Memoirs of a Porcupine (12 page)

last Tuesday, early in the afternoon, Koty and Koté escaped from their parents again and came past my master's hut as he sat in front of his door reading an esoteric book, the twins had been popping up like this for a while now, they'd stand opposite his house, on the exact spot where my master had seen the strange flock of sheep on the day Mama Kibandi died, and the two children seemed to be spying on him, imitating the bleat of an old sheep having its throat slit, they sniggered, then vanished, this really wound my master up, he was sure the two children had been sent by their parents to annoy him, and when he finally got up to go and talk to them, tell them they owed him some respect, the kids scarpered, then came back again the next day and took up their post on the same spot, imitating the old sheep again, I could see my master was growing uneasy, asking himself questions, these two children had some message for him, they knew something about us, so that Tuesday afternoon Koty and Koté took up their position as usual opposite my master's hut, my master tried smiling at them, the two little urchins didn't smile back, ‘what do you want then', Kibandi said, at last, one of the little Moundjoulas answered ‘you're a bad man, that's why you don't like children' and my master, somewhat taken aback
at this, answered ‘you little rascals, you know nothing, why are you calling me a bad man, you'd better watch out or I'll tell your father', and the other kid added, ‘you're a bad man because you eat children, we know you ate a baby, he told us when we were playing in the cemetery, and he'll tell us the same thing again tonight', my master snapped his book shut, his anger got the better of him, he jumped up, crying, ‘band of vermin, birds of ill-omen, little lice, I'll teach you to respect your elders', he was about to run after the twins, when one of them shouted, ‘
and
that baby you ate, he told us to tell you he's watching you, he's coming to see you, it's your fault he's stopped growing', and the two brats ran off, Kibandi saw them vanish over the horizon, he decided that whatever happened, he must go and see the parents of these little creatures

my master went to see the Moundjoula family that same Tuesday, in the late afternoon, the father was carving a hideous-looking mask, the mother was preparing a dish of manioc leaves with plantains, the couple were surprised to see him because he'd never set foot in their compound before, the father immediately put down his work, hastily offered their visitor a raffia chair, the mother waved him welcome from a distance, perhaps Kibandi would like to drink some palm-wine, he said no, even if it was
mwengué
, the mother brought him some cold water in a gourd and then left the two men to talk between themselves, my master tried to peer inside the house in the hope of spotting the two children, they weren't there, perhaps down in the cemetery, in the lantana field, after a few more general comments on the Moundjoulas' roof frame, which, in his opinion, was badly constructed, Kibandi explained the purpose of his visit, coming straight to the point, ‘your twins have been disturbing me for the past two weeks, they came and bothered me again earlier this afternoon', Papa Moundjoula paused for a moment, then replied, ‘I know, I know, they're a pair of little pests, I'll talk to them, they're always wandering about, you're not the first to complain, but you know how it is, at their age, they don't understand the consequences of their
actions', then my master explained that the two kids had said he was a bad man, they didn't even say hello to him in the street, they had said things to him which he chose not to repeat out of respect for their parents, Papa Moundjoula looked at Kibandi, and you could see in his eyes, that as a father he felt sorry for him, he probably imagined the children had been teasing my master for being thin, they must have found it so strange that they hadn't tried to hide their real feelings, and just as Papa Moundjoula was asking Kibandi what it was the two children had said about him, Koty and Koté arrived with their clothes covered in dust, they threw only a cursory glance at their father and his visitor and went rushing over to their mother shouting that they were hungry, the pot was still on the fire, and the mother said ‘that will teach you not to go running around the village all day long, your food isn't ready', Papa Moundjoula called them to him with an authoritative air, ‘Koty, Koté, come and say you're sorry to Uncle Kibandi, right away, he's not a bad man, I don't want you being disrespectful to your elders', the two kids reluctantly came over, and the father said to the first one, ‘you shake his hand, he's your uncle, all the grown-ups in this village are your uncles, you must respect Uncle Kibandi like you respect me, he has the right to spank you if you're rude again', Kibandi held out his dry, skeletal hand to Koty, or maybe Koté, who looked at it with distrust and suspicion, then held out his own, the child looked Kibandi straight in the eye, there was a kind of silence, then suddenly his face transformed, growing smoother, younger, the big, bare head was covered with soft hair, grew rounder, my master felt a kind of electric shock run through his body, he saw the head of the infant Youla in place of that of the twin who was shaking his hand ‘don't look at
grownups like that' Papa Moundjoula said, and as he shook the hand of the other twin my master had the same vision, again the head of the baby we'd eaten, he quickly dropped his gaze, Papa Moundjoula hadn't noticed anything, the kids apologised to my master, but were careful to add, with a touch of irony, ‘see you soon Uncle Kibandi, we'll come and see you Friday', and again with irony, they chorused, ‘have a good evening Uncle Kibandi' and Papa Moundjoula breathed a sigh of satisfaction at his twins' behaviour, ‘you'll see, they're extraordinary kids, very likeable, once you connect with them, they'll be coming to play with you every day in your yard', but Kibandi was lost in thought, fixed on the image of baby Youla's head, he didn't dare look at the twins, he knew now that he was going to have to see to these two, they seemed to be the only people who knew about our nocturnal activities, and so he declined the Moundjoulas' offer of dinner, saying he had some urgent work to see to, which needed to be done before nightfall, and he left, without looking back, talking to himself as he went, he almost tripped over a stone, he sat drinking
mayamvumbi
all night long, I heard him cackling to himself in a way he didn't usually, repeating over and over the name of the baby we'd eaten, his laughter was a façade, I discovered for the first time that my master too could be frightened out of his wits

