Miss Howard came late the next morning, probably half expecting to find I’d died during the night. She took one look at me and sat without speaking. The doctors were fussing in their own language and it was obvious some sort of argument was taking place. I’d had a busy morning of being probed in all the ways they could think of as they tried to find signs of the damage they knew should be within me. I behaved myself, did not crack jokes and patiently let them have their fun.
1241
“Miss Howard, I hope you are not waiting for them to finish before talking to me? They are quite likely to spend the rest of the day coming to terms with what they see.”
An elderly doctor turned to me. “There is nothing amusing here.” He picked up two x-rays, waved the one. “Here we can see your rib broken and almost piercing your heart,” he waved the next one, “here there is no broken rib, no scar and no sign of breakage. How do you explain it?”
“I am not a doctor, how could I be expected to answer the question? I did mention to Miss Howard that my beliefs are that the body is capable of repairing itself. I trust my beliefs have been vindicated?”
“Doctor, do you mean he is no longer in danger?” she asked, her voice filled with puzzlement.
“In danger? There is nothing wrong with him. Some kind of trickery is involved here. If a bone is broken, even if it heals there must be signs of where it had broken. He had three broken ribs, but there is no sign of where or which rib. They are all whole.”
“Sounds like you owe me a supper. I should have warned you that I will go to extraordinary lengths for an evening with a pretty girl and a good bottle of wine.”
“In that case I hope you are able to find yourself a pretty girl.”
“Are you going back on our deal, you do not want to have supper with me?”
“You said you wanted a pretty girl. I am not a girl and I am not pretty.”
“That’s okay, I don’t mind if you are a transvestite and I find you pretty enough. You’ll do Miss Howard.”
“Doctor, when will he be allowed to leave?”
“Young lady, he may leave as soon as his bill is settled. He has caused enough problems. I tell you he is trying to play some trick on us.”
“I bet they think I am a twin of the person they first saw and we swopped places to play a trick on them.” At this idea the doctors became excited, seeing it as a solution to the impossible. “Of course that would mean I do not love my brother and by moving him have caused his death. I hope you will not be seriously suggesting that doctor?” That got them upset all over again. Miss Howard decided she had had enough and got up to leave.
“Miss Howard, before you go, do you have my passport?”
She blushed and took it out of her bag, one of those flat things used for carrying documents. As she handed it over, apologising for forgetting, I took hold of her hand.
“Miss Howard, do you know why I wanted to have supper with you? When you introduced yourself it was as Miss, not Miz or Ms. It seems to be rare to find a woman who enjoys being feminine.” I let go her hand. “That was the reason I wanted to, why you wanted to we’ll never know now. I think it is a pity, you would have had a good time. By the way, did I mention that I am married and very much in love and so wanted nothing more than a few hours of good company over a meal?”
“You did not and all the more reason why I should not.”
“Fine, in that case, did I mention that I am not married and am incredibly good company?”
“Yes, you did mention you were crazy.” She gave a bright smile. “Goodbye Mr Teller.”
I let her go, my mind busy now on deciding what to do. If it was true that the spider could no longer track me, would that make it attack them in Greece? I now realised I should not have destroyed the man’s powers. I had been afraid and had not been thinking clearly. As long as they know where I am, I would not have been perceived as being of danger to anyone.
“Miss Howard, please give my greetings to the spider.”
She turned to look back, “Who?”
“You know, the one called the Master?” I saw the thin white lines around her nostrils even as she denied knowing what I was speaking of.
1242
“If you do not know of him it is not a problem. In case you do, please tell him I would like to find a way to keep in contact with him.”
Nobody had thought to clean my clothes so I left looking filthy and covered in bloodstains. I also had five thousand dollars in my pockets thanks to Alki. First thing I did was buy new clothes and have my old ones washed. I got myself a shoulder hitch-hikers kit and, wiser now, stuffed my money in various parts of my clothing and left town.
I was lucky enough to find a lift. As they were going to Genoa I ended up there. I find it an interesting city. The northern Italian is very different from the southern. Here it was as if the two met and have come to some sort of tolerance of each other. Of course most of the wealth seems to belong to those who are lighter of colour - the northerners.
