Chapter 11 - The Aftermath:

Tarzan groggily opened his eyes as the watery sun lit up the jungle around them. As he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, he hoped that all of what happened last night was in actual fact just some horrific nightmare. Then he saw Jane curled up beside him, pale as the moon and tears trickling down her face as she cried in her sleep. Then he saw the grave and his heart sank. It was true, it was all true. They really did lost their baby.

"Jane," he whispered as he gently touched his wife's shoulder, "we better get back. Everyone will be wondering where we are." Jane said nothing and when Tarzan tried to pick her up, she resisted and crawled to back to their baby's grave. "We'll come back soon," he coaxed softly, "I promise." Jane finally relented and let Tarzan carry her like a baby all the way to back to the family nesting area.

"Oh Tarzan!" Kala cried as she saw the two of them enter the nesting area, "You're back and you've found Jane!"

"Tarzan! Jane!" Archimedes exclaimed as he rushed over to them, "Kala told me about Jane going missing and -" Archimedes stopped in his tracks at the sight of his dishevelled and distressed daughter, who laid almost lifeless in Tarzan's arms.

"Janey Jane, what on earth has happened to you?" he exclaimed but Tarzan ignored them and walked over to his and Jane's nest where he carefully laid her down. When he came back, he noticed that the rest of the gorillas had come back after it was signalled to them that Tarzan and Jane had returned.

"Tarzan!" Archimedes demanded as he pushed his way through the throng to get to his son-in-law, "What on earth is going on? What's happened to Jane? Is she alright?"

"She's lost it," Tarzan managed to say in a choked whisper.

"Speak up boy!" Archimedes snapped as he become more and more frustrated, "What has happened to my Jane?"

"She has lost the baby!" Tarzan bellowed, "She has lost our son!" His words resonated through the jungle; all the gorillas went silent and stared at him in utter disbelief.

"Oh Tarzan… I'm so sorry," Kala said as she placed her hand on her son's heaving shoulders. Tarzan abruptly shirked off his mother's gesture of condolence and rushed back to the nest to comfort Jane.

After that fateful day, not a single word uttered from Jane's lips. She would sit in the nest all day, just staring into space, her eyes wide and her face completely expressionless. She would only eat or drink if Tarzan made her and he would take her to the river where he would wash her himself in the shallow waters. When they needed to move to a new nesting place, he carried her in his arms as she was still too weak to walk after the miscarriage.

The gorillas agreed that for the meantime Terk's mate Gobu would take over as leader so that Tarzan could tend to his wife full time. Tarzan thought at first that Jane's muteness was a common practice for female humans to adopt when grieving. But when a fortnight went by and still Jane did not speak, he knew then that something was not right. He asked his father-in-law to physically examine Jane. Archimedes, with his little medical knowledge and some medical textbooks that he had stored in the treehouse concluded that all the pregnancy tissue had left Jane's body and that she had stopped bleeding.

"She is healing pretty well," he said to Tarzan, "there is no doubt in my mind that you two will be able to conceive again in the near future."

"But Professor, what about her voice?" Tarzan asked desperately as Jane continued to sit and stare into nothing. Archimedes proceeded to look at his daughter's throat and check her vocal cords, Jane opening and closing her mouth without protest. After looking through a couple of books, Archimedes took Tarzan over to one side.

"Her vocal cords are not damaged and there is no soreness of the throat," he explained slowly. "I believe Janey-Jane is suffering from 'traumatic mutism.' After a terrible event such as this, a person's mind can stop them from speaking. It is believed to be a maladaptive coping mechanism to combat shock and grief."

"So what we can do?" Tarzan demanded. He would do anything to get his wife to talk again.

"We just have to be patient with her," Archimedes sighed sadly, "keep talking to her, encourage her to talk, reassure her that everything is going to get better. Grief is a strange emotion Tarzan my boy. Everyone deals with it in different ways. Jane's way of coping it seems is silence."

Time passed by and Jane continued to be silent as the most devout nun. Tarzan with a guilt-laden heart eventually decided that it was time for him to return to his duties as the family leader. Every day as he patrolled their territory the female gorillas would take turns in looking after Jane.

Some of them would chat away to her and try to get her to talk. Some of them would keep silent themselves, either not knowing what to say or using Jane's muteness as a way of gaining some peace and quiet. The teenage gorillas would try to wriggle out of looking after her, seeing it as a dull chore. The young gorilla infants would try to make Jane laugh, pulling faces and cracking jokes. But Jane's mouth would never move and she would turn her head away. The sight of happy children which before was a delight to her was now absolute torture.

