The Ear, the Eye and the Arm (21 page)

"Resthaven," said Arm.

"They were financed by a multimillionaire and backed by many influential politicians. It was a compelling idea, to return to the past. It also appealed to a desire to preserve the spirit of Africa." General Matsika turned the pages. Arm saw paintings of huts, fields and people.

"Much of Africa was being overlaid by European customs. It seemed — then — that our culture would be destroyed by the outside world. And so Resthaven was created." More pictures: women carrying pots of water or grinding millet in giant mortars. 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.

"The founders didn't want Resthaven to be a tourist resort," Matsika went on. "They made it a separate country, recognized by all the nations of the world. Resthaven is independent, as much as Mozambique or Gondwanna. Its sovereignty is protected by international law.”

"When someone is tired of modern life, he or she can apply for citizenship. Very, very few are admitted. They are subjected to tests. If they pass, they become part of Monomatapa's country. Forever."

"We have to get the children out of there at once!" cried Arm.

The General sat down again and stared at the old book. "I can't invade Resthaven any more than I can go into Gondwanna. It would be an act of war. And you have to understand the emotional appeal the place has for Africans: it's Jerusalem, it's Mecca, it's the Hindu city of Ayodhya. Every culture has one place it will not allow to be touched. This is ours. As long as Resthaven exists, the Heart of Africa is safe. If I invaded, every country on the African continent would rise up against Zimbabwe."

"But — surely, the children didn't ask to be taken in."

"I don't know. I've gone there every morning. I've asked them to return my children. I've
begged
them. They refuse." The General closed his eyes, and his face became as still and remote as a stone carving in a museum.

Time passed. The silence grew. Arm heard Ear telling a joke in the living room and Mrs. Matsika's polite laughter. Arm put his hands on the General's shoulders.

He saw into his mind. 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. He felt the hot hate of the years spent battling gangs. He saw, through the General's eyes, the vast, sprawling city of Harare, which no one could completely control.

It was like walking into a dark house with many rooms. He didn't want to find out what was hidden in some of those rooms.

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. Carefully, cautiously, Arm walked through the dark house that was General Matsika's mind. And then he seemed to turn a corner and come into a sunlit garden. The children were playing on a broad green lawn. Rita tickled Kuda. They shrieked with laughter and rolled over and over on the grass. Tendai stood beside them. He was too old to join in such childish games and too young not to want to. He glanced up and gazed directly at Arm. His face was serious beyond his years. Arm could see the man hovering inside the boy.

It was an actual memory! Arm let go of the General's shoulders at once, and his face burned with embarrassment. It was an unforgivable invasion of privacy!

Matsika still sat with his eyes closed, but his face had relaxed. He was smiling faintly. After a long moment he opened his eyes and said, "Thank you. I sometimes forget there is any goodness in the world."

Then, as Arm was leaving, he added, "I haven't told Beauty about Resthaven yet. She wouldn't understand. Please keep the secret.”

 
"Beauty?" said Arm. "My wife." Arm went out.

"What a party!" cried Eye. "What a wonderful, fabulous, marvelous party! I wish I were rich!" He unbolted the many locks of the office and grimaced as he looked around the room.

"I'm not going to eat for three days," Ear said. "I'm going to lie in bed and relive all the courses in the Starlight Room. You should try that, Arm. You have the best imagination. Arm?"

But Arm lay down on the sofa and stared at a blot on the ceiling. The other detectives ignored him. Ear and Eye fought over the tiny shower. "Why don't you ever clean this out?" yelled Eye. "There's green slime everywhere!"

"Only you can see it," Ear said tranquilly. He shook out his sleeping bag and grit pattered over the floor.

"Listen," said Arm. He told them about the meeting in Matsika's study, including the eerie moment when he had looked into the General's mind.

"I've heard of Resthaven. Even thought of going there once, but it's almost, you know, a myth," Eye remarked.

"I've seen the wall," said Ear.

They all lay in bed and stared up at the ceiling. Ear and Eye had sleeping bags, but Arm, in deference to his recent illness, was given the sofa. A roach crept across the ceiling, nearly reached the center and fell off.

"Poor creature. I wonder if he had a wife and family," said Eye.

"He has
lots
of family," Ear said.

They continued to think. Even with the heavy curtain, it was impossible to block out the lights of the Cow's Guts. BEER! BEER! BEER! shouted a pink neon sign across the street.

"The Mellower says Matsika always does the right thing," said Ear. "Now if it were
my
children and I had the whole army at my disposal, I'd knock down that wall. They can't have anything more dangerous than spears in Resthaven."

"What's in there," Arm said slowly, "is a dream everyone has agreed to preserve. No buses or rockets are allowed to fly over it. No city noises can be permitted to interfere with the natural sounds." Arm got up, making a spidery silhouette against the pink curtain. "If Matsika broke into Resthaven, he'd destroy it."

"Looks like we've come to a dead end. I wonder why the General bothered to tell us anything?" Ear yawned. When he did this, not only did his mouth open, but his ears rustled out and back again.

"I wonder, too." Arm went over to the sink. An unpleasant scurrying told him the roach's family was searching for the dishes that were usually stacked there. He rinsed out a cup and filled it with cold water from the tiny fridge. It tasted of the cabbage Eye had allowed to spoil at the back. "I believe the General wants
us
to break into Resthaven."