I stood on a high point overlooking the city and harbour. I sat on a rock and tried to decide what to do. I did not want to move any further North. Deep in thought my eyes rested on something without me noticing it for a long time. I realised I was looking at a Greek flag.
I went down to the harbour area and looked for bars and taverns. Finally I heard some men talking in Greek. I greeted them in their language and offered them a drink. We chatted a while before I asked my question.
“What are the possibilities of buying cabin passage on a cargo ship, I’d also be willing to work.”
“Not on our ship. It has been years now since that was allowed, insurance does not cover it.”
Another sailor said, “He might be able to on one of the old ships.”
They argued about it, but agreed to introduce me to the crew of an old and small ship. After a few more drinks, that I supplied, we left. They kept their word, introduced me to an officer of the ship and they left.
“How much you pay?”
“I do not know, what should I pay?” It was like begging them to cheat me, but I did not care, not once I had heard their next destination. They were going around Africa, stopping in Cape Town and then Mombasa.
“Maybe the captain will agree if you pay one thousand dollars. You will also work?”
“For one thousand I should not have to work. I am a painter so if there is any small painting needed I’ll do it.” I did not want to end up having to paint the entire deck!
They grinned at each other. “The thousand, it is in cash?”
“Of course.”
“Wait. I go talk to the captain.”
I suppose the captain wanted too large a share of the money for they upped it to twelve hundred. I agreed, but on condition I was not entered as crew, otherwise immigration would not allow me to leave ship at the other end.
The cabin they gave me was tiny, dirty and it stank. I got a bucket of hot water, soap, a hard brush and some rags. Stripping to my underpants I got down to the job of cleaning up. I did not want to sleep in the years of accumulated filth. The cabin looked a lot better when I had finished.
The members of the crew had walked past my open door and made joking remarks about my occupation. Now, as I stood to check I had not left a spot untouched, a large rough looking man appeared at the door. He was carrying a suitcase and an assortment of bags.
“They gave you the wrong cabin. This one is mine, get out.”
He tried to shoulder his way past me. I stood firm, refusing to let him in. There were already a number of others standing in the corridor, all laughing and joking about me. As I resisted, they found it even more amusing.
1243
I asked, “You want to stay in this cabin?”
“I’ve already told you. Now get out of my way.”
“Fine. You can have this cabin. After I leave.”
“Then I will have to make you leave now.”
I was not going to wait, allow him to hit me first, I’d have no chance. I put my fingers exactly where Tasso had shown me and squeezed. He squealed with the pain, but I kept up the pressure until he was on his knees. I bent over and spoke softly, but clearly, “You try anything with me again I’ll kill you. Now go back to your cabin.” I shoved and he fell backwards. I threw his bags out and closed my door.
I remembered what had been written in my diary about my eyes and when I came out for supper I sat silent, my face calm but stern, as if challenging them to try something with me again. Whatever the reason, they left me alone. As I was finishing my meal, I was asked to go to the captains rooms.
He was a short man, bald, his nose thin like a knife and his belly hanging in folds. There was a look in his eyes that told me he enjoys the suffering of others.
“Your passport.” I handed it to him. “You still owe me five hundred dollars.”
“I’ve paid the agreed sum already.”
“You did not tell us you would be attacking our men. Five hundred dollars or you leave.”
“Are you certain?”
“You are threatening me?”
I sat at his table. “Captain, you can have me removed from your ship. That is the easy part. You ask if I threaten you. It would be very stupid of me, I will be at your mercy once at sea. That does not mean I will not stand up for myself.
We are both men of the world. I am prepared to come to an agreement with you. I do not eat with the crew, I eat with the officers or yourself. Same food as you do. If I work, I do so because I am bored, it is not required, I am a paying passenger and will be treated as one. I see you have a tavli set. I will play with you, but if I am better than you I will beat you, I do not play to lose - ever. I have sent most of my money onwards, to be collected on arrival in cash from Western Union. You may come with me and collect your five hundred, then. If you have treated me well, I will offer you a supper at any restaurant you want, we will share a good bottle of wine and then, god willing, we need never meet again. Those are my terms.”
