Hare in the Elephant's Trunk Read online

  To himself, Jacob thought they had a better chance of finding food and water with a smaller group. How will we ever find enough food for hundreds of boys?

  They walked all night, and as the sun rose, they slept once again in an area of tall grasses. By that time, Jacob, Monyroor and Oscar had moved up to the middle of the line of boys. Many of them had found even less to eat and drink than Jacob and Monyroor. The long days and nights were making them move more and more slowly, like old men shuffling along.

  Jacob felt protected by the hundreds of boys both in front of and behind them. They did nothing, however, to help his poor blistered feet. “My feet are too sore, Monyroor,” he cried, hobbling along. “For once, I wish my feet were smaller, like the feet of an antelope, not a hare. It is like walking on knives all day.”

  “And mine also,” Monyroor replied. “Think how wonderful it would be if we had shoes!” Some of the other boys had started the journey with scraps of fabric tied to their feet, but the cloth had soon been shredded into threads by the sand and rocks and sharp needle grasses.

  Jacob squeezed his eyes shut and pictured his mother. He saw her strong hands easing the pain in his feet with a cool cream she had made. Wadeng, Jacob; wadeng ...

  One sleeping night, Jacob jerked awake to the terrifying sounds of shrill screaming, “Noooooo! Help me! Please! Mama!” followed by ferocious snarling and roaring, and the snapping of savage teeth crunching. Jacob huddled closer to Monyroor.

  “Is it a lion?” he whispered. “If only you had your spear!” When silence returned, all around him boys reached for the hands of those beside them. No one said a word as they shuffled closer to each other in the tightly-packed sleeping circles, trying to hide and waiting for the pitch-black African night to end. The peaceful rustling of the tall grasses did little to calm them. Jacob could see some boys’ lips moving as they prayed silently.

  “Blessings on our brother,” Monyroor said finally. Jacob pressed up against his nephew. His hand brushed against Monyroor’s lion tail. Jacob wrapped his fingers around the coarse hair. His other hand found his stone. He rubbed it over his eyes, trying to make them close, wishing for Mama. The sky was beginning to glow pink and gold before Jacob’s limbs softened once again into sleep.

  Chapter Eight

  After a second lion attack in the dark, the oldest boys decided they must try to walk at night as often as possible. The lions and hyenas did not hunt during the day, and it would be safer to sleep then. After the silvery moon had crossed most of the sky one walking night, the hissed command of “Shhhh!” was passed down the line from boy to boy.

  “Why are we being shushed?” Oscar whispered.

  Jacob raised his eyebrows and put one finger to his lips. Movement slowed to a crawl and finally they could see the ruins of a burned-out village in the distance. The boys ahead of them began to settle in for the remaining few hours before sunrise, forming large circles, like black sunflowers laid out on the hard, dusty earth.

  “I have a strange feeling about this place,” Jacob whispered to Monyroor as he pressed his bony back into his nephew’s spine.

  “Me, too,” Monyroor admitted. “I feel like I’ve been here before.”

  “But that’s not possible, Monyroor ... is it?” Jacob asked.

  Monyroor laughed and reached behind to poke him gently in the ribs. “Of course not—have you ever been this far from home before? Now, get to sleep. Maybe something good will happen tomorrow.”

  “Do you think we are almost there?” Jacob asked. “Do you think they will really roast chickens for us in Ethiopia, or maybe even some goats? Or is Majok just being mean, getting us excited for nothing?”

  “I hope he is telling the truth,” Oscar said. “I feel like I am a roasted goat when we’re walking in the stupid sun all day.”

  “Tomorrow is our day to rest,” Monyroor said. “We will walk under the cool moonlight again.”

  “Goodnight, Monyroor. Goodnight, Oscar. Sleep well and ...” Jacob yawned once, then fell asleep, leaving his thought unfinished. The pink light of the rising sun bathed the circles of sleeping boys in its peaceful glow, while the birds chirped their lullaby all around.

  “Day number 25,” Jacob announced upon waking later that day. He sometimes got confused about the number from walking under the sun one day, and under the moon the next. Not that it mattered, but someday he might like to remember how many days had passed as they walked to Ethiopia. Mama would never believe I walked for almost one whole moon cycle! I wish I could tell her about all our adventures ... she would be surprised at how brave her little hare is now.

