Page 2 of Worlds Apart
Everyone she knew seemed to post pictures of holidays Sunny would never brave on her own, so when Alice messaged her about coming to visit the luxury safari camp in the North Mara conservancy, Sunny swallowed her fear of travel, dusted off her passport, threw money at Alice, and bought a ticket to Nairobi.
She could have adventures! She hadn’t been the keenest to leave the familiar in the past, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t branch out and take baby steps out the door.
“Baby steps,” she muttered under her breath.
“Baby steps?” Lulu grinned and started rolling Sunny’s t-shirts into neat packable tubes. “I wouldn’t call going on safari a baby step, little sister. Definitely a big girl step. I’m proud of you.”
“Yeah?” Sunny stared at the swiftly disappearing pile of clothes as she and her sister filed everything into neat packing cubes. “It’s going to be great.”
“You’re going to have an amazing time.” Lulu hugged her shoulders. “Alice is going to meet you at the plane, right? The safari plane?”
Sunny nodded, trying not to panic.
“And she gave you detailed directions how to get from the international airport to the local one where the small planes take off?”
“Yes.” She gulped. “And I already checked with my phone company and my phone will work as soon as I get there so I can call her if anything goes wrong.”
“Then there’s nothing to worry about.” Lulu grabbed her by the shoulders. “Relax. Your flight is early tomorrow, right?”
Sunny nodded. That was why she’d brought all her clothes to her parents to wash and pack. Her Arlington apartment might have been closer to the airport than her parents’ house, but their driver could take her to the airport in the morning and she wouldn’t have to leave a car there or battle through public transportation with luggage.
She had her passport, her visa, her vaccination card, her Swahili phrase book, and all her receipts.
“Oh!” Lulu pulled a pair of rose-colored lace panties from her drawer. “These are cute. Take these.”
And sexy underwear. She had sexy underwear too.
* * *
Mara North, Kenya
“Martin!”
Martin Karanja had been trying to enjoy his first hot shower in two days.If another baboon broke into the kitchen…“What is it?”
His business partner Errol Carberry spoke through the canvas tent wall. “It’s the water tank.”
He could feel the moment the heated water in his bucket began to cool. He rinsed the soap off his face, quickly washed the rest from his body, and reached for a towel as he shut the overhead shower off. “What’s wrong with the tank? Leak?” He doubted it was a leak. Errol was a skilled welder; he wouldn’t bother Martin with a leak.
Errol was still on the outside, speaking through the canvas. “The tank is low again, and it shouldn’t be based on how many people are in the camp.”
“Damn.” Martin thought about the group they had flying in the next day. A friend of Alice’s, a family from the UK, and one of his favorite guests, Ethel Merriman, a New York octogenarian who celebrated every other birthday in the Mara. Not the biggest group for a week, but they were all going to need water.
“You think it’s the elephants again?”
“Possible,” Errol said. “The south watering hole is dry right now. They’re looking for water, especially with that new baby in the herd. Can I come in?”
“Fine.” So much for a quiet morning and tea with his paperwork. “Make yourself at home.” He hung his cotton towel to dry on the handmade rack that equipped every tent in the camp. “Start the kettle, will you? I’m just getting dressed.”
“Sorry to bother you so early.” Errol teased him. “I don’t suppose I’m interrupting anything.”
Martin shook his head. “This is me, Carberry, not you.” He quickly smoothed lotion over his dark brown skin since the air in the Mara was so dry. “Did the South African girl head home already?”
“Last week, Karanja. Keep up.”
That was nearly impossible with Errol. Luckily, the man was devoted to work far more than any passing relationship.
“Take a truck out with a crew and see if you can find the leak,” Martin said. “I’ll talk to Alice about getting a water truck from the village as a backup.”
