Текст книги "Elephant Song"

Автор книги: Wilbur Smith

Соавторы: Wilbur Smith
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Текущая страница: 19 (всего у книги 36 страниц)

For nine minutes more he enthraled them with the promise of bright new profits and skyrocketing dividends and then he ended, And so, ladies and gentlemen, what we see before us is Ubomo, the high road to the future of the African continent.  Hell!

Daniel whispered, his voice blanketed by the applause.  That's a blatant case of plagiarism.

The old bastard lifted it straight from me.  When Sir Peter sat down the company secretary gave them two minutes to express their approval fully before he leaned over his microphone.  My lords, ladies and gentlemen, I am now opening the meeting to the floor.  Are there any shareholders questions, please?  Your chairman and board will endeavour to answer them to the best of their ability.  His magnified voice was still reverberating through the ball when another voice cut in.  I have a question for the chairman.  It was a feminine voice, clear, self-assured, and surprisingly loud, so loud that on the dais Sir Peter winced.

Up until then Daniel had been trying to identify Doctor Kinnear in the body of the crowded hall, but without success.

She was either not present or she was obscured by the crush of other shareholders.  He had given up the search.

Now there was no mistaking her.  She was very much present, standing on her chair, three rows from the front.  Daniel grinned with delight.

The echoing volume of Kelly Kinnear's voice was explained.  She had armed herself with an electronic bull-horn.

How she had smuggled the device past the hawk-eyed security guards was a mystery, but now she was wielding it with telling effect.

So often at other meetings that Daniel had attended, the questions from the floor, no matter how pertinent or penetrating, had lost all their force simply because they were not audible to the bulk of the audience.

What did he say?  and Speak up!

were the cries that greeted them, and the game was lost with the first delivery.

This was not happening to Kelly Kinnear.  Perched high on her chair, in full view of the entire audience, she was lashing Sir Peter Harrison at a range of thirty paces in a ringing young voice.

She was smaller than Daniel had expected, but her neat little body was poised and graceful, almost birdlike, and there was a force and presence about her that transcended her physical size.  Mr.  Chairman, BOSS has very recently included the image of a green tree in the company emblem.

What I want to know is whether this is to enable you to cut it down?

There was a stunned silence.  Her sudden appearance had been greeted with amused and admiring smiles from most of the audience, the natural masculine reaction to a pretty girl, but now the smiles were replaced by puzzled expressions.  For thirty years, Sir Peter, Kelly Kinnear went on, ever since you have been chairman of BOSS, the slogan of the company has been "Dig it up!  " "Chop it down!  " or "Shoot it!  " The puzzled expressions turned to frowns, shareholders exchanged worried glances. For many years BOSS employed professional hunters to massacre wild animals.  The meat was used to feed the company's thousands of employees.  The policy of cheap food was only discontinued relatively recently.  That was the "shoot it" philosophy.  The back of Kelly Kinnear's slim sun-tanned neck was flushing with her mounting anger.

The thick dark braid of hair hanging down between her shoulder-blades twitched like the tail of a lioness.  For thirty years, BOSS has been ripping the mineral riches from Africa's soil and leaving gaping craters and devastation in its wake.  That's the "dig it up" mentality.

For thirty years, BOSS has been slashing down the natural forests and putting the land to cotton and ground-nuts and other cash crops that drain the soil, that poison it with nitrate fertilisers, that contaminate the streams and rivers.  That's the "chop it down" philosophy.  Her whole body quivered with indignation, a phenomenon that intrigued Daniel.  Those cash crops produce no food for the people who once lived upon the land.  They are forced to trek away from the devastation that BOSS has created to live in the odious slums of Africa's sprawling new towns.  These people are turned into outcasts by BOSS's greed.  Sir Peter turned his head and raised an eyebrow at the company secretary.  Obediently the secretary leapt to his feet.  Will you please state your name, and put your question briefly and clearly?

My name is Doctor Kelly Kinnear, and I am putting my question.  Will you just give me a chance?  That is not a question.

You are haranguing.  . Listen to me, she ordered, and hopped around on the chair to face the ballroom filled with shareholders.  For most of us, our personal welfare ranks far ahead of tropical forests and lakes in a faraway land.  The princely dividends paid by BOSS are more important to us than exotic birds and unfamiliar animals and tribes of indigenous people.  It's so easy to pay lip service to the environment as long as it doesn't affect our own pockets-'Order!  Order, please!

bawled the company secretary.  You are out of order, Doctor Kinnear.

