Read Online The Beat of Safiri Bay by Emmse Burger - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Emmse Burger
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life. I take a quick shower to shave my legs as my obsessive condition commands me to every morning. I cannot stand having the little spikes tickle me. I will shower more intensely after my run. I quickly get dressed into my running gear and decide to run from the house this morning. It’s a short run and I know I am safe as I will be on the estate road all the way to the beach. Breakfast is not on my mind right now. I take some money out of my purse, just for in case, tuck it into the pocket of my tunebelt and I leave out the backdoor.
I pass Bessie and David’s house. David is outside and he waves at me while getting into his Volvo station wagon. He is probably on his way to fetch the girls from boarding school for the weekend. It’s a long drive so he starts early. Bessie is getting her dogs together to take them for their daily morning walk. She will go fetch Rocky from our house first and take the whole lot of them. I walk for five minutes and then I turn the music on and run down the winding road to the beach.
It is still so beautifully green on the sides of the road. The thick forest won’t change colour for autumn, only a few of the trees on the side of the road show signs of becoming orange. The last downhill toward the beach leaves me with a full view of a very misty bay. Instead of turning in there, I carry on with the road that leads to the village. My lungs are protesting loudly but I push harder and the black tar seems to move like a treadmill belt under my feet.
I slow down at the turn where the little speed bumps announce the entrance of the village, the music is still blearing in my ears. It is a welcome escape from reality.
Suddenly there right in front of me a grazing hippo looks at me as if to ask what I am doing on it’s road. I stop immediately and my legs feel heavy with stopping so abruptly. I am awestruck at the realisation that I am standing face to face with one of the most majestic but also dangerously fast animals walking this earth and all this just a few hundred meters from the village. Off course I have had the privilege of seeing many animals, but never a hippo so close before without the safety of a vehicle. “Gee whizz,” I whisper to myself and fiddle with the zipper on my tunebelt to take out my phone so I can take a picture. I drop my phone on the tar and the hippo lifts its head to look at me.
“Don’t move,” his perfect English accent comes from behind me. He walks to me very slowly, picks up my phone, wipes the screen with his soft shirt and hands it back to me, I think our fingers touch but it is so lightly I can’t be sure. His eyes are set on the grey beast and he slowly takes my hand and carefully pulls me with him to behind a tree in the forest. As soon as we are out of its view, he drops my hand and says, “Run.” We sprint along the tar, around the corner and down the road for about a kilometre. He slows down when he is sure that we are well away from the grey beast and stops. I stop next to him out of breath and shaky from this encounter. I don’t know how my body can deal with so much heart racing action in such a short time. I am not entirely over last night yet and the little sleep I had makes me wonder whether this outing was such a good idea.
“We need to call the authorities,” he says and I hand him my phone. I walk to a fallen branch on the side of the road and sit down on it with my head resting on my knees. “It’s named Safiri Emergencies,” I say about the number he will need and put my head back down onto my knees. He makes the call and I hear him explain the whereabouts of the hippo. As soon as he hangs up, he comes to sit next to me.
“That was quite something,” he says. I lift my head and look at him. He looks even hotter than yesterday, must be my tired mind. “Well, if anyone told me what I would see on my morning run, I would have rather stayed in bed,”
“And miss out on all the fun?” he laughs. “Are you okay?
I pass Bessie and David’s house. David is outside and he waves at me while getting into his Volvo station wagon. He is probably on his way to fetch the girls from boarding school for the weekend. It’s a long drive so he starts early. Bessie is getting her dogs together to take them for their daily morning walk. She will go fetch Rocky from our house first and take the whole lot of them. I walk for five minutes and then I turn the music on and run down the winding road to the beach.
It is still so beautifully green on the sides of the road. The thick forest won’t change colour for autumn, only a few of the trees on the side of the road show signs of becoming orange. The last downhill toward the beach leaves me with a full view of a very misty bay. Instead of turning in there, I carry on with the road that leads to the village. My lungs are protesting loudly but I push harder and the black tar seems to move like a treadmill belt under my feet.
I slow down at the turn where the little speed bumps announce the entrance of the village, the music is still blearing in my ears. It is a welcome escape from reality.
Suddenly there right in front of me a grazing hippo looks at me as if to ask what I am doing on it’s road. I stop immediately and my legs feel heavy with stopping so abruptly. I am awestruck at the realisation that I am standing face to face with one of the most majestic but also dangerously fast animals walking this earth and all this just a few hundred meters from the village. Off course I have had the privilege of seeing many animals, but never a hippo so close before without the safety of a vehicle. “Gee whizz,” I whisper to myself and fiddle with the zipper on my tunebelt to take out my phone so I can take a picture. I drop my phone on the tar and the hippo lifts its head to look at me.
“Don’t move,” his perfect English accent comes from behind me. He walks to me very slowly, picks up my phone, wipes the screen with his soft shirt and hands it back to me, I think our fingers touch but it is so lightly I can’t be sure. His eyes are set on the grey beast and he slowly takes my hand and carefully pulls me with him to behind a tree in the forest. As soon as we are out of its view, he drops my hand and says, “Run.” We sprint along the tar, around the corner and down the road for about a kilometre. He slows down when he is sure that we are well away from the grey beast and stops. I stop next to him out of breath and shaky from this encounter. I don’t know how my body can deal with so much heart racing action in such a short time. I am not entirely over last night yet and the little sleep I had makes me wonder whether this outing was such a good idea.
“We need to call the authorities,” he says and I hand him my phone. I walk to a fallen branch on the side of the road and sit down on it with my head resting on my knees. “It’s named Safiri Emergencies,” I say about the number he will need and put my head back down onto my knees. He makes the call and I hear him explain the whereabouts of the hippo. As soon as he hangs up, he comes to sit next to me.
“That was quite something,” he says. I lift my head and look at him. He looks even hotter than yesterday, must be my tired mind. “Well, if anyone told me what I would see on my morning run, I would have rather stayed in bed,”
“And miss out on all the fun?” he laughs. “Are you okay?
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