There were even a couple of older gorillas who secretly grumbled that Jane was just being over dramatic and that she should move on and conceive another infant. Of course, they would not dare voice their opinion out loud for fear of facing Tarzan's wrath!

"Here you go Jane," Kala peeled a banana with her feet and broke off a piece for her to eat. Jane gently took it and silently chewed whilst little Keke played at their feet. "Jane," Kala smiled tenderly, "you need to talk to Tarzan. He's very worried about you darling. He wants to help you but he can't if you don't let him in."

"Aunty Kala! Aunty Jane!" Keke interrupted and crawled into Jane's lap, "Wanna hear my joke? What do baby gorillas sleep in? Apricots! Get it? Ape-ri-cots!" Kala couldn't help but chuckle at Keke's joke whilst Jane's mouth started to move.

"Will I ever move on Kala?" Jane's voice was all cracked and dry from weeks of silence. Kala hid her amazement, not wanting to frighten her daughter-in-law back into silence.

"You take it one day at a time. I lost my Inzozi not long after he came into this world." Jane turned her head to look at Kala in surprise. She never knew that Kala had any children of her own before finding Tarzan. "Sabor the leopard took him," Kala continued, "I felt as if my whole world had fallen apart and nothing could fix it."

"Do you still think of Inzozi?" Jane asked as she watched Keke start to play with a colourful butterfly.

"Of course," Kala nodded, "I think about him most days. But Jane, you will find joy and happiness again. It will take time to heal but you will be able to love life again. Besides your baby will always be in your heart." Kala gently took Jane's hand and placed it on her chest. Jane listened and swore that she could feel her baby's heartbeat beating alongside hers.

"Do you think Tarzan blames me? For losing our son?"

"No!" Kala exclaimed and grabbed Jane's hand, "No of course he doesn't blame you! He has been worried sick about you! But Jane, you have to let him in. Hey may seem like a strong and powerful man but this is killing him inside. You need to grieve together, not shut each other out like Kerchak and I did. Don't make the same mistakes we did." Jane and Karla turned to watch Keke giggle as she tried to catch the butterfly but to no avail.

"Will I ever laugh again?" Jane said, her hand still holding Kala's.

"You will," Kala smiled as she squeezed it, "when something is really funny, I promise."

As the sun began to set Tarzan returned home. His shoulders which he once held so high were now stooped. All the animals noticed a change in their king. He no longer found any joy in vine swinging or branch surfing. He was a complete shadow of his former self.

"Good evening Tarzan," Kala smiled as she approached him, Keke sleeping contently on her back.

"Hello Mum," Tarzan forced a weak smile, "how was babysitting?"

"Oh fine," Kala's lips formed a rather mischievous smile, "why don't you go to your nest? I think you will like what you see." Without saying another word, she walked off leaving Tarzan puzzled at his mother's cryptic words.

When he approached his and Jane's nest, he couldn't help but gasp. The nest was freshly made and garlands of flowers surrounded it, infusing the air with their heavenly scent. Jane was sitting cross-legged in the nest and she gave her husband a small smile. She had washed herself and wore a clean skirt and bodice. She had braided her long brown hair into a French plait and a lily bloomed at her temple. Tarzan could also see that she had prepared them dinner.

With Kala's help, she took various roots and leaves to make a salad and mixed in some crushed nuts. There were also various fruits to eat and coconut water to drink. Whilst Kala gathered the fruits and vegetables, Jane had caught a small pile of river crayfish and grilled them over a small fire. "It's not much," she said anxiously, "I hope you like it."

"Jane!" Tarzan gasped, "You're, you're talking!" Jane handed him an open coconut to drink and the two of them ate together with Jane quietly asking Tarzan about his day.

"I'm so sorry Tarzan," she said after they finished the last of the fruit.

"Sorry? Jane, you have nothing to be sorry for."

"Yes I do. I should have let you in, shared my feelings with you. I forgot that you are grieving too. I should not have pushed you away when we needed each other the most." Tears welled in Tarzan's eyes as he grabbed his wife and held her tight.

"Why were you silent Jane?" he asked as she buried her face into his neck.

"I felt that if I didn't say anything then maybe it wasn't not be true," Jane admitted and felt like a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Tarzan tightened his embrace before Jane kissed him gently on the lips. As they lay together in their soft nest, Tarzan kissed Jane's head and held her like he never wanted to let her go. Even though they were both filled with pain and grief, he felt that there was hope for them and that their life would be filled with happiness and joy again someday.