AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Ah, you and your old Maasai sayings,’ I tease.
‘Look.’ Dominic points through the windscreen. ‘A spring hare.’
There’s just enough light to pick out a tiny thing, like a miniature kangaroo, that hops across in front of us at breakneck speed and then bounds away, consumed by the darkness once more.
‘We will be there very soon,’ he says with a grin and, sure enough, a few minutes later we stop, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
‘Here?’
‘You must trust me,’ my Maasai warrior says.
We get out of the bus – no matter that there are wild animals all over the place – and walk into the darkness. I suddenly realise there are other people here and it’s only when there’s a blast of flame ahead of us that I see the enormous hot-air balloon filling the sky.
‘Wow,’ I say in awe. ‘This is for us?’
‘Yes.’ Dominic nods. ‘To take a balloon flight over the Maasai Mara is one of the things that you must do in your life.’ He grins at me.
‘Omigod. Omigod!’ I shriek and do a happy dance. ‘I can’t believe it.’
My lover grins. ‘Happy Christmas, my Janie.’
‘Happy Christmas, Dominic.’ I kiss him warmly. ‘I’ll never forget this for as long as I live.’
To think that I could be shivering at home in Buckinghamshire in front of my fire with Archie and a Christmas dinner for one. My mind turns to Mike and I hope that he’s doing OK. How can I ever thank him enough for helping make this happen for me?
Dominic shakes hands and exchanges a few words with the man who I assume is our pilot. Then, while the crew prepare the balloon, filling it with dramatic blasts of golden-blue fire, we stand and watch.
‘We need to get going,’ the pilot says and with the briefest of briefings, we’re helped into the large wicker basket that’s still pegged to the ground.
‘There’s just the two of us?’
‘Just the two of us.’
And so we take off, whooshed into the clear starlit sky above the Maasai Mara. Higher and higher we go until we’re travelling way above the treetops. The sun starts to peep over the horizon, flooding the plains with a soft golden light. It’s warm in the balloon and we drift serenely at the whim of the wind, and the only sound is the intermittent noise of the burner.
Dominic puts his arm around me and points to the ground. ‘Hyena.’
Below us, a pack of six spotted hyena run along, keeping pace with the balloon. Herds of wildebeest do their ungainly gallop across the plains and skittish gazelles dart to and fro as we pass overhead. The sun climbs higher and the land is transformed. The Maasai Mara stretches as far as the eye can see, banded only on one side by the massive Oloololo escarpment. Three lions wander below us in search of a daytime sleeping spot, giving us an indifferent gaze as they go. In the distance, a male ostrich does his very best strutting dance to a seated female who seems terminally uninterested.
We brush the trees where a group of giraffes are having breakfast, but they carry on chewing, unworried by our presence.
‘This is magical,’ I say to Dominic, tears in my eyes. ‘Truly magical. Thank you so much.’
We drift quietly above the landscape until the sun is high in the sky. Already the temperature is climbing.
‘Look like a good place for breakfast?’ the pilot asks as he points ahead of himself.
There’s a lone acacia tree with nothing around it for miles. Beneath it is a table set for two.
‘Oh, Dominic,’ I cry. ‘It looks wonderful.’
We come down, skimming the ground until the balloon comes gently to rest. Dominic helps me out and then takes me to the table. There’s a van parked a discreet distance from us and at the back of it, a man in chef’s whites with a gas range is preparing to rustle us up a cooked breakfast.
Beneath the dappled shade of the acacia, I’m served fresh fluffy pancakes with maple syrup and then a full English of bacon and eggs and proper British sausages. The toast is bucks fizz for me and milk for Dominic.
What would my friends think if they could see me now? Would they realise that Dominic is sincere? That this isn’t about him fleecing some gullible tourist? Would they be jealous that the men in their lives aren’t so thoughtful?
‘Thank you for making this happen,’ I say. ‘This is the most perfect Christmas I’ve ever had. Thank you so much.’
‘Nothing is too much trouble for my Janie,’ Dominic says.
‘Dominic,’ my mouth is dry despite the bucks fizz, ‘I must tell you this.’
He waits patiently while I find the unfamiliar words.
‘I love you,’ I say.
