“Then you have nothing to fear. I will not kill you,” the man told him.
“What did you say?”
“Keep quiet. I will not kill you.”
“Thank you, my savior. How much do you want?”
“Why would I want your money?”
“For sparing my life. For sparing me.”
“Who told you that I am here to do away with you?”
“Then who are you? And why have they brought you here?”
“Listen,” the man said angrily. “I have no idea who you are. I’m not in the mood to chat. Go to sleep and let me do the same,” the man said, and then kept quiet.
But to Tajirika, the man’s ensuing silence was ominous. He is all pretense. He wants to lull me to sleep, then murder me.
“Don’t think that you can fool me,” Tajirika said.
“Why?” the man asked.
“I know you want me to fall asleep…”
“Are you nuts?”
Despite Tajirika’s provocations, the man refused to respond the rest of the night, serving only to confirm Tajirika’s suspicions that Sikiokuu wanted him dead. He did not close his eyes once. Dawn found him staring at the corner where the man lay.
Neither believed his own eyes.
“Titus Tajirika!” “Wizard of the Crow!”
13
Tajirika was ecstatic at the apparition of someone with the power to get him out of prison. Nothing was beyond the reach of the Wizard of the Crow, who might even have come precisely to relieve Tajirika’s tribulations. Tajirika did not even bother to inquire as to what the Wizard of the Crow was doing or how he came to be there.
He simply proceded to unburden himself of all that he had suffered since receiving the summons to appear before Kaniuru’s Commission of Inquiry into the Queuing Mania. He told of his arrest, his interrogation by both Njoya and Kahiga, his encounter with Sikiokuu in the minister’s office, and his return to this dark cell. The only thing he could not bring himself to tell was Vinjinia’s shameful betrayal, and especially her posing for pictures with the dancing women.
“Look at what Sikiokuu has done to me! See that bucket? That is the toilet. When did they last empty it? Seven days ago. Luckily I am not shitting much. Still, as you can see, the bucket is almost full.”
“All yours?”
“Yes. No one else has been in this cell since I’ve been here. How dare he do this to me? What should I do about it?”
“What do you think?”
“You know the saying that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers? I feel like that grass in the struggle between Sikiokuu and Machokali for power behind the throne. The problem is that Sikiokuu has not been clear about what he really wants me to do.”
“How much clearer does he have to be, given what you told me he asked you about Machokali?”
“He didn’t even mention Machokali by name. He was circumspect, talking to me in riddles about a disciple of the doubting Thomas, a Frenchman named Descartes. Then he told me to go away and think more deeply about my lust for whiteness.”
“Can’t you see that he just wants you to say in your own words that somebody else infected you with white- ache? But who can you single out and say, This or that one infected me, or, That one is the host of the disease? Is there anyone among those you call your friends who does not suffer from the malady, the white-hot greed behind his self-centeredness? The man was right to ask you to think further about the meaning and implications of what you said. But what do you do after you have brooded?”
“And that is what I want to know. What should I do?”
“First, examine yourself.”
“I mean, look to your heart; find out why you ended up here.”
“I did not incarcerate myself.”
“Who, then, has jailed you?”
“Let me tell you. Sikiokuu and Kaniuru are my enemies. They want me to die in prison. Why? Because they don’t want me to continue as chairman of Marching to Heaven. They want to make sure that I am not around when Marching to Heaven begins. They want to be the only ones controlling the benefits from the entire project. But you wait. They don’t know who they are dealing with, Mr. Wizard of the Crow. Help me. Please help me to break free from prison and I will never forget you.”
“From which prison do you want to free yourself?”
“Mr. Wizard of the Crow, this is a serious matter. How many prisons do you see around here?”
“Two. One of the mind and one of the body.”
“Then break the walls of these prisons with your mirror power.”
“I did not bring a mirror with me.”
“Oh!” groaned Tajirika in despair.
“What if we make our own mirror?” the Wizard of the Crow asked suddenly.
“How?”
“Our minds. Is there any mirror greater than the mirror of the mind?”
“Whatever you say” Tajirika said, happy that the Wizard of the Crow was now talking about using a mirror, any mirror, however made.
“Close your eyes… Paint pictures of Kaniuru and Sikiokuu in your mind.”
He wants to help me by disabling the power of the two ruffians, Tajirika told himself as he tried with all his might to imagine Sikiokuu and Kaniuru. But the images would not stay still in his mind’s dark mirror.
“Now I see them, now I don’t,” Tajirika said. “They are in and out of focus.”
“It does not matter if their images are indistinct,” said the Wizard of the Crow. “Now point at those who are ruining the country. Show me where they are.”
That’s easy, Tajirika thought, as he stretched his hand and pointed in the distance, but the finger kept on moving around like the images in his mind.
“Over there,” Tajirika said, still pointing vaguely in front of him.
“Hold it right there,” said the Wizard of the Crow. “Now open your eyes, and keep on pointing at the corrupt and the greedy.”
Tajirika did as directed. His heart was bursting with joy at the imminent death of his enemies, greedy, corrupt robbers.
“Look at your hand carefully. One finger is pointing at your enemies, and the three others are pointing at you.”
“I don’t quite understand.”
“What don’t you understand? Do you remember the children’s story about the five fingers who set out to rob someone? Pinky says: Let’s go. Where? To do what? asks the finger next to it. To steal, says the middle finger. What if we are caught? asks the fourth finger. Do you know what the thumb says?”
“I am not one of you,” Tajirika answered, playing the character of the thumb, ending with laughter.
“That’s why the fat finger still remains apart from the other four to this day. One thief standing apart from the others and pointing at…”
Tajirika examined his fist again. It was obvious that the pointing finger and the three others were pointing in definite directions. Where and what was the thumb pointing at? One could not tell. And suddenly he thought he
