“Native? What tribe uses that?”
“Not tribe, but her Bato Elongó.” (A Lingala term for “people together”.) “People like our Bangala, Elongó only different.”
This is a revelation, but maybe one that we should have considered a long time ago. If she is part of a different Gi then it would make sense that there would be others like the local Bangala Elongó.
“Her family is part of her Bato Elongó?” Sonnet asks.
“No. There are only few of her Bato Elongó and they are not together like ours. They are scattered about the north, near Virunga National Park.”
This is something to ponder. In the great scheme of things, what does it mean, if anything? I decide to shelve that for the moment and focus on the issue at hand. “Kitoko, you know where Zed and Sonnet and I go extreme, correct?”
She nods her head in affirmation.
“Have you ever watched us go extreme?”
Again she nods her head.
My head hurts with the ramifications of what she so easily tells us. “How did you accomplish this?”
“I follow Molingami Sonnet to great mango tree. I watch as she enter cave. I go to cave entry and it open for me just like I see it open for Molingami Sonnet. I follow far behind, fearful the first time since I carry no lantern. I keep her light in sight to follow her. I watch what she does and mimic her. I lose her after I go through lake of light flies. I go to end of lake and search caves, but do not find her. It was very frightening for me. I hide and cry thinking I am lost forever until after many hours I hear her inside a cave. I follow her through lake of light and back to entrance. This I do the first time.
“The second time when I follow her I bring flashlight, but I lose her again after lake of light flies release me. I search cave at other side of lake and see her in garden with many flowers. I stay hidden. Then I watch her go to different cave and small pool of light flies swallow her. From cave wall come terrible beings, so I run and hide until I see flock of birds fly through cave. I follow them out of cave.
“Now this intrigues me. I leave cave and wait for days to follow Molingami Sonnet. This time I track her to cave of small pool of light flies after big lake release me and I stay hidden and watch. I see terrible thing from wall become birds again and fly out of cave. I stay hidden and wait. Wait very long time then Molingami Sonnet come out of pool of light globe and leave cave. I walk to small pool of light flies and stand inside of it, but nothing happens. I try other small light pools, but it is the same. I am hungry and tired so I leave.”
“How many times have you been inside the cave?”
“Not many. I feel it has nothing for me, just for the three of you to go extreme. It is your world, not mine.”
As I listen, a question occurs to me. “Have you ever brought anyone else into the cave?”
She hesitates then admits, “Kinshasa and I go to cave the day she arrive. When she tell me about her Bato Elongó, she tell me about a cave that is like ours so I take her to cave and lake of light flies and other caves with flowers. She say her cave have flowers too. I show her small pools of light flies and she say she never see things like those. She stand in pools and nothing happen like what I see with Molingami Sonnet. We leave and not go back. Why you ask? We hurt nothing. We just look.”
Zed looks at me and says in English, “Second opportunity for infection. Unbelievable. How were we not aware of her in there? How is it that Gi never let us feel anything about this?” Then in Lingala to Kitoko, “You are a never-ending source of surprise, Kitoko. Thank you for telling us this. Why did you not tell us earlier?”
She shrugs and gives the standard kid answer of “I don’t know.”
“You need to read Kinshasa,” Zed says to me in English. “She has to be the source. Only a read on her will tell us anything.”
“Not so quickly, Zed. We need to think this through first. Sonnet, what do you feel about this? Anything?”
Sonnet is silent and I can see the wheels turning inside her head. “Where is your cave like ours, Kinshasa?”
Kinshasa’s body language becomes closed; her arms cross, her head inclines slightly downward, she frowns and her lips tighten. She does not want to participate in this conversation. Kitoko speaks for her. “I have seen the cave you seek. It is in the north at the base of a mountain.”
“You’ve seen it? How?” I ask her.
“In her mind’s eye. When we share. I see it.”
“Which mountain?”
“I do not know mountain name. I just know mountain.”
“But you know it is north of here.”