You are not asking a question.  All right, Kelly rounded on him. I'll ask a question.  Is the chairman of BOSS aware that while we sit here, the tropical rain forests of Ubomo are being destroyed?  She glared at him.

Does the chairman realize that over fifty species of wildlife have become extinct in Ubomo as a direct result of the activities of BossFShame!  Sit down!  The death of a species affects us directly.

It will lead in the end to our own extinction, the death of man on earth.

There was a hum of indignation and outrage from the shareholders.

Sir Peter Harrison smiled and shook his head pityingly, making no attempt to respond to her attack.  He knew where the loyalty of his shareholders lay.  Sit down!  somebody shouted again.  You silly bitch!

Doctor Kinnear, the company secretary called, I must ask you to resume your seat at once.  This is a deliberate attempt to disrupt our proceedings.  I accuse you, Mr.  Chairman, Kelly pointed a quivering finger at Sir Peter, I accuse you of rape.  There were shouts of protest, some of the other shareholders were on their feet.  Shame!

The woman's a lunatic One of them attempted to pull Kelly down off her chair, but it was obvious that she had surrounded herself with a small group of supporters of her own, half a dozen young men and women in casual dress, but with determined expressions.  They closed up around her.  One of the young men pushed her attackers away.  Let her speaK!

I accuse you of the rape of Ubomo.

Already your bulldozers are ripping into the forest set her out of here!

Doctor Kinnear, if you don't heed the chair I will have no alternative but to have you forcibly removed.  I'm a shareholder.  I have every right-'Throw her out!  There, was confusion and uproar in the front of the hall, while on the dais Sir Peter Harrison looked bored and detached.

Answer me!  Kelly yelled at him, surrounded by her struggling cohorts.

Fifty species doomed to extinction so that you can drive around in your Rolls-'Ushers!  Ushers!  yelped the company secretary, and from every corner of the room the uniformed security men leapt, into the fray.

As one of them elbowed Daniel aside and charged forward, Daniel could not help himself.  He thrust out his right foot, a cunning little ankle-tap that knocked one of the usher's large black boots across his own ankle.  The man tripped himself and was hurled forward by his own momentum.  He flew headlong into a row of chairs and, amidst loud cries of protest and outrage, knocked the occupants into a heap.  Chairs crashed, and women screamed.

The press photographers loved it, and their flashes bloomed and lit the ball with a flickering like summer lightning.  While you mouth your sanctimonious platitudes and put a little green tree on the BOSS emblem, your bulldozers are tearing the guts out of one of the most vulnerable and precious forests in the world.  Kelly Kinnear's amplified voice rose above the uproar.  She was still on her chair, but swaying precariously in the storm that raged around her, a small heroic figure in the confusion.  Those forests do not belong to you.  They do not belong to the cruet military tyrant who has seized power in Ubomo and who is your accomplice in this atrocity.  Those forests belong to the Barnbuti pygmies, a tribe of gentle inoffensive people who have lived there since time immemorial.  We, the friends of the earth, and all decent people everywhere say "keep your greedy hands off the Three of the BOSS ushers formed a scrimmage line; in their black uniforms they resembled a New Zealand front rank.

They broke through her ring of defenders and reached up to drag Kelly Kinnear down from her perch.  Leave me alone, she yelled at them, and turned her bullhorn into an offensive weapon, raining blows upon them Until the trumpet cracked and shattered and she was defenceless.

Between them they dragged her down off her perch and bore her, kicking and clawing and biting, from the hall.  A kind of awed calm returned.

Like the survivors of a bomb blast, the shareholders picked up the chairs and straightened their clothing and examined themselves for injuries.

On the dais Sir Peter rose unhurriedly to his feet and resumed his place at the microphone.  Ladies and gentlemen, the floor show was unscheduled, I assure you.  On behalf of BOSS and my board, I sincerely apologize for this outburst.  If it served any useful purpose at all, it was as a graphic illustration of the difficulties we face when we try to improvE the lot of our fellow men.  Those who had been distracted gathered themselves and turned to listen to his rich dark seductive tones.  After the shrill denunciations and accusations, it was a soothing balm.

Doctor Kelly Kinnear is notorious for her intemperate views.

