Mists of the Serengeti(26)

I didn’t get too far. Everything had turned thick and gray. The mist rolled around me in smoky swirls, giving me a tiny peek before shrouding it again. I walked one way, saw something, and started walking in that direction instead. After a few minutes, I was completely lost, completely disoriented. I didn’t know if I was walking toward the crater or away from it.

“Hello? Can anyone hear me?” My hair clung dankly to my head as I held my hands out, trying to steer my way out of the heavy, silver labyrinth.

Something shifted in front of me.

“Jack? Is that you? Anyone there?” I turned to follow the movement.

A gigantic, dark figure rose ahead of me. It had the ghostly outline of a person but with arms and legs elongated way beyond proportion. Its head was sheathed in a shimmering ring, like a hazy, rainbow halo. I blinked, pretty sure I was imagining the unnerving apparition, but it stood there, as real and chilling as the droplets of water clinging to my skin. I took a step back, and it moved with me.

Motherfucker.

I turned and sprinted blindly, stumbling over the uneven ground. I thought I heard my name, and then the fall of heavy footsteps behind me. I picked up my pace, high on the fumes of adrenaline, but it was no use. A strong grip clamped around my wrist and spun me around.

“What the hell, Rodel? Didn’t you hear me? Why are you running?”

“Jack!” I let out a soft gasp. “Thank God. That thing.” I looked over his shoulder, my chest heaving. “Did you see?” I broke away from him, searching for it.

“Listen to me.” He pulled me back with such force that I crashed into him. “Stop moving. You hear me? Stop. Fucking. Moving.”

The urgency in his voice shackled my floundering footsteps.

“You were this close to the edge.” He left an inch between his thumb and forefinger. “This close. What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” He was furious, his face a glowering mask of rage.

“Listen to me!” I yanked my hand away, my heart still black with fright. “I saw something. A ghost. A dark figure. I don’t know what it was, but it was following me.”

Jack ran his hand through his hair. It was damp from the mist. Or maybe his shower. His hair was darker when wet, the ends curled up to an almost decent length.

“Was it big?” he asked. “Long arms, long legs?”

“Yes.”

“Rainbow colors around the silhouette?”

“Around its head. Yes.”

He let out a deep breath. “Rodel?”

“What?”

“Don’t go wandering off without me, okay?” He started walking away from me. He seemed to know exactly where he was going.

“Wait.” I wasn’t about to lose sight of him. “Are you going to tell me what it was?”

“We’ll talk inside.”

I followed him into the dining room and waited until we were seated.

“How did you do that?” I asked, after the waiter brought our food.

“Do what?”

“Find me. And then find the dining room in the mist.”

“When you spend a lot of time in the wild with no markers, no buildings, no road signs, you learn to keep track up here.” He tapped his temple. “How many paces, which way. As far as you’re concerned, I just followed your voice and footsteps. It’s not hard once you know what you’re tracking. I just didn’t expect you to start running toward the cliff.”

“It was that thing.” A shiver went through me that had nothing to do with the cold. “What the hell is out there, Jack?”

“Nothing.” He buttered a piece of toast and handed it to me. “You just witnessed an optical illusion called the Brocken Spectre.”

“The broken what?”

“Brocken Spectre. B-R-O-C-K-E-N. It was your own shadow projected in front of you through the mist.” He took a bite of his toast and washed it down with a swig of Coca-Cola.

“That was no shadow, Jack. It was huge, and there were these colored lights around it.”

“I’ve seen it.” Jack nodded. “Once. While climbing Kili—Mount Kilimanjaro. It doesn’t happen too often. Only under specific conditions. The sun must be behind you, low in the horizon, to cast that kind of shadow. The rainbow-colored halo is produced by light backscattered through a cloud of water droplets. Depth perception is altered by the mist, so it appears distant and larger than expected.”

“But it moved. I don’t just mean with me. It did that too, but it was . . . it wasn’t just dull and flat like a shadow. It was changing.”

“That’s because the mist is thicker in some parts and thinner in others, so there’s a play of light involved.” Jack finished his plate and signaled to mine. “Are you going to eat your breakfast?”

“I’m just . . . it’s fascinating.” It made sense when I thought about it. “I wish I’d known. I’d have taken the time to study it instead of freaking the hell out.”

“What we don’t understand always scares us.”

“Yes, but now that I know, I find it rather beautiful. I mean, I was something much bigger for a moment. With the longest arms and legs, everything within my reach. And let’s not forget my spectacular rainbow halo. I may look ordinary, but I am freaking magical!”