Ama by Manu Herbstein Page A

his whip and she pulled herself together and walked on.
    â€œThey cut the stomachs open and took out the livers to make medicine for the Na,” Suba told Nandzi later. “Then they dragged the bodies into the bush and left them there for the vultures to eat. They have stuck the heads on poles in the market place.”
    â€œSuba, I don't want to know about that.”
    Nandzi had other matters on her mind.
    â€œSuba can you keep a secret?” she asked.
    He was the only one she could talk to.
    The boy nodded energetically.
    â€œI am going to escape,” she said.
    His eyes opened wide.
    â€œI didn't want to go without saying goodbye to you. You are my brother now and I will never forget you and what you did for me.”
    * * *
    Nandzi lay on her back and stared into the darkness.
    Her arms and legs ached from her long day's work in the shea-butter factory and yet she could not sleep. The small round room was packed with women. At the perimeter they lay shoulder to shoulder, but near the centre of the room there was not enough space for all their feet. When Nandzi lay down early enough to stretch out her legs on the floor, they were soon buried beneath those of her neighbours. Tonight her feet had lain uncomfortably on top of a jumble of others until she had drawn them back beneath her knees. When the next consignment of women arrives , she thought, they will have to sleep outside in the courtyard .
    The room had no windows and the single door opening provided little ventilation. Their water ration was barely enough for drinking, let alone bathing. They were all filthy. There was a pervasive smell of stale sweat and shea-butter, menstrual blood, urine and farting in the room.
    Nandzi was hungry. She ran her hands over her body.
    I am wasting away , she thought.
    She raised herself to a sitting position and leaned back against the plastered mud wall. Immediately, it seemed, adjacent bodies filled the narrow space her legs had vacated.
    She squeezed her eyes shut. Itsho , she breathed, Itsho, help me . Itsho's features filled her mind. Speak to me , she whispered. Itsho, tell me what to do . He smiled and his lips moved but she heard nothing. A woman snored. Then the vision was gone. She shook her head vigorously from side to side. Itsho is no longer in this world , she told herself. I am all alone; I have no one to depend on but myself.
    Not for the first time, she considered her options. There were only two: and of those acceptance was out of the question. Her present condition was intolerable and the prospect of the future seemed worse.
    Yet every escape plan she considered was fraught with difficulty and danger.
    Exhausted, she fell asleep and dreamed. She was alone. A row of enormous earthenware cauldrons stretched as far as she could see. Each was supported over a blazing fire. She had to keep the cauldrons on the boil. She collected firewood from a pile and ran from one fire to the next, stoking. The smoke filled her eyes but she could not pause. The boiling must not stop. She stood on tiptoe to peer into a cauldron. There should have been shea-nut kernels bouncing up and down in the bubbling, boiling water. Instead there were men's heads. Somewhere in the distance stood Itsho, naked, his body smeared with shea-butter, watching. Two men approached, arm in arm. One was the King, the other Abdulai. “Yes, that is the one,” said the King, pointing at her. Abdulai grabbed her suddenly from behind, one arm round her waist, the other hand in her crotch, and propelled her up into the air, in a great, arcing slow-motion trajectory. She felt she was gliding like a bird. Then she was diving head first into the seething cauldron.
    â€œWhat is it, sister?” mumbled her neighbour, woken by Nandzi's scream.
    * * *
    Nandzi awoke with a start.
    She had taken a place near the door so as not to run the risk of disturbing the other women. She looked out and saw the crescent moon.
    Cautiously she rose and