by Renee Topper
Recognizing that this could escalate into a full riot and that he, especially as a foreigner could be in greater danger, Kennen quickly makes his way back to the hotel.
21
Fugitives
July 7 (later) - 8
The hotel lobby is quiet and reposed compared to the mayhem outside. Kennen runs into their hotel room in search of Aliya. She’s not there. He has a bad feeling that she is involved in this and Rhadi is no doubt the instigator. He clenches his fists at the thought of Rhadi, then a new bigger wave of realization washes over him. Kennen would be implicated, fingers will be pointing at him for the attack. He grabs his bags and as he reaches to turn the knob on the door, he turns back and gathers Aliya’s things too.
The streets are at a halt with traffic. Police are even putting up blockades. He walks for a quarter mile and then he sees Aliya on the street coming toward him. She is wearing the “Skin Deep” t-shirt and shorts she had on under her white costume, her hat swoops a shadow over her face, but he can tell it’s her. She sees him first and looks a little unsure. She waves for him to follow her down a side street, which he does.
“Thank God you’re alright! What happened? What have you done?”
“What was necessary.”
“Necessary!” Kennen’s voice cracks at the suggestion.
“There’s no time to argue about this now.” They hurry a few more blocks away from the incident. She hails a taxi and they ride on side streets until they are out of the traffic and continue to the airport. They just make the next flight by ten minutes. The plane is too full for them to sit together. Kennen didn’t even ask if they could. He’s pissed at her for lying to him, for being so reckless. It’s better they are five rows apart or he would say something that other passengers would hear and he might say something he’d regret.
They land in Mwanza and she goes ahead of him toward where they parked the van. She thinks it’s best that they aren’t seen walking together, so that they draw less attention.
The hour and a half flight didn’t cool Kennen down. He throws their bags into the back, slams the door shut then gets in the drivers seat. Aliya moves the handle on the passenger side to get in but it is locked. Kennen hesitates before unlocking it, not sure if he really wants to let her into the van. She taps on the window and he won’t look at her, but does unlock it. She gets in and they drive. The tension between them speaks louder than any words could.
Once outside of Mwanza, “Kennen...” Aliya starts to speak.
But he cuts her off, “What in God’s name were you thinking?”
“Did you see Rhadi?”
“No. And it’s lucky for him I didn’t.”
“I’m responsible for my own actions.”
“Yes, you are and he is for his.” He looks at her, her arms crossed in a defensive posture. She practically stomps her foot on the floor and looks out the window. She can’t look at him either right now.
“We couldn’t tell you...” She starts to explain for why she assumes he’s mad.
“You could have, Aliya. You should have. What you did was reckless. Do you have any idea of what you’ve done? What you may have cost us? You? Me? The kids at the camp?”
“We have to go to extremes to have an impact.”
“Oh there’s Rhadi in your tongue now. Boy, he’s brainwashed you. I thought you were smarter than that.”
“No he hasn’t, Kennen. I have my own mind. And what we did today will make a difference. You’ll see. We’ll have international media attention...We’ll save lives...”
“You don’t get it. You’re lucky you weren’t, we weren’t all killed. What was in that white powder of all things!”
“It was just flour.”
“Bully for that.” He says, slightly relieved. Then he’s fueled by the new thought, “Nobody knows that. Could have thought it was anthrax or cyanide or some other chemical. They opened fire on you!”
“I didn’t...”
He cuts her off again “No, you didn’t. How did he get down to Dar?”
“He took a non-commercial flight. A friend of his is a pilot...”
Kennen hits the steering wheel with his fist and pulls over to the side of the road. “So, my name is the one they’ll find on the flight records and hotel records.”
“They won’t look for you.”
“They will look for anyone with a connection to the albino cause, to anyone with a connection to Kuchuna. And the airline tickets and hotel room are in my name, traveling with an albino, I might add, who is now also a terrorist.”
“But, we’re foreigners, they can’t do anything to us.”
