Every Serengeti Sunrise

He glanced over at her and couldn’t resist smiling. Everyone knew that anyone training under her uncle deserved a medal. Ben Corallis had been in the US Marine Corps before losing his wife—Jack Harper’s sister—to a traumatic accident about seventeen years ago. His youngest son had been a newborn at the time—way out of Ben’s comfort zone. Plus, he’d had a hyperactive four-year-old on his hands and his only daughter, Maddie, Pippa’s then ten-year-old cousin. To make matters worse, Maddie had retreated into a shell of silence after the loss of her mother. It wasn’t until Dr. Hope Alwanga, the sister of a family friend in Nairobi, had entered their lives, that they’d begun healing. And that healing had led to Ben and Hope falling in love. Ben later began using his marine experience to help train Kenyan Wildlife Service rangers in their battle against illegal poaching.

Haki had learned from the best, even if he had only worked as a ranger for a year before quitting so that he could go to vet school. Now, working as a field vet for Busara, often in areas where poachers had been spotted, that training was priceless.

“I don’t want to win. I want you safe.” Haki leaned over, keeping one hand on the wheel, and kissed her cheek. Pippa smiled but kept her eyes closed.

She really was beautiful. Haki couldn’t ask for anyone with a kinder heart. The trumpeting of elephants reverberated through the air and he straightened in his seat as he rounded an outcropping and merged onto the worn dirt road that led into camp. Pippa sat up and took a shot of the view ahead. The same photograph she’d taken a thousand times. Busara. The one place that would always be their sanctuary and home.

“I’m sure Aunt Tessa will appreciate those photographs, but until we find whoever was involved in the killing yesterday, maybe you could help out with the orphan we rescued from the scene. I heard she hasn’t taken a bottle yet and you know if she’s too depressed to eat, she won’t make it. I’m betting a little attention from you might help.”

Pippa could never resist a baby elephant, and since her mother, Dr. Bekker, was known as Mama Tembo, or mother elephant, the keepers had nicknamed Pippa “Mini-Mama” long ago. In fact, the vast majority of photographs she took in her spare time were of baby animals. Helping their latest orphan would keep her safely at camp. At least for a little while.

“The poor thing. Of course I’ll check in on her, but don’t think I’m not onto what you’re doing. I’ve known you long enough to read your mind.”

“I’m not that easily read,” Haki scoffed.

“Is that so? Don’t worry. I won’t go walking into a lion’s den. Besides, my jeep is still out there.”

“Good.”

“Oh, I’m not done reading you. You’re extra upset right now because you think the poachers had help. Or maybe this wasn’t the work of poachers at all. It irks you even more when good people succumb to the dark side.”

Haki took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the wheel as they hit a rut on the dirt road.

“I’ll give you that. This baby should have been with her herd. Or if the herd had witnessed the murder, one would think the other mothers would have taken the little one into their protection. Unless, because of the drought and the baby’s age, the herd decided they had to move on and leave it to die. Maybe the situation was still too dangerous to keep the others around. As in, they sensed the human threat was still nearby.”

Female elephants were highly maternal and protective. They wouldn’t have abandoned one of their own, especially not a calf, unless circumstances were extenuating. Unfortunately, with reports of nearby crop destruction by elephants, he didn’t doubt some of the Masai farmers had taken to deadly means to protect their land. Pippa understood the dilemma as well as he did. Man’s indigenous rights versus the elephants’. And all the other wildlife. She touched his shoulder.

“You did your best. You rescued the calf. You’re a good man.” Pippa sighed and put the protective cover back on her camera lens. “How is that legislative proposal coming along? Any progress?”

Haki shook his head. That proposal had been keeping him up at night.

“Still waiting on cabinet approval. Apparently, it has raised the hackles of a human rights organization. No word on if that will slow things down or not.”

