The Ear, the Eye and the Arm: Chapters 21–30

The scabbard was richly wound with gold filigree.

It was a compelling idea, to return to the past. It also appealed to a desire to preserve the spirit of Africa.

The paintings displayed beautiful women cheerfully going about their tasks, but a few old photographs pictured gaunt crones with backs bowed by years of heavy labor.

This time he did not flinch away as he had with Mr. Thirsty and the Mellower.

He felt the cold bleakness of the General’s childhood underlying the man’s personality.

Arm felt a deep pity for this man who had so much power and yet was utterly helpless to get back the one thing that had meaning for him.

Ear and Eye had sleeping bags, but Arm, in deference to his recent illness, was given the sofa.

A high ululating cry brought him instantly awake.

Surely, if the chief had just had an heir after years of waiting, people would be rejoicing.

She resolutely approached Garikayi, who looked as though the sky had fallen on his head.

But the old man’s face suddenly contorted with anguish.

In the city they kill babies all the time with poverty and crime.

Me and my friends used to raid old people’s homes for drugs. We rode on robocycles to make a fast getaway. One night, General Matsika’s men ambushed us. I was shot off my cycle and ended up in a prison hospital.

“Traditional Africans didn’t kill witches unless they’d murdered someone. But you’ll wish you died. You’ll get food the goats wouldn’t touch and the nastiest chores. But worst of all, people will hate you. They’ll look at you with loathing for the rest of your days. It’s a terrible fate.”

Surely they won’t have to go through the ordeal, he thought.

He lunged forward in grotesque spurts around the clearing.

Personally, Tendai didn’t care if a gang of robocycles thundered through the opening, but the guards had apparently worked up enough courage to close the rift in their wall.

A wild undulating cry broke out as the train sped for safety.

“Everyone caught it when I was a girl. Oh, it’s nothing serious. Toughens you up, I’d say. Of course,” she paused, and went on more softly, “you’ll have to go into quarantine.”

Fiddle-dee-dee. Of course you can. You have to. Doctors don’t let diseases gallivant all over the city.

“No, it isn’t. The Mellower doesn’t have a name,” Kuda said with his usual bulldog tenacity.

Ear and Eye yanked on the handle, but the gate was so heavy, it moved with excruciating slowness.

“You need distance. No”—the doctor held up his hand—“I’m not telling you to give her away. That would be cruel to both of you. But her attention has to be diverted, or we’re going to have to buy you the large size in diapers.”

“Let’s worry about that later,” Ear said in exasperation, but Arm had nodded off again.

Outside, the man who had passed out was being used for third base by a gang of street urchins.

A shrill voice cried, “Stop that at once, you fiend!”

“That’s exactly the kind of thing I mean! Sit down. He won’t get well any faster if you coddle him.”

Rita and Tendai were banished to a far room when the women arrived, but they always crept back.

For that bit of impertinence you may polish the coal stove tomorrow.

The air around the magnetic rails shivered with lethal coldness.

Sekai radiated contentment when the Praise Singer brought her in, nestled in a baby pouch strapped to his chest.

How long before an intrusion from the adult world terrified Sekai?

You vandal! All my strawberries gone!

“I’m glad your father isn’t alive to see you cringing and bowing like a whipped dog.”

“What a ninny you are! Gratitude doesn’t fill your pockets! The General doesn’t pay you what you’re worth, and that’s not much. Mark my words, the only way you get by in this world is to grab the opportunity when it presents itself.”

“Put a word in his ear, in that smarmy way of yours. Suggest delicately that a reward might do wonders.”

“I have my professional ethics,” said the Mellower, trying to outstare his mother with his watery blue eyes.

“Ethics, rubbish!” said Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham, glaring back with her steel gray ones.

You wouldn’t want anything to happen to your poor old mother, all alone in a hovel that is falling down around her ears.

His first impulse was to denounce Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham as a traitor.