His first anger dissolved as he listened and by the end I saw he was amused. He flicked open my passport and looked inside. “So, Mr Teller, we have an agreement then. Anything extra you want during the voyage, a beer or cigarettes, you pay for it in cash. If you are able to beat me at tavli I will give you a beer free for each time you win a set of seven games. In Mombasa you will give me the money - do not think of trying to break our agreement.”
“How much is a bottle of Johnny Walker, red label?”
“Twenty dollars.”
“Rather steep for duty free isn’t it? Here you are. One bottle please.”
“The duty free is sealed, once we leave I’ll get it for you.”
“We both know you keep some spare, hidden for ‘necessities’ shall we say? Please get a bottle captain. I wish to give it to you as a gift, to seal our bargain in a manner of speaking.”
He laughed. “Are you intending to beat up any more of my crew? Not that I object, most of them deserve it.”
“I think they will be leaving me alone.”
1244
He brought out some glasses and a bottle of whiskey. I hate the stuff but accepted the glass. “Yes, that Manolis, he is a mean bastard and the toughest of them all, they will not cause you problems. Manoli though, that is another matter, he will definitely look for a way to get his revenge.”
“I hope not, for his sake Captain. If he does I do not accept responsibility for you being short of one man to do the work.”
“I will speak to him, not that it will do much good. If he does hurt you, I do not bear the responsibility and you still pay me when we arrive.”
“You drive a hard bargain captain.” I grinned at him and he laughed.
“You are a pallikari, I like you little man.” Seeing he was so much shorter than me I was amused.
He got me to sign some forms wherein I absolved the company of responsibility etc, etc. As he said they were leaving late that night, I decided to have a few hours sleep. I wanted to be on deck and watch as we leave.
We had passed Gibraltar, turning down South and I had still not solved the problem of how to handle Manoli. His whole body spoke of his determination to get even. Some of the crew have become friendly and one of them told me a little about him. He is known as a troublemaker and most companies will no longer hire him. Though he is a bully, it is said he only attacks officers and he is not that unpopular, as he does more than his share of the hard work and stands by his fellow crewmen if there is a fight in a bar.
I wondered at the mixture of good and bad in him. The Greeks have a word, ‘philotimo’ which is difficult to describe in English. The second part of the word has to do with pride and the dictionary describes it as ‘jealous of one’s honour’. If I can find a way to appeal to his ‘philotimo’ I will be safe. To try to appeal to his greed would not work.
I was standing by the rail looking at some dolphins playing alongside when I sensed someone was staring at me. I turned and saw it was Manoli. I waved to him to come over. Maybe the thought crossed his mind that he could throw me overboard or maybe he was just curious as to why I had called him, but he came. I pointed at the dolphins.
“Whenever I see dolphins I am reminded of children and that makes me think of my daughters. Do you have any children Manoli?”
“No.”
“A real pity. They give more joy than anything else in this world. Manoli, I have been wanting to apologise, what I did was not fair. I felt you were about to hit me and I knew that if you did I would not be in a condition to fight back, you are obviously so much stronger than me. I was given training in methods of unarmed combat which most people do not have. Most of the training was how to kill someone. It has been honed into an instinct. If you had hit me and I felt truly threatened, I would have reacted and possibly killed you. I did not want that.”
“Why are you telling me.”
“I have the feeling you want to get even.”
“It is my problem.”
“And for me to worry about. One thing I know about you Manoli, you are not a coward, you would not attack me from behind or without warning. You need to know you beat me fairly. That frightens me. I already have some very powerful enemies who want me dead. I have lost my family, as to stay with them would have put them in danger. I cannot afford to get involved in new fights.”
“They would pay to have you killed?”
“Only if agreed from before. Manoli, they have already killed those who tried and failed. I cannot understand why anyone would work for them under those conditions.”
1245
“I do not understand why you are telling me this story, it has nothing to do with us and is not a reason for me to not punish you. I will tell you the captain has ordered me to leave you alone, I understand he expects to make some money from you at the end of your trip. He is not a good man to cross, especially if it causes him to lose money. I have agreed to wait till you have paid him.”
“We then have a truce till we arrive in Mombasa?”
“I told you.”
“Good. Manoli, I know quite a bit about you. I know the men respect you, they say you are a good man to have as a friend and deadly as an enemy. That you do your share of the work and even help others. Their descriptions of you do not fit how I see you. What you did that first day was not the way the man they describe would behave. It was the act of a bully. I know you have a temper, but I have not seen or heard anything about you that says you are a bully. Why did you pick on me?”
