Ch 2. AFRICA

The plane had arrived at Kilimanjaro International Airport in northern Tanzania. Tanzania was renowned for its large lion population and one of the best places to observe them in their natural environment. It also hosted one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa known as the Serengeti. It would be a perfect location for the family to have its safari but there was a catch. They would be doing it on their own. The company hosting the trip the family won would be providing vehicles and the hotel stay but everything else they would be doing on their own with only provided instructions on where to go and what to do, but no human guide. Apparently, the company was a bit stingy on hiring a guide to help the family on their safari.

The family made its way off the airplane and into the taxi that would take them to the Simba Hotel in town. Jason wondered what type of hotel this place would be.

"Hey big bro." Brad said.

"What?"

"Wanna bet this hotel we're going to be staying at for the next week is going to be lion themed?"

"Sure."

"I'll bet you $5.00 and here's why. "Simba" is actually the Swahili word for "lion". I found that out on the internet."

"Why didn't you just look up the hotel to see what it's really about?"

"Because I didn't need to, I wanted it to be a surprise and I know that I'm right. These types of places up the ante to overdrive for tourists. So, you better get that $5.00 ready."

"Sure bro." Jason complied. "Whatever you say."

You could tell from the outside that driving on the streets in Africa was much different from the United States. It was much more exotic like something out of a movie except it was the real deal. It had a modern type of look but somewhat tribal at the same time. Most of the people that were walking around currently were all dark skinned.

By the time they had reached the hotel it was well into the evening. The hotel had a very grand look to it, nothing like hotels in the United States. It just screamed exotic just from the outside exterior. It seemed to have a jungle theme to it with a tropical tree sitting in the middle of the parking lot. Brad was right about the hotel being lion themed especially considering the sign that carried the name "Simba Hotel" under its Swahili name. It had an illustration of a lion roaring. But nothing could prepare them for what awaited them inside. When they had all gotten their belongings and walked inside the whole thing just made their jaws want to drop except Brad of course. Everything inside the hotel was lion themed. There was lion art, lion shaped lamps, and even the designs all around had lions. It was as if this place was screaming, "Please stay inside me! I'm really exotic!"

Brad had to hold himself back from a chuckle. Tevin was dumbfounded, maybe even slightly embarrassed to even be standing inside here.

"I can't believe we have to stay at this place for a whole week," He said to his wife. "My sister is going to laugh at me when I tell her about this."

"So, what." Sarah said. "It's a…"

She looked around trying to find a good word to describe without being offensive.

"…little garish, but they obviously want tourists to feel welcome. Besides, its much better than staying at some run-down crappy motel somewhere that's infested with rodents. At least this place looks clean."

And it was clean. The lobby was bright and had the sense if you rubbed for dust with your fingers, you wouldn't get anything on your hands.

Tevin sighed.

"I guess your right honey." He said agreeing.

"But sheesh, could they at least tone down the whole lion thing? It's such a fuckin eyesore." He whispered.

They walked up to the desk where a young woman in traditional African garb was standing. She smiled at the family.

"Well hello." She said in a deep African accent. "Welcome to the Simba Hotel. My name is Penda, I'll be checking you in this evening. And you are?"

"We're the Miller family, we won that trip hosted by Prinsloo." He said.

"Ah yes. The one-week safari trip. Prinsloo uses our hotel every year. You must be the lucky family that won this year." She said smiling.

"Yes, that's correct." He said.

"Wonderful," She said, clapping both hands together "I'll just look at your pass provided by Prinsloo and I'll check you into our special president's suite that's built for up to six people."

"Thank you." He said.

She looked at the pass and typed into the computer checking the family into the hotel. Once that was done, she handed the pass back to him.

"Follow me please." She said.

She left her desk from the side and led the family down an ornate hallway with an elevator at the end.

"Your room is number 100 on the 10th floor. If you have any questions, just ring up the front desk." She said. "And here's your card to get into your room." She handed Tevin the card to get into the room they were staying in.

Sarah pressed the up button and after a few moments the door dinged and opened. The family walked inside leaving Penda outside facing inward.

