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Baaz Mtombé’s Night Zoo was rumored to hold over a hundred exotic species within its confines; in her eleven years of contracted service to it, Koffi had never bothered to count.
“Sometimes things that seem dangerous are just misunderstood.” Mama said the words with a strange sadness before patting Diko again.
“Sometimes, though, you can’t lead with your heart,” said Mama gently. “You have to think with your head.”
Kutoka mzizi meant “from the root.” The old family adage was a reminder of where he came from and the expectations that came with that. Kutoka mzizi.
heron, a crocodile, a jackal, a serpent, a dove, and a hippo—icons of the gods’ familiars.
“Nightmares hunt like beasts of prey, vanquished in the light of day.” He
Those beasts of prey represent our worldly troubles,” Brother Ugo explained. “Often, we run from painful things and hope that they will tire of chasing us. But in truth, avoiding our troubles simply gives them more sustenance, allowing them to eventually consume us whole. Only when we cast light on them and acknowledge them can they truly be vanquished, allowing our spirits to be free.”
“Destiny is not a single path, but many, Ekon. Some are as straight as an arrow, others twist and tangle like thread. Our duty is not to question them but to follow them.”
Sometimes, though, you can’t lead with your heart. You have to think with your head.
Nightmares hunt like beasts of prey . . .
It was as though the jungle was feverish, trying to sweat them out of its depths like a sickness.
Did the humans like Anatsou’s game?”
“Maybe there’s a beauty in the scars,” she said. “Because they’re a reminder of what’s been faced, and what’s been survived.”
Her mind floated lazily between reality and sleep, taking in the intermingling smells of smoke, ponya seed paste, and the surrounding trees as they creaked and rustled in the darkness.
“The umdhlebi’s fruit can be eaten and consumed, but not without the tree’s consent; otherwise it becomes poisonous. It is meant to be a lesson. Man is not always entitled to take what does not belong to it.”
“Like the word splendor, it comes from the old tongues we gods gave to mankind. Its meaning is simple: bridge.”
“Nooo! No, my friends, come baaack!”
With each step, Ekon sensed the world changing around him. The sky was still blue, but it was darkening; the air clear, but tinged just slightly with the scent of ozone.
“No, it’s very simple, Ekon.” His brother’s eyes were hard. “Tomorrow, you choose. Stand with your people, or stand against us.”
It was the last piece of the broken pottery, and when Koffi placed it in her mind, fresh pain stabbed at her side as the rest of the memory came to her.
The deal they’d struck felt like something from another life, from a Before. That was how things felt now, two parts of a whole, cleaved into the time Before Ekon had betrayed her, and the terrible After.
Koffi didn’t answer, she didn’t want to. She had felt that pull, she had been pulled between things. For most of her life, she’d been pulled between following her heart and her mind.
She’d been a girl caught between her heart and her mind. In the end she’d chosen both, a scarier thing, but the braver thing.
Anything can be bartered for, if you know its true value.
He’d spent years burying anything that made him uncomfortable, upset, or nervous, and he’d run from his own nightmares until they’d hunted him down like beasts of prey.