“What are you smokin’? We can’t do any good in jail, Aliya. But we’d be safer if the government had us. We should turn ourselves in. Tell the authorities everything.”
“But you didn’t even do anything!”
“There’s no proof I didn’t and I was traveling with you and I work with Kuchuna and Kivuli and I’ve history as an activist. We should turn ourselves in.”
“We can’t, we have to go back to Kivuli for the kids.”
“How long could we do that for? Before they come for us, I mean? And they will come. And I don’t mean the government. I mean the people you pissed off today, the people who create the demand and pay money for albinos. Those are powerful people and they will come for us.”
Aliya is still and quiet, but her mind is racing she is realizing he’s right. She was reckless. They can’t go to the camp. They’ll put everyone there in danger. What has she done? She thinks to herself. This wasn’t what she wanted.
“We should go see Rhadi.”
“I don’t give a f...”
“I’ll get him to come in with us...You’ll see.” She knows she won’t be able to get him to come in. She’s still not sure she will turn herself in. She needs more time to think about this. And she wants to speak with Rhadi about it. He will have another solution. He wouldn’t have set her up to have to take the fall for this...even though it looks exactly like that’s what happened.
Kennen is swayed by her pleas...He submits there is a little time before they’d be named and tracked down. He pulls back on the road and heads for Kuchuna, but deep inside he doesn’t feel this is right.
#
Kennen and Aliya park about 20 yards from Kuchuna. It’s dark and the street is quiet. There is no light on in the office and it’s locked up tight. Aliya gets out of the van. “Where are you going?” Kennen asks.
“I think he’s next door.”
Kennen follows Aliya to the hut next to Kuchuna. As they approach, Kennen sees one of the miniature flags from the festival hanging in the window.
Aliya knocks on the door. A small elderly man opens the door a sliver. Rhadi sees them from his spot on the floor and nods for the man to let them in. Rhadi’s leg is elevated on a footstool while he sits upright on the floor with his back to the wall. The small man finishes applying some herbal healing mixture to the wound then starts binding it with a clean cloth. Rhadi stops him and nods for him to leave the room, which he does. Then Rhadi wraps the wound himself as he speaks with them. Aliya kneels at his side, takes the cloth from him and wraps his lower leg.
“Are you okay?” Aliya asks very concerned.
“I will be fine. And you are?”
“I’m fine. I wasn’t shot. I’m fine.”
Rhadi is lucky he’s hurt or Kennen would punch him. Then, Kennen reconsiders when struck with the notion that bullet could just as easily have hit Aliya and taken her life. He grabs him by the neck and punches him in the face at the meaningful and smart point where his uncle the boxer had taught him. Rhadi doesn’t fight back, but puts his arms up to block Kennen’s attack. Aliya puts herself between them. She didn’t know he was capable of violence. The horrified and shocked expression on her face stops Kennen. She sees how angry he is. She doesn’t want to mean that much to him or anyone. She doesn’t want to upset someone loves like this, to bring out their rage.
Kenne
n blows out of the hut, combing the rage out of his head with his tense fingers, and goes for a long walk.
Aliya puts a cool cloth on Rhadi’s new shiner. “He wants us all to turn ourselves in.”
“All of us? ’Crazy white man. What did he do?”
“His name is on the hotel and flight records. The authorities will assume he’s involved. You have to know this. Didn’t you?”
“What?”
“Know this?”
“I didn’t set him up. He’s one of us anyway.”
“But if we all get arrested, what will Delila and the kids do? They need us.”
“What we did, we did for them. That’s what they needed from us. To break the rules to get them some attention.”
“Maybe Kennen is right.”
Rhadi shrugs, “What are you saying?”
“This is all so short-sighted.” She looks toward the door after Kennen.
Rhadi moves to her on his good leg. “Yes, things could have gone better,” mostly referring to the wound to his leg. “We’ll do better next time. But we can’t have a next time if we turn ourselves in. We need to stay together and do better. We need each other.” He kisses her on the forehead. She turns away at first. He softly kisses her cheek. She gives in and they embrace each other and kiss passionately.
