Day 3

So here I was at the Masai Mara and there was no sign of Teresa.

Yes. That's the name that meant love to me. The sweet name that had changed my life forever.

Never mind about the strange place where I met her again (that I talked about in Day 2). I get a little shy about this romantic stuff sometimes and it really isn't interesting. At least not to me. Any way don't despair; I'll get back to that in a minute.

I went round the camp and looked everywhere. No sign of Teresa.

I remember we went together for the game drive. And I positively remember that we came back together. So how does somebody disappear in a bush in the middle of nowhere?

The tears were now flowing freely down my cheeks. I know men don't cry and I wasn't crying, not really, it's just them tears that were running out of control flowing out and stuff.

For the first time in my lousy unromantic life, I admitted it to myself. I loved the woman. More than I had ever loved any other human being in my life.

Yeah. It was out now. Laugh for all you're worth but I've said it. I LOVE TERESA VERY VERY VERY MUCH.

Now I feared that the woman (the only woman) I had ever loved in my entire life was gone forever. I feared that I would never see her again. How would she survive out there with all those wild beasts and lions and stuff?

"We're calling in the police," the camp manager informed me.

The guy was trying too hard to console me. Like calling in the police would take away all my problems and bring Teresa back. Like a kid who is offered candy and it magically takes away all the problems. Looking at him through my tears and I felt pity for him. He would never understand in 100 years.

"But it is not to do with lions," he added in his understandable yet inadequate English. "Lions never come here and drag tourists away just like that. Never in the history."

I wondered whether he really believed what he was saying or he was just ignorant. Lions had a long history of eating human flesh. It wasn't common but it happened often enough. Don't guys watch movies like "The Ghost and the Darkness" in this place? The movie was based on the true story of what happened during the building of the Railway across East Africa in the 1800s. Man eating lions almost halted the project.

There was even the more recent story about a lion that had been killed recently by game wardens in Tanzania, a country that neighbored Kenya's Masai mara, where I was. After examining the dead lion's teeth, experts said they suspected that it had turned to hunting human flesh because of a nagging toothache. Eating softer human flesh aggravated the toothache less.

I can hear you asking the question. No I don't have a degree in one of those animal subjects. I got all the stuff from the internet - remember what I do for a living?

I debated whether to show off my knowledge to the poor camp manager and then decided against it. Better to hold back as much information as possible for when I would really need it. Didn't want to look like I was leading on the investigation.

My mind rushed back to the place where I had met Teresa rather unexpectedly. The place where my destiny had been changed. By a smile from the woman I loved.

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