by Lavie Tidhar
Sallehuddin grabbed him and held him close to his chest. “Abah!” both of them wailed simultaneously. There was no telling which voice was human, and which was android.
VII.
In the predawn darkness the day after Daud’s funeral, Sallehuddin and Jamil walked side by side to the mosque. A temporary polyfiber sheet had been draped over the gap in the dome to keep the elements away. The Imam was already there, ready to play a recording of the Azan.
“Jamil. I thought, after your father passed away —”
“I would no longer pray?” Sallehuddin interjected. “I am a Muslim, Imam. For me to meet Abah again in Heaven when I expire, I have to be a good Muslim.”
“You can’t be serious.”
Jamil rested his hand on Sallehuddin’s shoulder. “Do you know how I pray up there on the moon? With the Earth rotating, the Kaaba is never at the same place to be my kiblat. And it’s always daytime, so I don’t have a guide for my prayer time. I place my mat facing my bunker door, and I set my alarm in time with our prayer times here. I just do it because I have faith that Allah will accept my effort all the same.” He looked at Sallehuddin, then back at the Imam. “Sallehuddin believes that his prayers will be accepted, too. Maybe you should have the same faith in him as Abah had.”
For a while, the Imam stared at them, stroking his white beard. Finally, he took a deep breath and sighed. “Do you truly believe you have a soul, Sallehuddin?”
The android cocked his head slightly to the right. “I do, Imam.”
“Then go ahead and Azan. Call the congregation to pray with us.”
Sallehuddin nodded and took his place.
The Foreigner
Uko Bendi Udo
Originally from Nigeria, Uko Bendi Udo currently lives in the United States. He is the author of several short stories and one radio play
Edikan threw a stick a few yards in front of him. “Go get!” he said to Mboro, who froze in place and then turned his head sideways to show puzzlement. “Ke bin!” Edikan repeated in Milinan. Mboro hopped happily after the stick, fetched it, and returned it to Edikan, his yellow eyes flashing brighter with pride.
Edikan’s gaze strayed and he noticed that the security guard in front of the Lagos Ministry for Intergalactic Services building had moved from his spot. Edikan acted quickly. He accepted the stick from Mboro, touched a model car icon display on his gloved left palm, and then waved his right palm over Mboro, changing him into a pocket–sized model car. Edikan pocketed the car, and ran across the street.
“Yeye boy!” a motorist cursed as his vehicle missed Edikan by a hair. The motorist’s outburst drew attention to him, so he squeezed behind the glass wall of the Ministry building that faced Omotayo Street. Briefly distracted, he studied his image in the glass wall, and was reminded, sadly, of a few things about him that contributed to his “foreignness”. His hair was a forest of dark black, spiky locks, and his boyish, doll–like face bore eyes that were at once familiar but unearthly.
A worker in suit and tie walked up to the building’s entrance, and pressed a thumb on a console. Edikan ran up and slipped into the building behind him. He walked briskly towards the glass door that led into a cavernous room with space travel and life form monitoring equipment.
A few workers in lab coats operated the equipment. A scanner checked an astronaut and his suit for alien particles. Seated three desks away from the scanner was Tolu Makinde, dressed in a suit and tie. Edikan ran up to his desk and sat in front of him, making Tolu jerk back in surprise.
“How did you get in here?” Tolu said, looking round. “Where is the security guard?”
“Ayak no dok,” Edikan said.
“Speak in English!”
“He let me come.”
“You’re lying.”
“Go ask.”
Tolu stood up and pointed at the door. “Get out!”
“Yem eti fok!” Edikan stood up. “My father Nigerian. You have proof!”
“I told you the last time you asked. We have no records to show that.”
“Lie! Where paper from Milina?”
Tolu’s brow squeezed tighter with more surprise. “What paper? What are you talking about?”
“NiMLAF say,” Edikan said, and shoved a piece of paper at Tolu.
“The Nigerian–Milinan Legal Aid Foundation?” Tolu sat down as he read the paper.
“They help me. They say you have proof.”
Tolu slowly ripped the paper into bits, fed them to the shredder and leant closer to Edikan. “Since you have friends like this on your side, why don’t you tell them to buy you a one–way ticket back to Milina where you belong? This case is closed, as far as the government is concerned. You’re an illegal alien.”
“I am Nigerian–Milinan. I belong here!”
“There’s nothing here for you, Edikan. You have no proper papers, and no family.”
“Nothing for me in Milina.”
“But that’s your home.”
Edikan stood up. “Nigeria is home! My father born here!”
“Where’s the security guard?” Tolu pressed a button on his desk, and then rose to his feet.
“Give me paper!”
Tolu reached across the desk and shoved Edikan, who staggered backwards, spilling to the floor. “Get out of here!”
Mboro rolled out of Edikan’s pocket and transformed into a great big bear with yellowish eyes. It growled loudly, prompting the other workers in the office to let out ear–splitting screams, and a mad dash for the exit ensued. Mboro charged after Tolu.
