by Frank Achebe
From the river, Zach turned to the mayor’s place. He had not gone there directly from the hospital because as the nurse had observed, he feared, not the boy, but something about the boy.
# # #
Hééb did not need his mother for his next plan of action. His demons were enough. They preoccupied every space in his mind. He owned a locally made pistol. It was still fully loaded when he retrieved it. It did not suit the description of a blunt knife being dug in and out of Zach’s body but it sure would do the job.
He had gone back on his drinking spree so he could steel his mind. He then placed it in his coat and took a walk.
# # #
Borûn stirred. Pain rang through every inch of her body. The insides of her thighs and the area between her legs burnt with hot and fresh pain. She would not be able to walk for days.
Someone was leaning over her in the darkness. She could not make out the owner of the face. There were dabs of hot water on her thighs and her head and then her sides.
She struggled to see through the dark but she could not make out the face. However, the owner of the face was speaking in low tones. She laid back her head and took in the pain. She could have been anywhere.
# # #
Black watched his mother dab at the girl’s body wounds with a towel soaked in hot water. She’d picked her up from the street corner when no one else would. And as he sat and watched in silence, his heart dollied around what he’d told his boys about Atta Boy and the lyrics of the song courtesy of his guardian angel Can U Get Away. ‘I can see your state of misery from the introduction…Maybe we can see a better way, find a brighter day…Tell me can you get away….’
Black could not quite tell why he loved Borûn. It did not matter. I find it a mystery and for its own sake, I ask that you, my dear reader, do not insist that I demystify it. As I will insist that you try not to demystify it. Let it intrigue us by its mystery.
At this point, I shall allow Borûn to slip out of the story in peace. But she did find her redemption not that she’d earned it but because love had given it to her.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Like A Diamond In the Skies
Zach found a corner and looked on. There was much to see but the crowd was too much for his eyes. The cynosure still was at the centre. Zach could not make out what he was saying in his address to the crowd. It could have been anything from a sermon on the mount to a sermon in a valley to a sermon on a front yard. But it was certain that he mystified them enough for them to mistake him as the Christ, or as a nineteen-year old boy version of him and for him to play the Christ for them.
Zach felt sorry for the people as well as for the boy. They were making a mockery of themselves. Or rather, they were being mocked by someone that was now sneering at their backs.
By Zach’s estimation, there could have been three thousand persons in and the front yard, outside the gate and elsewhere waiting to see the ‘prophet’. Or rather, waiting to see their deaths—whichever one came first.
There was something overwhelmingly human in that moment for Zach. And I will ask you, my reader the permission to ramble about it for a minute.
Whether they be nineteen-year olds, white-bearded philosophers, great ‘moral teachers’, immortal gods, or politicians, every ‘Messiah’ is called into existence on account of the helplessness and hopefulness of men. He becomes the ‘messiah’ with the promise of fulfilling the ultimate for those that attend to him and to his words. He becomes a ‘messiah’ insofar as he can save a despairing and suffering man from his fate. It does not matter whether he succeeds or not, what matters is how much hopefulness he can extract from those who see him as ‘messiah’. All of that is for his claims to being the messiah and all of that is to how much he can betray those that trust in him since man’s hopefulness is an abyss that can never be filled expect by emptying an abyss over it.
To my dear reader, I ask that you do not be too quick to judge them. Forgive their hopefulness and be anxious for them for its looming betrayal. Never have there been more ‘human messiahs’ than in their century. It took them a while to dispense with the divine ones. For their humanness, they did not claim to be virgin-born neither did they claim to have existed before Abraham. They were ‘philosophers,’ ‘leaders’, and ‘philosopher-kings’—for their modesty and humanness. And for that, let us hail them for being all too human. Let us also forgive the hopefulness of those who followed them in the hope of the world that was promised according to their dreams. But let us mourn their betrayal and let us ever remember.
Zach was caught in thoughts similar to mine when he felt a hand tap him on his shoulder. ‘Are you Zachariah?’ He was. ‘Someone wants to see you,’ the owner of the hand reported.
Zach followed him without any suspicions. There could not have been any, not as they walked up to road that led down the road away from the mayor’s place. They made a turn and another turn and two more turns through what were alleyways till Zach looked up and the boy who led the way was not anywhere in sight. That was when he became suspicious.
He started back, having tried not to miss a turn. On the third, he burst out into what was an empty plot of land that had been converted into a football field, evidence that he’d missed a turn. It was night. The football field tailed into a pen, a dumpsite, and a footpath that separated the two.
‘My apologies. Forgive the boy. He screwed up the directions.’ a familiar voice called out.
Zach turned to meet the owner of the voice.
‘You’re looking for me, sir.’
‘Of course I am.’
‘Why?’ Zach asked covering the distance.
‘To kill you.’
A gun materialized in his eyes. The owner of the voice was Hééb after all.
‘Why would you want to kill me?’
Hééb gave an evil laughter before answering. ‘Because it is going to make me feel better about…’
‘About what?’