"Have a pleasant stay with us." She said as the doors closed.

"She seems overly nice." Jason commented. His mom pressed the button with the number 10.

"It's just formalities. They want us to feel welcome." She said.

"Her English was pretty decent." Will said.

"Don't get any funny ideas Will." Sarah said sternly. "We're here on vacation, not so you can get a girl."

"Damn." He whispered.

The elevator stopped at floor number 10. The family went out into a hallway.

"Okay." Tevin said. "Room 100 should be just down here."

He led the family down the hallway of numbered doors down the right from the elevator. They were clearly going the right way since the numbers were going upwards. Ninety-five, ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine, and then one hundred. Tevin took the card and put it into the slot, opening the door into the suite.

Everyone walked inside and set their stuff down and shut the door behind them.

The room was everything they pretty much expected it to be. Much like the lobby, the room was lion themed but to a slightly lesser extent. There were two rooms with two king sized beds each, more than enough for the family. The beds had lion comforters. There was a small kitchen area in the back corner with a refrigerator and cabinets for food. There was also a flat screen TV on the wall.

"Well," Sarah said. "Why don't we get settled in for the evening."

"But we haven't had dinner." Brad said.

"It's okay we'll just order some food from the room just like back home." Sarah said.

"We can do that here?" Jason asked.

"Of course honey, I looked at this hotel and its amenities. They have a late-night cook that can make us anything that we want. And its provided at no extra charge. Let's just order a pizza and get settled in." She said.

Everyone took their things to the respective beds and got settled in for the evening. Will and Brad were on their phones while Jason laid in the bed, he was going to sleep in. In front of him was the TV, he decided to watch a little television while waiting for dinner to come. He turned it on and immediately set the language to English so that he could enjoy some TV. As he watched a TV show that did a documentary on lions he couldn't help but think it. This was just too good to be true. An all-expenses paid trip to Africa just for him and his family and on top of that, free food. It was almost like his simple family would be treated like kings, queens and princes for the next seven days. Could this trip get better as the week went on? He thought of all the most exciting things to do on the safari, most of which involved sketching. He would be able to draw rare animals in their natural habitats, if he and his family kept their distance and posed no threat. He just laid back on the nice and soft pillow and smiled. Then suddenly, his brother Brad jumped on the bed.

"Hey bro." He said. "Don't chicken out of your promise." He held out his hand expecting the money that was bet.

"A deal's a deal bro. Remember to go get that exchanged sometime tomorrow."

Jason went into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, then gave Brad a $5 bill and then put his wallet back into his pocket.

"Thank you." He said in a matter of fact tone, pocketed the money and went to his own bed.

Jason rested his hands on the back of his head and watched TV. He saw a lion chasing its antelope prey but there was something odd about it. The lion was entirely white from head to toe. Jason then realized that this lion looked exactly like the figure he saw in the clouds earlier. He was sure of it. Then, the lion stopped in its tracks and looked into the camera almost exactly as if it were looking right at Jason. Jason felt a shiver going up his spine. The lion's lips moved, and Jason heard the same voice once again in his ears.

"Jasiri." The lion said.

DING! The doorbell rung.

"That must be dinner, I'll go get it" Tevin said.

Jason snapped back and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. He looked back at the TV and the action seemed to be back to normal. Except it wasn't, the white lion was gone and instead there was just a regular lion chasing the antelope. Jason switched the channels to something with real people in it. He wondered to himself. Am I losing my mind? That was the second time that day he had seen the figure of a lion and what was scarier was the fact he saw it in a TV screen. He wondered if he would see the lion again in some other form.

"Oh God I hope I don't see it again." He thought.

Something pushed him slightly, it was Will.

"Hey daydreamer, dinner's already here and Mom ordered your favorite."

Jason's stomach started growling.

"Yeah, I could use some food."

"You've been acting off a bit today," Will said in a concerned tone. "Is something bothering you?"

Jason said nothing.

"Why would something even bother you man? We're on vacation on the other side of the world and we get mostly free stuff. Come on, lighten up a bit."

