Chapter 71

[Flashback]

Claire climbed the acacia as the light leaned golden, camera strap snug across her shoulder. The reserve below was a slow thrum of life, distant bellows, a scatter of hooves, the hollow cough of birds. She was given permission to climb; the ranger had winked, pointed out the branches that would hold her weight, and told her the angles the trucks never show. Photography was her refuge, a place where she can make sense of things by freezing them into frames.

She moved carefully, each foothold considered, and let the shutter sing. Lions, a lanky giraffe, a skittish herd of impala, she captured them all, hunting light and shadow. Between those raw beasts she found people: tourists in corrugated trucks, their faces tilted, hands pointing. She liked the contrast, human smallness boxed against a wild, indifferent horizon.

Back in her studio the photos bloom on the monitor like a spill of bottled moments. She worked through them, coaxing detail out of mane and