Fasade of the heart

She hears the helicopter long before it is visible. For some reason she is nervous and she watches the horizon over the treetops expectantly, as if she is waiting for something to happen. It appears low over the mopanies and with the setting sun right from behind, it looks like a big dragonfly, and the closer it gets the more it looks like the head of an alien. The large, dark eyes large and empty in the white head.

Janice stares with something between fascination and fear at the approaching object.

It darts fearlessly in their direction, missing the treetops just - just while the wind from the rotor blades flattens the grass at the bottom like a broom sweeping it. The tranquility of the Lowveld is supplanted by the deep thud of the turbine and with it a loud scream like that of a wolf calling his mate as it approaches the helicopter landing pad. Then it suddenly swerves to the left and chooses course in the opposite direction.Until it became quiet and she looked at Brett next to her, half dazed. He pulls his stocky shoulders apologetically and then scratches with his fingers through his short, red hair so that it stands upright. "He must have seen something," is all statement he can come up with. Yet he can not completely hide his sudden restlessness.

Janice bites her lower lip. She really hopes that there are no game thieves in the area again. It was quiet for a long time. And when they start catching game again, they always leave a trail of devastation behind. Animals that are mutilated in such a way that if they have not already been tortured to death, they should be evicted. She shivers. The evening twilight now drops rapidly and with it the icy winter breeze cuts through marrow and bone. She pulled the sheepskin jacket she had grabbed in passing as Brett invited her along tighter around her and then tied it tightly to keep the snarling wind away from her body. She suddenly regrets that she only had her hair cut again the previous afternoon, because her ear tips burned from the cold air. "Cold?" asked Brett as he noticed how she was coolly stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "A little," she admits and smiles reassuringly at her old varsity partner. "During the day it can be so hot, but as soon as the sun goes down, you want to freeze." "yeah that's true." Brett stares again in the direction where the helicopter disappeared. Then he mumbles: "I think I should call Jake on the radio and hear if Jeremy has noticed anything. After all, they are in radio contact with each other. " Brett walks around the vehicle and climbs in on the driver's side. She could not hear the thrust of the radio conversation, but as he climbed out, the worried wrinkle on his forehead disappeared. So there is nothing seriously wrong. Janice does not know what forced the pilot to disappear again. Brett says nothing when he comes back to her with his foot on the wheel of the Landrover. Janice curses the pilot who did not come ashore and Brett who sometimes blunts as much as a sealed can to explain something. "Jeremy is only testing the helicopter," he replied calmly. "It's the same one we rent from Titan helicopters every time we catch animals." The thought, however, does not bring tranquility. "The man is extremely nauseous," she murmured inwardly and wiped her fringe, which tossed the evening air, angrily backwards. "Why does he not just come ashore?" As if he heard her, the helicopter suddenly appeared on their left side and darted at them with dizzying speed. "Hell!" Brett notices breathlessly and Janice can literally hear the amazement and excitement in every letter of the word. "Fearless, no? I wish I was him. ""Bullshit!." The irritation in her voice obscured the growing anxiety inside her. "Whoever he is, he clearly thinks he is the shit." "There is nothing fantastic about the fact that she will sit next to that man in the helicopter the next day, but Janice is silent about this, a frown between her eyebrows. "No my girl," Brett decidedly shook his red head, "even though he thinks he is the shit, and he may just be able to fly like that, he still has to know his story."

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.

Can men get so excited? She wondered amused and put her hands in the pockets of her jacket. Brett, who is usually so quiet and speaks only the most necessary things, is now chirping and only flirts of the conversation are carried to Janice by the evening wind. From this she can deduce that the man is almost sung about his fearlessness. Then the pilot gets out of the helicopter and as she leans against the Landrover's mudguard, she gets the vague image of a pair of long legs dressed in khaki trousers.

However, it still takes several seconds before the two men step around the helicopter while the pilot makes sure everything is in order. It was when he was a few steps away from her that she blinked her eyes two or three times to make sure she did not see a ghost. But still the tall, blonde giant approaches and Janice finally has to admit that it is anything but a ghost. A slight shiver pulls like a harbinger all over her spine and her mouth suddenly feels cork dry. It's not her imagination. Only Jeremy Da Camara can walk with those long, comfortable but decisive steps as if the world belongs to him. Jeremy, the neighbor boy who went out with her sister, Lynette. Now then, Janice thinks breathlessly, the world is small after all. In her wildest dreams, she never thought she would ever see him again. The last thing she heard or saw from him was that much-discussed weekend when he returned home with a pass after going to the air force. She slowly gets up and grabs her elbows crossed over her chest, as if with the gesture she wants to protect herself, while forcing her face not to show the inner turmoil. There is no sign of the creepy boy body. His shoulders stretch wide under the khaki shirt with the green epaulettes and the golden goat's head. he is even taller than she remembers him, but the dense blonde hair is the same, she sees with some relief. He still wears it short, but his crest is longer and bounces lightly as he walks up. It gives a boyishness to the strong face that plucks at her heart. When they stopped in front of her, nothing indicated the sphinx-like features that thy recognized her. She also could not notice if he was looking at her at all, because despite the twilight he was wearing sunglasses and she could not see his eyes at all. "It's Janice Davis, the vet who's going to do the shooting," Brett introduces them to each other. "Janice Davis?" Something in the deep, calm voice let a shiver run down Janice's spine. She stands dead still, grateful for the sun that is diagonally behind her and prevents thy from seeing her face too. It at least gives her a chance to get her right. "Can Janice Davis even hold a gun?" He takes her hands carelessly and looks at them with a frown. The touch of his big hands made her stiffen, but when she wanted to pull it away, his grip tightened. Then he looked over her head and mockingly asked Brett: "These little hands are too fine for such a job. It would rather suit a glamor girl or a waitress. " "Watch out, young man," Brett laughed, putting his hands in his pockets, "Jake Morgan just trusts those soft little hands to work with his beloved game." "No?" Jeremy frowned lightly, as if he did not quite understand the thrust of Brett's words. "And what does the glamor girl do for a living?" When Janice tried to pull her hands out of his this time, annoyed at the conversation and the discomfort it was causing her, he immediately let go. They stand and talk as if she is transparent! The only reaction that indicates that he is fully aware of her discomfort is a slight twitch of his corner of his mouth. Janice turns to Brett and glares accusingly close. "Geeez, is that what I have to come here to do?" Hold a gun? " Frowning and with a touch of panic, she exclaimed: "I do not know how to hold a gun!" She looked Jeremy straight in the eye and smiled sweetly. "They could not find anyone else and found me in the bar. I'm stuck under the impression that I have to come to work in the bar. But don't worry, if that's what I have to do, I'll figure out before tomorrow morning what's the front and what's the back of a gun, provided you men now stop yawning and fasten the helicopter's rotor blades so that the wind does not flip it tonight. " As an afterthought, she adds: "It has been a long day. I am tired and cold from standing and waiting for you to finish drooling over a piece of tin." Out of the corner of her eye she saw the consternation on Brett's face. His mouth opens and closes like a fish struggling to breathe on dry land, but not a single sound comes out.