‘About everything that has just happened.’
‘How is that going to make you feel better?’
‘Well, seeing you alive makes me feel bad. Seeing you dead and cut into a thousand pieces would certainly make me feel the opposite. That’s logical enough.’
It was Zach’s turn to laugh. ‘You’ve been seeing a lot of movies lately.’
‘Movies?’ Hééb let out a shot in the air. ‘I’m not joking.’ Hééb may be in a cynical mood and even half-drunk but he had come for the kill.
‘Well, you know the first and last time I held a gun, a couple of people died.’
Zach could not quite tell why he was feeling less than afraid and more than amused about Hééb. ‘Well, if it’s going to make you feel better, then you can have it.’
# # #
Hééb was sure he wanted to kill this man. He was going to do it after all, whether it made him feel better or not. The man was still talking as his tightened his finger on the crooked trigger—.
# # #
Hééb woke a quarter an hour later. His legs hurt, as did his face. Instead of two, they were now four of them.
‘What happened?’
It did happen that just as the bullet was going off that two men had lunged into him, knocking him unconscious and the gun off his hands. But it was already a bit late for Zach for now he had a deep cut in his upper arm where the large bullet had grazed him. It could have been a second later though.
Hééb recognised the two as Silas Ańgō and the hunter, Othí. ‘What are you doing here?’ He addressed Silas.
‘You were going to kill him, you goblin.’ Silas answered.
The two were attending to Zach who was now in great pains. The bullet had left a hole its size in his upper harm. Thankfully, it hadn’t lodged itself in. It would have been worse.
Zach was sure that Hééb was joking until the bullet struck him. The power of that slug made him spin on his feet, and then to the ground.
‘We’ve all lost something, Mr Hééb. Your boss lost his family. My wife is
probably on the other side by now. Everyone has lost something. Seeing me dead is not going to make you feel better about your own loss.’ Zach registered in the man’s mind before the two others led him away.
# # #
In the wardroom, the hunter and Silas sat and watched as Nurse B attended to Zach. She made the arm disappear under a roll of bandage after stitching the flesh. It still hurt badly.
‘I suppose you’ll send the hospital a check when you reach home?’ The nurse told him.
‘That’s if there’s a hospital to send a check to.’ Then to Silas and the hunter: ‘What happened?’
Silas had told his own side of the story. He had come looking for Kuniā. He’d gone straight to the mayor’s place and had searched into the night from the dusk when he’d arrived town. ‘The doors to the house was locked. I thought that Hééb might have some idea as to her whereabouts so I sought him out. I met him instead.’ He referred to the hunter. All eyes turned to him.
‘I saw Zach when he came into the grounds. I was on my way out. Truthfully, I had begun to be frustrated by everything. I mean, if it was not much of a show, then I don’t know what it is. But I could not face the fact that I’d betrayed a man who had been good to me. As I stood contemplating whether to face him with it, I saw a boy walk up to him. I saw him walk away and then came Silas. He knew me from before he left. I suppose everyone did. I was the drunkard, after all. He was asking after Hééb. He was very anxious about it. I thought you might know. I had him follow me while I followed the direction I saw the boy lead you. Then we burst into the field and saw the idiot holding a gun. It had our attention. We did not have to think twice before lunging into him and knocking him down. It was at a hunter’s instinct. For the hunter that I am, I could recognize any locally made gun from the sound of its shot….’
‘You’ve saved my life so I owe you one.’ Zach felt some displeasure at himself about the spite and hatred with which he’d regarded the hunter while he was all alone. Not when he’d assured him that he ‘owed’ him forgiveness. He was no different from the hunter, they’d betrayed each other. He could not face him with it either, not when for his spite and anger, he could have killed him.
For the guilt they both shared over how they treated each other—one person in the obvious, the other in his heart—, that did the job of reconciliation for both of them. They never referred to it again. It felt as if they never parted.
Zach told them his story.
‘It remains how to get them off this town.’
‘Maybe use the law’
‘People have a right to public gathering. Besides you can’t prove to the law that there are any conspiracies, not one of that magnitude. It could take months if not years. And you will give them the chance to play the victim.’
‘The whole town would have been gone by the time the paperwork is finished.’
‘Assuming we get the boy to renounce, what is the guarantee that he can get them off in the shortest possible time?’
‘There are no guarantees here. Not that he would even renounce. We need to get at him first. Get him to understand that he’s being used for a carnage.’
‘And how do you intend on getting him to understand that?’ It was Hééb. None of them saw that he’d been standing at the passage from which a door opened into the wardroom. He’d been listening for a while.
‘What do you think you are doing here?’ Silas fell on him.
‘And how do you think you can even get close to him enough to get him to listen to you? I could make that happen.’
‘He’s mad. He will betray us to him.’
Hééb stepped into the room. ‘Look, I started this in some way and I think I could help bring it all to an end.’
They listened.
‘Truthfully, whoever ‘they’ are, they used our deepest desires against us. Isn’t that what they always do? Every one of us here can attest to that.’
