Part 24 (2/2)
”Why not?” Temba demanded.
Polomo turned away. His hands limp, as he gazed into the jungle. Streaks of rainwater dribbled down his muscled back.
Kitu, Temba's adversary from the previous night, was the first to fill the silence. ”It is because he wants them.”
Temba furrowed his brow. ”Who wants them?”
Kitu's eyes narrowed for a moment before glancing up at the sky. ”The Great Molimo.”
Sam held her breath for several long minutes as Guy stared at her. His expression turned from frustration to pure amus.e.m.e.nt. After a moment, he turned to the Mbuti and spoke in their lilting language. The young man grabbed Sam by the wrists, yanking her arms back forcefully. Sam kept her eyes locked on Guy the entire time.
”Why do they listen to you?” she asked. ”What did you offer them? Are you paying them?”
”Paying them?” he chuckled. ”They are not so concerned with money.”
”Then why?” It made no sense.
”Suddenly you are full of questions, Sam. Yet you refused to answer mine. Why should I answer yours? What will you give me if I satisfy your curiosity?”
”Nothing.”
”That is no way to get what you want.” His next words were in the BaMbuti tongue, and Sam felt the fresh bonds on her wrists tighten.
”It doesn't really matter. I just can't figure out what the pygmies would be doing hanging around with a creep like you.” Sam had expected that to sting, but Guy's face revealed nothing. ”I figure you have to be paying them or bribing them with something. That's the only way they would ever do anything for a dirty Frenchman.”
She saw a subtle s.h.i.+ft in his reaction to a look of superiority. She added: ”Or a Belgian.”
”I am not paying anyone. What is here was left for me,” Guy answered cryptically. ”The BaMbuti wors.h.i.+p the forest. I control the forest. Therefore, they wors.h.i.+p me.”
Her face twisted in confusion. Control the forest?
As if he had read her mind, he replied, ”Yes, Sam.”
Kitu stepped in front of Temba. A nasty bruise swelled one eye and a deep wound, half-closed, marred the back of his shoulder. Temba remembered making both of them.
”The forest has been asleep for a long time, Temba,” Kitu explained. ”You have seen it. Although maybe you haven't, since you have abandoned the ways of your people.”
Temba didn't respond. He was used to this one by now. Many didn't care about Temba's ways. Many tried to adapt as he did. There were always those bitter voices. The ones who said that the BaMbuti should return to the forest for that was the only way they could survive. It was, as even Temba agreed, where they belonged.
”There is war and death and sadness in the world outside the forest,” Kitu went on. ”This we have known. And for many long years, the forest has protected us, as it should. But now you see them. We hide from the armies that enter the forest.” He held a finger pointed at Temba, his teeth gritted. ”You know what has happened to my family.”
Temba's gaze fell to Kitu's feet.
”We remember that day. We all remember it well,” Kitu snarled, the others nodding. ”My sister Ibiza was getting ready to celebrate her elima. When I left her, my mother was speaking to her excitedly about it. Little Ibiza was almost a woman, Temba. She never saw that day. Have you ever returned from a hunt to find everything that mattered to you gone? She was lying on her belly. Her flesh was still burning. I knew what they had done to her. The flames did not hide the signs of her rape. Everything was taken from me-taken forever!
”How could the forest allow this, Temba? If it were awake, this could not have happened. It is supposed to protect us and shelter us. No song we sang could awaken it. No molimo could bring my sister back. When I remember her, her face to me is the little girl I knew, because I cannot bear to see the young woman who was so defiled. When this man comes-a white man-he says to us that he can awaken the forest. That he can keep out the militias and the Europeans. We do not believe him, because what he says sounds like magic.
”Look at the forest around you, Temba. It is awake. The animals rise up to kill those who do not belong. They are, no, we are united. The militia fears us! They stay far away from here. If intruders do come, with the entire forest behind us, they cannot win.”
”Surely you have felt it, Sam.”
A chill went down her spine.
”You have seen it in your time in the forest,” Guy went on. ”The way the animals behave. The level of aggression-”
”We saw the okapi.”
Guy tilted his head.
”And the baboons.”
”You have seen it in the animals; and what about the rest, the feeling in your heart? The forest has a rhythm it did not have before. Maybe you don't notice. You could easily have mistaken it for your imagination. I can certainly see how an outsider would make that kind of mistake. That pulse is new. Surely you have felt it.”
”There was a ghost.”
”I'm surprised a scientist like you would believe in ghosts.”
”How?”
”You admit you have felt my power.”
”What do you mean by your power?” Sam asked incredulous.
Guy nodded.
”That's impossible,” she protested.
”Not impossible, very possible. The forest is mine. When I wish, they rise up and attack. They dance to the rhythm I set. And so, might I add, have you.”
Despite every doubt about his wild claims, there had to be some explanation for those experiences. Demons, spirits, and ghosts all pa.s.sed through her mind.
”How?”
”Magic.”
The pain in Kitu's words was hard for Temba to ignore. Their loss had left them scarred and desperate.
”Kitu,” Polomo interrupted. ”You speak too highly of the white man. He is only a servant like us.”
”It doesn't matter. What matters is that the forest is awake now and ready to protect us from the war and the death. The first week that he came to live here, we were scattered and frightened and with no women or families. We had not hunted and the honey season was far off so we had no meat to eat. He called an elephant out of the forest. It came into the clearing and fell asleep before our very eyes. An elephant! You know how much meat that is. Unless you are truly deaf, then you have heard the sounds of the forest when outsiders enter it. Every beast shouts in anger. I can feel that anger, here, in my chest. The whole forest rises up to chase them out. For the first time, Temba, for the first time, the forest is truly awake.”
Temba looked up at Kitu's face and the desperation in his eyes. He glanced to Polomo and the others. Not a single Mbuti argued with Kitu's words. In those words, they found their justification for their wors.h.i.+p of this man. Raindrops grew thick and heavy. They fell in slow motion, bursting about Temba's brow and shoulders. It washed away the sweat and blood. The cold splashes awakened his mind, even after a whole night and a day of running through the jungle.
”You have gone mad,” he whispered. ”Your whole forest is mad. No man commands the jungle. It is higher than us all. Tell me, who is this man that you have made into a G.o.d? What does he want with Sam?”
Kitu looked toward the structures. Temba spotted lantern light through the windows of one of the cottages. He saw shapes moving within. His fists tightened.
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