She has declared a one-woman war on the government of President Taffari of Ubomo.  She has, in fact, made as much of a nuisance of herself in that country as she did here tonight.

You have seen her in action, ladies and gentlemen, so you will not be particularly surprised to hear that she was deported from Ubomo, and formally declared an undesirable.  The vendetta that she is waging is personal and spiteful.  She sees herself as an injured party, and she is taking her revenge.

He paused again, and shook his head.  However, we must not make the mistake of believing that what we have witnessed tonight was the isolated act of some poor misguided soul.  Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, in this crazy new world of ours we are surrounded by the loonies of the left.  This lady, who has just left us.  They laughed uncertainly, beginning to recover from the effects of Kelly Kinnear's attempt at persuasion, this lady is one of those who prefers that tens of thousands of her fellow human beings suffer starvation and misery, rather than that a single tree be cut down, rather than that a single plough should run a furrow, rather than that a single animal should die. He paused and scowled at them sternly, exerting the full force of his personality, reasserting his control that for a minute had been shaken by the small determined woman with the loud-hailer.  This is nonsense. Man has as much right to life as any other species on this planet. However, BOSS recognizes its responsibility to the environment.  We are a green company committed to the wellbeing of all creatures on this earth, men and animals and plants.  Last year we spent over a hundred thousand pounds on environmental studies prior to proceeding with some of our enterprises.  One hundred thousand pounds, ladies and gentlemen, is a great deal of money.  He paused for the applause from his audience.

Daniel noted that he was careful not to compare this great deal of money to BOSS's taxable profits for the same period, profits of almost one billion pounds.

As the applause died away he continued.  We spent that money, not to impress anybody, not as some grand public relations gesture, but in a genuine and sincere attempt to do the right thing by all the world.  We know in our hearts that what we are doing is right and proper.  So do you, who are the most important members of BOSS, the shareholders.  Our conscience is clear, ladies and gentlemen!  We can go forward with confidence and enthusiasm to keep our company what it has always been, one of the great forces for good in an otherwise sad and naughty world.

The meeting overran its usual duration by almost twenty minutes, a great deal of extra time being devoted to a standing ovation for the chairman's impromptu speech.

For once the traditional vote of thanks was passed not by a show of hands, but by thunderous acclaim.  Tug hammers loony Greens was the headline in the tabloid press the following morning and the general consensus in the media was that it had been not so much a confrontation, as a massacre of the innocents.

There was no direct flight from Heathrow to Kahali in Ubomo.

Although the airport had been renamed the Ephrem Taffari airport, and twenty-five million dollars had been loaned by the World Bank to extend the main runway to accommodate intercontinental jet aircraft and to refurbish the airport buildings, there had been a series of delays in the construction work due to the fact that much of the original loan capital seemed to have evaporated.  Rumour in the streets of Kahali suggested that the missing funds had found a happy home in a numbered Swiss bank account.  Another twenty-five million was needed to complete the project and the World Bank was demanding unreasonable assurances and guarantees before supplying it.  In the meantime travellers were forced to travel to Ubomo via Nairobi.

Daniel and Bonny took the British Airways flight to Nairobi, and Daniel paid almost five hundred pounds in excess baggage charges for Bonny's video equipment.  In Nairobi they were obliged to overnight at the Norfolk Hotel before they could catch the scheduled flight to Kahali on Air Ubomc; which operated between the two capitals.

With a day to spare, Danny asked Bonny to shoot some background and filler footage.  What he really wanted was the opportunity to watch her in action and to get used to working with her in the field.  This was to be a dress rehearsal.  He hired a combi with a cut-out roof and a Kikuyu driver.  They drove out to the Nairobi National Park on the outskirts of the city.

The Park was another of Africa's surprises.  Within a few miles of the Lord Delamere bar in the Norfolk Hotel, it was possible to witness wild lions making their kills.  The boundary of the Park ran hard up against the Jorno Kenyatta Airport an the grazing herds of antelope did not even raise their Heads as the great jet aircraft on final approach howled only a few hundred feet above them.

Daniel had filmed in the Park many times over the past few years.

The Park warden was an old friend.  They greeted each other in Swahili and shook hands with the double grip, palm then thumb, of brothers.

The warden delegated one of his senior rangers to escort and guide them, and gave Daniel carte blanche to go anywhere, even to disregard one of the strictest Park rules and leave the vehicle to film on foot.

