Sean told her his story and she was amazed she was talking to a big game safari guide from Africa. She asked him long he would stay, and he told her he didn’t know just now.
Sean learned a lot from Gladys and while he drank the stiff thick coffee, thought with a growing depression, that he should have never come back here. But now that he was here, he would hang around a few days and then think about what he should do next.
He was still sitting on a stool when his aunt came in through the back door dripping with rainwater. She had a norwester coat and hat on. She took them off and shook the water which resulted in a small puddle by the back door. She picked up the eggs from where she sat them down and rounded the corner into the kitchen. Her eyes landed on Sean first and then glanced at Gladys. Then looked back and Sean and some recognition took place in her gray eyes. Sean looked on his aunt and saw an old woman worn down by work and old age staring at him with tired but warm eyes. He saw the fleck of knowing maybe she knows this guy, but can’t place him, look in her eyes. Gladys was smiling and told her sister, ‘Honey, this is your nephew Sean Mahoney from Africa. He came home to see you and his uncle.’
Sean stood up and smiled at her and she offered him a bony hand that was warm despite the cold and wet weather. She still hadn’t said a word to him but only looked on in amazement. The boy took the eggs and Gladys told her sister to sit down and have a cup of coffee. The owner of the hotel had started a fire in the fireplace and announced it was getting warm in the dining room. Sean and his aunt moved to the dining room and sat down at a table near the fireplace.
Finally, Sean asked her about his uncle and she looked up at him and said with a firm voice with deep conviction, ‘He’s not so good these days, aye, he lost his spirit after the war along with his right arm. Now almost fifteen years later, he does little but sit by the fire and stare into the past. He is faithful and doesn’t drink much. Every morning he milks the cow one handed and carries in the milk to me. He gathers the eggs and after breakfast, I take them to town. After he saws some logs for the fire, he sits for the rest of the day not saying much to anyone. People quit coming by years ago.’
Sean listened with attention and nodded from time to time. He said to her, ‘And my cousins?’
She shrugged her shoulders and told him she had no idea where they were. After the war, they came home and drank up all the money they had and then took off to Dublin. She fell silent with the sorrowful memories. She perked up and said to him, ‘Please Sean, come and stay with us for awhile. We have lots of room and your uncle would be pleased to her some African stories. It would mean a lot to me if you would come home with me.’ Sean nodded his head and said he would be glad to come out to the house.
After a hearty breakfast of eggs and bacon, with homemade bread and berry jam, they left for the little farm up the river. His aunt Mary walked to town but Sean hired a team with a wagon to take them up the river. Few cars were around and still horses and wagons did a lot of the hauling of supplies to the people. As a matter of fact, there were few horses around as they were too costly to feed and keep through the long winter months when the grass didn’t grow.
The driver was silent as they bounced along the old road up the river. Approaching the farm house, which was tucked into a small hill behind a large tree, with smoke curling out of the chimney, looked forlorn and it showed its age with lack of upkeep. Sean paid off the wagon driver and carried his things in following his aunt through the door. His uncle had his back to him rocking in a chair in front of the fire. A blanket was over his legs and an old dog barely able to lift its head stared for a second at the newcomer and then flopped its head back down on the floor next to his master.
Mary tried to be cheerful and said, ‘Henry, look what came to visit us? It’s your nephew Sean all the way from Africa to visit us after all these years.’
The chair rocked back and forth as Sean stood there looking at the thinned gray hair sticking out looking for a place to lie down. Sean walked around to the front of him and looked down at the old man looking older than his years. His uncle looked up and immediately saw it was someone he once knew. A smile crept across his face and with his left hand held out, said, ‘My son you have returned after so long away from your papa. Sit down and tell me what and where you have been for the last…….. Ah ten years?
Sean decided to play along with him and shook the old man’s cold and bony hand.
For the next two weeks the old man thought Sean was his son and it brought him out of his secluded world and life begin to start over for the old man. Sean worked from daylight to dusk around the farm. At the end of his second week, he was washing up outside when a man with in a suit rode up on a horse. He dismounted and with a business card in his hand held out to Sean, asked him if he was Sean Mahoney?
Sean replied that he was and the man reached into his inside coat pocket and handed him a letter sealed, and on the front of it was his name. The return address was from a detective agency and the man explained that they were hired to find him for their client. Sean dried his face and hands then opened the letter while from the kitchen window his aunt was looking on with a worried look on her face.
Sean read it carefully and after reading it, folded it up carefully and put it in his back pocket. ‘You can report back that you found me and I read the letter in front of you,’ he said with a stern look and a finality in his voice.
The detective thanked him, got on his horse and rode slowly away. Sean went into the house and saw the look on his aunt’s face and sat down at the small kitchen table while his aunt brought him a cup of tea. The old man was sleeping in front of the fire with his old dog snoring competing with each other for volume. Sean took the letter out of his pocket and showed it to his aunt who sat down with a cup of tea across from her nephew. She read the letter and a puzzled look crossed her face.
