Chapter 2

The helicopter swerves again and disappears from their field of vision, although this time the deafening roar of the rotor blades only remains audible. Anyone who can fly a helicopter may be excellent for Brett, Janice thinks sympathetically. She and Brett have known each other since their first year at varsity. In their second year at varsity, Brett had to quit veterinary science after his father died and he did not stand a chance for student debt. He got a job as a ranger with Jake and Maggie Morgan came here to work on Dikhololo, a game farm between Brits and Borakalalo National Park. Now he studies extramural and saves every penny he can. "One day…" she heard him say angrily, "one day I will make my dream come true and I will fly that machine!" Janice suddenly has a need to caress his tense shoulders, but does not. Brett would not appreciate sympathy. "Private flying lessons will cost a small fortune. Why did you not join the Air Force after matric and learn to fly through them? "I know a guy who did it that way, even though his father could probably have afforded him hundreds of private lessons," she asks instead. He shrugs and replies bluntly, "Stupidity." Janice knows him well enough not to discuss the subject further when he uses that tone of voice. "Why did Jake get a strange pilot this time to dart the animals? Gabriel and I worked well together and understood each other. ” Janice shudders and folds her arms to catch some body heat in the jacket. Can the man not come and land so that they can go home? Tomorrow morning they have to wake up early so that at first light they can start dividing the herds and repelling the marked animals. But it seems to her that this is a boy gentleman and he would rather play with the helicopter. Sober knows where he has now disappeared to. She's suddenly very sorry she allowed Brett to persuade her to come along. She has a difficult day behind her. It feels to Janice that all the animals in the area waited until Adrian, her employer, and his wife left for a long, delayed vacation overseas before they became ill. Fortunately, he got a locum that can help her in practice, but he is young and still inexperienced. She had to look at a farmer's stud bull on the other side of Brits this afternoon. She drove straight from there to Dikhololo, where she will help shoot the animals with drug darts from the helicopter for the next three days. In two weeks there will be a game auction and Jake wants to take ten blue wildebeest there, but until then the animals have to be isolated in the bomas to make sure they are healthy. Janice looked at her watch and sighed for the umpteenth time. Brett said they were only going to pick up the pilot at the helicopter landing pad, but now it's much longer. She could have gone to greet Maggie, Jake's wife, instead. Although they are much older than Janice, from the first day they met, Maggie was more of a sister to her than Lynette ever was. She also desires a long, hot bath and a bed. Even if it is not her own double bed in her house, but a single bed in a strange room. "Gabriel's wife had to see a doctor in Pretoria he felt he had to go along," Brett interrupted her thoughts. "Where did Jake scrape this guy out?" Janice now wants to know. "Jeremy and Jake have known each other for a long time and he offered when he heard Jake was looking for a pilot." The helicopter appeared on their left and made a wide turn to turn in the wind and as it approached the landing pad, Brett shouted hard to make him audible above the noise: "Do not worry so much, Jeremy is one of the best chopper pilots I've ever seen and will not crash you!" Janice snores unfemininely, but Brett does not hear it at all. She wanted to ask even more about the Jeremy guy causing so much excitement in her old student friend's eyes, but all further questions will have to wait until later. Janice was hiding behind the Landrover when the wind from the rotor blades kicked up a violent dust storm and closed her eyes tightly. She dared to open them again when the turbine stopped and the worst dust settled. Brett no longer stands next to her. And when Janice looked around, she saw him running to the helicopter. He gestures excitedly with his arms as he talks to the pilot inside. For Janice, the person is just a vague image of which a pair of boots is all she can see. The last rays of the sun shine against the windshield and effectively wipe the man behind it.