The Cake
Evan and Danny attempt to make Alice a cake for her birthday.
Danny walked slowly around the kitchen table, concentrating on a piece of crumpled paper that he held in front of him. He and Evan had just returned from the nearby market with ingredients, and Nomsa had left them some instructions. It was Alice's birthday- she had gone to the nearest town with Georgina to buy a dress for her party, due to take place that evening at Mara, the game reserve next door. Danny meanwhile, had decided that he wanted to do something sweet and personal for Alice, and had settled upon the idea of baking her own special cake for her. Having stumbled across a very bored Evan, he had enlisted him to help and the two of them now stood cluelessly in the kitchen at Leopard's Den.
"So have you ever actually done this before Danny?" Evan asked, rattling around in the cupboard for various bowls and spoons.
"I've never needed to. Nomsa is a cracking cook."
"Well yeah, but have you seriously never in your life baked a cake?"
"Er, no Evan, I don't think so. But you have surely, in home ec at school in the UK?"
Evan looked up guiltily.
"Er, actually I hold the record for the only student at my school to have been sent out of every cooking lesson I started."
There was a short silence.
"Oh well, we have instructions and our own, male intuition. How hard can it be?" Danny set the paper down next to some old fashioned looking weighing scales and sighed. Evan grinned and patted him on the back.
"You know Danny, most blokes go for roses, or chocolates or jewelry. Why did you think cake?"
"Well…. Because it shows I have actually…. You know, er… thought about it. Put the effort in."
"Danny?"
"Yes Evan?"
"You have gone very red."
A short while later, Nomsa decided that she had better check on the situation in the kitchen. She approached the closed door cautiously, and listened. There were busy sorts of sounds coming from inside. Was that good, or bad? She decided to find out just in case. Opening the door, she could not believe her eyes.
Danny stood at the sink, holding Evan's head under a tap which was turned on to full. Water splashed everywhere, and Evan was making some kind of strange gulping noise. Danny had a scouring pad type sponge in one hand and with the other he held Evan's head in the washing up bowl. There was flour all over the table, an empty sack lying discarded on the floor. A mixing bowl full of an unidentified mushy mixture was leaking its contents onto Du Plessis, who was desperately trying to scrub melted plastic off of one of the hob rings, which was still turned on and caused quite a bit of smoke. Silence ensued as she entered the kitchen and the door swung shut.
"Er….Nomsa."
"I do not believe it. A highly qualified vet, a clever young man and a mad old Africana…. Can cause all of this?"
"Hey, who are you calling mad and old, woman?" Du Plessis half yelled from his scrubbing position, promptly burning himself on the hob. Nomsa strode over and turned the hob off, grabbing the mixing bowl before it could do any more damage.
"Danny, what on earth are you doing to Evan?" she looked shocked as Evan stood up straight, dripping and dazed.
"I got pepper in my eyes. He was just washing it out for me."
"Pepper? Why were you using pepper in a cake?"
"I wasn't, I thought it was….. something else."
Danny stood sheepishly, a sponge dripping onto the floor in his hand, and his shirt covered in water and grimy flour.
"Nomsa, the instructions, they got…. Destroyed."
"They're not the only thing in this kitchen to have been destroyed. Out, all of you!" she bustled them all to the door.
"But Alice's cake!" Danny looked upset.
"I will deal with Alice's cake. Out now! Before any damage is done that I can't reverse."
Having no choice but to obey, the three of them left the kitchen, leaving the fate of Alice's cake in Nomsa's very capable hands.
"Happy birthday dear Alice….. happy birthday to you." The song finished and everyone clapped. Rowan hugged his sister and stepped back so that Grace and Vanessa could do the same, and the crowd parted to let Nomsa bring her cake through. Danny and Evan looked at each other helplessly.
"Wow! Thanks Nomsa!" Alice looked really happy, and blew out all the candle on the immaculate and delicious looking cake.
"Don't look at me. Danny and Evan made it for you while you were gone." Nomsa winked at the two failed chefs behind Alice's back, and laid the cake down on the table. Alice looked unbelievably touched, and smiled at Danny, who was speechless.
"You two made that for me?"
Evan nodded quickly.
"It was Danny's idea. I just…. Helped to wash up. And stuff."
Alice put a hand to her throat and looked at her cake.
"Danny…. Thank you. No-one ever made me a cake before." She looked like she might cry.
"Its.. its ok," Danny said quietly, hoping that Nomsa would feel the gratitude he was emitting. He hugged Alice awkwardly, Evan joining them. After a few seconds they all stepped back, and Georgina cut the cake ready to share out. Alice studied Evan's face.
"Evan, why are your eyes red? Are you alright?"
"Er, yeah I'm fine. Dup threw sand in them this morning."
Alice looked confusedly at Du Plessis, who thankfully caught on quite quickly.
"I was drunk," he shrugged. "It was an accident, boy."
Alice left it there and took a slice of cake. Rowan handed a slice each to Danny and Evan, who looked at each other with relief. Would she realize?
"Danny," Alice said when they had a quiet minute.
"Thanks for my cake. It's the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me."
"Its ok Alice, really. Have you really never had a birthday cake?"
"Well, Rowan tried to make me one when we were kids, but it tasted nasty."
"I heard that," Rowan said, walking past them with an amused smile.
"Seriously Danny, I'm really touched."
"Well, you have become… a very important person here, to all of us. And... to me."
She smiled and linked her arm through his.
"I wouldn't be anywhere else in the world."
In that instant, the disaster, the flour nor the cake did not matter. It was just the two of them, together, under the African sun with their family and friends around them. And there really was nowhere else that they would rather be.
Reviews welcomed! Man I love this show.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Wild at Heart, nor do I profess to in any way.