after the Tuesday when my master went to complain to Papa Moundjoula, his life was one little mishap after another, and on the evening of that same day, around the stroke of midnight, he heard a baby crying behind his workshop, he heard children sniggering, the sound of frantic footsteps, and things diving into the river, he heard flying beasts settling on his roof, it was impossible to sleep, he lay watching and waiting till dawn, then the following morning decided that enough was enough, and for the first time, to my great surprise, he summoned me in broad daylight, I realised then he had lost it, no initiate ever summoned his harmful double in broad daylight to brief him for a mission, but I couldn't disobey him, so I left my hiding place, I had lost that spring in my step that I had back in the days when things were working out as we'd planned, this was an emergency, till now we had attacked living people, we had never confronted the shades of night, no one we had ever eaten had come back to settle with us, and when I got to Kibandi's house I pushed the door open with my paw, and stood there in the entrance, imagine my surprise, I saw a man distraught, a man who had spent the entire night drinking
mayamvumbi
, his face haggard, as though he had not slept for two or three moons, there was fear in his eyes, he told me to
enter, looked at me, murmured words I couldn't catch, I said to myself we must be going to leave the village of Séképembé, and accept the fate of his family, which was to roam forever, in search of a new place to live, but instead he spoke to me of the twins, he was obsessed with them, he said the two kids were more powerful than he had realised, that we must see to them by Friday at the latest, that he did not wish me to return to the forest before this mission, which meant more to him than all the ninety-nine others before, and so I spent the day in a dark corner of his hut while he lay lifeless on his mat, the twins didn't return to disturb my master while I was there that night, but the calm was deceptive, on Friday, around the stroke of ten in the evening, while we were getting ready to make our way towards the Moundjoulas' lot, my master and I were startled by the sound of night birds scrabbling on the roof of the hut, a violent wind blew the door of his hut to bits, my master's former workshop flew apart, we were blinded by a flash of light, as though day was breaking in the middle of the night, and in the yard we saw baby Youla, the one we'd eaten, he seemed to be in fine shape, he was pointing at us, and with him were his two bodyguards, the twins Koty and Koté, they had captured my master's other self, it was painful to watch, it was as though Kibandi's other self had not even the strength of a scarecrow planted in a corn field, he was passive, like a puppet, a clown, a marionette stuffed with cotton, rags, sponge, and the two rascals were tossing him about as their fancy took them, rolling him in the dust, trying to stand him upright, my master's other self's legs would not hold, his head flopped down onto his chest and his arms dangled down by his legs, the kids were sniggering, Kibandi barked an order at me, ‘ go on,
throw
, throw your quills, damn you', but alas, my
spikes would not move, I was petrified by what I saw, and then the twins let my master's other self fall to the ground, they came towards us, they came level with baby Youla, they looked quite different, transformed, as though they were not the same little fellows who had chased me at the cemetery, Kibandi stepped backwards, we quickly retreated into the hut, we heard them coming like a herd of a thousand cattle, the earth shuddered beneath their feet, and the walls of the hut trembled, in they came, I had curled myself up small in a corner, Kibandi had run into his bedroom, I saw him come back out with a spear in his hand, the twins and the baby doubled up laughing, pointing at his weapon, my master took up his stance and tried to throw the spear, his hands were heavy, so heavy that the weapon fell at his feet, one of the twins leapt towards him, the other seized his right foot, they pulled together, while baby Youla sniggered just outside the door, and I saw Kibandi collapse on the ground like an old tree felled with a single blow, I don't know what the little furies did to him after that because I closed my eyes I was so frightened, I heard a sort of report, like a gun firing, and yet there was no firearm in my master's hut, and the twins carried none either, I was trembling like a fool, the blinding light which had appeared when they arrived disappeared as though by magic, night fell upon us as baby Youla raised his left hand to the sky, as though he could command all nature, from my hiding place I could see his firmly planted little legs, and as he turned his burning gaze in my direction I realised he had flushed me out, that I would not be spared, his eyes bored deeper and deeper into me, he seemed to be saying that I too was finished, just like my master, who lay by the door, I began to panic, then to my surprise, the baby looked away, I thought maybe he didn't
want to attack me himself, that he was going to order the twins to deal me the same punishment as my master, but no, all he did was look back at me, nod at me, asking me to flee, I couldn't believe it, I didn't hang about though, I scuttled off discreetly, I was crossing my master's bedroom when I heard a long gasp, his final breath, it was his last minute on this earth, and I went on running out into the night like a fugitive

