The body remembers
Zag Kunde Chronicle #009
New to the story? Start at the beginning.
NEW - AUDIO VERSION: If you prefer to listen to audio of me reading this chronicle, here it is! This is a test, so please let me know in the comments what you think.
Previous Chronicle: Nyako takes Zag away in the middle of the night on a journey to an unknown location. Zag for the first time meets the Koah-Koah bird, his Oracle.
Nyako was born during the year of the last Great Famine in Namanga. Fifth among six boys. His two oldest brothers left the village during the famine and never returned. Two other brothers succumbed to the famine and died.
Nyako survived.
His mother always said he had a strong life force and he would impose himself on life when others were buckling or fleeing.
He wasn’t always popular. His slightly distended stomach attracted ridicule from the older boys, as did his raised canine teeth. They earned him the name Muntu - which just means person.
His nickname took on a new meaning when one day as he approached a group of boys playing football, someone called out “here comes Muntu". It led to a roar of laughter that interrupted the game for two minutes, while Nyako stood there. Waiting. Let’s just say he became intimately familiar with teasing and mockery but, somehow, not bullying. Somehow the aggravation always stopped short of bullying.
He was blessed with great athleticism, which meant that even before the laughing had died down both of the football teams were asking him to join their team.
The team he joined usually won. He played as a central defender, and slotted himself in front of the goalkeeper, slightly behind the other defenders, from where he could see all the action and organize his team’s play.
His calm confidence on the ball inspired his attacking players to be more enterprising, knowing that Muntu had their back, and they often scored more goals.
Nyako felt he had the tools to turn ridicule into praise. He figured that ridicule at first, and praise at the end wasn’t such a bad deal. And It wasn’t just football, it was acrobatic dancing, making wire cars, hunting birds - he was good at anything that involved bodily intelligence and hand-eye coordination.
Nyako carried in his body, the experience of early scarcity and loss. He was a baby when the famine happened, but his body remembered. His muscles grew to become tight, streamlined, and efficient. His thinking was precise. As if no thought could be wasted. And his eyes could pick out the smallest detail. What he lost in looks he more than made up for in acuity and adeptness.
His body also remembered the grey-brown stench of death that was all around him as a baby. It drove him. The panic that came through his mother’s breast was encoded in his ambition and desire to leave and become someone of note as soon as humanly possible. He had always planned to leave Namanga as soon as he was initiated at 13, and go to the industrial towns where he would take a job and live a modern life. He intended to become the first person in Namanga to own a car and an urban house. He had no intention of being a farmer, although he was good at it.
But he never left. That Grey-brown stench held him captive in Namanga and haunted him throughout.
Every time he went away, he came back. Something brought him back. He always found a reason to return. Until today. Today was different.
He had Zag with him.
As soon as they were back on the road, Zag found a comfortable spot in the back of the truck. He thought about what he had just seen. That bird. Seemed very familiar. Something told him not to tell anyone about it. He closed his eyes tight and decided he wanted to remember all the exact details about the bird in case he saw it again.
Black body, grey-brown wings when they were open. Red feet. Red face. Mango beak. And those eyes. Yellow eyes like the color of Mother’s necklace that she wore to the market sometimes. Yellow eyes that spoke to him in a language he felt he knew but could not speak. He also remembered the sisal string around the bird’s left leg. Most birds wouldn’t have that.
The steady hum of the truck on the smooth road and the wind rushing past them as they sped into the late afternoon sun created a perfectly cozy soundscape and Zag fell asleep.
And there was the Bird again in his dream. Black body, red face, yellow beak, sisal string around its leg. It was the same Bird.
The Bird spoke.
Zag. My name is Koah and I have something important to tell you. I want you to listen very carefully because I may not be able to tell you this again. Please remember these three words because they will be very important to you:
Someone shook Zag awake. They had arrived at their destination and there was a small commotion as people were quickly unloading the bags of corn from the truck. Zag looked around for his father. Father was giving instructions to the men who were unloading the corn, telling them where to take it. He seemed to be in charge. He also seemed to Zag to have an authority like he’d never seen him have before. Here, it seemed the people listened to his every word and did exactly what he said.
Where are we? thought Zag. Still a little sleepy. And then he remembered the dream.
What were the three words?
If you listened to the audio, LMK what do you think - should I keep doing them?
The audio is great! Please keep doing it.