“Uuurrrgh.” Joe opened his eyes and saw a ceiling of woven grass mats and rough wooden poles. “Uuuh.” He was on a basketwork couch along the bar wall. The thatched bar at Cape Maclear Beach. There was a lizard walking upside down on the ceiling. How did they do that?
An implant in his skull started searching the net for information on how geckos walked upside down. Irritated, Joe “thought” it off.
“You wake now?” said Tem the Bluesman.
“Yeah.” Joe sat up to brush sweat and flies from his face. “Yeah, I’m awake.” He could see Tem was sweeping up dead insects and sand with a broom. The autoclean must have broken.
A large brown dog lay on the cardinal red cement floor watching the gecko on the ceiling. The gecko was watching a lime green praying mantis. The mantis watched a moth struggling in a spider’s web. This was life on Earth. The stuff tourists crossed the void to wonder at.
The dog wagged, watching Joe as the man got up and went to a water unit.
“You drink plenty water. Madzi wa bwino.” Said Tem. “Yes. Then you feeling strong strong.”
“Yeah.” Joe pushed a button in the artificial tree stump and a branch handed him a glass of cold water. He drank it. And another. The dispensers in his stomach released medication into his blood. He began to remember last night. “Was I singing Tem?”
“Plenty song. Plenty drink.” said Tem “Good time. Yes good. Music good. You can call me Joe. Buy me a drink and shake my hand. Good.” Tem prodded the dog “Garu. Choka. Tien. Choka.” The dog slowly rose to its feet, gave a wag and collapsed on the floor again with a sigh. Legs in all directions. Tem gave up and swept round it.
“Yeah it’s a tough life,” said Joe to the dog. The dog wagged in reply. Its tail stirred up a cloud of flying ant wings and dead beetles.
Joe walked out onto the veranda and realised he had lost his sandals. Lucky he still had a shirt and shorts really.
The hotel manager was on the khonde with the autoclean on its back. He was prodding at its insides. The centre of his left eye stood out on a tube and a small soldering iron was poking from one of his fingers.
“What’s up with it?” asked Joe.
“Its chipili rubbish man.” Said the manager as his eye went back into his skull. He turned to Joe “Drives me penga. The last one was awesome. No probs for fifty years. But this thing. A real shupa. Yurruh. I got a new one on order. But I reckoned I’d have a go at doening it. I used to be a tekie, bit of a fundi on this. Hence the scope eye and a hot finger. But what the heck, eh? Life’s to short to fix this frort.”
“I guess.” Joe stood on the top step watching ripples of blue water damping the Sun lit yellow sand, and out to beyond the anchored boats where wooded islands sheltered this bay from the Lake beyond. An early bus was lifting into the air with passengers for Ntakataka and Dedza.
“Abwera Mahuli.” Smiled Tem “Wa bwino. Mahuli kwambiri.”
“Your language Tem.” Said the Manager. “Remember those ladies are guests of the hotel.”
“Well, I’ll see ya.” Joe stepped down onto the beach as another large insect hummed past his head and thumped into the wall.
“That was a big hawhaw.” Said the Manager
“Chirombo wankulu.” Said Tem looking for the insect.
“Aah.” Said Joe with painfully hot African sand between his toes. He ran across the beach to the shore. Cool wet relief.
The dog, realised something was happening, barked and ran after him. Joe looked at the dog standing in the water. The dog wagged its tail sending great dollops of water into the air. It looked at Joe, expecting something to happen. But Joe just looked away.
The Great Rift Valley of East Africa had spent geological ages slowly widening. In the far north near Jerusalem were The Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. While at the south end a much larger inland ocean of fresh water had filled the space. Its waves had spent millennia grinding the grey granite hills into sand.
Early man had learnt to walk here. Warriors and slavers and missionaries had died here. In Joe’s time it existed just so people, and dogs, could have fun.
There were some good-looking women on the beach. Some were watching the guys kick a ball.
“Is it yourself Joe.
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