The Sleeping Baobab Tree Read Online Free PDF Page B

protect him. He is wrong. He has been sleeping for too many years – his memory has left him. A beast with a bad memory is no beast at all. You will come with me, and watch. And learn.”
    She looked at me. I was probably looking confused, because that’s exactly how I felt. What was a Man-Beast with a bad memory?
    “Ah, Chiti. You won’t remember, your mind is also like a big sieve, but your grandmother was taken from us. Before you were even born. On the day your father and Kiki came into this world.”
    I sat up, forgetting I was supposed to be weak. “Aunt Kiki and Dad are twins? No one ever told me that.”
    “Twins, brother and sister, what’s the difference?” she said, waving her hand around. “The point is, this creature has to be stopped before he kills again. Once every forty years he comes, before the rainy season. Now is his time. So, you and I will go. Just us alone. Not your father. Not your mother. And most certainly not the
mpundu
from next door.” She says
mpundu
as if it’s a dirty word, when all it means is “twins”. “It is you who must come with me, because it is only you who will understand, only you who will not fear him.”
    Even the word “Man-Beast” was terrifying, so I wasn’t sure why she thought I wouldn’t be afraid of it, whatever or whoever it was. Looking on the bright side, at least she’d admitted out loud that I possess magical powers. If I went on this trip, perhaps it would move me up the rankings of People with Special Powers and Bul-Boo would finally believe me.
    But maybe not.
    Maybe I should have just listened to Bul-Boo’s voice in my head saying, “Stop being a twit for one minute and use your brain.” And my brain was telling me loud and clear that this trip was going to be bad news. Whatever Nokokulu had in mind, it would be something that only she understood and it was ninety-nine per cent likely to be bad.
    “But, Nokokulu,” I said, “I’m so sick that my stomach feels like it’s caught between the jaws of a giant crocodile. So sick that I don’t know if I would even make it as far as the car.”
    I closed my eyes to make her believe that I didn’t even have enough strength to keep them open. And of course I hoped I could make her disappear, that she would be gone in a puff of smoke when I opened them again, but I doubted I had that much power yet.
    “Sick you may be, or not, but we are going,” she said, unfortunately still there. “To Ng’ombe Ilede where the bones of my ancient forebears lie. This trip will finally make you, the inheritor of my powers, into a good and proper member of this great family.”
    “But if I die while we’re travelling in your car, what will Mum and Dad say?” I asked her. “And anyway, it’s the Tonga-speaking people who are from Ng’ombe Ilede, not our ancestors.”
    “Be quiet if you have nothing sensible to say,” she said. “Our ancestors travelled far and wide. They were like me. Powerful. Not for them one village for life. All of Zambia was their kingdom. We will leave on Saturday morning after the sun has risen high into the sky.”
    “I have schoolwork and I’ve got things arranged with Bul-Boo and Madillo,” I said, trying to sound decisive. “I can’t go. Sorry about that.”
    “Lying again, Chiti? I don’t mind that. All children tell lies. As long as they are not big lies that sit in your stomach and eat away at your body until there is nothing left but a pile of bones. But you know there is no point trying your lies on me, big or small. I always know.”
    She stood looking at me and I suddenly remembered what Bul-Boo had said about Aunt Kiki.
    “Nokokulu, you know you were talking about Aunt Kiki? When is she coming to visit us again?” I asked.
    “Why, all of a sudden, do you want to know about Aunt Kiki?” she said, raising her voice. “You leave her alone. Don’t be asking me.”
    With that she turned and stomped out of the room, banging the door behind her.
    Perhaps the