Stranger in his Homeland

Chapter Thirty-Four

263 Chapter Thirty-Four E ru must have heard Antony’s voice, for, in spite of the agony in which he was he called without turning to look at the visitor: “Bo, Antony, you were waiting for me to die before you come down?” “I only got your letter four days ago,” Antony said. “I did not personally hear the radio announcement, and my Director did not permit me to leave until last evening. Somebody told me some time ago that he heard I was being asked to come to Likume. The Director could not allow me to come down because, as he said, I myself did not even know the name of the patient. I had never associated you with sickness, so I could not guess it was you. When they said it was a man who was sick I knew it was not my aunt.” Eru did not say anything. He grunted, made a slow but rather excruciating effort to turn, but screamed and laid back, facing the wall. His whole body was covered with a red blanket dotted all over with what Antony concluded were patches of blood. When Antony compared the filth in which Eru lay with the splendour of his home in Likume, he shook his head lamentably. He moved to the bed side and pulled the blanket below the level of his shoulder. Eru’s body as far as he could see looked like a beehive of marks made by the blade of the medicineman. He pulled the blanket lower and lower until he reached Eru’s buttocks. The same blade marks filled the body, some still bleeding, others already turning to sores. “What is wrong with you, bo Eru?” he marvelled. Again Eru tried in vain to turn. “And you cannot even turn your body?” “I cannot,” Eru said in his throat. Antony tried to turn him over on his side. Eru cried, but submitted until he turned and laid on his right side, facing Antony. 264 Linus T. Asong His entire left side was already developing bed sores and even gave off an unpleasant odour. “What do you say is wrong, bo Eru?” Eru beckoned to the medicineman. “Malam,” he began, “this is my brother I have been talking to you about. He has just come. Please tell him yourself, what is killing me. If I tell him he will not believe. He has always lived in a world of his own—” Antony turned to Malam. “They have tied him up in the sky,” Malam said. “Each time I get closer to bring him back, they put obstacles in my way. They throw dust in my eyes.” “Bullshit. Who are the they Malam is talking about?” “His enemies. Who else could they be?” “For how long have you been here?” “Six weeks,” Eru himself answered. Antony turned to Malam and beckoned him out. There he asked: “What are his chances of surviving? I don’t understand this story of tying him up in the sky.” Malam shrugged and told him: “We only have to see. When this medicine that I am using now does not work,” he said pointing to a small bundle of ashes in a transparent paper on a small cane table near the bed. “What is really wrong with him?” Malam lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “You know that your fried loved women so much,” he began. “A woman went to a friend Malam to look for medicine to make your friend love her more than any other woman. The medicineman gave her something else, and the thing took him to the sky and left him there.” Antony smiled briefly. What nonsense, he said to himself. He left Malam and walked back in and pulled a stool which he placed by the bed. “Let me talk to my brother alone,” he said to Malam and the women who stood against the wall watching them. They went out reluctantly and sat on a bench outside, but within listening distance. “Bo, Eru, what exactly is wrong with you?” he inquired with a frantic expression on his face. 265 Stranger in his Homeland “Let me say it before you deny,” Eru began. “Commy is killing me. She sold me to the devil.” Again Antony smiled. “No, let us be serious,” he said. “What makes you think so?” “Commy took my pant and singlet and my hair to a...