“The child is a dolt,” Takeagoodposition said. “Kande is one of those girls who would follow a lion to her death if the lion flashed a pretty grin.”
The men in the group all laughed and nodded.
“No, we won’t put the community in the hands of a girl; how would we look?”
“But they came to her first,” a tall man said, his long legs crossed before him. “And let’s be honest, if those things had come to any of us, what would we have done? Fled? Fainted? Tried to shoot them? But she somehow learned to speak with them, gain their trust.”
“Look what it cost her,” the only woman in the group said. “She is like a girl possessed, seeing things that are not there.”
“My grandson said it was like they put alien Internet in her brain,” another elder said.
There was more soft laughter.
Takeagoodposition frowned deeply. “None of that matters now,” he snapped. “The Koran says to be kind and open to strangers. Let us welcome them. The girl will introduce us and we will take over.”
“Have you seen them?” another of the men asked. “They’re beautiful, especially in the sun.”
“And probably worth millions if we divide them into coinage,” someone remarked.
Laughter.
“These Zinariya, they are aliens,” Takeagoodposition said. “We’ll be cautious.”
It was as if I were sitting with the men and woman. Listening to them talk about the Zinariya. Some movement behind a cluster of dry bushes caught my eye and I was sure I saw someone slowly back away and then run off.
“Kande,” a woman’s voice said. It seemed to come from all around me. “She did well, for a child who liked to smoke.”
I frowned, wanting to stop all this nonsense and scream, “What does smoking have to do with aliens?!” But then I saw something bouncing around within the circle of people. A giant red ball. It disappeared in the swirls of dust and then bounced back on the ground. It rolled up to me and flattened, shaped like a red candylike button embedded in the sand.
I stared at it.
“Press it.” The words appeared in front of me in neat and careful green and then faded like smoke. Mwinyi was speaking to me through the zinariya.
I smashed the button with my fist, vaguely feeling the button’s hardness. I heard a soft satisfying click. Everything went quiet. Nothing but the sound of the soft wind rolling across the desert. I rested my forehead on the sand, weeping again.
“Can you get up?” Mwinyi asked, kneeling beside me. “Has it stopped?”
I raised my head and looked up at him. His bushy red-brown hair was coated with sand and the long lock that grew in the back of his head was dragging on the ground beside my knee, collecting more sand. The world behind him, the blue sky, the sun, started expanding again. But not as badly as before, nor was I seeing the death of everything I loved. But I knew of it.
I opened my mouth and screamed, “Everyone’s dead!” I rolled to the side, grinding the other side of my head into the sand. My face to the sand, feeling its heat on my skin and blowing out sand, I wailed, “MY FAMILY!!!! I DIE! EVERYTHING IS DEAD! WHY AM I ALIVE?! OOOOOOH!” I sobbed and sobbed, curling in on myself, shutting my eyes. I felt him press a hand to my shoulder.
“Binti,” he said. “Your family—”
“DON’T! LEAVE ME ALONE!”
I heard him angrily suck his teeth. Then he must have walked away.
I don’t know how long he left me there, but when he pulled me to a sitting position, I was too defeated to fight him. I slumped there, the hot sun beating down on my shoulders.
He sat across from me, looking annoyed.
“I don’t have a home anymore,” I said. I felt my okuoko writhe on my head.
“Ah, there’s the Meduse in you,” he said.
“I am Himba,” I snapped.
“Binti, they might be alive,” Mwinyi said. “Your grandmother back in my village communicated with your father in Osemba.”
I stared at him, shuddering as I tried to hold back the flash of rage that flew through me. I couldn’t and it burst forth like Meduse gas. “I saw them trapped… I SAW THEM!” I shouted. “I smelled them b-b-burning!”
“Binti,” he said. “Remember, you’ve just been unlocked! And you have that Meduse blood. I’ve heard you whimpering in your sleep about what happened last year on that ship. And we’re out here in this desert, exhausted and far from your home. You’re all mixed up. Some of what you see is communication, some is probably the zinariya showing you stuff it wants you to know, but some is delusion, nightmare.”
I raised a hand for him to be quiet and rested my chin to my chest; I was so exhausted now. Tears spilled from my eyes. Everything I’d seen was so real. “I don’t know anything,” I softly said.
I felt Mwinyi looking at me. “Your father said the Khoush came after Okwu,” he said. “They don’t know what happened.”
“Who is ‘they’?” I asked.
“Your grandmother and father. As I’m sure you know, your Okwu is a small army in itself. Your family took shelter in the Root when the fighting began.”
“So they are in the cellar,” I muttered. “That part is true.”
“Yes.”
I had to process the idea that my father had spoken with my grandmother through the zinariya. “When?” I asked. “When did he talk to her?”
“Just after you were unlocked.”
“Just after I sensed Okwu was in trouble,” I said. “So he could be—”
“I don’t know, Binti. We don’t know. Sometimes when the zinariya communicates, it disregards time. We’re going to find out.”
“You could have told me hours ago.”
Mwinyi paused, his lips pursed. “They told me not to. They didn’t think the news would help you.”
When I said nothing to this, he said, “If you want to get home to help, we can’t waste time like this.”
I glared at him.
“Don’t give me that look,” he said. “Aim your Meduse rage that way.” He pointed ahead of us. “Last night, I thought I was free to do whatever I wanted. Instead, I’m here, taking you to what can’t be a place of peace. And I do care about your family; I’m doing my best.”
I ran my hand down my face, wiping away tears, sweat, snot. I paused, realizing I’d probably also just wiped a lot of my otjize from my face too. I sighed, flaring my nostrils. Everything was so wrong. “You don’t have to take me anyw—”
“I do and I will,” he said. “You want to know what I think?” He looked at me for a moment, clearly trying to decide if it was better to keep his words to himself.
“Go on,” I urged him. “I want to hear this.”
“You try too hard to be everything, please everyone. Himba, Meduse, Enyi Zinariya, Khoush ambassador. You can’t. You’re a harmonizer. We bring peace because we are stable, simple, clear. What have you brought since you came back to Earth, Binti?”
I stared nakedly at him; the hot breeze blowing on my wet face felt cool. My okuoko had stopped writhing. I felt deflated. “I need my family,” I said hoarsely.
He nodded. “I know.”
I grabbed the sides of my orange-red wrapper as I looked straight ahead, toward where we were to go. Right before my eyes, the world seemed to expand, while staying the same, as if reality were breathing. It was a most disconcerting sight. I let myself lightly tree, as I took in several deep breaths. “Everything is… still looks as if it’s growing,” I said. I looked directly at him for the first time. “I… I know that sounds crazy, but that’s really what I’m seeing.”
Mwinyi frowned at me, twirling his long matted lock with his left hand, two of the small brown wild dogs sitting on either side of him like soldiers. Then he said, “I can get you home, but I don’t… I don’t know how to help you, Binti. I never needed to be ‘activated’; I don’t even know what you’re going through.”