John Burkitt - Under the Acacias

Rafiki yelped as a furry bundle nipped playfully at his heels and darted away, giggling madly. “Ohe! Watch it! That hurts, you little scamp!”

“Saieti!” Sh’aari said sharply. “That was rude. Now apologize to Rafiki.”

The cub stopped and looked up at the mandrill with bright eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said in a small voice. “I was just playing.”

“I know, Honey Tree.” Rafiki smiled and bent to pick the cub up, but she skittered away. “What’s wrong? I won’t hurt you.” He peered at Saieti as she huddled against the lioness’s side. “What’s that on your side?”

Sh’aari licked the trembling cub. “Ambia’s handiwork,” she said. “That’s just one of the marks he left on our pride.”

“My Gods!” Rafiki knelt and stroked the wide eyed youngster. “You needn’t fear him any longer, child. Togo and Kombi have set things right again, and this old monkey will certainly never hurt you.”

Saieti looked at him carefully, measuring him. It drove a thorn in his heart to see the look of guarded suspicion on one so young. “Even if I sit in your favorite spot?”

He nodded. “Perhaps we have the same favorite spot, eh? We’ll just have to share.” He reached into his gourd and got a piece of Tiko root. Saieti sniffed, inhaling the wonderful fragrance. Her tongue licked out and her eyes followed the treat as Rafiki moved it about.

“Who do you love?”

“You, Rafiki!”

“How much do you love me?”

“Bunches and bunches!”

The correct answer was, of course, “more than life.” There would never be another cub quite like Taka, but there would also never be another cub quite like Saieti. “Good enough!”

Rafiki dropped the Tiko root and Saieti snapped it up. She savored its goodness, then swallowed it. Then she looked up at him and grunted affectionately.

The mandrill picked up the cub, kissed her and hugged her tightly. “You poor baby! If anyone tries to hurt you again, I’ll kill ‘em!”

She cuddled under his chin and purred. Overcome, Rafiki began to sob, kissing her repeatedly and whispering loving names in his old tongue. “Why do they have to suffer?” he asked Sh’aari. “Why the helpless and the innocent?? She deserves so much more out of life, and if I could take those stripes from her and bear them myself, I would!”

Saieti wrapped her large cub paws around his neck and nestled her head against his shoulder, a faint purring tickling his neck.

Rafiki’s thoughts went back to a different time and place before old age had set in and when all things were fresh and new. He remembered picking up Ajenti and holding her, and asking his new wife, “Isn’t she beautiful, Asumini?”

Asumini had smiled. “Our child will also be beautiful, like its father.”

Dearest Asumini! It was on their wedding day, the beginning of a brief dream of happiness and fatherhood. He kissed Saieti again and closed his eyes, listening to her small heartbeat. Poor Asumini, poor Penda, gone! Spirits in the Kingdom of Aiheu separated from him by every breath he drew, every beat of his own heart.

He clung to the cub, sighed deeply, and remembered. Then he looked in her eyes and kissed her again. “I see the beauty of Aiheu in your smile and the way your eyes shine. I feel the warmth of Aiheu in your soft fur. Never turn from your Uncle Rafiki, my dear. I love you, Saieti.”

“I love you too.”

Sh’aari nuzzled him and smiled, giving him a long, slow lick up the cheek. “Oh, look what I did to your beard!” She quickly began grooming his right side back into some semblance of his left.

Rafiki’s eyes half closed and he felt very much at peace. The realization came streaming through that his happiness had always been there--it had only taken many different forms. “Thank you, Aiheu,” he prayed silently. “You always take care of me. Now if I only had a home of my own....”

At that moment Amara came in. “I hear you need a place to live,” she said. “You can have my old place. I’m staying with my husband now.”

He looked up and sighed gratefully. “That was fast.”

Amara led the crowd down to her small cave in the side of the kopje. It was not much to look at, but it had made her the envy of all the other lionesses.

“Here it is!” she said with obvious pride. “Your new home!”

Rafiki looked inside. It was damp and wet, though Marrie was clearly making a great sacrifice for him.

“You ought to know when it rains, water comes through this crack in the ceiling.”

“I can fill the crack,” he said, thinking aloud. “It will require some work from time to time, and maybe a little straw on the floor will make it a little dryer and warmer. Makaka has lung trouble, so I’ll let him take this side when he sleeps over.” Idly running his fingers through Makaka’s hair, he told Amara, “He’ll usually sleep with you girls if that’s all right. Uzuri is his mother, you know.”

“We’d be delighted!” Amara said, nuzzling Makaka until he had to giggle. “He’s so sweet!”

“We’d have to raise a bed here to keep out the water.”

“I’m sorry we don’t have anything better.”

Rafiki put his arms around Amara’s neck. “Oh gods, It’s the most wonderful present I’ve ever received! Thank you, dear Marrie!”

Still, it was not exactly Busara’s cave....

Old Busara! How long ago those happy days seemed! Once Rafiki thought he would be chief of the mandrill village where he lived. Then Busara brought him to a state of enlightenment, a favor he would buy with his own blood when the priest of the old ways found out. The fever to be a shaman consumed him and transformed him, and finally sent him to his third home. That was supposed to be his final haven, a place to spend the rest of his days in loving service with his wife and children and the people of Ahadi.

Fate was not so kind. With no wife to comfort him, no children to raise, he had lost the home itself with all its memories. Makaka and Uzuri were his only ties to his old life. At his advanced age, he was starting over.

As the sun began to set, the lionesses gathered for their hunt. Adhama came and nuzzled Uzuri. “Time to gather up,” she said cheerfully. “I’ve looked so forward to the honor of hunting with you, Zuri.”

“I’m flattered,” Uzuri said. “But I’m unfamiliar with the area. Tonight, let me sit with the children.”

“Zuri, don’t be timid! We don’t expect you to bring down a buffalo by yourself! Just tag along and learn the land tonight.”

“Maybe tomorrow,” Uzuri said. “Good hunting, sister.”

Adhama nodded, and before she left she added, “Don’t get used to it. I look forward to seeing you in action out there.”

“I won’t.” Uzuri smiled and pulled a sleepy cub a bit closer.

Adhama nodded and paced away silently, vanishing into the dark. From another clump of brush, Makaka emerged, humming a tune to himself as he meandered over. He sighed and slipped his arms around Uzuri’s neck, hugging her close.

She smiled and kissed him with her warm tongue. “Busy day?”

“Busy week!” He slid down, resting his head on her side. “We walked everywhere! Rafiki found this really cool place to set up in. It’s kind of damp, though.” He yawned hugely. “We had to cut brush and fill cracks. The dampness hurts his joints, you know.” His voice dropped off to a buzz as he slowly nodded off.

Uzuri continued to groom him absently, turning this over in her mind. After all the times Rafiki had rubbed her stuff joint without complaint! She had no idea his joints hurt!

Eventually the warmth of Makaka and the cubs sank into her and she drowsed lightly, head still erect and ears alert for any disturbance. Before too long she detected the familiar tread of Rafiki as he eased through the grass towards her; his distinctive gait barely registering before she relaxed again.