  “I don’t think anybody lives in that village,” Oscar called down from a tamarind tree. His damaged arm didn’t keep him from being a good tree climber. His face was barely visible through the curling, feathery brown leaves. “I can see only burned huts. Sadly, there are no lumpy tamarind seed sacks either.” He threw down a dry cluster of shriveled-up pods. “These are as thirsty as we are.”

  “Are you sure there are no soldiers?” Monyroor called back.

  “If there are, they’re either hiding, or very, very small.” Oscar jumped down from the tree.

  The boys marched slowly forward, staring at the ruins of the village, a village that appeared to have once been very much like Duk Padiet. Charred grass roofs lay upturned like enormous baskets. Suddenly, a cry of “Hello!” rang out from a small rise beyond the village. Hundreds of eyes looked up at the small boy as he flew toward them, kicking up clouds of dust behind him. “Please wait for me!” he called. “I am sorry; I am running as fast as I can.” His spindly arms and legs were moving so fast, Jacob expected him to take off, like a raven, and soar up into the air.

  But just as he reached Jacob, he stumbled over a stone hidden in the sand. “Ahhhhh!” he yelled. His chin banged into the ground with a thud. He pushed himself up onto his elbows, then sat up, holding his head in both hands and shaking it. Most of the shuffling feet continued moving past him.

  “Willy?” Jacob said, recognizing his purple shorts as he helped him up. “But what are you doing here?”

  “Yes, yes, I am Willy. But who are you?” the boy asked, confusion wrinkling his brow. He rubbed his eyes and brushed dirt from his bloated belly.

  “It’s me—Jacob, and Monyroor—remember Matthew and Louise? We helped protect your brother from the vultures.”

  Willy’s face lit up as he remembered. “My brother is still safe—under the stones; the vultures gave up and moved away.” He pointed to the burial mound behind him. “But why have you returned? Did you come back to find me?”

  Jacob’s smile disappeared. “What do you mean—‘come back’?” he asked.

  “You mean you are still waiting—this is the same village from before?” Monyroor interrupted, grabbing Willy by his thin shoulders.

  “I am sorry,” Willy said. “But the millet and the carrots are all gone; I drank all the water; and the fire died while I was sleeping one night. I couldn’t get the sticks to work.”

  “Oh, no!” Jacob groaned, sinking to the ground. “So much walking for nothing.” He pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes.

  “I am sorry, Jacob,” Willy said again.

  “It’s not your fault, Willy.” Jacob groaned. “We will never get to Ethiopia.”

  “That is the problem with walking in darkness—we didn’t have the sun to guide us to the east.” Monyroor rubbed his scarred forehead and paced back and forth.

  “Even the moon has been hiding behind the night clouds,” Jacob said. “We have had nothing to show us the way.”

  “I’m confused,” Oscar said. The boys explained what had happened, and Monyroor passed the word to the head of the line that, without anything to guide them, they had indeed walked in a complete circle—a very large, meandering circle.

  “What’s a few more days of walking anyway, for strong boys like us?” Oscar said cheerfully. “I’m Oscar,” he said, smiling down at Willy. “Maybe you have heard of me? I am the
best soccer player in all of Dinkaland.”

  “Shut up, Oscar,” Monyroor said, marching off. “This is no time for your stupid jokes.”

  “He’s just disappointed,” Jacob said to his two friends. “He probably thinks it’s his fault because he’s the oldest.”

  “Now we will always have to walk under the sun,” Oscar said. “It is lucky for the hungry lions that we got lost—they will have many sleeping boys to choose from for dinner each night.”

  Willy looked up at him in alarm. “Hungry lions?”

  “We have only lost a few boys. There is nothing to worry about,” Jacob said, glaring at Oscar. “We will protect you, Willy.”

  Jacob and Oscar made a spot for Willy between them as they rejoined the line of walking boys. “I am so happy you came back for me, Jacob—and with so many friends now. Do you know all these boys?”

  “We don’t know most of them, but we’re all going to Ethiopia,” Jacob said.

  Willy grew very quiet as his village disappeared behind them. He looked back twice and lifted his small hand to wave farewell to his brother. “Do you think my mother will be able to find me in Ethiopia?” he asked.