“It started off as a joke. You were the new one, somebody had to.”
“I thought so. Think of this. Nearly one month ago I was attacked in Athens, in my home. It caused me tremendous damage and forced me to run so as to keep my family safe. They found me in Italy a week ago and three men attacked me, hitting and kicking me. I was left on the side of the road to die. I spent days in hospital. I arrive on the ship and the biggest scariest man on board looks to pick a fight with me. How was I to know you had not been hired by them?”
I saw the contempt in his eyes as he said, “Now I know you are lying. If you had been attacked the way you claim, you would not be here. I saw you that first day in your underpants. You did not have any scars or bruises.”
“You have a knife, give it to me. Manoli, I want your word, stin timi sou (on your honour), that what I show you is not spoken of. Ever!”
Curious he handed me his knife, but without committing himself. I pretended not to notice.
“This is your knife so you know it is not a trick.” I put the blade against my forearm pressed until blood showed at the tip and then quickly slashed. The wound was deep and he saw it clearly. I saw also the horror on his face.
“You are mad!!”
“Watch the wound carefully. Do not take your eyes off it.” I had called to the healer and prayed it would react fast. It only took seconds for me to feel it closing up the wound. As the wound closed, from the deepest parts till only the skin was left open, I saw he was now shaking. The skin visibly closed and soon there was nothing but a red welter which faded over the next minute.
“Touch my arm if you want. Do you see how there is not even a scar left?” He was shaking his head, not able to believe what he had seen.
“I hope you do not need me to cut myself again for you to believe, it hurts!”
“But how?”
“It is part of the training I’ve had. Manoli, you really want to be impressed? You would have to trust me though. Take the knife and cut yourself. It would not need to be as deep as my wound was. Just big enough for you to believe me.”
He stared at me grimly and taking the knife he cut himself. He winced from the sharp pain, but stood with his arm outstretched. He not only saw, but felt his wound healing. He crossed himself with superstitious dread.
I spoke softly, “I have shown you trust that I have not shown to many.”
“Why? Why me?”
“If the crew are right then I need a man like you on my side as a friend, not as my enemy.”
“You want me as a friend?”
“Yes.”
1246
“I must think about it. If you are able to heal yourself like that, your enemies must be very powerful for you to fear them.”
“I do not fear them. Not for myself. I fear for my family.”
“What kind of men are they that would attack a woman and children?”
“They have already done so. Manoli, they sent a small dog to my garden where my little girl was. She picked it up to pet it. Luckily I screamed at her and my wife threw the puppy away. As it left her arms the puppy exploded, it had a bomb inside. My baby girl lost both her arms from above the elbow.” My tears were running and he stared at me in horror. “If she had been holding it I would not have been able to save her. Manoli, I was able to heal her, grow her arms back again, but I cannot get rid of her fear and nightmares.”
“So you ran away?”
“Yes.”
“You left them unprotected to save yourself!?”
“They are protected. All the protection I had for myself stayed with them. I came out without protection so as to draw them after me.”
He thought for a while. “If that is true, then I am surprised you did not kill me or at least hurt me badly.”
“I cannot. Even if you were working for them, I could not.”
“Then how do you stop them?”
“I make sure the person who comes after me is now useless to them. They take care of those they consider now a danger to them.”
“You said they kill them.”
“You understand now?”
“You think the blood is not on your hands because they kill them for you? That is the way of a coward.”
I stared back, his accusation reverberating throughout me. I began to tremble and cried out, “If you do not believe in killing or hurting others but you are attacked, how would you handle it?”
“I do not know, maybe I would do what you do, but I would not pretend to myself that I do not kill them.”
“Oh god! Oh god! You do not know what you have done Manoli. You have taken away the only way I could fight back. If I am faced by one of them I will not be able to stop them, knowing that to do so I would be killing them.”
“That is nonsense! If they attack you have the right to kill them.”
I simplified my answer for him, “The healing you saw? My powers, they all depend on love. To kill or hurt others takes away my powers.”
“Then it is a useless power.”
