THE SOUNDS IN THE SILENCE

 

I am sitting in my bed in my tent. It is still outside, I can hear the varying speeds of the pitter pattering of small critters scurrying across the roof of my tent and the floor boards of my kitchen deck. It has been extraordinarily windy for the past few days and the silent contrast now that the canvas flapping and branches scratching has stopped, has me straining to hear every tiny sound. I am alone up here (well as in the only human) because Line is on the Limpopo farm where she met Dr Caldwell and went flying off to vaccinate and administer contraception to our giraffes. Being alone after the windstorms, comes along with a whole multi-layered listening experience. I can hear jackal calling from two different directions, I hear aardvarks tuttering, I hear jaguars ratcheting and an owl woowing.

The silence is enhanced by the absence of the inverter which I could not get started up tonight. I tried and tried with a tenacity I wished someone were around to witness, but I failed. As a result of failing to start the inverter, I sit in darkness and that has a depth of silence all of its own. I would normally disguise it by watching Netflix on my phone, but I have plugged my phone into the bakkie to charge. I do however have two candles.

The radio station SAfm will be calling me at 4am to do an interview jointly for Woman’s Day and World Lion Day. I need to keep a clear head. I need to sleep now in order that I might wake at 3am so that I do not sound half asleep during the interview. I need my phone which is charging out there in the bakkie. I hear a loud thud and plastic scuffling as my bag of apples falls to the ground outside in the kitchen, I wonder if the apple thieves are genets or grey mongooses.

My dog does not bark. A dormouse scurries across the top of the wattle pole that our jackets hang from and disappears into my chest of drawers. I do not have a single item of clothing which is not riddled in rodent nibbles.

One lion starts up in a prelude to a roar but does not follow through and is not joined by the other 8 lions outside my tent. It is a night for the small creatures.