The hand on her waist tightened and his voice was filled with emotion.
“I thought he had killed me.” He sighed deeply. “You know how they say your whole life passes before your eyes? Well it didn’t. All I could think of was that the kids were at the house and he might come back. I tried to tell you, but I couldn’t talk and everyone kept telling me not to speak.”
“And so when you woke up from the coma, you couldn’t speak,” she said.
“Perhaps,” he said “But I don’t think so. I really couldn’t talk. I worked for over an hour trying to talk. I knew I could, but I couldn’t get a sound out. It was like my vocal cords opened for me to breath and closed when I held my breath, but that was it. Babies know how to cry when they are born, so using the vocal cords is autonomic – part of the autonomic nervous system. In other words, making noise through your larynx isn’t something you have to learn to do. And yet, I think I forgot how. Maybe because I was trying so hard and consciously trying to make it happen. I started making noise by coughing. Then I started letting the noise come out of my throat with my breath. After that, I could talk. It was the strangest thing. I wouldn’t have thought it possible.”
Seeing a speech therapist would have helped, but he managed to do it on his own. Whether it was physiological or psychological didn’t matter at this point. Finally he had fully recovered – or at least it appeared so. Maybe there would be residual problems, like his sleep pattern. Maybe that would change now too.
His attention shifted to the bear and she followed his gaze. “What about the cubs?”
He shook his head. “It’s too bad the game department was unable to get out here to get the mother when she was alive. They’ll have to be hand fed now, I guess. They’re too young to get along on their own.”
She stared up at him until he glanced down at her. His expression became wary.
“Oh no, not bears.”
“Why not? You wanted all kinds of North American wildlife on your safari. We did kill their mother.”
“Carmen, they’re half-grown cubs, not infants. They’re wild and might not even let us feed them.”
“But they might?”
He looked down at her, his eyes and face stern. “No. It’s too dangerous.”
That was his ‘final answer’ look which dictated there should be no more discussion. He started toward the bear.
“You’d better get back into the house. Destiny wasn’t awake yet when I left and Jonathan is watching her. Send Jonathan out. He’ll want to see this.”
She waited, watching as he approached the bear, gun ready. He booted it with his toe while holding the rifle at its head. Finally he squatted and examined it. Standing up, he said,
“Good shot. Ever eat bear meat?”
She shook her head, walking away. Why was it that anything dead was dead meat to a man? He wasn’t going to eat it, though.
“Great white hunter,” she said as she headed for the house. Behind her she heard him chuckle. It was a wonderful sound.