Kujana Farm, Huhluwe, South Africa
12th March 1998
Wayne’s back ached from the long drive and his eyes felt like someone had thrown sand in them, having driven the last five hours from Gauteng back to Kujana while Jamison slept in the bunk in the truck, and Josha sat in the front seat, still staring out the window, looking at everything passing by.
‘We are almost there,’ Wayne said. ‘We made good time, we’re on Kujana and it’s only four o’clock.’
‘I can’t believe we drove all those animals to Musina and then back in two days. Uncle Gabe hates driving out of Cape Town to Stellenbosch for a weekend, and we drove all that way,’ Josha said.
It was Wayne’s turn to drive. Jamison had driven from Musina to Gauteng, now he drove home to Hluhluwe. He avoided rubbing his eyes for relief, knowing that was never the intelligent option. It had been a hard overnight trip away from home.
‘Its just part of the job,’ Wayne said. But he grinned at his son, glad that he had impressed him.
He and Jamison had driven the largest and newest addition of their game relocation Mack trucks from a local game auction up to a farm outside Musina, near Zimbabwe. Four other relocation trucks had been in convoy with them, all belonging to Wild Translocation. Now his fleet were all home again. It had been a big delivery, but worth it.
He smiled when he saw the house.
‘We’re home, buddy,’ he said.
‘That was awesome,’ Josha said.
‘I’m glad you enjoyed yourself. And I’m glad your mother let you come with me to see what I do in my spare time.’ He grinned as he let the exhaust brakes out, making an unnecessary noise, but knowing that Josha loved the sound.
Josha saw his mum standing on the veranda. He opened the door and all but fell out in his eagerness to tell her about his adventure, teenage excitement once again getting the better of his growing body.
Wayne smiled. His son had an infectious disposition, and was hardly ever sullen. He was easy to get on with and even though he ought to be near dead with tiredness, he was bursting with energy.
‘Come on, old man,’ he said to Jamison. ‘You’re home. Ebony and the girls just arrived in your bakkie to take you to your house. Goronga is on the back, he’s doing a great job and sticking to her like glue.’
Jamison climbed out the back area, awake and rearing to go. ‘Thanks, it has been a blast. I will see you tomorrow, I am taking the rest of the day off.’
Wayne smiled. Jamison hated spending time away from Ebony, and now that he understood why, he couldn’t blame him. He remembered the nightmare the couple had gone through when they had almost lost their first unborn child, and he shook his head, trying to dislodge the imaginary smell of fire and sound of screaming from his brain.
‘I wouldn’t expect anything else,’ he said as Jamison strode across to Ebony. He scooped up Blessing as she ran towards him, and then threw his other arm around Ebony and Joy and spun them around. His excitement in seeing them was evident to all.
And for the first time, Wayne knew that feeling of wanting to be home, and in the arms of someone you loved.
He looked out the windscreen at Tara.
Josha was standing next to her and Gabe, his arms wide open as he gestured about something. Tara was smiling, and Gabe was nodding. Lucretia stood a little off to the side and she was laughing. Ella was with her, the two of them seemed to have struck up a friendship since Lucretia had arrived.
His family.
Moeketsi nodded to him, as if he was changing over shifts, now that they were home, and he waved at him, glad that they had him and his game guards with them to help watch over his family day and night.
He saw Tara look behind him, down the farm road, and he checked in the mirror of his truck. His mother’s car drove in behind him, and he remembered that despite the calm that had existed for a week at their home, his mother was about to blow a hole in it the size of the groot gat in Kimberly.
He scrambled to get out the truck and greet Tara, to be by her side before the hurricane from hell descended on them.
‘Hello, Isabeth,’ Wayne said as she walked up to them. ‘You remember Tara, and this is my son, Josha.’
Isabeth was silent.
‘Hello,’ Tara said and she held out her hand to shake his mother’s hand. Despite everything, Tara was not one to hold grudges or to be a snob, and she wasn’t going to be rude.
‘Yes, I remember,’ Isabeth said, but she ignored Tara’s hand.
