Read Online Mrs. Pollifax on Safari by Dorothy Gilman - Free Book Online

you’re under the tap.”
    “That’s just what
I
did,” said Amy Lovecraft, strolling into the circle and joining them. She was looking very elegant in snug black pants, a cashmere sweater and ashort suede jacket. She chose the seat on the other side of John Steeves and sat down, placed a hand on his arm and smiled into his face. “I do hope we’re on a first-name basis now so that I can call you John.”
    “Please do,” he said politely. “Have you met Lisa Reed?”
    “No, duck,” she said and, leaning forward, gave Lisa a much less enthusiastic smile. “I’ve not met that lovely huge man over there, either.”
    “We’re both Reeds,” Lisa said shortly. “I’m Lisa and he’s my father Cyrus, and that’s Mrs. Pollifax next him.”
    “Delighted, Cyrus,” said Mrs. Lovecraft, giving him a warm smile and ignoring Mrs. Pollifax. “And here comes Tom Henry. I think it’s super our having a doctor with us as well as a noted travel writer, don’t you?”
    This was tactless, thought Mrs. Pollifax, and quite enough to antagonize the remaining men, but if she decided to reserve judgment on Mrs. Lovecraft for the moment she could welcome Dr. Henry wholeheartedly. He sat down next to her, crossed his legs, gave her a cheerful smile and said, “I hope dinner’s soon, I’m starving.”
    “About five more minutes,” Mrs. Pollifax told him after a glance at her watch. “Or just enough time to ask what Homer meant when he said you’re at a mission hospital. Does that mean you live here in Zambia?”
    He wrenched his eyes from Lisa Reed and turned to give her his full attention. “Yes it does—the hospital’s over on the Zambesi River near the Angolan border. I came out from Canada three years ago and I’m sure all my friends expected me back in Windsor a week later.”He gave her a sidelong boyish smile. “Needless to say I’m still here.”
    “You like it.”
    “Love it,” he admitted. “So much so that I wanted to try a safari on my seven days’ leave. There’s so much about the bush I’ve been too busy to learn, and a great deal about wild animals I want to learn.”
    “Including
Homo sapiens
?” said Cyrus Reed, leaning forward to enter the conversation.
    “Well, I see a good many of
them
,” said Dr. Henry, smiling back, “but aside from several missionary families at the hospital it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a group like this. I’d forgotten,” he said dryly, “what a lot of nonsense people talk.”
    Cyrus Reed smiled. “I agree with you completely.”
    “What do you talk about at your hospital when you’re relaxing?” asked Mrs. Pollifax.
    He grinned. “Oh—life, death, septicemia, who’s due to boil the next drinking water, or what the village witch doctor said that day.”
    Mrs. Pollifax laughed. “Scarcely small talk.”
    “God, no.” He looked chagrined. “Obviously I’ll have to brush up on that.” He smiled at Chanda as the boy walked into the campfire circle and came to stand beside him.
“Bweleniko
,
”
he said.
“Mwapoleni.”
    “Kuntu kuli kusuma
,
”
the boy said, smiling.
    “Endita.”
Turning to Mrs. Pollifax he said, “Chanda talks Bemba but he speaks a little English now and understands it very well. When we first met I was struggling to learn Nyanga, and now I’m having to learn Bemba, and it all grows rather confusing. Chanda, you’ve not met this gentleman yet. He’s Mr. Cyrus Reed.”
    Chanda stepped forward and shook hands with Reed and then, to their surprise, clapped his hands three times. “That’s the Zambian greeting,” explained Dr. Henry with a grin. “Chanda’s given you only the modified version. When it’s done properly it’s repeated three times … a handshake followed by three claps and then another round or two. Quite a ceremony.”
    “Certainly feel thoroughly greeted,” admitted Reed.
    Somewhat removed from them, Willem Kleiber said in alarm, “He’s not—uh—yours, is he?”
    Tom Henry’s smile