I waved and got one in return, and all of a sudden the Chuckle Brothers were at it as well, then they all joined in, laughing and giggling.
I didn’t know what to do so I just turned and carried on walking, my hand still raised and waving.
2
Smoke fought its way through the cam net as Jan sizzled steaks the size of dustbin lids on the brai.
Lex taxied along the strip towards us, laden with new drums of Kenyan aviation fuel, as the dogs and shanty kids ran alongside.
‘I’m not staying. Sorry.’ I put an arm round Sam’s shoulder, and would have done the same to Crucial if he hadn’t been about ten feet taller than me. I gripped his arm instead. ‘Unfinished business. I promised myself back at the mine, and I won’t be happy until I’ve done it. Anyway, you know I can’t hang around.’ I nodded in the direction of Tim and Silky. ‘This is their place now. Not mine.’
Lex turned the aircraft about two hundred metres away, ready to taxi back down the strip for take-off.
Sam put a brave face on it. ‘Sorry to hear that, Nick. I think it would have been good for you here.’ He thumped my chest with his hand. ‘Remember what I said?’
I nodded.
‘Any time you feel the need to come back, eh?’
Lex’s engines closed down as we ducked under the cam net. Tim and the boy were lying on the tables, looking a whole lot better. Silky had washed them down and redressed their wounds. Same principle as we operated by: only now was she sorting herself out, by the entrance to Sam’s tent.
Tim was finishing off his sat-phone conversation with the Lugano office. Étienne would arrange medical care for them both, once we’d got them to Cape Town later that evening.
The Evian was cold. I pulled bottles out of the fridge and passed them round.
Jan threw the first lot of dark red meat on to the table. Crucial passed it round with fingers and thumbs because it was still so hot.
The aircraft’s rear ramp was starting to wind its way down. The two wounded, Silky and I would be in that thing and leaving within half an hour.
Tim closed down the sat phone. ‘Are you staying?’
‘Nah – other plans.’
‘Still Australia?’
‘Yep.’
There was a gap in the conversation that we didn’t know how to fill.
Well, we did – but neither of us wanted to go that route.
Lex broke the moment as he loped off the aircraft with his golf bag. ‘Sam! You owe me two games – one for the ten big ones, one for the fuel and ammo. Get out here and be a man!’
3
Sam stood up with a half-eaten dustbin lid in his hands. ‘Can’t it wait? Why do you want to embarrass yourself in front of all these people?’
Lex dropped the bag into the dust. ‘Because you won’t be coming back to Erinvale, will you? All this is finished.’ He unzipped one of the side pockets and scooped out dozens of golf balls. ‘I want to make sure I collect.’
He leaned on one of his clubs, his bleached teeth shining as brightly as his reflecting gigs. ‘Come on, I haven’t all day, man. A bet’s a bet.’
Sam beckoned Jan, who took his steak and put it back on the brai, then went out on to the strip with a rusty can.
Sam walked into the sun, bent down and selected a club. Fuck knows what sort: golf was even higher than cricket and rugby on the list of games I didn’t have a clue about. He did a couple of practice swings. ‘Ten balls each for each bet, OK?’
Lex stood back. ‘You’re on.’
Jan placed the can upright in the sand, about thirty metres away.
Lex pointed his club at the aircraft and gave Crucial a shout. ‘Let’s get everybody onboard. This won’t take long.’
Crucial moved off to organize the barrow boys, who were more used to loading and unloading boxes of weapons. He’d had them on stand-by to collect Tim and the boy, and wheel them on to the aircraft.
Sam kicked off, swung off, whatever it was called, first. Nearest one to the can seemed to be the objective, but you wouldn’t have guessed it by watching him. He looked as good as I would have been.
The first ball headed for DRC, and his game didn’t get any better.
‘Shame, Sammy boy.’ Lex roared with laughter as Sam’s third ball landed on the cam net. ‘You were robbed!’
Lex seemed much more the part as he practised his swing. It looked like I was going to be writing a very big cheque – or was this all about Sam taking the debt off my hands? I couldn’t remember. It seemed like a lifetime ago.
I left them to it.
Tim was stretching out on one of the barrows. Silky came up and stood by my side. Our arms touched, and for me it was still like the plunger had gone down and I was holding the wires.
‘What’re you two going to do when you get back from Cape Town – set up shop next to Sam, or head back to DRC?’
We faced each other, but neither of us was comfortable with eye to eye. I kind of scanned her face. She’d had a wash, and kind of busied herself pushing her wet hair back. She was as beautiful as ever.
‘We’re going back to DRC to finish off what Mercy Flight started. There’s a lot to be done.’ She watched as the barrow boys did their stuff. ‘And you, Nick – Australia? Really?’
I nodded. ‘Thought I’d try my luck with that message board again.’
‘Nick, I—’
I put a finger to her lips. I didn’t need to hear the rest. I already knew it. I’d probably known it from the moment I saw her in the tent with a pile of blankets over her arm. She’d been in a poxy jungle in the middle of nowhere, but she was in her element. I was happy she’d found what she’d been looking for. Not many people do.
I looked at Tim, as he fed the boy a strip of meat and they both laughed. I knew she’d found something else as well, and she didn’t have to make it any more painful for both of us by saying it out loud.
I took her hands and held them together in mine for the very last time. ‘It’s OK. It’s all OK.’
She leaned in and kissed my cheek. ‘Thank you.’
The two wounded were wheeled away. Silky walked between them, holding their hands.
Deep down, I’d probably known all along I wasn’t the sort of man she’d be happy with. After a lifetime of dislocation, she needed roots, and all I had to offer was about an inch of topsoil before you hit rock.
I didn’t feel sad, I didn’t feel annoyed. I was just glad I hadn’t asked her to marry me, and put her in a position that would have hurt us both. I felt strangely happy for her. Her new life of living in shit and giving polio jabs was what she truly wanted, and there were worse guys than Tim to share it with.
4
I wandered back to Sam’s tent to collect my holdall. As I came out and waited under the cam net for the bet to come to some sort of conclusion, Crucial came and shared the shade.
Jan brought us something to munch as we watched the two dickheads out there playing crazy golf.
‘Lex still trashing him?’
Crucial winked. ‘No, man, Sam will win. Lex might want to be seen as the hard act, but he’s got a little soft in his old age. He loses every time the money has anything to do with the kids.’
I bent down and dug the ring out of my bag. ‘That makes two of us.’
I opened the box and turned to him as if I was going to ask him to marry me. ‘Take it, it’s yours. A little something from me to you, to fill that hole in your gob.’
I wasn’t sure if it was the shock of me offering it, or that you needed an electron microscope to see the diamond, but he hesitated.
‘Go on, mate. I know it’s a bit small and it’s one of those softie non-conflict ones, but think of it as a temporary filling until you can shoot your way to a newer and bigger one, eh?’