Tara looked at Wayne, who just rolled his eyes. And she smiled at him, threading her fingers in his as they watched Isabeth turn her eyes to Josha.
Josha stared at her. He had been told about his biological grandmother, and Tara had explained to him that she was arriving, and prepped him for that arrival, but it was clear he had decided that he was not going to be the one who was nice to her, afterall this was the woman who had wanted him dead.
‘I guess you are your father’s son, you do look a bit like him,’ she said.
‘Isabeth,’ Wayne cautioned in a voice cold like stone. ‘You behave here, or you are out. I thought I made myself clear on the phone. There is no place for you here if you are rude, insulting or in anyway damaging to my family.’
‘Oh Wayne, I thought you were just being unkind and mean to me as always,’ Isabeth said.
‘No. I laid it down straight. Now perhaps you want to try that again. Hello, Isabeth, remember Tara, and this is my son, Josha,’ Wayne said, his voice hard as steel.
Tara had never heard him use that tone. They had talked at length about his mother’s betrayal, about how she had used Wayne as a weapon against his father, and insisted Tara shouldn’t be allowed to have their baby, about her betrayal of her own son, her lie to him, telling him that she knew that Tara had had an abortion. They had come to the conclusion that Isabeth had projected all her own guilt from her teenage abortion onto Tara and that she had sent her own son to boarding school purposely to destroy the relationship between him and his father. They had spoken about her consistently manipulative behaviour. And about the likelihood that her unreasonable behaviour towards Tara would continue, unless Wayne actively stood up to her and told her that her behaviour was unacceptable. He now needed to set some barriers, and put rules in place to ensure she didn’t try and railroad their family in the present as she had in the past. But Tara hadn’t expected the open animosity.
Isabeth put her hand out and shook Tara’s hand. Then she turned to Josha. ‘You are almost as tall as your father,’ she said and she stuck out her hand to him.
Josha shook hers. But Tara noticed that her son looked uncomfortable. Unsure of the woman. His experience with grannies was Mauve and Maggie, both of whom were fun and compassionate and warm people. Even Aunty Marie-Ann had softened as she got older, and she spoilt Josha rotten. After levelling with the teenage Tara about being a teenage mum herself, and being the one to give Tara a place of refuge while she and Gabe took their time in relocating to Cape Town, Aunty Marie-Ann’s and Tara’s own relationship was now one of friendship, no longer any animosity between them.
But Isabeth was like a cold reptile.
Tara wondered how Wayne had turned out so great after having lived for so long with this woman while he was growing up.
Isabeth turned to Gabe, and Tara was astonished as she witnessed Isabeth’s whole attitude change towards an attractive man. She might be getting on in years, but she was still predatory.
‘I’m Isabeth,’ she said and she put her hand out for Gabe to shake.
‘Gabe,’ he said, but he looked over at Wayne for help as she didn’t let his hand go afterwards.
‘And this is Lucretia, Tara’s companion,’ Wayne introduced her to Lucretia, who everyone could see bristled with contempt at the woman. ‘Mother, your timing was impeccable as always. Nomusa will help you with your bags, in your house. Your driveway is past the shed. You won’t miss it. Ella already filled your fridge and cupboards with necessary groceries, so you should be self-sufficient.’
She smiled, and then began to turn away.
‘If you would like to join us for dinner at seven o’clock, you are most welcome,’ Tara said.
‘That would be nice, thank you,’ Isabeth said, but the warmth didn’t reach her eyes then she turned away again to move into her new home.
Josha walked away talking to Gabe, the two of them heading for the barn together, Josha calling out for Moeketsi. Wayne’s young dogs were bounding around him. Happy to have him home.
Such a small word that in a few days had come to mean so much to her, and to Josha.
Tara rounded on Wayne the moment everyone was out of earshot. ‘That was mean, dressing her down in front of us!’
