jasmine, something strange happened. Crossing the street headed back to the hotel down the dusty street, roared a roadster speeding with dust boiling out the back, heading directly for the two men. Slim had his back to the speeding car and if you could see it coming it would seem that there was no driver! Only a black man could be seen through the wind screen. Actually there was a driver. It was a girl so short she could barely see over the steering wheel. Slim was deep in thought, but Sean heard the roadster coming. He yelled at Slim, but it was too late, the car swerved, but clipped Slim and he flew up on the hood and hit the windscreen. The car came to a stop as Sean came running up to see what happened to his partner. The girl stood up on the seat yelling at Slim. Slim was moaning and groaning and fell off landing on the dusty street. The girl opened her door and stood over Slim making the air blue with her one sided conversation.
Sacred White Rocks Page 1