‘What is your point?’
‘My point is this: if there has been a moment for all of us when we all realize that we have been betrayed by our own desires, then we have to take same to the boy. Get him to see the point between his desire to save others from their fate and the manipulation of those desires by someone greater than him. I mean, he’s still a kid after all….’
‘What exactly did you do to him?’
‘I was going to come to that in a minute. I threw him into the river and I can’t say I saw much in the vision that followed. But I did see a tide that rose so high till it covered the skies. It was dark. It all makes sense. It could be a flood, it could be something worse. I mean, people do survive floods, right?’
‘Why did you not tell anyone?’
‘I had no one in mind. It was just me. I was following my mother’s word. She assured me that the boy had some connection to the river. It was a risk that I could take or not take. But she was sure that I would be rewarded for it after all. I thought it could be the mayor’s place and position. But I don’t see any of that, not even one remaining after the flood has come and gone. I wanted to see some gains in it but I couldn’t find one.’
‘What about Kuniā?’
‘Oh, the last time I checked in, they had her locked down in a room like they did to her father.’
Silas was at him again. ‘Why would they do that?’
‘She’d begun to question everything.’
‘But it would hardly have mattered.’
‘It matters everything. It does with the child inside her.’
A blanket of silence fell over them.
‘Truth is,’ Hééb continued lifting the blanket. ‘I have betrayed my master. What does it matter? I felt all was lost already and I thought that maybe I could salvage something for myself. That does not make me any less heroic, right?’
‘So, what exactly do we do?’
‘Kuniā is locked down so she comes first. Or we could risk her.’
‘How do you mean?’ came Silas at him again.
‘If it’s possible to get the boy to renounce, we could get him to let the girl go.’
‘If not?’
‘Well, we risk her life. If everything falls apart, she will count among the numbers.’
‘You’re crazy.’
‘Can we trust him?’
‘I’m a changed man. Not that I was ever the villain. I merely needed someone to give me the chance to be the hero.’
‘We cannot not trust him either.’
‘When do we start?’
‘Tomorrow definitely.’
Chapter Twenty-Five: A Journey Back To Reality
Into the night, Zach had the nightmare. He was back at the river still. The black-haired and green-eyed woman still sat on the stone. It was daytime. There was some rumbling in the river. Zach was standing on the bank and looked on. In a sudden, the river began to rumble more violently.
Zach called out to the woman jump out of the river and save herself. The woman called out to Zach to jump into the rising tide and save her. Behind her, the tide approached with the ferocity of a warhorse. Left without any other options at saving the woman, Zach dived into the water.
He woke with the plunge.
# # #
Zach, Nurse B, Silas Ańgō and the hunter Othí arrived the mayor’s place with the dawn. People still lay about under canopies that had been provided for the occasion in addition to smaller pavilions. The morning session with their hopes and their messiah would soon start for the day and whatever space was left in the front yard and on the road, which was now blocked, would be filled up with wishes and hopes. And with wishers and hopers.
Hééb was not in sight. The guards still held the doors to the main building. They walked past the now-ever opened gates, found a corner, and waited.
‘I’m feeling creepy about everything,’ Silas announced to them.
‘I couldn’t feel otherwise. I’ve never done anything adventurous in my life before.’ Nurse B spoke for herself. ‘I could have been at home preparing to leave
this town.’
‘It does not matter. God will help our mission.’
In no time, Hééb was sighted. A second later, he was out of sight. The next time they saw him was about half an hour later. By then, the crowd had roused themselves and were now waiting for their plaything.
‘This is disastrous.’
‘Not yet.’
‘But it could still be.’
‘I hope they have not done anything wicked with Kuniā already. It would be pointless.’
‘It wouldn’t. For all this people.’
Hééb gave them glances and disappeared again.
This time, he returned in a second. ‘This way.’ He had them follow him.
They made a pass through the guards into the house, which now seemed to have lost all of its colours. He led them up the stairs and they followed him at each turn until they were standing in what Zach and Nurse B recognised as the mayor’s bedroom.
‘I’ll be joining you in a minute.’ He said and closed the door behind them.
While the hunter had the room to his eyes, Zach kept his mind on their mission. It was possible that Hééb had just led them into a trap. Anything could be possible.
Hééb returned as he promised—in a minute. And with him, was the boy Ekeó. Zach noticed that he still wore the black dress from the very first day.
They all looked on when he entered as Heed whispered into his ear from behind him. After that, he locked the door behind him again leaving them to the boy.
‘Good morning to you all.’ He greeted with his usual smile. ‘Hééb has intimated me of your conspiracy to undermine what we are doing here.’
Zach had his heart in his mouth at that, as did the others.
‘You know I cannot let that happen.’
Silas walked up to him, his fist clenched. ‘What have you done to her?’
‘Kuniā, oh. It’s not what I have done. But what you have done. And you Mr Zachariah, I thought you would have come around yourself by now. Why be so faithless?’