Alice sighed as she looked out of the hotel window towards the grey city and its busy streets below. The roar of the cars, the distant sirens, the slight smell of rain. That scent that enhanced the dull smell of the city, the smell of something she wasn't used to, of somewhere she used to call home. She used to feel a strong sense of belonging to this place, Glasgow, it had been her home for 26 years of her life. But she didn't feel it anymore, she didn't belong. This wasn't where she wanted to be. There was only one place she felt complete, one place where she belonged.
Africa.
She missed it.
It had been there, everyday, in the background for the past 10 years. Everything she'd done it was there around her. As if it was her backbone, keeping her standing tall.
It made her blood surge around her body like the water rushes down the Victoria Falls, it made her eyes sparkle like its diamonds. It made her feet move across its earth in time with the beat of the drums. Its people made her smile widely, like the sun spreads its glaze across the skies, its sheer beauty sent tingles down her spine. The sound of the rustling leaves, the early morning lion roar, the grunting of a hippo down at the waterhole. The rhythm of the buffalos galloping across the land and the songs of the birds in the trees.
Africa's presence, when you're there you can feel it in the air circulating your body. But Alice wasn't there, she couldn't feel it surrounding her skin. No doubt it was with her, just not in the same way. It lied in her heart, in her head and her blood it just wasn't in the air. As soon as you step foot on such continent it injects you with its power, it gets under your skin and spreads through you like a disease. And once its there it doesn't leave. It pulls at your heartstrings as if you were a piece of meat being thrown around by a hyena and it will continue to pull until you return.
Alice knew that, she knew she had to get back.
Africa was where she was happiest. Where she met Danny, where her life flourished, where life was complete.
And for all that Africa meant to her, she was entirely grateful.