Busara told him, “Let’s celebrate. How about something to eat?”
“Fine!”
“Then come on. We’ll prepare it together.” A second later Busara added, “I forget you have servants. Do you know how to prepare a meal?”
“What I don’t know, you can show me.”
“That attitude will take you places, my son!” Busara put his arm around the smiling Metutu and led him into the pantry.
The year-round cool of the deeper cave passages made it possible to store greens in fresh-picked condition for quite a while. Busara found all the fruit and vegetables he needed in the flickering light of his lamp.
“I can’t believe this!” Metutu saw herbs and fruits that he knew were out of season. “This is incredible! You’re a genius!”
Busara laughed. “I make a mean fruit salad too.” He took a mango and took a sharp dagger from the wall that he used to slice it into this sections, then dice them.
“What is that??”
“It’s a man thing. There was a big male that drowned in the river a few years back. Very sad, but he was wearing this. I figured he didn’t need it anymore.”
“A man thing? But those are cursed!”
“No. The only time it’s cursed is when it rests in an evil hand. Funny thing about those big hairless creatures: for all their collections of things, they are mortal and full of fears just like us. Aiheu made us all for one reason or another. I haven’t figured out why he made their kind yet, but it’s enough just knowing he had a reason to show a little tolerance and understanding.” He smiled. “They do make some great stuff, though.”
“If you say so,” Metutu murmured, looking closely at the dagger but not touching it.
Later as they ate, Metutu glanced at the tooth of Asumini around Busara’s neck.
“Tell me more about the lioness.”
“She is probably listening right now,” Busara said. “She reveals herself to whom she will as the spirit moves her.”
“No, I mean as a person.”
Busara smiled. “She is full of love. Love that echoed through her cubs and now her grandson Ahadi who rules at Pride Rock. Our spirits are one, bound together eternally with cords that cannot be broken. She brought my family and I into the light. My debt to her could never be repaid.” He leaned over and kissed Kima. “My wife is very understanding about this--she shares me with Asumini. I think that if I’d spent that much time and affection on another mandrill....”
“I would have killed you,” Kima said, kissing his cheek. She turned to address Metutu directly. “Sometimes he sleeps next to her. At least she waits for him to fall asleep before she sneaks away. But when she was alive, that was even worse. She would sprawl out in the floor with Busara snuggled up against her. The two of them would snore like a thunderstorm. Sometimes he’d rub her stomach and her leg would kick.”
“You talk about her like a nuisance,” Busara said with a slight scowl. “I know you used to spend hours grooming her, picking ticks, and calling her ‘Fuzzy love.’ And those cubs: I thought you were going to fight her for custody!”
“Well sometimes she was a nuisance. But only sometimes.” Kima smiled reflectively. “She was always very sweet. Sometimes out of the blue she would say something absolutely wonderful that would take your breath away. Then you wanted to hug her and never let go. She was so wise about so many things.”
“They must be great philosophers. And I thought all they did was hunt.”
Busara laughed. “Oh my boy, what constitutes great philosophy? I remember the way she used to say it:
“You have lots of time to sit about in that odd crossed-legged stance to do thinking. That kind of time must be wonderful--I spend much time hunting and tending to my family. But even in my busy life, I have moments when I feel that small voice inside me speaking truths. I know what works for me.
“In one way, there are no mothers who aren’t philosophers. We use what works for us, and if you are interested, I would tell you some truths. For one thing, we see the beauty that surrounds us. The father sky, the mother earth, the dew on the grass. We know that God is beautiful, though we have not seen him. You can tell a mother’s looks by her cubs. Even so, we see the beauty of God in everything he made.’”
“My gods!” Metutu gasped.
Busara sighed. “Such pure, beautiful and childlike faith! Rather than dealing in vague concepts, she brought comfort for the spirit...words that help us face the pleasures and pains of life. Well my son, she helped me face them. She lived to be quite old for her kind, then she came here to die, and she has never left. Sometimes in the night you can see her keeping watch over me, my blessed Nisei whose prayers are always before the feet of Aiheu.” His eyes grew misty again. “To think she leaves the blessed presence of Aiheu to tarry in the shadows with me. She healed my spirit, and all I did was heal her body!”
Suddenly Busara looked around. “No, I didn’t exaggerate!” He listened for a moment, but all Metutu could hear was silence. “It’s true!”
“Was that her?”
“Yes. She’s among us. Apparently she has not revealed herself to you yet.”
“Well ask her to. If you ask her to, she will.”
“I believe it. But I will not ask her to. When she is ready, she will show herself.”
Busara’s daughter got up and reached down to touch something, though Metutu could not see a thing. “Is that her?” Metutu asked.
“Yes.”
Metutu reached out in that direction. Asumini scowled. “You drove her off! Give her time--she’ll come to you when she’s ready.”
“Will I know it?”
“She could chew you up and spit you out. I dare say you’ll know it.”
“Is she temperamental? I mean, is she good to you?”
Asumini said, “She was a second mother to me. She was very strict but very kind, like most lioness mothers. I could never get away with anything because she would tattle on me to Dad.”
“I bet you hated that.”
“No. She always took good care of me. I only wish I could have known her well before she died. When I was very young, I remember her grooming me. That seems so long ago. At least I could hide from her then." She looks to one side. "Cut it out, Auntie! You know I'm only teasing." Suddenly Asumini laughs. "In your dreams!"
Hearing only one side of this, Metutu felt odd. Still when Metutu sat his stick down for a while, it ended up moving mysteriously. “She is shy with newcomers, but she wants you to respect her existence. That’s her subtle way of saying ‘hello.’”
“Oh.” He looked around uncertainly. “Hello to you too.” Something dawned on him at last, and he burst out laughing.
Asumini looks at him strangely. “You think this is funny?”
“No, I think you are! Your father said Asumini scavenged carcasses for fat before the hyenas stripped them clean! I thought he meant you!”
“Are you so sure he didn’t?”
Metutu stared at her. “You are kidding--aren’t you?”
She grinned. “Well, I might be.”