  “I am hoping for the same thing,” Oscar replied. “And Jacob, too.”

  Jacob held up his Mama stone for Willy to see.

  “And Matthew and Louise? Where are they?” Willy asked. Jacob shrugged and held up the palms of his empty hands.

  “And Minoo?”

  “He is keeping my little brother company,” Willy said in a small voice, pointing back toward a second burial mound.

  “What happened to your nephew, the famous lion hunter, Jacob?” Majok asked. “He is one of the oldest boys. Does he not even know that the sun rises in the east?”

  “Of course he does,” Jacob said. “It was easy to get confused since we are often still asleep until the sun is high in the sky.”

  “I thought we were going in the wrong direction, but I trusted the older boys to lead the way—guess I should have spoken up. I hope too many more boys won’t die because of Monyroor’s mistake.”

  “It is not as if Monyroor is in charge of all these boys. He doesn’t even know most of them. If you know so much, why don’t you lead the way, Majok?”

  “Except nobody likes you, Majok, so they wouldn’t follow you,” Oscar added. “Why don’t you sss ... sss ... slither after your school friends?”

  “They are much more interesting than you and Jacob. I’m going to walk near the front so we won’t get lost again. I can’t wait for the feast waiting for us in Ethiopia; we learned in school that it is a land of plenty.” Majok looked down at Willy and patted him on the head. “You two can stay back here, with the other little babies.”

  As Majok walked away, Willy asked, “Is he your friend, Jacob?”

  Jacob laughed. “What do you think?”

  “I think he is evil,” Willy said.

  “That is exactly right! Just forget about him; let’s go,” Oscar said.

  The boys’ days fell into a predictable pattern which began to feel strangely normal. They were so busy concentrating on the present that they had little time to think about the horrors of the past and rarely talked about their families. Jacob spent many sleepless nights swatting bloodsucking mosquitoes, listening for lions, and wishing for food and water. “I don’t think I can get up,” he said to Oscar one morning. “Look at my feet. These blisters and cuts are almost healed, but now I have ten new ones. It’s the same thing every day.”

  “I would give anything for shoes,” Oscar answered. “Pieces of cow skin to wrap around my feet.”

  After many hours of walking each day, Willy moved more and more slowly. “My legs are too tired; my feet are too sore.”

  “Climb on,” Oscar or Jacob said each time. They took turns carrying the small boy on their backs, but the extra weight was hard on their own feet and legs.

  Sometimes, when the heat was too much for them, they had to lie under a tree to rest for a time. When they awoke several hours later, the never-ending chain of boys would still be passing by them. They worked hard to avoid being at the very tail end of the centipede.

  “We must always stay in the middle,” Monyroor cautioned. The weakest and most vulnerable of the boys often ended up at the end of the line. Wounds suffered by some of them had become pus-filled and oozed, poisoning their blood. Other boys couldn’t cope with the lack of food and water. They passed Majok one day. He was usually at the front of the line, but he and several other boys were desperately sick from eating the rotting meat of an elephant. He sat in a puddle of greenish-gray vomit.

  “Do you have a problem, Majok?” Oscar asked, standing over him.

  “I was so hungry,” Majok replied, holding his stomach and gagging as they knelt to talk to him. “Elephant meat is supposed to make you stronger—not sick.”

  “I think that is fresh elephant meat,” Oscar said, “not rotten meat. Where are your school friends? Did they abandon you?”

  “I told them to walk on; I must rest until I am better.”

  “Probably they found out you are really a snake in the skin of a boy,” Oscar said. “The opposite of Agany and the lizard skin in the story of his search for a wife—only you are not so handsome as he was.”

  “Maybe that is snake poison coming out of you,” Jacob suggested.

  Majok groaned and turned his head away. “Leave me alone.”

  Jacob and Oscar rejoined the line.

  “You’d think he would be sss ... sss ... smarter than that,” Oscar said.

  “I guess that was not part of his lessons at school,” Jacob said.

  “Who is Agany?” Willy asked.

  “In an ancient tale, he was a most handsome man, and all the girls wanted to be his wife. He disguised himself in the skin of a lizard to see which of the girls truly loved him, and not just his handsomeness,” Jacob said.