‘That was necessary. Tara, I don’t know where you find it in your heart to be civil to her after what she put you through, but I have told you about my mother and my relationship with her. Yes, she’s family, but my father was the one who taught me that you look after family. My mother is difficult, and I told you already, her lies hurt us, and I can’t forgive her for that,’ Wayne said. ‘If I had allowed her to be rude to you and Josha now, it would have continued forever. I know my mother. She would try and walk all over you. But if she knows that she can’t cross me on this issue, she will toe the line and behave. You don’t need more stress while you are here, and my mother is the queen of creating stress.’
Tara nodded, giving Wayne the benefit of the doubt, and in fact she was too excited to have him home after his trip away to argue.
‘You should forgive her, Wayne, because that unhealthy grudge hurts you more than her. She’s obviously self-centred and oblivious to your feelings, so why waste energy on them? She isn’t going to change, ever. People don’t change as they get older, they get more set in their ways. You have taken a big step in the right direction with her, you have set down boundaries. Drawn the battleline in the sand, as you might say. She knows now where she stands, but also where she needs to tread more carefully,’ Tara said.
‘Is there a price to pay for your professional analysis?’ he asked, but he was grinning, lightening the heavy mood as he teased her.
‘A kiss,’ she answered.
He gathered her to him, bent his head to her and kissed her. Slowly at first, he tested her lips with his, and then again, reacquainting himself with her. He breathed in her smell, so unique. Different from the girl he loved, the woman he was kissing now smelled of an exotic fragrance, and he inhaled it, and loved her even more.
‘I think I need a lie down,’ she said a little breathlessly a moment later. ‘Come, Wayne, we can see everyone at dinner.’ Her hand in his, she led him upstairs. She didn’t stop at her room, but continued to his. Wayne hesitated at the door. But then she opened it and said, ‘Surprise!’
She had moved her suitcase into the room, and left a few of her things on his dressing table, making sure that it looked more like a room that they shared than a masculine single man’s room. She had moved in a lighter colour rug to the end of the bed, and she had piled the pillows from her guestroom on his bed.
Wayne could hardly breathe.
‘Are you sure, Tara? This is a big step, this is a big statement to make to Josha,’ Wayne said hesitantly.
‘I’m sure. We could have just over a week left together, or we could be starting something that I want to last forever. I’ve never been surer of anything in my life, and I want you to hurry up in that shower. I have about another hour before I’m going to need more meds, and I want to make the most of this time we have together.’
Wayne stared at her.
‘Are you one hundred percent on this, Tara? I can’t go back to being just friends, to a platonic friendship like you have with Gabe. Once we cross over this line, I know I’m not going to ever want to go back. I don’t think I’m strong enough to go back again.’
‘I’m sure. I planned this all, remember, while you were gone for two days. I moved my things in, I have been thinking of nothing else for forty-eight hours. Now hurry,’ she said, ‘you are wasting precious time!’
Wayne dashed into the shower in the ensuite, and couldn’t clean up fast enough. When he got out, he rubbed his body quickly with a towel before brushing his teeth, and just before he stepped into the bedroom, he paused. He had waited so many years to find her again. He didn’t want to blow it all on a quick afternoon liaison in bed, he wanted more. He wanted her to be his everything, his friend, his wife, his lover and the mother of his children.
He wrapped the towel around his hips and slowly he opened the door. He walked to where she waited in the bed, with the sheet pulled up to her neck.
‘Tara,’ Wayne said. ‘Before this, before we … I wanted to ask you something. You don’t need to answer right now but I want you to know. In fact, don’t answer now because I never want it thrown back at me that I asked you under duress, and that you couldn’t say no.’
Tara sat up, and he noticed a see-through negligee hiding under a longer dressing gown belted loosely around her waist before disappearing under the sheet.
He took a gulp of air.
‘What?’ she asked.
He crossed to his walk-in cupboard, and dug in the pocket of his jacket with a zip pocket that he had worn in Cape Town. He crossed back to the bed and knelt next to her.
‘Marry me, Tara. Wear a white dress and tell everyone that you want to spend the rest of your life with me. Have more babies with me, or not, I don’t care, we have Josha and he’s just beautiful. Wear my ring, and tell the world that we beat the odds, that we found each other, and spend the rest of your life with me, and I promise every day to try my best to make you happy. To protect you, to be your friend and your lover.’