“Yes, I see clouds around the top of mountain. Mountain is dead volcano. In distance are farms. Big gorillas live on mountain. Like ones that come from your cave.”
“Mikeno. That has to be it, the same one I saw,” Sonnet confirms in English. Then in Lingala, “Where is the cave entry at its base? Which side of mountain?”
“I think on side that faces sun in afternoon.”
Sonnet smiles. “That narrows it. We could take Kinshasa and Kitoko and have them show us.” Then to Kinshasa and Kitoko, “Would you like to take us there?”
Kinshasa shakes her head “No” vigorously. Kitoko speaks for both of them. “Bad Bangala Elongó men live at cave entry, very bad men. Men who hunt and kill her Elongó and eat them. Her Bato Elongó warned her to stay away from there. Bad men torture and cook and eat her Bato Elongó. She will never go there. You should not go either. Very bad.”
I think to myself, “The surprises just keep on rolling in.” Cut off from Gi, the discovery of yet another Elongó, and now a group of Bangala Elongó that hunts Bato Elongó for slaughter. What next?
Kitoko suggests to Sonnet, “Molingami Sonnet, you go extreme. You kill bad men and then we go.”
“We can’t. Zed and I tried, but we can no longer go extreme.”
“Cave not work for us either, but cave spirit come to us when we inside cave. Cave spirit touch Kinshasa then touch you, Molingami Sonnet. You didn’t feel it?” She stands and extends her hand to Sonnet, “Feel cave spirit.”
Sonnet grasps Kitoko’s hand and freezes for a few seconds. Then she relaxes her grip and releases Kitoko’s hand. She turns to us and says in English, “We must act quickly.” She turns to Kitoko, hugs her, thanks her and then tells us to follow her.
Sonnet’s Legacy Chapter 7
Back in our compound, Zed and I follow Sonnet to the white-painted masonry building that houses our kitchen, dining room, and family room. She walks to the wooden cabinet, opens it, and pulls out a bottle of orchid amber-colored tequila. She uncaps it, pulls two shot glasses from the shelves and pours some into each one. She shoves the shot glasses towards us.
“Little early in the day for that. Are we celebrating something?” Zed quips.
“In a manner of speaking, but I want to test something. Indulge me. Drink.”
Zed gives me a “what-the-hell” look, picks his up and knocks the whole thing back in one swallow. I follow suit and put my shot glass back on the table.
“Now what?” Zed asks.
The sound of a small creature’s feet skittering across the metal roof plays above us. A rare Charaxes ameliae butterfly flies in between us and settles on the table top next to the glasses. Its iridescent blue markings against its black wing make it extraordinarily beautiful. With the sunlight from the adjacent window angling across the table, the scene becomes its own Rembrandt still life.
“Give it a minute,” Sonnet tells us.
The butterfly takes wing and circles our heads before flying off towards the open door. More small creatures join the one on the roof over our heads, tip-tapping about.
A minute later, I notice a purple aura forming around Sonnet. I look at Zed and see he has a golden yellow aura about him. Nothing new here. Seen it before. When I turn back to Sonnet, I observe her aura expanding and becoming dense. I step back a few steps and watch it grow to the size of the orb we stand inside of in Gi. The hairs on
my arms rise as if the room is suddenly filled with static. The wooden floorboards beneath us groan and squeak as if a heavy weight has been placed on them. The air, already humid and warm, becomes claustrophobic and thick. A strong salty sweat odor wafts over us.
Behind me, I hear Sonnet’s voice in multiples. When I pivot around, I find the room is filled with avatar Sonnets, identical in every way to the real Sonnet I have been speaking with—same combed hair, same rumpled clothes, same boots, same gun at her hip, same knife in her belt, same eyes, same everything. And every one of them wears a coy smile. In unison, they wink at me. When I turn back to Sonnet, her orb has disappeared and she is smiling proudly. The Charaxes ameliae butterfly now circles a few feet above her head.