He’d helped a group of wildlife advocates draft the proposal aimed at increasing the punishment and/or penalty against individuals from indigenous tribes, like the Masai, who killed elephants in retaliation for crop damages. The killing had to stop. Hopefully, before the extinction of the species. This proposal was a step in the right direction, but the notion that anyone would want to block it made his skin burn. A very slow burn, considering how long it was taking for it to go through.

“Don’t give up hope. Maybe Uncle Ben can ask Maddie if she has any connections to lawyers who can help. Did you hear that she’s planning to visit? I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see her again.”

Maddie was coming to Kenya? Pippa had a knack for switching subjects as quickly as a cheetah on caffeine. He was used to it, but the mention of Maddie’s visit nearly gave him whiplash.

His thumb pricked against the rough patch where his steering wheel had been gnawed by something wild and nocturnal. He shifted his grip. It had been two years since he’d last seen her and even then, they’d barely had a chance to catch up. Usually, her family returned to the States during the holidays and the few times she’d visited her parents and brothers in Nairobi, she’d cut her trips short for some reason and Haki had never managed to see her. The last time she came around he was out in the field for several days with KWS teams and never made it into Nairobi. She’d had no real reason to fly out to Busara, since Pippa and her parents had gone to see her instead. Apparently, getting to see him hadn’t been reason enough.

“Is she coming out here or are you going to Nairobi?”

It didn’t really matter, did it? Haki had clued in long ago that spending time at Busara no longer held the attraction for Maddie it once had. When her family first moved to Kenya, she was only ten and had just regained her ability to speak. She used to beg Hope and Ben to let her spend the night out here so that she, Pippa and Haki could sit around a campfire surrounded by nothing but stars and the call of the wild. Maddie loved animals back then and had always wanted to visit Africa. Being out here had helped her heal after the loss of her biological mother.

Of course, they’d been within the safe boundaries of Busara and their parents were nearby, but those nights had been exhilarating just the same. The kind of experiences that childhood memories were made of. He and Pippa had loved having a new friend around and the three of them had formed what seemed like an unbreakable bond. At least Pippa and Maddie were still close. He still wasn’t sure why things had gotten awkward and distant between him and Maddie. Sometimes he wondered if he’d done something or said something to offend her. Her visits to Busara had slowly fizzled out, and once she took off for college in the US, it was as though they’d both gotten too busy with their lives to bother with one another.

“I honestly have no idea if she’s coming out here or how long she’s staying,” Pippa said. “She was a bit vague in her email, which is strange. I know law school wiped her out, so maybe with this new job in Philadelphia, she just needs a break.” Pippa sat up bone-straight and her eyes brightened. “Oh, my gosh! I bet she met someone. She’d want to tell me in person, especially if it’s serious. Think about it. She’s twenty-six, out of school and working at a firm that’s probably full of handsome, eligible bachelor lawyers. Her nerves must be fried right now. With brothers like hers...and Uncle Ben...I can’t blame her for not introducing any guys to them yet. This one would have to be worth it. But I can’t believe she hasn’t mentioned him to me. I wouldn’t have said anything. Well, maybe to you, but not to anyone else.”

Trust. Life was nothing without it. Trust meant a sense of peace, honesty and truth. It meant feeling safe. A person could be themselves around those they trusted. He was honored that Pippa would confide in him...but Maddie? Getting married?

Something faint and indefinable pinched at his chest. The young Maddie he’d known had loved wearing jeans, feeding baby animals and camping. The last Maddie he’d seen had looked more like a big-city office type: hose, heels and tied-up hair. Maybe the real Maddie was the one who’d be happy spending her life with a man in a suit. They could carpool to court the way he and Pippa liked to floor a jeep across the savannah. He lowered his chin briefly to release a cramp at the back of his neck. It was none of his business anyway. There was no reason why any of it should bother him.