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘I will.’
‘You can’t answer now. I’m not holding you to that answer. You have too many other things going on. Your tumour—’
‘Nothing is going to change my mind. But if you want to, we can ice it, and I can answer again at another time.’
‘Think about it, Tara, think really hard. I don’t believe in divorce. I believe in working things out, and adapting as we need to. There is no out, once my ring is on your finger we are married and as far as I’m concerned, you are stuck with me for eternity.’
She dragged the sheet back and moved so that she was sitting on the edge of the bed. Her nightgown still covered most of her body. She wrapped her legs around him as he knelt before her. Putting her arms around his neck, she put her forehead to his.
‘Eternity with you is what I wanted when I was fifteen, and at twenty-nine, it is still what I want, Wayne. I love you, now and forever,’ she said.
‘Now and forever,’ he murmured against her lips, as he lifted her up and then lightly put her back on the bed.
Tara’s head swam with lightness in the best way, Wayne was kissing her, and sensations she thought long forgotten rushed upwards, setting her body on fire.
He ran his finger along her collarbone and downwards, and she could feel the blood rush to where he touched, a tingle that rippled a millisecond behind. She smiled.
‘What?’ he said. ‘I can feel you smiling.’
‘You, I so want you,’ she said.
He smiled and followed the path that his finger had just taken with his lips.
Tara threw her head back and groaned, the sensation was so strong.
He nibbled at the top of the dressing gown where it gaped and didn’t cover the swell of her breasts.
‘Can I take this off?’ he asked her as he reached for the gown’s belt.
She nodded as she stood up. He stood up too and she pressed herself up close to him. He got the knot loose, and eased the silky fabric off her shoulders, and it dropped freely to the floor.
She stood in front of him in the see-through lacy negligee he had glimpsed before.
‘Wow, Tara,’ he said and he reached for the hemline that barely covered her bottom, seeing she hadn’t bothered with panties. The negligee was pulled up and off in one clean motion.
For a moment he stared at her. She was totally naked.
‘You are so beautiful,’ he murmured as he came back to her mouth. Framing her face with both his hands, he lifted her chin slightly to kiss her.
Breathless, she grabbed for his towel and pulled the tucked-in end out. The towel loosened but didn’t unravel.
‘Impatient, are we?’ he said, and he lifted her up and put her onto the bed, before climbing on beside her. Quickly he lowered his head to her breasts, and, taking one nipple into his mouth, he rolled the other one in his strong fingers. Slowly he moved his body, nudging her leg with his until he could lie comfortably between her legs.
Tara looked down. His darkly tanned hands on her white body added to the erotic moment, the sensation so familiar and yet so new. Her body ached for his.
This was Wayne, they had spent many hours together like this, but it had been years ago when he was a boy. Now she had the mature man worshipping her body, and it was even better. The coarse stubble of his beard rasped at the tender skin of her breast. He shifted his weight, and she moved her legs to accommodate him again. His flat muscular stomach touched her, and she gasped for breath.
He moved again, and reached for her with one hand, slowly parting her folds with his fingers.
She pressed up into his hand. Knowing what was coming, and wanting it so desperately.
He moved lower and worshipped her with his mouth.
He stilled for a moment, his breathing matching hers, ragged and uneven. ‘So wet for me,’ he said. ‘You are so—’
Not finishing the word, he flipped them over, so that she was on top, and his towel unravelled totally. She sat on his hips and leaning forward, began her own exploration of his mature body.
She rained feather kisses over his face, kissing the laughter lines near his eyes. She leisurely explored down his neck, over his Adam’s apple, and into the area where his neck met his body and created a valley of velvet softness, that she kissed.
She felt his fingers dig into her buttocks as she continued over his chest, the hair tickling her nose as she lapped at nipples that beaded into tiny pebbles under her touch. She skimmed the taut six pack with her lips as she explored lower, licking at the small scar she found. Finally, she looked at her prize. Proudly it bobbed, thick and ready, straining for its own attention. She tentatively tasted the tip.