“What the hell?” exclaims Zed. “How did you do that? What did you see when you touched Kitoko?”
The avatar Sonnets all laugh and giggle like it’s an all-girl party that Zed has crashed and said something extremely entertaining. He frowns, gives them a dirty look and turns back to his sister. “Sonnet?”
“Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the new and improved Gi.” She bends her knees and makes a small curtsy. The butterfly descends to her shoulder and alights there, its wings slowly move up and down. The creatures on the roof bump and tap, as if in applause.
“What are you talking about?” I am completely confused. Behind me, the floorboards continue to creak and groan under the weight of so many people. Two more Charaxes ameliae fly from behind me and now circle over her. The air behind her fills with Queen Swallowtail butterflies. Their bright yellow and black wings create a tapestry reminiscent of an impressionist oil painting. The play of sunlight from the window on their wings is mesmerizing. The creature sounds from the roof increase to a low roar like droplets in a rainstorm.
Still smiling, she announces, “Kinshasa’s Bato Elongó are being hunted, killed and eaten by our Bangala Elongó.”
In an instant, the yellow and black butterflies transform to African Snout butterflies whose beige and sepia wings create a somber fluttering backdrop for Sonnet. The animal sounds on the roof cease. All is still.
Zed is quick to the defense of the Bangala Elongó. “I heard Kitoko say that and I don’t believe it. Never. Not in a million years would our Bangala Elongó hunt, kill, and eat someone. I’ve never sensed that inclination from them.”
“No, because you and I, and especially Uncle Forbes, are not one of them. We are not of this continent. Our culture is far removed from the culture of these people. We are actually not one of the Bangala Elongó. I mean we are, in a manner of speaking, since you and I are the original carriers of the ‘selection entity’ that none of us understand. But we are not one of them in that they are ethnically and genetically different. We feel them and they feel us, but we are together in friendship and ‘selection’ only. We feel each other and we feel warmth and companionship and even love when we are together, but we are still different. Yes, we are still united as Bangala Elongó, but for the two of us—you and me, Zed—we are not quite one of them. Kinshasa is an enemy of the Bangala Elongó; the ones selected as you and I are.”
The butterflies transform to all-white Duster moths and slowly scatter out into the room. The sound of a small creature skittering about on the tin roof returns.
“Then why has she been accepted by them?”
“Kitoko.”
The white Duster moths swirl blanket-like over our heads and undulate en masse like water on the ocean. A thud from the roof occurs directly over us as if a large animal suddenly dropped from a tree limb above to the surface of the roof.
“She is a blanket that shields the Bangala Elongó of our village from outside Bangala Elongó influence.”
A second thud on the roof, as loud as the first, occurs next.
“She literally censors what they know and don’t know of the other Bangala Elongó on this continent.”
The two large creatures on the roof sound as if they are hopping around in a circle, pounding the tin roof with their feet.
“She also censors what we are able to sense. She screens the Bangala Elongó outside of the village from us. Her skill and power level is surprising. She protects Kinshasa from the Bangala Elongó outside of the village. If our Bangala Elongó knew what I know, they would kill Kinshasa.”
The creatures slam the roof as an accent to her words then they go silent.
She sits down on a chair and smiles enigmatically. She flicks her hand towards the Duster moths and they disperse and fly from the room. “And Kinshasa is pregnant, at least one month into it.”
A small creature skitters along the roof, tip-tapping about.
“Huh. Rape victim. No big surprise, although she is a little young,” Zed remarks.
“Very young, but pregnant nonetheless. She will birth a girl who will also be called Kinshasa. That Kinshasa will birth a girl who will also be called Kinshasa–and again and again it will happen until...” she addresses me now, “...the offspring is the Kinshasa you were introduced to by your man from the future, Uncle Forbes.”
The roof returns to silence.
