This Month's Story

The car engine was acting up again. I brought the vehicle to a complete stop and looked around me. There wasn’t much to see. I hadn’t passed a car for some time and it wasn’t likely I’d see one anytime soon. A rainstorm was building far out in the mountains to our west, but I doubted whether it would amount to anything.

I was alone. I was on the main road between Mombasa and Tsavo Park and most of the traffic had started early so that the tourist could use as much of the daylight as possible to see the animals. There wouldn’t be anyone along for some time.

My attention was attracted to a chimney sticking out a large grove of trees to my right. I started the car with some difficulty and pulled it over to the side of the road. I got out, locked the car and started through the underbrush toward the house.

It wasn’t a large house, but it looked comfortable and as I approached the front door opened and a middle aged man came out and waved me on.

“Car trouble?”

“It acts like I’m running out of gas and I can smell petrol like I have a leak.”

The man turned and yelled something in Swahili to someone in the back of the house. In seconds a boy came out from behind the house leading a large ox. He headed the large ox toward the main road, while the man motioned me up on the broad porch.

“He’ll pull the car up here in the shade and then we’ll take a look see. No use going down to the road; it’s too blasted hot.”

The porch was a large comfortable affair and quite evidently used for relaxing in the heat. It was oriented to face the west so as to catch the sunset and newspapers were scattered about wherever they had fallen. If there was a heart to the house, this was it.

The man cleared a chair and told me to sit while raising his voice to attract someone’s attention inside the house to bring us out a pot of hot tea. My Swahili was worse than poor, but I recognized the words and the kindness in which he called them out.

“I was trying to get to Mombasa,” I said, “to meet some friends for a Sundowner and some supper later on. Looks like I’m not going to make it.”

I looked around at the way the house was situated and realized that there were a great many telephone lines extended to the north and south. I also realized that the house was a way station for trouble along the railroad. If he wanted to call for help, it would come in a hurry. I felt a little more relieved. I couldn’t have stopped in a better place.

He skittered about, picking up newspapers and placing them in a pile on one of the chairs. “Now, don’t you fret about your car. We’ll have you going in no time.”

As he said this, an ox came into view towing the car behind it. We raised the hood and looked underneath. The smell of gas was strong.

“See there? You’ve knocked the gas line loose. I expect there’s not much gas left. You’re lucky you got this far; it’s a long walk to any help especially if you set out in the wrong direction. I’ll get the boy to get some tape and we’ll get it put all together tighter than a drum in a minute. Trouble is we are a little short of petrol. The train was supposed to drop us off some earlier today, but there was some kind of a mix up and we’re out; not a drop.”

He turned and yelled instructions at the boy. In seconds the boy disappeared and then reappeared with a jerry can lashed between the bicycle’s handle bars. He gave the boy some money and the boy disappeared down the road, the can jostling in its perch between the handlebars.

We stood watching him go for a moment, and then went back up on the porch.

“It’s a ways to where they sell petrol. It’ll take him a little time to get there and then turn around and come back. Come up on the porch and relax. I imagine you’ve had a busy day of it and you can help pass the time telling me about yourself.”

“What are those ape-like things on the side of the hill?”

My new friend poured us both cups of dark, strong tea and then looked at where I pointed.

“Them? They’re baboons. They are starting to cluster. When the sun goes down, they’ll cover the whole side of that hill. It’s an eerie sight and I’ve seen it too many times to wonder why they do it.”

He stood watching them for a few minutes and then sat down on one of porch’s comfortable chairs. “There are a lot of things I’ve seen hereabouts and don’t know why they happen.”

There was a crashing sound nearby and I turned and several yards away, I watched several elephants walk alongside the railroad tracks that ran a short distance parallel to the house.

“Noisy buggers aren’t they. They’re heading down the track where there’s a little pool and some green things growing in it that they like. They’ll tear up the tracks to get at the plants. I’ll have to go down there with a crew tomorrow and straighten things out. It’s all a bloody nuisance, but it’s what they pay me for and it does put food on the table of the locals.”

We sat and watched the giant beasts go by. When it became quiet again, he looked over at me, hesitated for a long moment as if judging me. Then nodding to himself, he stood up and waved for me to follow him. Around the back of the house was a large cage like structure. There was something dark lying on the ground near the gate.

“That’s Anna. She’s used to me, so there shouldn’t be any problems; but remember, she’s wild. I found her way back in the bush with that right front paw of hers damaged. I’ve been talking to a vet in Nairobi and he’s been sending me some antibiotics that seem to be helping her.”

“He tells me that I’ll probably have to let her go in a week or two, but the two of us have become close friends and enjoy each other’s company.”

I stopped at the cage door. I could not believe what I was looking at!

It was a black leopard!

Leopards are solitary creatures and prefer to live alone in the wild and here was one lying within two feet of me.

I stared at it. One of its eyes slowly opened and stared up at me. Then when I didn’t move, the eye closed and the leopard went back to sleep. My friend moved about the small compound collecting scat and other debris. He had a small sack by his side, which he opened and dropped what appeared to be part of a gazelle in one of the compound’s corners. The leopard got up and strolled to the kill. Motioning for me to follow, the two of us left the enclosure, making sure to lock the gate.

“Notice anything?”

“Yes! She’s not really black! and, am I right? She has spots! They’re beautiful!”

We stood for a moment watching the cat eat and then headed back to the porch. A native woman came out from within the house with a cool drink.

My friend said nothing for a long time. Then when he did speak, he spoke so low, I almost couldn’t hear him.

“I’ve been taking care of that cat for awhile now. In fact, I spoke to that vet friend in Nairobi just today. He says she’s all but healed. He tells me I’ve got to go in there and remove those bandages and take her up the road maybe three, four miles and let her go. He sent me some sedatives to give her,” he pointed to a large bottle on one of the side tables. “He tells me to wait at most a week: then out she goes.”

It was quiet on the porch for a long time, then the boy came back with the petrol and pouring it in the car’s gas tank, tried the engine. It started. I walked over to the car and helped him get the ox harness free. The boy took the ox around to the back of the house.

“The bastard!”

“What?”

“He ran off with the change!”

I glanced after the boy. I realized that if there was any change from the money he had given the boy, it must have been less than thirty rupees. I also knew that the small amount of change was not what my friend was really angry about.

It was that large bottle of sedative on the side table.

I stood up looking around us. We really were in the back of nowhere. In the distance, the baboons were gathering on the hill and the rain clouds were gathering in the far mountains.

I stood there for a few moments, watching my friend. He had picked up the bottle and was reading the instructions on it.

The storm gathering in the far hills let out a little thunder. Except for this, it was quiet. I watched the baboons gather in the distance. And then realizing my time here was up, turned and thanking my friend, climbed into the car. I looked back at the large comfortable porch, the papers piled neatly on one of the chairs. I shook his hand goodbye and drove back to the main road.

It was a long quiet, twenty minutes before I was back at my hotel in Mombasa. I looked over the broad open veranda. My friend had saved a table for me. I waved at him that I was going up to my room for a minute. Once there, I took a quick shower, and going back down sat down, relaxed and let the first of the cold liquid go down my throat. He told me that everything was ready on the ship and we were clear to leave in the morning.

We drank and let the first of our Sundowners settle while we looked out over the quiet beauty of the Indian Ocean.

It was some time before I could tell him about the black leopard.