Wayne bucked, and she took him in her mouth, creating suction as she held him captive.
‘Oh God, Tara. I won’t last—’ he ground out between clenched teeth, and he grabbed her shoulders and dragged her back up. Locking his lips to hers, he moved her under him again. Then slowly put his forehead against hers and while looking into her face, he entered her.
He waited for a moment, as if she might need to get used to him and his size but she arched upwards, begging him for more, her body experiencing a need that only he could satisfy.
She looked into his eyes as he fought nature for authority over his own body, to move slower. To make the moment last for both of them.
‘I love you, Wayne, now and forever,’ Tara whispered.
Wayne bent his head and kissed her as he immersed himself in her. He took from her, he gave to her, and within a moment they were together, in an age-old rhythm that sent them into a climax. They dived into the vortex of emotion together, as Tara’s whole body shook, so did Wayne’s, and they shared joy as together they reached the stars, and were joined in their own heaven.
They lay still, him supporting his weight above her, their bodies still locked together. Spent but not wanting to move.
‘Is your head okay?’ Wayne asked.
‘Perfect,’ she said as she reached up to kiss him. He met her halfway.
She could feel him inside her, and as she deepened the kiss, she felt the bob of a post orgasmic twitch. She smiled as she clenched her muscles around him, holding him to her.
They stayed together for long moments, and eventually their breathing slowed, returning to almost normal, and Wayne turned onto his back, pulling her close to him. She used his arm as a pillow as she lay on her back.
She could feel his breath on her hair and his warm hand around her shoulder. It was homey, and it was fantastic just to lie there next to Wayne, and breathe in his scent.
She smiled. ‘I remember we used to do this in the back of your father’s old truck, just lay next to each other. Back then we used to talk about the future.’
‘I remember, but none of those dreams came true.’
‘Not true. I became a psychologist, just like I wanted to. You actually never knew what you wanted to do back then other than go to varsity, and get a degree.’
‘I got all these bursaries to go, and I deferred them to join the army instead. Joined the Recces, and it was there that I learnt that the wildlife in Africa was being decimated, and unless more people take the time to save it, preserve it, there won’t be any left for the next generation, or the one after that …’
‘So you changed the sugarcane farm into a beautiful game reserve,’ Tara said.
‘That, and Jamison and I run our Wild Translocation business.’
‘Relocation?’
‘Translocation. They are living things. You have seen the trucks. We take wild game and transport them for auctions, from farm to farm. It was never meant to grow in to such a large operation. We started it as a way to get our hands on affordable start-up animals, and it grew.’
‘All good hobbies grow bigger because of the passion they are started with,’ she said and she shuddered as Wayne grazed his short fingernails over the base of her neck and down to her breasts.
‘Is that your professional psychologist’s opinion?’
‘Yes, and people pay me money for my opinions, I’ll have you know.’
Wayne laughed.
‘So how do you manage to be the superhero, Wayne? To run both your farm and Wild Translocations?’ she asked as she reached over and ran her hand through his hair, and then lazily scraped her nails against his scalp. She was rewarded with a shiver from him.
‘Not superhero. I just love both sides of doing it. A side business that helps grow the farm. The first advert I posted in the farmers weekly for “free removal of leopards in conflict with human activity,” was such a phenomenal success, Jamison and I moved seven leopards in five weeks. Charging the farmers whose property we were removing them from nothing except a cool drink! We collected cats from all over, from the midlands area where a leopard was frequently seen too close to a school and had started foraging in the dirt bins, to a sheep farm in the Karoo that had a problematic leopard taking its lambs. One from not too far up the road from Hluhluwe on a sugarcane farm, and the other four from the Transvaal, where cattle farmers were having their calves taken.’
‘Sounds like hot hard work,’ she said moving her hands down over his side, and to the front, over his nipple. It puckered again.
He covered his hand over hers. ‘Two can play this game,’ he said huskily.
‘Sure,’ she said and she felt the increase in pressure on her breasts as he began to pluck at her raised nipple. ‘Just keep talking …’
‘You ask for a lot, woman,’ he said. ‘I’m a mere male, I can’t concentrate on two things at once.’