She leans forward in her chair. Her face is intent on mine. “Why is that important to the Bangala Elongó, you might ask? Because that Kinshasa carries something that will select people just as the ‘Chosen’ and the Bangala Elongó are ‘selected,’ but those selected will be at war with the ‘Chosen.’ There will be two different groups of selection and Kinshasa’s group will be the next step in evolution. One must overcome the other to advance. So our Kinshasa is part of the seed that will grow to destroy or marginalize the ‘Chosen’ in the future. The Bangala Elongó outside of our village know this. Kitoko knows this and yet Kitoko hides Kinshasa and protects her.”
Outside nearby, a bonobo makes a high hoot sound, closely followed by a threat call from another.
“So what does all this have to do with the ‘new and improved’ Gi? How did Gi envelop you in an orb here outside of its birthing chambers and then make all the Sonnet avatars that quickly? No incubation, no larvae. Just avatar. How? And guns and knives and clothes? That’s not organic. Your avatar was always birthed in the raw and you dressed her,” Zed challenges.
We hear the laughter and hoots of bonobos in play somewhere outside the building.
She stands and walks to Zed and caresses his cheek gently. “New and improved Gi can do that and more.” She extends her hand, palm up. In a moment her aura thickens, the air is filled once more with static electricity, the aura around her arm takes shape and suddenly a python is coiling about her arm, its head in her hand, its tongue slithering in and out. The floorboards behind us groan and squeak once more. “Take it, Zed.”
Bonobo threat calls intensify outside the building and then we hear the roar of a jaguar. The bonobos screech and hoot in return.
When Zed extends his hand to it, the python slides out and over his palm to wrap itself around his arm. Then it slides up to his neck and wraps itself around him, coming to rest with its head on his chest. Before he can act, two large silverback hands reach around him and remove the snake from his body. He turns around to come face to face with a four-hundred-pound silverback only inches from him. The gorilla huffs menacingly and bares its teeth. The Sonnet avatars are gone. Moments later, the snake and silverback become particles and spill onto the floor where they quickly vaporize into a white steam that emanates a musky odor. The bonobo and jaguar sounds from outside the building cease.
“Gi did that? Or you did that?” I ask, not convinced that what I’m seeing matches Sonnet’s explanation.
“Both. I am the evolved entity, more compact and less visible. Had you not had the benefit of the tequila, you would only have seen the avatars and not my aura. Gi and I have become as one.”
“No, not possible. Why would this happen?” Zed exclaims in disbelief.
“To survive is to evolve. Gi is evolving. I am the evolutionary entity that replaces the eons-old Gi. Kinshasa’s arrival was the trigger.”
Zed turns to me in surprise. “You need confirmation of what she says?”
“I need understanding,” I reply firmly. The more everything sinks in, the more uncomfortable I am with these turn of events. The air is tense with my anxiety.
Sonnet says somewhat defiantly, “You can’t handle it, Uncle Forbes. It will destroy you. Gi is eons old. There’s too much here for you.”
I refuse to be put off. “Not if you don’t let it. Gi would never let me be hurt, and if you are Gi, neither will you.”
Her eyes narrow while she contemplates this. “I could deceive you,” she suggests softly.
I remain steadfast. “Probably. Or maybe not. I’m willing to take that chance.”
She looks from me to Zed and then back to me. “You reading me worked last time only because we both focused on a small time frame. Gi is very old. You could be overwhelmed—possibly lost forever.”
I grow more impatient with her resistance. “Not if we focus on a time frame of just the last few days. I can do that. Can you? I would think it would be no problem for the ‘new and improved’ Gi.” Sarcasm colors my tone.
She looks genuinely worried and her inflated air rapidly dissipates. She frowns, crosses her arms, chews on her lower lip and then speaks. “Uncle Forbes. I love you and want nothing to happen to you. If you were hurt by me, it would kill me. I couldn’t forgive myself.” She gives me an imploring look and then lowers her head and confesses softly, “This is all new to me. I don’t know the limits of what I am. I was just showing off, exercising new muscles, but the seriousness of this is still sinking in.”
Aliens, Tequila & Us: The complete series Page 29