“Not for as long as I did not think of myself as being responsible for their deaths. They knew the price they would pay and accepted it. I saw it as their decision. Now you have changed it for me. The minute I step off this ship I am at their mercy.”
We stood silently, deep in our thoughts. “Manoli, you will not need to get your revenge on me. I hope there will be time for me to give the captain his money. I am tired and I have just lost my last line of defence. This time they will get me.”
1247
The crew could not understand what had happened. They saw a change in me after my talk with Manoli, which was not cause for remark, since I was a stranger to them, but the change in Manoli had them puzzled. Though he did not come close to me they realised he was watching over me, trying to protect me from something. I could not explain to him that physical power does not give me protection and so did not even try.
I was trapped in a world of guilt. With every metre the ship moved forward I knew I was condemning another person to death. I could not reach Ordinx and Solomon to stop them. From the figure last given to me I knew I was already responsible for over two thousand deaths. As Manoli had said, their blood was on my hands.
I spent most of the time within my cabin, coming out sometimes at the darkest hour to walk on deck. I forgot to eat for two or three days at a time. We passed through a bad storm just off the skeleton coast; the edge of that desert we had walked through, arrived by Cape Town, dropped anchor at the roads, and left without me being able to or permitted to go ashore and the haunting of the people ‘I’ had killed tormented me until I had no strength left.
The lock on my door does not work, though every single other lock does, yet nobody intruded, ever. I do not know if it was Manoli or just a feeling the crew had, but even those who had been friendly stayed away. Not that I noticed or cared. It was therefore a surprise when the door opened without a knock.
“You are coming with me. First you eat and then we go on deck, you need some sunshine.”
“Manoli, later perhaps.”
“Now. Do I have to carry you? It will not be difficult, you are starting to look like a skeleton.”
It was easier to do as he asked. It was not that easy to force the food down my throat. He kept on re-filling my glass with wine and I became quite inebriated. I was unsteady as we walked out on to the deck. The sun and glare hurt my eyes and I moaned. He moved very fast. He grabbed sunglasses another crewman was wearing and fitted them to my face.
“Now walk with me. It is time I think you explain. If you must die because of what I said, then I want to understand why.”
“There are people dying even now because of me, that is why. Their blood is on my hands.”
“That is nonsense!”
“I wish it were. Manoli, over two thousand have been killed by them because I made them useless. It is happening still and I have no way to stop it. I cannot reach those I ordered to do this.”
“Would it not make more sense to me if you explained from the beginning?”
“I wish I could. To explain would put my loved ones in danger, it would not help me.”
“You fear I would use it against them?”
“I do not know! If I had Cherine here I would know.”
“This Cherine, who is he?”
“She is my wife. You saw my gift of healing. She has the gift of being able to see into your heart and she could tell me whether to trust you.”
“She needs a gift to do that? You cannot see who can be trusted? Ask any simple sailor, they can tell you.”
“I know. If you trust no one then you are more often correct. That is what I hear them say.”
“That is just talk! Watch who they trust amongst themselves. They usually know who not to trust.”
“This is the life of my loved ones you ask me to trust you with.”
“You say you will die anyway. Let me be their friend for you. Maybe I can help protect them.”
1248
That brought me back to myself. I saw now the big heart and his intentions and I did not know what to reply.
“Let me ask you this. You have a reputation of being a troublemaker. Why is that?”
“I enjoy a good fight. Also my blood boils when I see companies cheating simple sailors, especially the Filipinos and other Asians and when an officer uses his rank to make their lives even worse, it makes me angry. I believe God made me strong for a reason. To not use my strength to protect those who cannot protect themselves would be wrong.”
“I’m sorry Manoli, what you say does not fit my picture of who you are.”
“I see. You think of me as the way you see me. A brute (κτηνώδης) who gets into trouble without reason. Tell me Roberto, have you read Homer, have you read the ancient greek tragedies? Do you go to see them performed on stage? If not, then to my mind you are not civilised, you have no culture.”
Weakly I retorted, for the truth is, I agreed with him. “And do you read Shakespeare, have you seen his plays performed?”
“Yes and I do not like him. I was told it is because I do not speak his language, that the beauty of his stories lie in his use of the language.”
“Are you familiar with the line about their being more things in heaven and earth than we are aware of?”