The ranger led them to a stand of flat-topped acacia forest beside the river where a huge bull rhino was in ponderous courtship with a female in full oestrus.  So absorbed were these antediluvian monsters with each other that Daniel and Bonny were able to leave the combi and creep up close.

Without making it obvious, Daniel was watching Bonny narrowly.  The Sony video camera was a top-of-the-range model, sleek in design but heavy even for a man to carry.  Daniel wanted to see How she handled it, and he made no offer to assist her.  With a sharp warning in Swahili, he prevented the black ranger when be made an attempt to do so.

He had come to know Bonny's body in the most intimate way over the past weeks.  He knew that there was no fat on her and that her limbs were clad in sleek hard muscle.  She was in the prime physical condition of a trained athlete.  In their playful wrestling contests he had been forced to extend his full strength to subdue her and get her to the bed when she challenged him outrageously to do so.  She enjoyed her lovemaking with plenty of rough and tumble.

Still, he was surprised at the ease with which she lifted the camera and her lightness and agility on her feet even in the heat of the acacia forest and over the broken ground.  The earth was studded with the spoor of rhino and buffalo that had been deeply trodden into the wet clay of the rainy season and was now baked hard as terracotta.  It could turn an unwary ankle and the wait-a-bit thorns were viciously hooked to catch in flesh or cloth.  Bonny avoided these snares with ease.

The bull rhino was displaying aggressively for the benefit of the female who had wandered into his territory and who he was now holding captive to his lust.  Every time she at-tempted to reach the boundary of his territory he headed her off, snorting and blowing-like a steam engine, raising gales of dust from under his high stamping feet.

The female swished her great grey backside from side to side in flirtatious refusal of his advances, affording him fleeting whiffs of her heady oestrus odours which drove him into further ecstasies of excitement.  Every few minutes he rushed away to scent mark the borders of his territory and warn off any possible rivals who might be tempted to trespass on this ardent courtship.

As soon as he reached the boundary, he pointed his rump at one of the trees or shrubs which were his signposts, curled his tail up on to his back, unsheathed his massive pink penis from the scabbard of grey wrinkled skin and, aiming backwards between his rear legs, released a cloud of urine with the force of a fire hose that almost flattened the target.  Honour satisfied, he rushed back, grunting with passion to the bashful female, who immediately fled towards the furthest boundary of his domain with him in full pursuit.

At the best of times the rhino is afflicted with poor eyesight, but now these two were almost completely blinded by singleminded passion.

Daniel and Bonny had to be alert and ready to run or dodge at any instant, for the rushes of the two inflamed creatures were wild and erratic.  Unless they were quick on their feet, they could be trampled by those horny pads or gutted by a random thrust of one of the long polished nose horns.

It was hard dangerous work with death only an instant or a foot away, but Bonny showed no fear at all.  Rather she seemed elated and excited by the danger.  Her eyes shone and the sweat soaked her flaming hair and darkened the back of her shirt as they ran side by side through the forest or ducked behind one of the acacia trunks to avoid a sudden random rush by one of the animals.

Apart from her lack of fear, Bonny showed a physical stamina that impressed Daniel.  He was unburdened by the equipment which she carried, and yet he was tiring in the heat and the dust while she seemed quite unaffected.

Suddenly the bull swirled without warning.  Perhaps he had detected a breath of their body smell through the clouds of love perfume with which the female was filling his wide flaring nostrils.  He charged straight at them and Daniel grabbed her arm.  Freeze!  he whispered urgently, and they sank to their knees and froze into utter stillness.

From a distance of twenty feet the big, creature confronted them, blowing and buffing and snorting.  His piggy eyes bloodshot with passion and fury, he peered myopically at them, waiting for some small movement that would convince him that they were neither a rock nor a bush, and thus worthy of the full weight of his jealous wrath.

Daniel tried to hold his breath, but his lungs were scalding from his exertions and he choked to breathe.  Suddenly he was aware of a faint electric whirring sound close to his left Ear, and he swivelled his eyes in their sockets without moving his head.

To his astonishment and incredulity, Bonny was still filming.

The lens of the Sony was only feet from the rhino's nose.  They could see right up his wide nostrils to the shiny wet pinkness of his nasal mucosa, and she was filming it.  That impressed Daniel as nothing before had done.