She hugged him to her. ‘You were saying how good your relo—translocation business was going—’ she prompted.
‘I was, wasn’t I,’ he said. ‘All the work was worth it. At first we relied on using the expertise that Jamison already had from his months with the Zimbabwe Wildlife Department, and pooling his expertise with what I had seen of live game capture years before in the Recces. We began translocating the leopards so that they could populate Kujana with a lower cost than we could buy at the available livestock auctions. We had a few incidents along the way. We had to learn to use a bakkie with a long rope attached to lift the door of the leopard’s crate when we were releasing them into their new environment. Man, those cats can move super fast, and they come out pretty pissed off when they sprint out of the travelling crates.’
‘You serious? Did you and Jamison get hurt?’ She sat up and looked at him, concerned.
‘No, but it was only by luck that we didn’t.’ He kissed the tip of her nose. She lay back own, this time on her side, pressed into him.
‘Soon saving leopards became an obsession, saving those magnificent cats from being shot by the commercial farmers, or stoned and speared to death by the tribal villagers. We would trap, remove and translocate them.’ His hand found her shoulder, touching it, stroking her.
‘That’s so sweet, but surely you couldn’t bring them all here?’ Tara said as she adjusted herself a little. His hand crept to her back and started drawing erotic lines, from the tip near her shoulders downwards, finishing just at the top of her thigh, and then he would lift his hand, and repeat it, close but not quite in the same place.
By now her arms were pressed up against his chest, but that meant she could explore that with her fingers. His arm looped over her back and he drew lazy circles as he continued to talk about his cats.
‘No, it didn’t take long before Kujana had as many as the land could sustain. Leopards are extremely territorial. We needed to avoid the male cats fighting over territory overlaps.’
‘I love leopards,’ Tara said, ‘they always look so soft in pictures, like you can stroke them, just big kitties really,’ she said, caressing his arm.
Wayne laughed, a deep belly laugh. ‘Please don’t—’
‘I wouldn’t, I’m just saying—’
He kissed her again, his lips finding hers and their breath mingling in a lazy satisfied exchange. ‘Leopards remind me of you in many ways. They are such solitary animals. And they take great care to avoid one another. Like you did to me when we were teenagers, before we became friends. Regal animals.’
‘To me you are. The female will allow her cubs to stay with her until they are old enough to properly fend for themselves, then eventually they leave, go find a territory of their own. Then she’s alone again, until she mates, and has more cubs.’
‘That’s sad,’ she said. ‘And that is definitely not me—’
‘Not that part, just the part where they look good, and are so strong, so protective,’ he corrected.
She smiled. Letting her hand wander across his chest again.
‘I remember when I first got to Angola, my team and I were hiding in a crevice, and I saw a mother leopard defend her cubs from an intruding male. It was a fierce fight, and she saved her cubs, but she didn’t make it. I always remember feeling devastated that I couldn’t run out there and scare the male away, because I would give away my position, and we were in a hot zone, so if I did that, I could have been shot. I was so affected by her, sad that she had died, and yet so proud of her for protecting her cubs no matter what. She gave everything for those cubs. Just like you gave up everything, to move away from your mum, from your home, to save our Josha. The lengths you went to, to disappear so my mother couldn’t find you. And then you brought me back into your life, thinking of Josha’s future, ensuring that he was safe and looked after by both Gabe and I. Like a wild cat, you did what you had to do to protect your cub.’
Tara hugged Wayne. He hugged her back, holding her tightly to him.
‘When I was in the Recces in Angola, we had a pet lion, Terry. We left him behind when we closed the camp after the war, so once Jamison and I had the fences up, and we were able to, we visited my old camp, looking to translocate him if he was still there.’
‘Did you find him?’ she asked.
‘No, I was too late. Later I heard of others who had returned before me, looking for him, wanting to make it right, ensure he was looked after, but no one found any trace of him.’
‘That’s sad.’
‘No, that’s good news. No bones means he left, he survived and got away, moved to another area. I like to think that he found a wild pride somewhere, and there are Terry offspring now running around in Namibia or in Botswana.’