“I do not, but I see you speak of yourself. I can see that would be true.”
“You only see a tiny wave and think you see the ocean.”
“Then show it to me.”
“You will not believe.” I put up my hand to stop him. “What if I said that I have met races from other worlds. That there are at this moment hundreds of thousands of them on our world. Would you not think I was lying or crazy?”
“If I do or not, it would not stop me from listening and trying to understand.”
“I suppose that is all I can ask for. Do you have any cigarettes, I feel I need one.”
He got a packet for me and sitting in the shade I began our story. He listened as I talked and the hours went by. When I had finished he sat for a long time without speaking. He sighed. “You are either a madman or else you speak the truth. There is no lying, you would not tell me of your Cherine being a little girl, of your making love to your own daughters. Not as a lie.”
“If I speak the truth, what then?”
“Then I have done a great damage, for this is not something my strength can fight.”
“You must not blame yourself, you only spoke a truth I would like to think I would have seen myself sometime. I have never believed in hiding behind my finger.”
“I still think you are wrong. If I could speak to these Sparklers of yours, I would ask them to double their efforts and get all of them disconnected as soon as possible. I see something else also and it makes me angry.”
“With me?”
“Yes. You act and talk as if you are responsible for all these people being killed. How do you know they are dead? They may have killed a few, but do you think they would really kill thousands?”
“Yes. They have to. Anyone who knows of them, but can no longer be of them is a threat to them.”
“I think you are wrong. It may be true of a few at the top. The rest, what do they know? They would stay loyal for their rewards and will still be important to them. Good positions and money, they are enough for most people. It would be a stupid man who kills off his own army. It is different executing a few generals.”
1249
I could have kissed the man. He saw my face light up and he laughed. “You are really stupid. You flow from one mood to the other for the slightest reason. How could they survive so long with you as their leader?”
“I’ve wondered that myself.”
“I will not decide how I feel about your story until I meet your girls. Some of the names you mentioned, I know of them. I will act as if what you told me is only the truth. I swear I will make you pay if you lied. I will get off the ship with you, they might decide to use violence again. There I can be of help. A few things still puzzle me.”
“Only a few! Okay, tell me.”
“You said you told that girl in Italy to pass on the message you want them to stay in contact with you. Why?”
“So that they do not think I have returned home and attack them.”
“Then why have you not phoned your home? They must be worried. If your enemy traces the call they will know you are far away.”
“Shit. I keep forgetting how stupid I can be. I’d not even thought of it because of this being such an old ship. I just assumed there were no telephones. I forgot all ships have ship to shore phones.”
“That was in the old days. We are linked by satellite. We even have internet.”
“Dommi my love, are you all well?”
“Don’t you ‘my love’ me you bastard. How could you not phone us for so long? We have all been sick with worry.” She began to cry.
“I’m sorry love. I’m on a ship, I arrive in Mombasa in about two days. I’d forgotten I could phone from here.”
“You should not have said where you are Robert. They will find you again.”
“I want them to. Last thing I did in Italy is ask them to find a way for them to be able to contact me whenever they wish to. Otherwise they will think I’ve returned to you and they will attack.”
“They did attack, a number of times. Rob and your protector kept us all safe.”
“How are the kids, are they bearing up under the strain? Any nightmares or anything like that?”
“Some, but it is normal Roberto. It is not possible to go through something like this without being affected. The adults too. Did I tell you they all moved back in with us?”
“No. I’m glad. Dommi, has anyone shown any new talents?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“Then make it your priority. Go all out on that my love. I do not know what will come up, but one of you might just develop a gift that wins this war. Think my love, why are they so scared of us, we did not know of them, we had no interest in attacking them. I think they foresaw we would grow and our talents would become a danger to them.”
“They’ve all heard and agree with you. We will do all we can, I promise.”
“Cherine, I know you can hear me through Dommi. I had to make a decision without you here to help me. I have enlisted the help of a very good man. If anything happens to me and he comes to you, make him a Cherinian if you can.”
“What is his name?”
“Not now. He looks like a brute. Don’t worry, you will recognise him from what he knows of me, not of our story, the enemy knows that too, but what he knows of me as a person.”
1250
“We are glad to hear you are not on your own. What gifts does he have?”