“Yak!” Edikan said.
Mboro froze, its sharp, big claws only inches away from Tolu’s face. Edikan walked up to Mboro, and waved his right palm, reversing him back into a model car, which he picked up and pocketed. Tolu remained frozen against the wall, his eyes bulging with fright.
A security guard burst through the door, gun drawn. Guided by Tolu’s hysterical pointing, the guard turned to look. Edikan, however, was nowhere in sight. The guard ran around the office looking under desks and equipment.
Tolu pulled out a file from his desk labelled Edikan Usoro, and rifled nervously through it. He found a document, folded and pocketed it. He replaced the file and then searched for his Galaxy phone.
“Freeze!” the guard barked as he spotted and then chased after Edikan, who had emerged from hiding and now headed for the back exit. Behind them, police officers with sophisticated weapons drawn entered the office.
“What took you people so long, eh?” Tolu said, and pointed in the direction Edikan and the security guard had gone, adding, “this is 2080, for God’s sake. Not 1999!” Tolu found his phone and quickly exited the office.
§
“Open driver’s door,” Tolu Makinde commanded as he nervously approached his 2077 Moonray sports sedan. The car, recognising his voice, lifted up the driver’s door like a butterfly’s wing, exposing an interior dominated by a curvy touchscreen console that spewed relevant info graphics.
He looked around him and jumped when he heard another car door open behind him. I should’ve requested a police escort, Tolu thought, that Edikan boy is dangerous. Where did he get that… thing? He’d heard of NiMi kids bringing strange toys back to Earth, but this one took the cake.
He entered the car, started it with another voice command, and drove out of the underground garage. When he emerged onto the surface streets, he saw that the security guard and the police officers had followed their quarry outside but were now looking around as if they’d lost Edikan.
Edikan must go, Tolu thought, as he gunned the car past his office building and onto Monsood Idowu Highway. He should’ve pressed on with the hire to eliminate the boy a month ago. He could’ve put this issue far behind him by now.
How did Edikan find out about the Milina Report? That lawyer group must have a snitch inside the government, or perhaps right inside Tolu’s office. Kai!
Tolu swerved sharply to avoid hitting the traffic pole signalling flashed cars onto the
highway entrance. He gunned the engine, but had to step on the brakes to avoid hitting another car in front of him, and he became mired in a traffic jam.
His thoughts went to Edikan Usoro Senior, Edikan’s father and Tolu’s cousin. That old fool should’ve kept his zipper closed whilst up there on Milina. Though it did not surprise Tolu that the man had fathered a child up there with an alien, because he was already a dedicated womaniser down here on Earth.
He must find a way to make Edikan go away. He would put in a forced deportation order on that boy. He must return to Milina, or die here on Earth. Either that or Tolu might as well kiss his plans and dreams goodbye.
Tolu frowned as he gazed ahead and realised that the traffic was still tight. A 2080 Lunar Amphibian sedan lifted off the highway in front of him and slowly flew away, leaving the traffic jam behind. Tolu wished that he could afford that car. Maybe with Edikan gone, everything — the house and the bank accounts left behind by his cousin — would be his. Then not only would he be able to afford the 2080 Amphibian, but also he could actually buy one of the just–listed houses on Callaway Moon, the new galactic moon approved for settlement by the Ministry for Intergalactic Services.
“Music,” Tolu said, triggering a blast of atmospheric music in the car. He leant back on his seat and sighed deeply, but the car’s phone rang, the music faded away, and Chinyere Oduma’s face appeared on the console screen.
“Mr Makinde, where are you?” she asked.
Tolu sat up straight on his seat. “Boss. On break, madam.”
“What happened here, Tolu? The police are looking for you?”
“Don’t mind them, jare. They are too slow! This NiMi boy eluded security and came into my office. Can you believe that?”
“Enh, but you needed to stay and help the police with their report. Come back to the office. This is a serious breach.”
“Okay. I’m coming.”
Tolu touched an icon on the screen, cutting off the call, and the music rose again. He frowned as he looked ahead for the next exit. Now he couldn’t even quench the incessant hunger that was making his stomach growl.
A fly, with buggy yellowish eyes, landed outside on the car’s windshield. Tolu leant forward to study it, and then jerked back when he noticed the coloration of the fly’s eyes. The windshield’s eyelid of a wiper automatically nudged the fly off.
Just as he was about to lean back on his seat, the fly appeared inside the car and settled on the windshield, directly in front of him.
He took wild swipes, but the fly zoomed directly at him, dodged his swipes, and settled on the exposed part of his neck. He felt a sharp sting just before he slammed his palm against his neck.
The car swerved sharply to the left and then quickly corrected itself by taking control. Tolu flailed, and then slumped forward in his seat, unconscious, as the car drove off the highway and onto surface streets, and then rolled to a gentle stop on a deserted one.
§
“Mr Makinde, are you there?”