‘That’s a nice thought.’
‘I was an idiot. I should have returned for him earlier, maybe the outcome might have been different,’ he said as he kissed the top of her head.
‘No, it’s in the past. Looking back doesn’t help,’ she said. ‘I too was an idiot, I should have got in touch with you so much earlier! I can’t bring that time back, but you need to know I’m sorry, Wayne,’ she said, and her voice was barely audible as the emotion was so thick in her throat.
‘I know,’ he said.
After a small silence she asked, ‘So, what do your resident leopards think of your tourists?’
Wayne smiled as she snuggled back into him and continued to touch his chest.
‘They tolerate them. We have one young male that insists on lying on the pool lounges at the Rooi Vlei Lodge. He marked his territory on that spot and even though we replaced the lounge with a new one, he returned and reclaimed it again. The tourists love taking his photograph in the morning as he catches the first rays of light. They don’t even need to leave their camp to view leopards and take stunning photographs of his breath on a cooler morning as he stares at the humans intruding on his peace and quiet, or starts scratching his back. He is such a poser.’
‘So, how did leopards become the buffalo you had in that truck with Josha yesterday?’ She adjusted herself in the bed again, and Wayne lay back on his back. She lay on his trunk, her arms crossed under her chin on his chest. He threaded his fingers through her hair.
‘Our hobby. Jamison’s and my passion grew to include translocating animals to other safari farms. Fortunately from the initial advert, we had been inundated with requests from people who were willing to have the animals on their land that caused others problems. So we made it more cost effective to do the translocations, more of a business, less of a hobby, and we would translocate the leopard as close to their original territory as possible. We began a long list of safari farms that wanted one when they become available. A client list with a difference.’
‘Your market came to you,’ she said, then yawned.
‘You okay, don’t need your meds?’ Wayne asked.
‘No, I’m good,’ Tara said, shifting again, and this time going back to laying next to him, she put her arm around Wayne’s waist and shifted closer so that she absorbed the heat from his body. She closed her eyes.
‘Long story short, eventually we were requested by some of the State Parks Boards to move leopards back into the National Parks. Soon farmers offered us other animals. Some we couldn’t help and had to pass onto conservation groups, like the cape otters, they eat all the new trout fish stocks in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands when they restock their dams. While protected within the Tsitsikamma National Park, the otters outside the park area can grow to plague proportions. It’s really sad that many farmers simply kill them. But other animals, we could help with, we could transport easily. Springbok, and the smaller game, and it grew from there. Word of mouth spread that we had low fatalities, that we took care with the animals, attempted to keep their stress levels low. You comfy?’ he asked.
‘Yes, don’t stop, I’m listening,’ Tara said as she kissed his chest.
‘We just grew from there, and pretty soon we were joined by thirty staff including our incredible ex-state vet Donavan Marr, and Ryan Maskell, our helicopter pilot you met the other day.’
‘He seems nice. Shy but nice.’
‘Don’t be fooled by his shyness, he’s amazing in his machine, he handles her like a bird in the sky. I have seen him do manoeuvres I didn’t think possible, and I’ve been around lots of helicopters.’
Tara smiled. ‘Outside his helicopter, he’s a shy man, quiet.’
‘That’s not bad, it means he doesn’t party hard and try to fly with a hangover.’ Wayne lapsed in to silence for a moment, lost in thought. What had started as a way to source cheaper leopards back in 1992 had fast become a profitable business and a money spinner to help grow Kujana, and somewhere during that time, Jamison and he had become real friends. Wayne looked down at Tara. Her eyes were closed.
‘You awake?’ he asked.
‘Yes, just enjoying your company,’ she said. ‘I’m so proud of you and everything you have done here at Kujana, and with your translocation company. You have achieved so much so fast.’
Wayne smiled. It was nice to get the recognition from Tara, but his smile was more for the fact that she was acknowledging that he had done it alone, not just relied on his family to get where he was. He knew that his father had certainly given him a huge leg up, but growing the rest, that was all him and Jamison. He would never forget that night when they had discussed making Wild Translocation into its own company, separating it out from Kujana.