“None, only that of friendship. What about Aganthi? Any news?”
“Nothing.”
“Damn! When I get hold of her I think I’ll give her a damn good hiding.”
“How can you speak like that Robert? She may be captured or even dead.”
“Not my flower girl. She is a survivor. If she had died she would be on our World or the Sparklers would have her.”
I chatted with a number of my girls, then with Alki and my mother and Rob. Last of all my Cherine came on. I thrilled at the sound of her voice. If the satellite had shorted from the love she was trying to send me I would not have been surprised, it was not built for so much power to go through it. I desperately wished I could feel it, even a tiny echo of it.
Mombasa had over the years become an extremely popular tourist spot. For large distances along the coast multi-million dollar hotels had sprung up. There was even a story doing the rounds about one of them. It involved somebody in the ‘non-existent’ Mafia. The Americans wanted him and the Italian government was willing to hand him over. The daughter of a well known politician in Kenya was approached. If her government did not allow extraditions to the USA, this Italian would built a hotel that would be the pride of Kenya and she would have a substantial share in it. The hotel was built and she got her share, but never made any money out of it as he was not interested in filling the hotel with guests. He mostly used it as his personal home. Whether the story was true or not, what is true is that crime soared, the government seemed unable to contain it and all those lovely hotels became white elephants. Thus it was that Kenyans found out that though pink elephants do not exist, it is very easy to create white elephants. The trouble with white elephants is that they frighten off further investments. As they say, one of the most timid creatures in the world is capital.
We arrived and I decided to save the captain a long walk and gave him his money. He was not too upset about Manolis leaving so we left together. It was in the middle of the day and the heat was unpleasant. I love that kind of heat if I am by the beach, sitting in the shade with something cold in my hand, but struggling through masses of people while trying to carry my things and watch out for pickpockets was not much fun. The sweat tends to run down the spine and make me very itchy. I was so used to being without my gifts that it was only after the worst of it was over that I recalled I could have asked the healer to help us. I had wanted to take the train to Nairobi, but as there had been attacks on the trains and there were a number of other problems, we ended up trying for a flight. To cut a long story short (all stories in Africa tend to grow long), we took a bus. With the terrible condition of the road, the fact that we were crowded in with livestock and the seats were wooden benches, we came out the other end almost hallucinating from exhaustion.
Enough of Nairobi was still there for my nostalgia to assert itself, but so much had gone to seed it was heartbreaking. We went to the hotel my father (and Hemingway) used to favour where they used to have a beautiful thorn tree in the centre of the coffee-bar patio. Now there is only a stump left and the few tables and chairs are of the cheapest plastic and in terrible condition.
We had to pay for the room in dollars and they were not cheap. It irritated me when I found a sign in the bathroom asking me not to use a new towel every day as they wish to reduce pollution of our planet. The little fridge bar was not stocked and when I complained they charged me the fridge bar prices plus a charge for room service. Nostalgia or not, I was out of there next morning - especially after being told the night before that the restaurant does not have any food. I looked at Nairobi, seeing nothing that spoke of the progressive attitude which had existed years before under Kenyatta. It was depressing and I wanted to leave as soon as possible. I could not help wondering whether the spider has any reasons to install operatives here. I almost felt safe because things were so bad.
I found out there was a flight to Dar-es-salaam that day and on impulse I booked us on it. When we arrived we were taken into a small room and told that we do not have cholera inoculations and the only way to enter is to have them done now - though for a fee it could be arranged that the certificates be given to us without needing to suffer the actual inoculations. I paid for both of us and when they gave us the certificates I mentioned, in Kiswahili, that I will be staying as the guest of the Minister of Finance (I’d read his name in a newspaper on the flight) and I would be certain to mention these gentlemen by name. Since Tanzania is not mentioned on any list worldwide as requiring cholera inoculations I will offer to inform the U.N. and other health authorities on behalf of the Tanzanian Government. I promised to make sure the Minister knows who his government should reward for the way they take care of the foreigners visiting their country. That sent them into a panic and our money was returned, but they forgot to take back the certificates. We were escorted through customs and left the airport hardly able to contain our laughter.
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)26th June, 2019
- posted on Steemit: 26th June, 2019