“Then go home. The elders of justice are on their way” “I hope they will not let my husband know that I was here.” “That should not worry you. There is no healer worth his weight in herbs who would hurl to the wind what is gathered in the peace and silence of the shrine.”
3
The silence engulfing Tajirika’s home was deeper than that in the thickest bush in the darkest night. Gaclgua and Gaciru, their young ones, were in boarding school. Domestic workers were there during the day; husband and wife were left to their own devices at night. Tajirika often did not feel like going home early after work and would stop at a bar.
One evening he felt fed up with hard liquor, which did not always numb his loneliness, and decided to go to the Mars Cafe for a cup of coffee instead.
Since beating his wife, Tajirika felt better, but whenever the images of the dancing women came to his mind and he imagined the lifestyle in which Vinjinia had indulged during his incarceration, he would still feel a sudden resurgence of anger. Ironically, this resurgence and the intense focus on Vinjinia’s misdeeds served to deflect his mind from dwelling on what had happened to him during police custody. How could he dwell on the picture of himself with a bucket of shit dangling between his legs? It was not a pretty sight, even to himself, and dwelling on Vinjinia’s dirt made him feel purer.
The only memory that gave him enormous satisfaction was that of the Wizard of the Crow in police hands, for he took it that he was now safe from the sorcerer.
Tajirika knew nothing about the latest twist in the saga of the Wizard of the Crow, and he would not have believed it anyway were he told that the wizard was now in America at the behest of the Ruler. All he cared to know was that Sikiokuu had ordered the sorcerer to remove the magic spell he had cast on Tajirika and nullify all short-and long-term side effects.
He looked forward to the Ruler’s imminent return. Sikiokuu had assured him of getting back the chairmanship of Marching to Heaven with all powers, including those that Kaniuru had taken illegally. He truly had a new friend in Sikiokuu, and whenever memories of his old friendship with Machokali forced themselves on his mind, he would dismiss them very quickly. But sometimes they would not go away and he would actually pause to reflect on the situation and ask, What shall I do when Machokali returns?
Not that this was a question that would have made him lie sleepless at night. Tajirika prided himself on being flexible in everything to ensure his own survival. He moved with the world and not against the world. His relationship to his former friend and benefactor would depend on the relative strength of Machokali and Sikiokuu in the game of power. If Machokali should prove the stronger, then Tajirika would tell him everything he knew about what Sikiokuu had been cooking in Machokali’s absence. But if Sikiokuu proved himself the stronger, then Tajirika would continue on his side and forget the past. As he now crossed the street toward the Mars Cafe, the thoughts of how he would maneuver between the two giant rivals for the power behind the throne preoccupied his mind and he forgot the prospects of another lonely night at home.
He felt people pressing against him on one side but quickly dismissed this as one of the inconveniences of walking on crowded streets. Eldares is attracting too much riffraff from the rural areas, he said to himself, slightly irritated. But when he tried to push forward and he still felt the pressure, he looked about him only to see people in head masks with two menacing slits for the eyes. Even then he did not immediately associate this with himself. He had always read and heard about victims of
But before he could figure out what was happening, he felt rather than saw himself being lifted and pushed inside the back of a waiting van, which then took off immediately. The whole thing occurred so quickly that none of the passersby noticed the activities around the van as anything unusual. Inside the dark van, Tajirika found himself firmly held by his left and right arms and seated between two of the captors. He tried to extricate himself from their grip but he could not even move his hips, so tightly did they hold him. His first reaction was that these were thieves.
“I don’t have much money on me. Where are you taking me?” he asked, but received no response.
He thought it best to keep quiet and wait for their arrival at wherever they were taking him, and once outside the van he would try to escape. But as soon as the van stopped, his captors blindfolded him, took him into a house, and pushed him into a chair. When now they removed the cloth and Tajirika found himself surrounded by masked persons, beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. Who are you? he asked again, his voice trembling.
They removed the masks. What! Women? He was shocked, deflated, and ashamed, all at the same time. He, a man, to be kidnapped by women? Then came contempt and defiance. There was no way nine women could hold him against his will, he thought and quickly dashed toward the door. It was locked.
“Go back to the chair and wait for the ceremony,” one of the women told him, but Tajirika did not heed her.
“Open this door or I will teach you to know a man when you see one,” he told them, kicking the door with his shoes.
Tajirika did not even know who touched him first or from what direction, but the next second he found himself lying flat on the floor with three women sitting on his back; one at the neck, another at the waist, and the other one at the feet.
“What is your name?” the one on his feet asked him.
Fury blocked his throat. How could he, a man, be wrestled to the ground by a bunch of women?
“You are being asked. What is your name?” the one who sat on his neck asked.
“Tajirika,” he said, from the side of his mouth, breathing heavily under the combined weight of the three women.
“And other names?” the one in the middle asked.
“Titus.”
“Just wanted to make sure that we did not pick up the wrong man.”
“Get off my back,” he hissed. “What do you want from me? A ransom?” he said as he tried to shake them off, to no avail.
“Let’s introduce ourselves. We are not killers. We are not robbers. We want you to count all the money in your possession because we do not want to ever hear you claim that anybody here has taken even a penny from you.”
“No need for that. I have one thousand Burls, and you can have them all.”
“We don’t need your Burls,” one of the women standing told him; the others laughed.
“What, then, do you want? Surely women don’t rape men?”
“See how his mind works?” one of them said. “Rape is entering another person’s body by force. It is violence, and if that’s what you want we can certainly…”
“No, no, I mean if it is sex you want, we can make a deal. Work out a routine, a time, and the order…”
“He does fancy himself a man,” another one said. “Nine women all to himself?”
“Who are you?”
“A new order of justice created by today’s modern woman. You are now appearing before a people’s court.”
“I refuse to recognize your authority,” Tajirika replied with a little bit more defiance.
“Don’t worry yourself. By dawn you will.”
“Get off my back,” he said again, annoyed with himself for sounding as if he was pleading.
“Not so fast. We want you to feel the full force of our weight.”
“What is this all about?”
“Justice. We are hawkeyed justice. We float in the air, our ears wide open to the cries of women. Now it has come to our ears that you beat your wife night and day”
Tajirika felt himself choking with anger. How dare these hussies interfere with his business?
“Listen to me. There is no power on earth that can tell me how to run my home.”
“That might very well be so, but man, woman, and child compose a home, and if one pillar is weak, the family
