A Legend of the Dead

Chapter Seven

49 A Legend of the Dead: Sequel to The Crown of Thorns Chapter Seven He who is circumcised outside his house stead does not face the enemy bravely. (Ngumbu Njururi: Gikuyu Proverb) T HE SAME Jeep that brought Beckongncho from his house to the DO’s office took him to Tetseale, a distance of some four hundred kilometres. They left at about 5 pm, had four breakdowns and arrived at about the same time the following day. Two policemen had escorted him and they had stopped short of putting handcuffs on him. Beckongncho had refused to eat or drink anything in two of the police stations where they had halted. He had hardly even closed his eyes by way of sleeping. His mind was gnawed by an unrelieved apprehension of the consequences that awaited him in Tetseale. He was dying to know how much the Government knew already concerning his involvement in the uprising. The DO of Sowa had told him that he was not under arrest. Whom was he fooling? He was just being ridiculous. Force a man out of his house and secret him at gun-point to Tetseale without allowing him to say a word to his wife and children. What else is arrest? He would not attempt to deny his involvement in the affairs of Small Monje. He would accept it, but he would give them the facts of the situation as he knew them. The whole truth. If they were ever to allow him to defend himself, and if they were ever able to listen, he would make them reason with him. *** Beckongncho may ultimately have been detained. But from the Governor’s standpoint, whether he would be locked up or not would depend on how he would respond to the interrogation as soon as 50 Linus T. Asong he arrived. The Governor usually stopped receiving visitors at 4.30 pm. After several breakdowns the Jeep bringing Beckongncho from Sowa arrived at 6 pm The policemen knew that they could not take Beckongncho to the Governor’s residence. From the manner they had seen the DO for Sowa treat him, they felt that there was only one place to take him to: The Central Police Station. There the driver climbed down first and shut his door immediately as if afraid that Beckongncho would storm his way out of the vehicle and perhaps escape. The man to Beckongncho’s right jumped down and ordered him to climb down. “Follow me,” he shouted. The second policeman stepped behind Beckongncho so that the two more or less hemmed him in signifying maximum security. The three mounted the steps and passed through a large veranda on which friends and relatives of detainees sat on benches on either side of the entrance, conversing in soft tones, eyeing one another each time a new convict arrived. A large wall-to-wall counter occupied the left as they entered the building proper. It was so high that you could not see anybody sitting on the other side. The policemen stopped in front of the counter and drew the attention of the officer on duty. The man whose friends called him “Django” must have been about two metres tall, for when he rose, he leaned over the high counter as though it were a mere writing desk. He was without his cap and one could see a large bald head which seemed to have been made from two panel-beaten sections. The ridge separating the two parts ran from above one ear to the other, across the middle of his head. “So, na how?” Django bellowed to the visitors. “Governor will see him tomorrow,” the first policeman said. “O.K, okay,” the man nodded and using his left index finger drew a right-to-left arc, indicating that Beckongncho should walk round into his office space. The two men who brought him conversed with each other for a while, walked away gradually and casually until they could neither be seen or heard. Beckongncho surveyed the man’s office from the door. Below, a large table stood close to the counter, with many files and thick ledgers on it. A small parcel of groundnuts lay on one of the files while the peelings lay in a dirty cement-bag paper near the right edge of the table. To the right of the porch stood a large cupboard 51 A Legend of the...