Sean sighed and said, ‘Well, auntie, I’d best tell you a story.’ The daylight was waning and it was completely dark when he finished his story about Clare. His aunt never asked a question and looked him in the eye and her silent look made Sean aware that she would like to know what he would do now.
He told her he would sleep on it and decide later what he would do with the news brought today. His aunt got up and started fixing a simple dinner of potatoes and vegetables with a bit of meat that Sean had bought from town on his last trip there.
The next day was the same as usual. Early breakfast and he went out to work around the farm. He’s repaired the falling down fence and the dilapidated barn. He also had repaired the roof so it would last their lives out. In addition, he repaired the chicken house and it had doubled the egg production with the added chicks he bought from some farmer across the hill. He felt proud of himself and that night at dinner announced his intention to leave in a few days.
His aunt said nothing and the old man wondered what the conversation was about. His wife told him she would tell him later and that it was time to eat. After dinner, Sean went to his small room in the back that used to be his cousin’s room. The few things left around and on the walls were all that was left of who used to live here. In the front room pictures of the sons in uniform sat on an old hutch that held the remnants of fine glass ware once a long time ago.
Sean told them he would never forget them and truly enjoyed his stay. His bag packed he kissed his aunt on the cheek and shook his uncles’ hand. They both stood in the doorway as he walked down the road in a drizzling rain. He turned once and waved to them and quickened his step towards town.
He’d left all but enough money to get to London under his pillow. They would be able to live well for a couple years as he had spent little of his money to date. He’d felt comfortable and warm staying with them and would send them money as he could in the future.
He stopped by the hotel and farm store and said goodbye and said that he would someday return for a visit. They all showed their warmth and sadness he was leaving town. Sean walked to the station and bought a ticket to Du
blin.
It took Sean three days to get to London. He read and reread the letter a hundred times. The letter asked him to report to the detective agency when he was in the city. More information would be given him when he proved who he was.
Arriving in London he took a taxi to the address on the envelope. He found the building and took the elevator up to the floor he told the elevator operator who he wanted to see. He found the door just down the hall from the elevator and walked in the office. A young girl sat at a desk and asked his name and business. He showed her the envelope and she said for him to take a seat and she would be right back. She disappeared down a hall and ten minutes later a tall thin man with glasses led his receptionist to the waiting Sean. He introduced himself and asked Sean to follow him to his office. Sitting down across from the tall man, he watched him with keen eyes. A file sat on his desk and Sean could see his name across the front of it.
The man cleared his throat and looked up at Sean and asked him, ‘Do you have anything to prove you are Sean Mahoney?’
Sean replied in an acid tone, ‘Nope, but I’m that Sean Mahoney you wrote about in the letter. If that’s not good enough for you, then, well, our business is finished,’ as he got up to leave.
The man stood up and said, ‘Wait a minute young man, I haven’t finished. We have been looking for you for months now and our client is most anxious to know your whereabouts.’
Sean stood there and looked at him and replied, ‘Well, you can tell your mysterious client you found me and that I’ll be staying at the Lark Hotel on the wharf.’ With that he walked out the door and out of the building on his way back to his room at the seedy hotel he was staying at. He knew it was Clare looking for him, but now he wasn’t so sure he wanted to see her again. She was way out of his class and he could think of nothing he would do if they married.
He made a plan to return to the bush and find Slim again. He knew he was alone here and it was no place for rogue guy like him. He walked into his hotel after a long stroll down to the waterfront from uptown.
Chapter 11
Clare received word from the detective agency that Sean Mahoney had visited them this afternoon and that he was staying at the Lark hotel on the waterfront. Clare thanked him and hurried out the door to find a taxi. She found a tax and told him where she wanted to go and he said to her, ‘Lady are you sure you want to there? That’s a bad part of town and I fear for your safety.’ She told him to never mind and drive.
Walking into the hotel Clare was the center of attention of out of work guys hanging around outside, and the inside was not a lot better. The floor was dirty and the man behind the desk matched the floor. She inquired about Sean’s room number and he quickly gave it to her. He said Sean was in his room now.
Clare walked up three flights of stairs to his room and knocked on the door slightly out of breath. What seemed a long time, the door opened a few inches and a pair of eyes peered out at her. To Clare the eyes were cold and piercing. He opened the door and a smile crossed his face as she walked in. She looked around the worst hotel room she ever saw. He stood by the door and didn’t say a word.
She turned to him and asked him if she could sit down, looking around for a chair or something to sit on. The bed was the only place to sit as no chairs were visible. She sat on the bed and looked at him and saw what she had missed: a strong man with the aura of power that had been enhanced by his recent farm work. His hair had grown out and he had a beard. His eyes turned friendly as she stumbled for some words that wouldn’t come out of her mouth.
He said with a friendly voice, ‘Nice to see you Clare. You’re looking well. Are you happy to be back in civilization?’
Clare responded with a kind of desperate look on her face, ‘Yes, very much so. Sean, I was a fool treating you so terrible back in Africa. I want to apologize and please forgive me?’
