What She Sees

We were driving through a dip, deep enough to almost call it a small canyon, and she was standing above us on a grass ridge. That is the only reason this frame exists. For once I was looking up at a lioness instead of straight ahead, and everything below her drops away. What is left is sky.

That sky is not worked on. It really was that blue and that empty. Her mouth is open because it was scorching, not because anything was about to happen. Lions do not sweat. Panting is the only way they have to cool down.

And what she was looking at I do not know. She stared into the distance and did it for a long time. That is usually the honest answer in the bush: there is something, or there is nothing, and you will not find out which. Which is why this one is named after the question rather than the answer.