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  • Ancient Ties of KarmaA Stoku
  • Ben Okri (bio)

It was a clear bright day and there were these two men who were about to have a duel. One had a long knife and the other had a short sword that curved sharply at the end. The one with the knife was younger, cockier, and a little wild. He was very sure of himself. The one with the longer weapon was older, more civilised, and did not want the fight, and did everything to avoid it. But the younger one forced the situation, and they had the first of their fights.

It began in a flash. One made a move, the other ducked, and suddenly the younger one plunged the knife in the older man’s chest. But this was in a shadow realm. Then both of them, who must have been friends, travelled on. They walked through many landscapes, and traversed many cities. Then outside a railway station they had another flash fight. The one moved, the other ducked, and the younger one planted the knife in the other’s chest. But this was in a realm of thought.

The two men, bound together by mysterious ties, journeyed on. All the travelling together had not resolved the enigma of the bad blood or the fated mood between them. Then the day of doom arrived. Fate had given them time to overcome, and they hadn’t. The older one never provoked, but was bound to the younger one by ancient ties of karma. They came to a village in the woods. It was near a cemetery. They were now in real time.

The younger one provoked. Then a shadow flashed between them. The younger attacked, the other ducked, and stuck his weapon somewhat desultorily at the younger one, who made an evasive movement and then, for real, planted his long knife deep into the belly of the older man. But the younger one, not satisfied with victory, was outraged at the poor technique of the older fellow. So while he still stood conscious, with the knife sticking out of him, the younger one decided to give the older man a lesson.

He replayed their moves. The older one had made a thrust; he, the younger, had moved sideways and extended his left arm so the knife went harmlessly between arm and body; and then he had delivered the coup de grace. He was almost triumphant.

But then the older one suddenly came to life, and made these extra-ordinarily swift movements, faster than the shadow of the wind, faster than thought. The older man made three slashing cuts and brought the sharp curved end of his weapon down on both sides of the younger one’s neck, but without touching him.

It was a series of master strokes. It was evident, suddenly, that the older one could have killed the younger man easily, whenever he chose. It was evident that the older one was a master all along. He had deliberately refrained from killing or hurting the younger one. [End Page 1030]

Then something bizarre transpired. Suddenly, in his awareness, all that was true in the shadow world happened and the younger man fell as if he had been fatally struck. He fell against the wall and as he sank to the ground, he cried:

“Hell has opened for me. He has come for me.”

And right next to him the wall flowered into the yellow brightness of a monkey’s head which projected in reds and yellows from the wall, engulfing and encompassing the younger man as he screamed out the inaudible wail of Don Giovanni being dragged down to the underworld.

While this happened the older man sat beside him, silently swept up to heaven, accompanied by the harmonious melodies of the sirens. [End Page 1031]

Ben Okri

BEN OKRI—novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, and essayist—was born in Minna, Nigeria, but spent his early years in London, while his father studied law. Okri later returned to the UK to study at the University of Essex. He is author of more than eighteen books, including Incidents at the Shrine, The Famished Road (winner of the Booker...

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