He said nothing and walked over to the bed and sat next to her. He turned to face her and she did the same. He looked at her lovely face and if he had been standing up, his knees would have turned to jelly. ‘My god how I love this woman,’ he said to himself and reached out with one hand and took her hand in his rough calluses laden farm hand.
‘How about you and I have some dinner up town,’ he said with a warm smile and a squeeze of the hand. Clare melted into his arms and cried big tears of happiness. Sean with typical male naivety about women thought something he said made her cry. But now he knew to keep his big mouth shut and just held her tightly to his chest.
A few minutes later she pulled back and said, ‘Let’s go to my house and I will make dinner for us.’ His answer was to stand up and walk to the door holding it open for her.
He grabbed his hat and coat and when she looked at the room and his bag next to the bed, he got the message and quickly packed his things and they both walked down the stairs and out the door of the Lark Hotel for the last time.
They both talked a mile a minute in the cab on the way to her house. By the time they arrived, they were laughing and all seemed to be forgotten about the bad time in Africa. She showed him where his room was and then she told him to come to her room that she had something she wanted to show him. He was a little apprehensive but followed her down the hall to her room. Shawn had never been in a bedroom quite like this one before. He looked around like a school boy on his first day at a new school.
It was so feminine and smelled like her. She walked to her closet a pulled out the bag Jasmine gave her when she left Africa. She said to him, ‘You had better sit down on my bed because you are not going to believe this.’
He sat down on the bed and she walked over and sat down next to him with the bag between them. She turned it upside down and his curiosity piqued. She said while untying the leather laces on the bottom, ‘When I unpacked after I got home, it felt like there was something else in the bottom of the bag. I reached in and it was empty, so I turned it upside down and unlaced the leather cords. After I unlaced it big enough to get my hand in I found another leather sack like this one,’ as she pulled it out of the bottom of the bag. It looked like a coin leather pouch many people carried around with them in Africa.
Clare handed the pouch to Sean and he looked inside. Then he shook some of the contents out into his other hand and white rocks spilled out of the sack. He sucked in his breath and exclaimed, ‘My god Clare, where did these diamonds come from! Clare smiled and told him the full story of the bag and Jasmines covert way of giving them some Massai diamonds.
‘There is a note saying it is for our future and children, she said quietly with some blush appearing on her cheeks. Sean lay back on the bed and laughed at his and Slims stupid attempt at finding some treasure from an old map. He continued to hold some of the diamonds in his hand as Clare leaned over and lay on top of him staring him in the eyes. They held their gaze and she slowly lowered her lips to his mouth. The beard tickled her and she giggled but he ignored the giggle and wrapped his big arms around her and kissed her deeply.
Later, diamonds back in the bag, sitting at the dining room table where they ate a big dinner of Lamb and all the trimmings. The cook had done a fine job and Sean was very complimentary to her. After dinner they went to the library and sat and talked about the future. She asked him what he wanted to do with his life and he shook his head and said, ‘I have no idea as this day is so overwhelming I can’t think straight.’
Clare told him her plan for the book she would write about the Massai and that all of it might take up to two years to finish. Sean mulled that over in his mind and for the life of him had absolutely no idea what he might do in the future. Clare knew what he was thinking so she made a subtle suggestion to him. ‘Sean, maybe I could suggest something to think about, she said to him softly.
He looked up and smiled at her and said, ‘I’m all ears,’ and, ‘I’d love to listen to what you have to say.’
She had his undivided attention and went on to tell him what might be a good plan for them. She said, ‘Maybe we could buy a country
home outside of London and after a year or so, after I do my boards with the committee, let’s go back to Kenya and buy a ranch where I could do follow up work with the Massai.’
Sean liked that idea the more he thought of it and had a big smile on his face when the professor walked in. He saw Sean right off and held out his hand. They talked for a few minutes and then said he was a little hungry and would they excuse him. He left with a big smile on his face thinking he would soon have a son-in-law and grandchildren running around the place.
Long after talking in the library, they went to their respective rooms for the night. The professor went to bed early and when the house was quiet; Sean slipped out of his room and went to Clare’s room where he found her wide awake expecting him. The night was cold as winter was upon them and even a small coal fire burning didn’t take much of the chill off the room. Sean climbed into bed and they snuggled up and talked late in the night about their future.
Chapter 11
Back in Kenya long after the gorilla safari, Slim and Jasmine sat in a Nairobi hotel talking about Sean and Clare. They had received a telegraph wire telling them that the two of them found each other and would be married in the spring time. She, Clare, told Jasmine thank you for the nice bag and they were especially thankful for the nice hospitality given them by the Massai people.
Jasmine said to Slim that she had never been out of Africa and maybe they would go to the wedding. She was large with child and slim was so proud and happy. He agreed with her and they made a plan to go to London in the spring. Meanwhile, they had another safari to prepare for. Business was picking up and after the shock two years ago with the crash of the stock market, smart rich people that were left, came to Africa looking for big game. This safari would take them until spring to complete and that would work well for their trip to England.
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