The Doctrine of Presence. Benjamin Vance
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told us that the running was supposed to be because of a pride of lions sneaking up on the grazers. The lions would be filmed at a different location where an animal would be shot and baited to facilitate close filming of a pride. The grazers were gone in a few seconds after the shots were fired. I hoped they could find none to bait the lions. I decided we were novices at this and wished for an accurate and high capacity sidearm.
We moved back to the west toward Lake Amboseli, since south and east of Lake Amboseli held the greatest elephant populations. If we had to flirt with the international boundary and head farther south once we got there, so be it. Trails and roads were difficult if one wanted to stay semi-anonymous. East and south of Lake Amboseli is where the greatest number of elephant carcasses were to be found as well, according to Donald Alden. South of the Amboseli National Park, still called Amboseli and near the Tanzania border, there was another large concentration of elephants. Seemingly, the elephants would be more susceptible to poaching outside the park. However, the higher human population south of the park may have stymied some degree of poaching.
Early afternoon found us under some large trees with a map laid out on the hood of one SUV. We hadn’t come far in half a day, but learned something; even innocent cinematographers use animals to their advantage at times. How much of a step would it be from scaring to orphaning, for movie viewer empathy?
I don’t know how I had service, but my cell rang and startled us all. It sounded like a 140 decibel jet out there where few ambient sounds persisted. I hurried to answer and got a deep, “Hey Daiwee, how’s it hangin’?”
I said, “Well it sure is unusual to hear from you Leo. Where the hell are you right now? In a nice air-conditioned bedroom, no doubt?”
“Look up, Daiwee.”
Just then a blue-bottomed Beechcraft Ute buzzed our position. It came back for a second run and I almost got sick to my stomach wondering about the machines we were carrying that would enable Leo to locate us, almost to the meter. I numbly realized the SUVs would be outfitted with tracking methods. Hell, they were rented after all.
I responded, “Leo what are you doing here? Who did you bring with you?”
“We came to rescue you Daiwee. Fredo called me two days ago and pleaded for me to come.” He chuckled a little. “Fredo is not a boy scout you know. His heart’s in the right place, but he doesn’t like the boonies. If you continue to the Amboseli air strip, we have some presents for you and the rest of us too. Can you take down some coordinates?”
“Yeah, shoot. We have a map laid out in front of us now.”
“Okay, 2 degrees, 38, 42.25 south by 37 degrees, 14, 55.37 east will put you just about in the middle of the air strip. It should take you a full day to get there if you follow the road you’re on now. We’ll wait, Leo out.”
Gimp commented as he gingerly sat down in his chair, “Well, at least we’ll have some company tonight if we make it in.”
Fredo, who had overheard part of the conversation came over to the SUV to ask, “Did I hear right? Was that Leo in the plane that just buzzed us?”
I smiled and said, “Absolutely, he wants us to meet him at the Amboseli air strip tonight. We’re having steaks, shrimp and all the fixings … I wish. He said he has some surprises for us though.”
Fredo smiled, put his hands on his hips and said, “No shit?”
“Yep, I guess we should get started … any problems?” I noticed a look in Fredo’s eyes and said, “What?”
“Look Daiwee, I don’t ask for much.” Gimp’s laugh interrupted him and he gave Gimp a John Wayne look. He started over, “I don’t ask for much, but one of the guys I’m riding with farts like a skunk. It’s almost making me vomit. Can I ride with you and Toto?”
Gimp said, “Holy shit---you baby! I’ll ride with them. Damn, do we have any clothes pins in case it gets too bad in there, Daiwee? Fredo; want some cheese with your whine?”
I laughed, but told Fredo to get his stuff and ride with us. N’tolo said he’d ride with the other men if I desired, but I knew what that would entail; me driving and the Africans arguing all the way to the air strip. The main reason I split them up is I was fearful they may hurt each other if unsupervised. They were bright men, but had this strange abrasion going on among them from the start. Perhaps tribal, I thought.
After everyone was satisfied and calm, we hit the bumpy road once again. About an hour into our washboard existence, an actual lioness streaked across the road in front of us. I yelled at Fredo to look, and N’tolo said she was chasing a small deer. I didn’t see the deer since I had been looking out the side window.
We made a long curve to the right and there was a puff of dust settling about twenty feet off the road. N’tolo said, “She kill it, see.” The lioness had what looked like a small dog in her mouth, and it was obviously dead. When she saw us, apparently for the first time, she ran like hell into the bush.
Just then, Fredo started yelling, “Stop, stop … stop this fucking tin can now, Toto!”
N’tolo and I were so surprised by his agitation that N’tolo reflexively slammed on the brakes. The second vehicle swerved to the edge of the road to miss us and stopped as well. Fredo, jumped from the vehicle and ran as fast as he could to a small clump of brown grass, carefully reached down and picked up something. My mind reeled. I thought he’d picked up a snake, and he hates snakes as well. He bundled something up in his arms, under his shirt tail and when he reached the truck, I saw a little pointed black nose and two big eyes sticking out. N’tolo smiled at Fredo, pointed and said “Dik Dik deer.”
Fredo said, “Dick your dear, Toto. Ain’t this the finest thing you ever saw in your life, Daiwee? She’s smaller than a puppy. I wonder what kind of milk she needs.”
Looking admiringly at the little thing I said, “Dik Dik milk, daddy. Maybe someone will have something for it when we reach the air strip. If I can believe the map, there’re about four hotels in that one area. Someone is bound to have a bit of milk that’ll do.”
Fredo said, “Let’s go, so she doesn’t get hot in this jalopy.”
N’tolo said, “Mr. Sankaw will tell ranger. Maybe you need to let Dik Dik go now?”
Both Fredo and I said, “Bullshit, let’s go.” N’tolo started forward. He looked back to Fredo and grinned at the little face protruding from Fredo’s shirt.
* * *
We made many bad turns and false starts prior to arriving at Ol Tukai and the Amboseli air strip. Fredo was getting a bit antsy about the little Dik Dik he’d named Tinker Belle at some point during our trip. He was awfully quiet … for Fredo. He didn’t interrupt idle conversations, as was his usual penchant. I overheard him softly talking to the little animal several times, and his mind didn’t seem to stray too far from her. It actually passed through my mind that he may have been bitten by some exotic, disease carrying insect or had a relapse. As it turned out he was just bitten by the love bug.
We pulled into the air strip area well after dark and drove to the general zone of the west end. There was a small building and our aircraft was sitting on a side apron. It was difficult to make out the general form of the plane in the blackness, except for the dim red cockpit lights. We drove cautiously around the building and came almost bumper to bumper with a large eight-wheeled Unimog truck. Its lights were off, there were no reflectors on the front and it was painted in a vague camoflage pattern. N’tolo managed to miss it and we passed two others before we approached the plane. I wondered if the film crew made it there before us; entirely possible in a Unimog; except theirs were six-wheeled, and didn’t have big cab-over bodies. N’tolo pulled up perpendicular to the aircraft and I got out.
Cautiously approaching the shape of the plane with a red diode light, I saw it was also painted with a strange camoflage pattern on the “sky” side. I saw the light blue of the bottom earlier in the day and it brought back memories of WW-II bombers painted that way to make it difficult for German fighters to spot