 

 

It's getting late, dear Baobab, the moon has just disappeared, I feel my eyelids growing heavy, my limbs giving way, my sight misting over, could this be death, folding its arms about me, I can't hold out much longer, I'm slipping away, I'm tired now, oh yes, I'm very tired

how this porcupine isn't finished yet

day has just broken, I'm surprised to find life still going on around me, the birds have come to perch on the branches of the trees, the river tumbles along, it's reassuring, all this movement, another small victory, I think I must take it as such, time seems to have flown by since yesterday, I was happy to talk to you till my eyelids began to droop, in the end you didn't once interrupt me, I still don't know what you think of this story, well, whatever, I feel better now I've got it off my chest, there may be a few things I've haven't told you, my name, for instance, which was given to me by my master, he called me Ngoumba, in our language that means porcupine, Kibandi perhaps rather liked the idea that I was not just a porcupine, an ordinary everyday porcupine, well he would wouldn't he, he was a human being, and since I didn't like this ugly sounding name, I pretended I hadn't heard him when he called me by it, but he would insist, so now you see why I didn't tell you my name right at the start

 

 

just now I was stretching out and I discovered some provisions just behind the foot of your trunk, I wonder if there isn't someone else living here, but I haven't seen a single animal go by since yesterday and logically speaking, they must belong to me now,
I daren't begin to think they might have been left here by my master's other self, I would have heard him coming like when he used to appear, he vanished too, the day the little monsters, those kids tossed him about like a marionette

 

 

I've only one regret, which is, I can't hear your voice, dear Baobab, and if you could talk like me, I'd feel less alone, but what really counts at this point is your presence, it calms my fears, and if I see danger approaching, believe me, I'll climb up into the crook of one of your branches, you'd never deliver me into the hands of death, surely, I apologise in advance for doing my business here, I'm still afraid to leave, I might do something stupid, I'd miss your protection, I don't know how long this state of alert's going to last, I know you're not wild about me defecating underneath you, though men do say excrement makes your fruits and leaves grow so in a sense I'm contributing to your eventual longevity, it's all I can offer in exchange for your hospitality