  “If Majok wore a snake skin, it would be more like his true self!” Oscar added.

  Gradually, the giant centipede of boys became shorter. Yet, it continued to have hundreds of legs, even after losing many.

  “We must keep walking until we reach Ethiopia, or we will die,” Monyroor bluntly reminded the younger boys when they complained. “We cannot stop.” Monyroor had developed a habit of rubbing his gaar when he worried. They had healed into thick, bumpy ridges.

  “Do you think you can rub those scars off your forehead?” Oscar asked, teasing him. “Maybe you wish you were still a small boy, like us, with our smooth, shiny foreheads.” Most days Oscar did not have the energy for teasing.

  Day 34, day 35, day 36 ...

  Some days, Majok joined them as they walked. It was impossible to avoid him. The elephant sickness had not killed him, and he was back to his usual confident self. “We are almost there. I’m sure Ethiopia is just over that next hill. When you hear a loud, rushing river, that will be the mighty River Gilo. Ethiopia is just on the other side of that. I can taste the food already!” He stuck his gray tongue between his teeth as he waited for their response.

  “Ssssss ... Ssssss ...” Jacob whispered to Oscar, who looked at Majok and burst out laughing.

  “Why are you laughing?” Majok demanded.

  “I was just thinking of a joke I heard yesterday,” Oscar said. “Hey, what should you do if you find a snake sleeping in your bed?”

  “Well, first of all, that would never happen because snakes are scared of people,” Majok said.

  “Do you want to know the answer?”

  “Not really. Boring ...” Majok stretched his mouth open in a big, fake yawn.

  “All right; the answer is, you should sleep someplace else!”

  Jacob laughed loudly and slapped his friend on the back. “Good one, Oscar.”

  Majok waited impatiently for them to stop laughing. “That was so funny, I forgot to laugh.”

  “How do you know that, about the River Gilo?” Jacob asked. “Have you ever been to Ethiopia?”

  “No, but I saw
it on a map at school. Maps are pictures of the earth, and they’re very useful. Maybe one day you can go to school and become smart like me.”

  “I think I would prefer to remain stupid,” Jacob said.

  “Go back with your smart friends,” Oscar said. “We are fine without you, Majok. Go chew on some elephant meat, schoolboy.”

  As the days passed, even the smallest boys no longer cried—their bodies were too empty of liquid for tears, or even for pee. Jacob rarely thought of his hollow belly.

  “Do you remember what a full belly feels like?” he asked Oscar.

  Oscar shrugged and squeezed his stomach. “I expect to be hungry every day, just like I expect the stupid sun to beat down on us every day.”

  They ate things they never could have imagined eating— before the war. Once, the roots of apai, a tender water grass hidden beneath beautiful white blossoms, provided them with a succulent treat. Another day, Willy spotted clusters of frogs’ eggs, glistening along the edges of a slimy pond.

  “You are like a raven, finding such shiny treasure for us, Willy,” Oscar said as the boys hungrily slurped up the eggs.

  “Just pretend it’s mango or pineapple.” Jacob closed his eyes and tried hard to remember those sweet tastes from his other life. Usually, ponds they came upon were smelly and scum-covered. Some boys, crazy with thirst, sipped the water from the ponds. Most often, they became violently ill a short time later.

  “No, Little Uncle,” Monyroor said when Jacob asked if they could drink also. “We cannot risk getting sick—don’t you see how the boys drinking from the ponds are also often the ones who drop to the back of the line? We will find clean water again, I promise.”

  “But I am so thirsty, Monyroor,” Jacob said, trying not to cry from the burning pain in his raw throat whenever he swallowed.

  Jacob believed his nephew; he trusted him. But each time they stopped to rest, just before he sank into sleep, he rubbed the stone in his pocket and saw Mama’s gently smiling face. Always she whispered, Wadeng, Jacob; Wadeng ... When he was too tired to relax into sleep, he thought of her as he watched the African moon fade from red to orange, yellow to white, and finally, glowing silver, like a friendly face in the sky. Jacob stopped talking about finding her. But he did not stop missing her. Are you watching the moon, Mama? Are you singing your lullabies to Sissy? Are the stars singing too? I am trying to think always of tomorrow; I want to believe it will be better. I think even school would be better than walking every day!