"Oh, sure! Nice of him! Then we get tied to a not-so-mythical anthill in Monomatapa's country," said Eye.

"If anyone else tried it, he'd do irreparable harm, but look at us."

"I think we're pretty nice," Eye said.

 
"Be honest. What's most people's reaction?"

Ear and Eye sat up. They didn't answer.

"What would a traditional villager think if he came across us on a dark path?"

"He'd think we were bogeymen. Witches' monsters," said Eye reluctantly.

"Exactly. We'd fit right in."

"You sure know how to spoil a beautiful mood." Eye sighed and lay back down on his lumpy sleeping bag.

Twenty-two

Tendai didn't intend to go to sleep. Events were moving rapidly, and he would have to find a way out of Resthaven before the Spirit Medium judged them. Rita had been called to the girls' hut long ago. He lay sleepless on a grass mat wedged in with the other boys.

He went over the possible outcomes. If Chipo's baby died, they would be sent away as witches. He couldn't wish for that, even though it would solve their problems. If the baby lived, they would probably be accepted as members of the tribe. They could never go home again.

In the distance he heard a murmur of voices and a drum. Perhaps the Spirit Medium was sitting with Garikayi right now. Tendai wondered about the medium. People seemed afraid of him. He wasn't like the man Father visited in the Mile-High Macllwaine. That person wore a suit. He told jokes when he wasn't in a trance and pretended to find pennies in Kuda's ears. In the middle of this memory, Tendai fell asleep.

A high ululating cry brought him instantly awake. He sat up, groping for a weapon. Another cry tore through the sleeping village. Voices were raised. Footsteps pattered by the hut.

"What is it? What happened?" Tendai cried, as the other boys gathered at the door. The first glimmer of dawn shone on their faces.

"Chipo's baby. It's a boy," said Hodza.

"How do you know that?"

"Two cries. One for girls and two for boys."

"That's because boys are more important," added Banga. Tendai got up and followed the others to a big camp fire. Garikayi sat on a stool next to a man Tendai had not seen before. He had a hard, bitter face, and his eyes were so bloodshot they were almost red. His clawlike hand grasped a walking stick carved into the shape of a serpent. He wore many charms, among which was an
ndoro.

Even from where he stood, Tendai could see the
ndoro
was a cheap pottery imitation. The man's eyes restlessly searched the crowd that had gathered. When they found Tendai, the eyes stopped. They flicked down to the true
ndoro
and back up to send a message of pure hate.

It had to be the Spirit Medium.

People talked in low voices. They hugged themselves against the chilly dew that had settled everywhere. The flames crackled and sent sparks high into the brightening air. Finally, the Spirit Medium turned his eyes away. Tendai relaxed. He hadn't even been aware he was tense.

He searched the crowd for Rita, but she wasn't there. He hoped she had taken the opportunity to sleep late. The villagers waited patiently as the sun painted the dawn clouds over Resthaven, and gradually Tendai became aware that all was
not
right with the situation. Surely, if the chief had just had an heir after years of waiting, people would be rejoicing. They weren't.

They talked in quiet voices, but they didn't mention the baby. Their mood, as far as Tendai could tell, was anxious. Was the baby deformed? Was Chipo dead?

An old woman emerged from a hut, and the crowd parted before her. She slowly approached the stools where Garikayi and the Spirit Medium sat. The old woman unwrapped the blanket.

An outraged yowl arose as the infant was exposed to air. A murmur of surprise rippled around the gathering. "Taking a baby out before its umbilical cord has dropped off? What can they be thinking of?" whispered a woman.

"Shhh!" said her companion. "The Spirit Medium has to make up his mind."

"He's strong," Garikayi announced, as the baby squalled and kicked. The old man obviously wanted to hold it, but Tendai knew that would go against custom. No one but the mother and midwives could touch it for several days.

The Spirit Medium inspected the infant. It was clear he was not fond of children, or at least this one. He frowned as he studied the wrinkled little face. The moments passed.

"He's one of us," the man said at last. A collective sigh went around the crowd.

"I have a son," cried Garikayi over the howls of the infant. "Now take it to the safety of the hut!" The old woman, smiling toothlessly, began to hobble back through the villagers. They smiled in return. The anxious feeling Tendai had noticed earlier was gone.

Suddenly a pot crashed. Someone screamed. Everyone froze. Above the rustling fire, Tendai heard a baby —
another baby
— wailing. A girl emerged from the same hut as the old woman had. She, too, carried a bundle. She resolutely approached Garikayi, who looked as though the sky had fallen on his head. His mouth dropped open. The girl drew near and held out the second bundle.

It was Rita!

"No," said Garikayi, waving her away.

"It's your daughter," Rita said.

"I do not accept her. She is an accursed twin."

"She's perfectly healthy," said Rita, whose voice was beginning to get shrill. "The midwife was going to
kill
her."

"It is a weak, unnatural child. It will die."

"Listen to her! She's not weak! Oh, I won't let you kill a tiny baby!" Rita began to cry. Her sobs resounded through the village clearing.

"Twins are evil," came the thin voice of the Spirit Medium. "They are against
Mwari's
order."