I headed to the pool for a little rest after our exhilarating morning game drive. A lion had walked past right by me! He had been within reaching distance.
At the pool area, I was surprised to see I wasn’t the only one who had sought peace and quiet. Colin was lying on one of the lounge chairs.
He was dressed in a white T-shirt, blue swim trunks, and sunglasses. His sandals lay next to his lounge. I waved as I walked past. He didn’t acknowledge me.
I settled into a nearby lounge chair. “Hey, Colin.” He again did not respond.
“Colin? Are you okay?” I asked.
Nothing. I looked at his white T-shirt, praying to see movement. I didn’t see any.
I got up for a closer look. I slammed my lounge down, hoping the loud noise would rouse him. I searched him for any reaction. Still, there was no nothing.
Had the killer struck again? Had I found the body this time before the hyenas?
I stood over Colin and hesitated. I didn’t want to touch him if he was dead. I asked again, “Colin? Are you okay?”
I reached forward, planning to put my hand under his nose, feeling for the intake and outtake of breath. A loud snore startled me.
“Ah!” I screamed.
Colin’s eyes shot open. “Ah!” he yelled in response. “What the hell are you doing?”
“You didn’t answer me. I was checking to make sure you were alright.”
“Jeez, I was sleeping.” He sat up. “You scared me half to death.”
“Sorry,” I muttered, although I was glad he was alive. I sat across from him on the neighboring lounge.
Zonah came running into the pool area. “What’s going on?”
“You thought I was dead, didn’t you?” Colin asked me.
I hesitated. I didn’t want to lie. Colin read my hesitation as a yes and got off the lounge. “I’m not dead yet, alright?”
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“Back to my room. I’m more likely to get rest there.” He shook his head. He muttered something. I’m sure it was about me and I was sure it wasn’t favorable. I didn’t ask him to repeat it.
Zonah sat on the lounge Colin had left. We watched him leave. Zonah pulled out his phone. He clicked a few things and then sighed.
“Missing the internet?” I asked.
He looked years older than when I had first seen boarding the plane. If he shaved, I bet he’d barely look older than his brother, Zaden. “I’m here to spend time with my family.” He might have looked like a man but he had the whiny tone of a teenager.
“That sounds like what your mother says to you when you complain that there’s no internet.”
He laughed. “You might be right. She may have said that to my brother once—or a hundred times—today.”
I looked in the direction Colin had gone. “I didn’t mean to make him leave.”
“Well, you basically just called him old.”
I started to argue. I was just checking on him. But you don’t check on a young person sleeping for signs of life, do you? I gave Zonah a meek smile. “Whoops.”
He scooted back in the lounge and brought his legs up. “Did you really think he was dead?”
“Yes”
“Why?”
“It’s been that kind of vacation.”