‘Thanks,’ Wayne said, ‘I have to admit that I never imagined that in so few years we would be the proud owners of three huge mobile cranes as well as ten specially fitted out trucks that could transport just about any kind of wild animal.’
‘Can you move elephant?’
‘We’ve had one so far, but we are contracted to move a few in a couple of weeks. Of all the animals, they are the ones that we have had to spend the most outfitting for. They are so hard, and Donovan been spending time with Parks Board too, ensuring that he is up to date with dosages for them. You have to knock them out then, using their feet and legs, you lift them with a crane and move them up onto the truck, and manoeuvring them into their crates for transportation is not easy. They need to be at least semi-awake in their crates. They are a specialised move, but I can see a future in being equipped for them, so does Jamison.’
‘Seriously, you are moving elephant? Josha is going to be out of his mind when you tell him that one. He’s mad about elephants.’
Wayne smiled. ‘It will be after your operation, from Addo Park in the Cape. Most likely to the Transvaal, that’s where the bigger game farms are expanding already. But if he’s here to spend more time with me cooped up in the truck, I’m happy to take him along.’
‘He’s going to love you more for that one. Huge brownie points coming your way.’
Wayne grinned.
‘You know, in a few weeks we are moving some rhino. They are up for a catalogue auction from a well-known farm in the area. This farmer has so much excess wildlife that he’s selling and he thought it would be worth his while to cut out the live pens. So he’s a first, with an onsite auction on his farm. You can view the animals beforehand on his property, and then bid, or you can look at the pictures in his catalogue. After the auction, we will move the rhinos to their new home, wherever that is.’
‘I think I’d like to go with you on that one. Would love to see how you move the rhinos.’
‘Serious? That would be amazing. It will be after your operation,’ Wayne said and he hugged her to him.
‘I want to come back,’ she said, ‘afterwards, if you will have me here. I will have a long time to recuperate, but I want to come back, stay here.’
‘I would love to have you with me. But you have to be coming back for more than just the rhino being moved because I have to tell you, the white rhino is gentle, like a domestic cow, they tame down pretty fast. They are full of mock charges, but because they can’t see and can’t hear that well, they tend to run away from danger rather than confront it.’
‘I’m not only coming back for the rhino!’ she said as she smacked him lightly on his arm. ‘Your life is so different to mine in Cape Town. I want to come back because I want to be here, but I can’t stop thinking that I’m going to lose Josha to you because he’ll love it here so much, and want to stay here. And I know it won’t be your fault, but I’ll just be the boring mother and you the fun dad.’
‘No. That’s not going to happen,’ Wayne said, and she could feel that he was shaking his head. ‘You are underestimating your own son. He will love it here, it’s all new, it’s all wonderful, but he loves you, and he loves Gabe. I wouldn’t take him away from you guys. I want to share him with you, but not have him totally. That wouldn’t be fair on anyone. Believe me, I won’t be the cool dad for much longer, I bet the first time I have to put my foot down on an issue it’s going to be interesting …’
Tara smiled. ‘I hope you are right, Wayne, I seriously hope so. But I want to come back, be with you—’ But her voice was starting to drift away, as if she was just nodding off. He kissed her gently on the lips.
‘Have a good rest my love,’ he said as he felt her breathing change and he knew that she was asleep. ‘I’ll wake you at six-thirty so you can get ready for dinner.’
After a while he wiggled his arm out from under her head, and covered her with the blanket, then he looked around his room. It looked right with her stuff on the dressing table, and he liked that it smelt like her.
He picked up the ring that she had barely looked at. The three diamonds he had chosen, one for each of his family, sparkled back at him. He snapped the box shut. He had told her not to give him an answer yet, but he’d laid his card on the table that he wanted the fairy tale ending.
After what they had just shared he didn’t think they needed time to work things out and get reacquainted. They still fitted just perfectly together.
But time might be a factor they were going to run out of.
Ten days and counting to her operation.
Until the dice of life were tossed.