I've got myself one hell of a camera jockey, he thought.  Jock would have been on the next plane home by now.

Suddenly the rhino switched around, a movement so quick and agile that it seemed impossible in such a massive creature.

Love had triumphed over aggression.  He rushed back to his paramour, buffing and puffing with eagerness.

Bonny was laughing.  Daniel could not believe what he was hearing.

Come on!  She was on her feet again with a lithe bound.

By the time they caught up with the couple in a glade of pale grass beside the rocky watercourse, the cow had at last succumbed to the bull's persistent courtship.  She allowed him to place his chin on her rump, and she stood quiescent and submissive under this significant caress.  Get ready, Daniel warned Bonny.  It's going to happen at any moment.

Suddenly the bull reared up over the female.

Bonny captured every titanic convulse on, every straining, thrusting drive of the enormous bodies.  And then very swiftly it was over, and the bull -dropped off the cow and stood heaving and blowing from the effort.

You got it, and we've taken too many risks already, Daniel whispered.

Let's get out of here.  He took her arm and drew her away.

They retreated carefully, a pace at a time, watching the bull all the way.

A hundred yards from the two rhino, Daniel deemed them well out of harm's way and they set off towards the combi, still elated by the thrill and the danger, laughing and chatting, not bothering to look backwards, until Daniel snapped abruptly, Look out!

He's coming again.  The bull was charging straight at them, an ungainly gallop that did not swerve or deviate, glaring malevolently at them over the wickedly curved horn.  I think he's got our wind.  Daniel grabbed Bonny's arm.  He looked about them quickly.  The nearest cover was a small thorn bush twenty paces ahead.  Come on.  They ran for it together and crawled under the outstretched branches.  The hooked thorns raked their shirts and exposed skin.

He's still coming.  Bonny's voice was hoarse with dust and exertion.

Get down.  Keep still.  They crouched on the stony ground and watched in helpless horror as the rhino rushed straight at their hiding-place.

This time, he's not going to stop.  For the first time Bonny showed signs of fear.

Four tons of prehistoric monster, horned and menacing, towered over them.

It sniffed the thorn leaves that gave them such flimsy shelter and its breath rattled the branches and blew into their faces.

Then abruptly and unexpectedly, the bull switched around and presented them, at a range of only a few feet, with its fat rounded hindquarters.

They stared in horror as its penis unsheathed from between its back legs.

We are on his boundary, Daniel breathed.  He's going to mark this bush!

Us!

It pointed at them like a pink fire-hose.

We're trapped, Bonny wailed.  The thorns hemmed them in.  What can we do?

Just close your eyes, and think of England.  A steaming cloud engulfed them, blowing over them with the force of a tropical hurricane, not a simple jet but a storm of scalding liquid that sent Daniel's bush hat flying from his head and soaked them both to the skin.  The bull wriggled his tail with satisfaction, stamped his back feet and then charged away with the same impetuosity with which he had arrived.

Daniel and Bonny sat under the dripping thorn bush and stared at each other in horror.  Their faces were running wet as though they had stood out in the monsoon rain and the dour was overpowering.

Daniel moved first.  He wiped his face with the palm of his hand, a slow theatrical gesture beginning at the top of his forehead and ending at his chin.  Then he inspected his hand.  Now that he said in a sepulchral tone, really pisses me off !

For a moment Bonny continued to stare at him, and then she let out a shriek of wild mirth and they fell against each other and laughed.

Clinging together, sodden and stinking, they laughed until they couldn't stand up, and then they laughed some more.  Rhino urine had lacquered their hair into sticky dreadlocks, and stained their clothing with interesting patterns.

They sneaked into the Norfolk Hotel through the rear entrance behind the kitchens and fled across the lawns to their cottage suite, where they stood under the shower for twenty minutes and, still giggling, shampooed and soaped each other until their bodies glowed.

Later, in a towelling bathrobe, Daniel sat in front of the television set while Bonny connected up her equipment.

He gave all his attention to the screen and, from the first minute, knew that he had made the right choice in hiring Bonny Mahon.  Her technique was of superbly professional quality, and she had a fine eye and sense of timing.  She knew when she needed to be close in and when to pull back, but more important, and infinitely rarer, she had a distinctive style, the style that he had first recognized in her Arctic film.

You're good, he told her when the screen went blank.  You're damn good.