"You're right, I should." Jason said with a slight smile.

The family ate dinner on a makeshift table. The pizza was an extra-large meat lover's with sausage, pepperoni, ham, bacon and extra cheese. As Jason was eating, he thought about that one word. Jasiri. What did it mean? And why did he hear it again? Why was he seeing a lion saying this one word? He wasn't under any stress or anxiety or even depression for that matter so why was he seeing things. He decided to brush it aside and think of it no more, he wasn't going to let a hallucination ruin what could possibly be the best family vacation he had ever had.

"So," Tevin asked his wife with a mouthful of pizza. "What's on the agenda for tomorrow?"

Sarah swallowed her fill.

"We'll be starting off by going out into the savanna in a Jeep. They've got the routes for us provided so we can see the animals without disrupting their patterns. I think this'll be fun."

"I think it'll be boring." Brad said.

"Here." Tevin said playfully and stepped to his youngest son and grabbed him. "I'll give you boring."

He took a fist and rubbed it onto the top of Brad's head causing him to laugh.

"Dad quit it," He said while laughing. "That tickles."

Everyone else started laughing at Brad's predicament, even Jason which put him into a much better mood. Tevin let go of his son and smiled.

"Come on," He said. We're on vacation on the other side of the world. Let's make this the best family trip we've ever had!"

"Yeah! Lets!" Everyone else said.

The next couple of hours was spent playing card and trivia games. Will won the most trivia games with Jason being in second. Will and Jason both enjoyed things involving interesting topics such as movies, pop culture and Jason's favorite, art. The family winded down for the evening and got ready for bed after the games were played. This might have been the most fun that the family had in a long time. Luckily there were two separate bathrooms. The parents used the main one while the boys used the secondary one. There was only one sink in each bathroom, so they all had to share. Jason let his two brothers go first out of slight nervousness that he might see the lion figure again but this time in the mirror. At the same time, he was knocking himself for thinking such idiotic thoughts. When his brothers were done, he walked into the bathroom closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He reached the sink and opened his eyes to see there was nothing but his reflection. He sighed in relief.

"See, you're just seeing things."he thought, then started brushing his teeth.

He spit into the sink and looked up into the mirror, seeing the white lion standing right next to him in the mirror. "Jasiri." It said, its lips not moving.

Jason shook in fright and slowly turned to his side to see if the white lion was next to him. It wasn't. There was nothing there. He investigated the mirror and saw that once more the lion had disappeared. There was no one in the bathroom except for him. He took a deep breath and thought to himself, "I'm going insane."

Three times in one day he had seen hallucinations of a white lion. He was so shaking up that he didn't feel tired. He remembered that his mom kept sleeping pills in her purse. He went over to the other bedroom and saw that his dad was already in bed. Sarah had already put on her pink nightgown.

"Mom," Jason said. "Can I have one of your sleeping pills? All this excitement is keeping me awake."

Sarah had bought the half-lie and went to her purse pulling out a small white bottle. Then, she went into the bathroom and came out holding a small cup with water in one hand and two blue gel tablets in the other."

"Here," She said giving her son the water and pills. "Take two, it'll help you sleep better."

"Thanks," He said and swallowed the pills and water. After taking the pills he handed the cup back to her. She gave him a kiss on the forehead, "Sleep well Love. We've got a busy day tomorrow."

"Love you too, night." He said and walked out the bedroom into the one with his brothers.

He got settled in for the night and laid in bed next to his older brother and thought about that word. Jasiri. It had to mean something. He got out his phone and went onto the internet to search for that word. He looked up "Jasiri" and found this, "The name Jasiri is of Swahili origin and means Bold or courageous."

"Huhh." He thought. "So, I've been hearing the equivalent to the word "brave" three times today."

He wondered why he saw those things in the cloud and in the TV. Why he was hearing this one word. He decided once and for all that he was going to brush it all aside. After a while, the medicine kicked in and he became very drowsy.

"No more." He thought to himself and drifted off to sleep.