“Mother Mary was the one who found you the day you were left at the gate. However it’s been I taking care of you and tending to your needs. You were mine.” Sister Anna spoke extending her arms past Chilala reaching for Nawa.
“I liked babysitting you the most so silent as a baby. I would catch up on sleep myself.” Sister Anna continued staring softly into Nawa’s eyes.
“Then one night when you could talk, you started sleep talking and you never stopped.” Sister Anna said standing and urging the pair to walk with her towards the security room. Sister Anna offered the pair the only two chairs in the room as she knelt beside Nawa holding his hands
“You spoke of a people, myths, but you spoke about even more than any books knew about these people.” Sister Anna continued, getting to her feet to retrieve a note book from a drawer.
“I wrote down some things that you said, take a look” Sister Anna said handing Nawa the notebook.
“You whispered rich mystery in your sleep.” Sister Anna said placing an envelope in Chilala’s hands.
“Time to go, get into the laundry van. Mr Moono is going grocery shopping” Sister Anna said holding Nawa’s shoulders and smiling widely with tears forming in her eyes
“I hope you don’t think ill of me, allowing a frail boy into the world.” Sister Anna said looking now at Chilala
“Write to me when you find the Zazi, if you find the Zazi” Sister Anna said ushering the duo to lay low as the laundry truck drove towards the gate.
Chilala and Nawa held their breathe as they snuck into the back of the truck hoping for a safe place to hide from Mr Moono should he come check the back. Once their eyes adjusted they noticed the truck was completely empty leaving them exposed.
“What’s in there” Nawa said pointing towards the book Sister Anna handed Chilala, trying not to think about being stuck in the truck. Chilala opened the book and something dropped out.
“Somethings dropped!” Chilala announced scrambling for the item in the dark “we’ll look at this book and whatever this this is when we find light” Chilala said clutching the book and tensing when the truck came to a stop.
The driver’s door opened and the duo could hear Mr Moono dragging his feet towards the back of the truck to where they were. Nawa’s eyes popped open in panic forcing Chilala to put her hand over his mouth to stop him from screaming. Mr Moono begun opening the truck door causing Chilala to nervously look around the darkness for any sign of safety.
“Are you two okay in there?” Mr Moono shouted as the door opened.
“Oh poor things you must be frightened, are you sure you’ll manage this trip of yours?” Mr Moono said sarcastically ushering the dumbfounded pair out of the back of the truck.
“You two will be out here in the big bad world alone. You’ll need to be a lot braver than this.” Mr Moono said sizing Nawa up
“Its your birthday tomorrow, 15 ey seeing as you’re doing manly things now. Happy birthday ka shorty!” Mr Moono said handing Nawa a dagger sheathed in a black stone.
“Tuck that into your waist band, now listen a buses only travel in the morning. Clearly no one is waiting till morning so you’ll have to spend your night here at intercity. Questions before I go?” Mr Moono said very causally
“If you knew all this time, why couldn’t we at least have sat in the front with you!” Chilala said confronting Mr Moono with Nawa trying his best to back her up.
“Because this isn’t a game, Sister Anna and I can be charged with Kidnapping if anyone spotted us taking you out of the compound without Mother Mary’s wishes.” Mr Moono said intensely staring at the two burrowing the gravity of the situation into their skulls with his eyes.
“Nawa you’re now in the wild, you can’t be timid anymore and if Sister Anna knows her stuff like I think she does. Then you’re supposed to be some kind of warrior.” Mr Moono said reaching into his pocket to retrieve a khaki bag wrapped around itself, and handing it to Chilala.
“After all a warrior is brave” Mr Moono said walking back to the front of the car. The engine roared to life forcing Chilala and Nawa to back away from the truck as it reversed.
“Good luck, call me when you finally make it. I want to know the whole story, my number is in the bag” Mr Moono said and without waiting for a reply drove out of their lives.
“Ba aunty!” someone shouted towards Nawa and Chilala bringing the pair to their present reality of darkness in a foreign place.
“Where do we go?” Nawa asked Chilala while they watched the long haired rasta approach
“Seems friendly enough” Chilala said walking out to meet the rasta with Nawa following closely behind.
“Going Kitwe?” the man asked eyeing Chilala’s bag pack.
“Awe, Livingstone” Chilala said noticing everyone else paying attention to them now. Two of the streets light in the distance were busted and from that corner of darkness came a few more people seemingly interested in helping them.
“Let’s move” Chilala whispered grabbing hold of Nawa’s trembling hand guiding them past the on coming men while clutching the straps of their bag packs.
“Zikomo we know where to go. Zikomo!” Chilala said clearing the path for them to walk past the gate and into the intercity bus terminals found along the streets of Kamwala.
The duo were met with rows of busses parked in every direction.
“Chaos, sweet chaos!” Chilala squeaked lighting up pulling her phone out to take pictures.
“I wish we could take a video of this” Chilala said gleaming from ear to ear.
“I don’t get it. Its closed. What are you excited about?” Nawa asked Chilala as he looked at the pictures Chilala had taken with her phone.
“Cause you’ve never seen this place with the sun out. A video would just be ahhhhh” Chilala moaned out imagining the video.
“Video, bout what?” A lady with a big afro dressed in a yellow romper said joining Chilala’s side scaring her into walking backwards till she was by Nawa’s side
“You scared them” A bald man with a thick beard said coming from behind the duo trapping them in between.
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