Day 7

There was so much excitement in the tourist van as we all tried to absorb what we had just witnessed. Nature and the law of the jungle playing out right in front of our eyes.

Teresa was more excited that anybody else.

“How many people in the world get to see a scene like that in their lifetimes. Or even in two or three lifetimes?”

“Has to be very few, Teresa.”

“Yes. And we are amongst those few. That little scene is worth more than the last 20 years of my life put together,” she said her eyes still shining with excitement.

I looked at Teresa having so much fun and wondered what it would have been like living a regular life with her, getting children and all. Would they have looked more like me or like her? I was desperately trying to clutch at something that I would be able to keep, forever. Something that would never go away.

Our wedding day came rushing back to my mind.

It had been a small ceremony at the African coastal beach before we came to the Mara. Just her and me. It was just a ceremony because her lawyers back in the States had handled all the legal stuff.

And what a ceremony it was. Not even a movie director would have imagined such a glorious setting. The palm trees whispering in the background, Teresa and I, standing barefoot on the almost-white dazzling sand. I was dressed in a neat white T-shirt and some beach shorts. Teresa looked almost angelic in a blue low cut top that matched the color of her eyes and some simple white shorts. Her hair had been made up with natural flowers still smelling fresh that had been picked moments before.

The priest looked a little surprised as he read the vows and had us repeat them.

We had tons of photographs taken.

Somehow I was still waiting to wake up and find that I was still in LA waiting to go into the library the next morning to check for payment notifications in my email that never seemed to arrive.

Afterwards we swam in the vast Indian Ocean and basically fooled around. The warm salty water engulfing our bodies.

I told Teresa about my early child hood experiences. She listened attentively as I told her about my parents and especially my dad. The struggling salesman who promised heaven and never delivered. He talked a lot about holidays in the Caribbean, and new sports cars by the time I got to college and he started doing better at work. None of it ever happened, the man struggled all his life and even in death. The cancer ate away at him for months and he died in great pain.

Teresa was even more interested in hearing about my mother. The woman who drowned all her sorrows and broken dreams in the bottle and became an alcoholic willing to do anything for the next drink. Including giving herself to the man, any man, who would guarantee her next drink.

Pretty depressing stuff and I had never told anybody else about it.

“With that kind of background it really isn’t surprising that you ended up in drugs,” she said thoughtfully looking out into the Indian Ocean.

I was rudely brought back to the present by the police officer.

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

“I don’t think it has anything to do with my wife’s disappearance.”

“In these sort of investigation, every small detail is important.”

Cops were the same everywhere.

“And it is especially important in this case because you are supposed to be on your honeymoon, why this strange sleeping arrangement?”

How could I even begin to tell him the whole story? From that strange night in my room in LA? Would he even begin to understand? I quickly decided that there was no way he could handle the truth and neither was I willing to reveal it to him.

“Not that it is any of your business, but my wife has a certain medical condition. She doesn’t sleep very well.”

The cop’s face showed no signs of a reaction. He just took some short notes in a small notebook and carefully placed it back in the inside pocket of his jacket. He started walking away.

“Hey officer. What about my wife? Are you going to find her?”

He stopped and looked carefully at me.

“We’ll try. The Masai Mara is a big place you know.”

I was left to solve a mystery of my own. How the hell had the camp staff discovered that we slept in separate beds? Why had they volunteered such irrelevant sounding information to the police? I just had to solve this one. It was important.