#
Kennen walks for hours. When he gets back to the hut, he can’t go in. He can’t spend the night in the same four walls with whatever they were doing. Still pissed, he sleeps in the van.
In the morning, he gets out of the van and stretches, walks a few paces, pours bottled water over his head and starts his morning mantra to the powers that be with arms raised, “It’s a beautiful day!” But it’s forced, almost bitter the way he says it this morning.
Aliya comes out of the hut and gets in the passenger seat in the van with her stuff. Kennen sees her then looks at Rhadi in the doorway shirtless. He eyes him and strokes his jaw where Kennen walloped him.
Kennen gets in the van and they drive off.
#
After about two hours of silence, “I just want you safe.” Kennen’s voice cracks the quiet on the word “I” and squeaks to a pitch he hasn’t hit since before puberty. He takes a breath to force the choke out of his throat then continues, “But I don’t see him caring for you the way I do. How he could let you be part of that...”
“He didn’t ‘let’ me or ‘not let’ me do anything. Are you ever going to get that, Kennen?” She decides for him. “Stop the van!”
“What? Here?”
“Stop the van now!”
He pulls over and stops the van. They are in the middle of seemingly endless flatland. The only variation to the terrain is about two miles North of the van where there’s a sparse group of trees. She gets out of the van and slams the door behind her.
“Where are you going?” Kennen shouts after her.
“You’re all over me. Smothering me. I just...” She’s too upset for words to explain. She turns away from him and walks hard and fast.
“Aliya, there’s nothing out here...You forgot your glasses.”
She keeps charging out into the field. She’s angry. Some of the flour is still under her nails from the protest action. She did something. Something bold.
As the van sinks into the distance behind her, she is out alone. She realizes this is the first time she’s been alone since she landed, since she went for that early morning run on the beach the morning she left LA. She takes a deep breath and looks up to the sky before her. She unwraps the fabric she had on her head and lets the air flow through her hair. Her eyes are seeing clearly. It looks like she could walk forever in this direction and not see another soul. The sun is dropping lower in the sky. It always seems to drop faster the lower it gets. It hasn’t changed into sunset yet, it just has a soft orange glow to it, no clouds. She raises her hands to the sky and breathes it in, she starts spinning, enjoying the feel and energy of this Africa. She floats, her long skirt swaying with the dry grass in the breeze with her spirals, her sandaled feet covered in dust. She is part of Africa. She has never felt so free and happy.
Her joy is interrupted by the faint sound of the van horn. As she spins, she catches a glimpse of the van and it pulls the corners of her smile down to her feet and abruptly stops her.
22
Skin Deep
July 17 (later)
Jalil tries to open the door to the Kuchuna Office, but it is locked. He knocks. There is no answer. He puts his ear to the door for signs someone is inside.
Rhadi approaches from behind him. “I use the lock now.” Rhadi unlocks the door and they enter. “Too much going on and you never know...”
Jalil doesn’t waste words, “You got what you wanted. She’s all over the news back home.
“That’s not...”
“Now tell me where she is.”
“I don’t know.” Rhadi takes off his outer shirt for the heat, revealing Aliya’s “Skin Deep” t-shirt.
This incites Jalil who throws him against the desk, military training style.
Rhadi is dumbfounded and in pain, “What is it?!”
“What was going on between you and Aliya?”
“Nothing.”
Jalil holds him down on the desk with his body weight while he pulls the phone out of his pocket and pulls up the picture of he and Aliya kissing and puts it in front of his face.
Rhadi repeats, “Nothing.” Sharp pain from his bullet wound shoots up his leg, aggravated by the thrust.
Jalil flips him over onto his back and grabs the shirt by the chest. “You’re wearing her shirt!”
“She gave it to me.”
Jalil pushes off of him and paces the room to regain his composure.