“Maybe you should just wait and see before making up stories,” Haki said, pulling up next to three other Busara jeeps parked just far enough from the camp’s wooden pens so as not to disturb the baby elephants. They were all recovering from injuries incurred when their mothers were killed in the name of ivory. A keeper stood feeding a ravenous calf with a milk bottle in a small grassy clearing to the left of the pens. Dr. Bekker—Auntie Anna, as Haki called her—glanced over her shoulder and gave them a relieved thumbs-up when Pippa hopped out of the jeep. She shook her head at her daughter, then ducked into their small vet clinic.

Judging from the absence of their rescue vehicles, Haki’s father and his crew had already been called off on mission. Dr. Kamau Odaba was a field veterinarian who’d been working at Busara from the start...and who’d fallen in love with Haki’s mother, Niara Juma, and had taken them both under his wing when Haki was five. He was the only father Haki had ever known, and the only one he ever wanted to. He and his mother had taken Kam’s last name after the marriage and his legal adoption. Since his father was Dr. Odaba, their staff avoided confusion by calling him Dr. Haki.

“Maybe I’m right,” Pippa said as she came around the jeep and leaned on the rim of Haki’s open window. “Maddie will need us as backup if she tells Uncle Ben she’s getting engaged. If you thought training with her dad was tough, can you imagine the vetting he’d put this poor guy through?”

“Good. He should.”

“Haki, have a heart.”

“Me?” He couldn’t help but chuckle. “You spent too much time hanging upside down from trees as a child. You haven’t even met this man who—I might add—is a figment of your overactive imagination, yet you’re already defending him. But say he does exist. What if he’s not good for her? What if you end up hating him?”

“I won’t because I trust Maddie’s judgment. I’m sure I’d adore any man worthy of her love.”

Haki rubbed his forehead, then restarted the jeep. Mosi, a small vervet monkey, squealed at them before scampering down a nearby fig tree and eyeing Pippa for food.

“My hands are empty, Mosi.”

The little guy was the only child of the late Ambosi, a three-legged vervet who’d been rescued by Dr. Bekker when Pippa and Haki were infants and who’d spent his life hanging around Busara for treats...or because of the amusing crush he seemed to have had on Dr. Bekker. He’d gotten quite jealous when Pippa’s father, Jack, had shown up at Busara. It was no secret that Pippa missed Ambosi. Everyone did.

“I have to get back to work, Pip.”

“I know. It’s just...” She wrinkled her nose and shrugged. “Never mind.”

“What is it?”

“Nothing. It was a totally selfish thought. Best to keep it in my head.”

“There’s not a selfish bone in your body. An uncontrollably wild imagination, yes. But not selfishness. Out with it.”

Pippa sighed and looked at Mosi, then gazed wistfully at the house that her and Haki’s parents had built after they’d married. It had been built for both families so they could live more comfortably at Busara. Both of their younger siblings had been born in that home. Maddie had played in that home.

“It hit me that I hardly get to see her as it is. Once she’s married or has children, she’ll be even busier. I want her to be happy, the way you and I are, but a part of me is afraid of losing her. See? Rotten selfishness. Don’t you dare repeat anything I just said.”

Haki grabbed one of her hands and pressed her knuckles to his lips.

“First, you’re going to freak Maddie out when she finds out you’ve planned her wedding with a man she’s never met. Second, you’ll always have me. And third, you’ll never lose her. She’s your cousin. She’s family.”

Pippa gave him a small smile.

“Okay. You’re the best, you know? Now, go save some animals or help catch some bad guys.” She ducked her head in the window and gave him a quick peck. “Be safe.”

“You, too,” he warned, then backed out. He pulled his sunglasses out of the glove compartment and slipped them on.

You’ll never lose her. She’s family. But he knew Maddie was more than just Pippa’s cousin. They were best friends the way Haki’s mother, Niara, and Anna were. Pippa was right about a woman’s strength. Their mothers had raised them both at Busara when the remote camp consisted of nothing more than a few tents and a water well. They’d had no amenities. No extravagances. Just each other. Pippa hadn’t had a lot of other girls around growing up out here.