You don't know how good, she grinned at him.  I'm only just starting to get the feel of the light here.  It's different, you know.  Each place is different.  Give me another week and I'll show you just how good I am.

An hour later, dressed in clean clothing, they sauntered across the courtyard in the coot Kenyan dusk and stopped for a minute beside the aviary of wild birds in the centre of the lawn to admire the brilliant colours of the turacos and the goldbreasted starlings behind the wire.

Other guests were also drifting in the direction of the grill room.

Daniel had paid no attention to the small figure standing near them, until she turned towards him and greeted him by name.  Please forgive the intrusion.  You are Daniel Armstrong, aren't you?  Daniel started as he recognized her.  Doctor Kinnear!  The last time I saw you was at BOSS's annual general meeting.  Oh, were you there?  She laughed.  I didn't notice you.  No, you did seem to have other things on your mind at the time.  Daniel smiled back at her.  What happened to your bullhorn?

Were you ever able to get it repaired?  Japanese rubbish, Kelly Kinnear said.  A couple of good shots to the head and it falls to pieces.  She had a sense of humour of course'– he knew that from her writing, but her eyes were even lovelier than the photograph on the dust-jacket had suggested.  He liked her instantly.  It must have been obvious, for Bonny pulled her hand out of his, and he felt a twinge of guilt.  May I introduce you to my assistant, Bonny Mahon?  Actually, I'm a lighting cameraman, not an assistant, Bonny corrected him tartly.

Yes, Kelly agreed.  I know your work.  You filmed "Arctic Dream".  It was very good.

She had a disarmingly direct gaze and Bonny looked slightly abashed by the praise.  Thank you.  But I must warn you, I haven't read your book, Doctor Kinnear.  That puts you in a majority of several hundred million, Miss Mahon.  Kelly sensed the antagonism in the other woman but showed no sign of offence, and turned back to Daniel.  I think I have seen every one of your productions over the years.  In fact, you are responsible for me being in Africa at all.  When I graduated I was going to Borneo to work with the Penan tribe.

Then I saw one of your earlier series on the lakes of the Rift Valley.

That changed my mind.  After that I just had to come to Africa.

Kelly broke off and laughed softly with embarrassment.  I know that this will sound terribly jejune, but I am a fan of yours.  The truth is I've been hanging around here, just hoping to bump into you ever since I heard that you were in Nairobi.  I just had to talk to you.  You aren't staying here at the Norfolk, then?

Daniel was feeling better disposed to her every minute.  It is difficult to dislike someone who admits to being your fan.

Good Lord, no.  Kelly laughed again with surprising gusto.

She had perfect teeth, even her molars were free of fillings.  I'm not a successful TV producer.  I'm just a poor disadvantaged field researcher without a sponsor.  The Smithsonian pulled my grant after I was slung out of Ubomo by Taffari.  Let me stand you a steak then, Daniel offered. A steak!  I salivate at the thought.  I've been living on groundnuts and dried lake-fish since I got back.  Yes, why don't you join us, Doctor Kinnear?  said Bonny in a voice of poisoned honey, placing emphasis on the plural pronoun.  How sweet of you, Miss Mahon.

Kelly glanced at her coolly, and hostility flashed between them like a discharge of static electricity.  Their method of communication was too esoteric for Daniel to appreciate, and he smiled amiably.  Let's go and find some food, he said, and led them towards the doors of the This grill room that opened on to the court.

yard.  Are you going to film in Kenya?  Kelly asked.  What are you doing in Nairobi, Doctor Armstrong?  Danny, he invited her to drop the formalities.  We are on our way to Ubomo, as a matter of fact.  Ubomo!

Kelly stopped dead and looked up at him.  That's marvelous It's a perfect subject for you, a microcosm of emerging Africa.  You are one of the few people who could do it properly.  Your trust is flattering, but daunting.  Daniel smiled down at her.  For a moment he had forgotten Bonny, until she squeezed his arm to remind him that she was there. I'll pay for my supper by telling you all I know about the country, Kelly offered.  Deal, Daniel agreed, and they went into the mellow lighting and flower's and tinkling piano of the This room.

As the two women studied the menu, Daniel surreptitiously compared one with the other.

The obvious difference between them was size.  Bonny was almost six feet tall.  Kelly was six inches shorter, and they were different in many other ways, from the colour of their hair and eyes to their skin tones.