Rhadi catches his breath and continues, “We’re attracted to each other. It is not a crime.”
“I found some of her notes.”
“What did they say?”
“She would do anything to help them. She met this new man who was strong and bold, who didn’t want to lose time, a man who has a plan...something that would really get some attention for the cause. Tell me about this plan, Rhadi.”
“Nothing was set.”
“But you had some points laid out.”
“What?”
“‘Kidnapping.’”
“No.”
“Why did she write it then?”
“We didn’t...”
“Where is my daughter? Is she with Kennen hiding somewhere? Did you kidnap them? Are you keeping them captive somewhere?”
“This is not some media stunt. We talked about it. We talked about many things.”
“This was Aliya’s idea?”
“We all had ideas.”
“Was Kennen in on it?”
“He wanted no part of it. It’s the truth. It’s the truth.”
Jalil could kill Rhadi here, but he sees a picture of Aliya on the computer and releases his grip on him. “Everybody’s got their own truth here.”
Rhadi grabs his pipe and is ready to swing at him. “You should go.”
“Akida will find out what your real truth is.”
Jalil leaves. Rhadi stands after him in the doorway, watching him head toward the police station.
#
Jalil is steaming and rushing to the police station to have Akida arrest Rhadi. But Akida comes out of the station with his men. They are quickly boarding their trucks with guns. “Akida!”
Akida sees him, but doesn’t get out of his SUV.
“Jalil. Nous devons partir. We have to go.”
“Rhadi sait où ils sont. Il est un coup de publicité. Ils ont organisé tout enlèvement. Rhadi knows where they are. It’s a publicity stunt. They staged the whole kidnapping.”
“Es-tu sûr? Are you sure?”
“Oui. Yes.”
“Nous allons parler de lui plus tard. We’ll talk to him later.”
“Que faire si il fuit? What if he runs?”
“Un véhicule correspondant à la d
escription de la camionnette Camp Kivuli a été trouvé. A vehicle fitting the description of the Camp Kivuli van has been found.”
“Emmène-moi avec toi. Take me with you.”
Akida warns, “Il est un corps. There is a body.”
This cuts Jalil to the core. How can this be, if they only staged the kidnapping…“S'il vous plaît. Please.” Jalil stands determined to go.
Akida nods for one of his men to move to ride on the outside of the truck to make room for Jalil who, stunned, climbs aboard.
The SUVs move out quickly, raising the earth, a wake made of dust trails after them, billowing in the sky.
23
Body
July 17 (later)
There is nothing but vast dirt, even brush won’t grow here; just dirt and piercing sun. The trucks approach at heavy speed and circle the crime scene. There is the van -- what is left of it -- having been emptied of any valuables and set aflame. It is charred and hardly recognizable. The men move quickly to examine the scene. In contrast, Jalil moves slowly keeping his distance. He wants to run over to the van, but is seemingly paralyzed.
The men remove the blackened skeleton out of the vehicle on the seat. The remains of the body melted on to it.
Jalil finally moves to go to it, but Akida holds him back. “Son un homme, probablement l'Irlandais. Le coroner nous savons pour sûr. Il a brûlé chaud. Sa peau et les cheveux sont partis pour que nous ne peuvent pas dire à partir de ce. L'essence. It’s a man, probably the Irishman. The coroner will let us know for sure. It burned hot. His skin and hair are gone so we can’t tell from that. Gasoline.”
Jalil wipes the trail of a fast tear from his face. “Ceci est certainement le fourgon? This is definitely the van?”
Akida nods.
“Pouvez-vous dire si elle était encore en elle? Can you tell if she was even in it?”
Akida shakes his head no. One of Akida’s men brings some burnt items to him. It includes what is left of the registration for the van and the partial melted frame for Aliya’s mended eyeglasses. Akida addresses him, “Je ne l'aime pas Rhadi. Mais je ne pense pas qu'il a fait cela. Au moins pas seul. I don’t like Rhadi. But I don’t think he did this. At least not alone.”