Tolu sat up in his seat and strained to see clearly. A pedestrian glanced curiously at Tolu as she strolled past the car.
Chinyere appeared on the car’s console and said again, “Mr Makinde, are you there?”
“Yes,” Tolu replied. He frantically searched his pockets for the document he’d pulled out of Edikan’s file in the office, found it, and sighed with relief.
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I’m on Martins Street. Yes, I can see the sign now.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yes. I’m fine.”
“I spoke to you thirty minutes ago, asking you to return to the office. What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m sending the police.”
“I’m fine! Ah, ah. I’m not a baby.”
“We need you here immediately.”
Tolu cut off the call, studied his reddened eyes in the visor mirror, and then said, “Start the engine.” The engine did not start, he repeated the command, but again it failed to start. He took out the car keys from his pocket, manually started the car, and then drove off.
§
Edikan ran into the Nigerian–Milinan Legal Aid Foundation office and looked around, searching for John Obinna, a fellow NiMi and Edikan’s legal counsellor. Spotting Edikan first, John got up from his chair and ran up to him.
“Aki bam o, where have you been?” John asked in Milinan as he embraced him.
“Mme niye, I have it!” Edikan exclaimed, jumping up and down with excitement.
“You have what?”
“The paper.”
“What paper?”
“Come,” Edikan said in English, and grabbed John by the hand and turned round in a bid to lead him out of the office. John grabbed him instead and pulled him into an empty conference room.
“Where have you been?” John asked in Milinan, fright in his eyes. “The police are looking for you.”
“Why?”
“Why? Where were you this afternoon?”
“I went to see Mr Makinde.”
“I told you not to go there. You don’t listen!” John stood up and paced the room. “Now the police are looking for you.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“How did you get into Mr Makinde’s building?”
“I just did!” Edikan stood up and kicked at the chair. “Nobody wants to help me. Not you, not anybody!”
John grabbed Edikan by the hand and yanked him around. “Listen. I’ve stuck my neck out for you because I care about you and your case. The deal was that you were not going to do anything we didn’t tell you to do. This is not Milina.”
“I see that. Maybe I should just go back as Mr Makinde suggested and take my chances.”
“That is not a good idea either. They will surely kill you for joining the insurrection movement. And what were you doing joining that group?”
“They’re killing NiMis like me on Milina, Mr Obinna. Just because of our Earthling blood! Milina doesn’t want us, and when we come here, Nigeria does not want us!”
“That is not so. Look at me.”
“There are more of me than of you, Mr Obinna.”
“That’s not true. The problem is that you came in without papers.”
“And I’m trying to tell you that I have the papers.”
John moved closer to him. “What papers?”
“The paper the government will not release. The paper you have been asking Mr Makinde to show us that proves my father is Nigerian.”
“Where is it?”
Edikan brought out Mboro, set him down, jabbed at an icon on his left palm, and waved his right hand over him, turning him into a computer tablet.
John jumped back. “Mboro is an Akan!”
Edikan beamed with pride. “Yes.”
“How did you get one? I’ve asked people to bring one back for me, but they say the Milinan government banned their sale. I see why.”
“You don’t need it. You’re not a kid.”
“You’re fifteen. That’s three years removed from being an adult. Now what about this paper?”
Mboro beamed a video transmission from a pair of human eyes, whilst Edikan scrolled through video images on the tablet. “We need to find it. I saw it earlier. Then we need to print it.”
John moved closer to the tablet as if approaching a spectacular phenomenon. “What is this?”
“Video from Mr Makinde’s eyes.”
An urgent knock on the conference room door prompted John to guide Edikan and Mboro behind a cubicle partition. John tip–toed to the door and cracked it open.
“The police are here,” said a co–worker.
John grabbed Edikan and they escaped through the back of the office.
§
Tolu studied Edikan Usoro Senior’s framed photo closely, and sighed. Yes, he had to agree, Edikan bore some resemblance to Edikan Senior. He remembere
d exactly the day of the photo. Edikan Senior’s first trip into space, the family had been so happy. It silenced, at least for that day, the talk that Edikan Senior was a misguided Nigerian astronaut who was more interested in chasing skirts than chasing his dreams.
Tolu had been happy that day for a different reason. His cousin, who had always overshadowed Tolu’s accomplishments and made him seem inconsequential in the eyes of everybody — especially Tolu’s father — was blasting away to a different world, and would be gone for a few years.
It gave Tolu the space to breathe, and the chance for his family to notice him, especially his father. It gave him the opportunity to suppress the suffocating inferiority complex he felt around his cousin. Tolu had hoped — although it made him uncomfortable — that Edikan Senior would never return.
For if he never did, according to Nigerian law, and Tolu being the closest kin alive, Tolu would inherit everything Edikan Senior owned, both here on Earth, and everywhere else in the galaxy. This house, the ones in the village and all the others on Milina, and all the other worlds his cousin had roamed in search of adventure. When his body returned back to Nigeria several years later, Tolu thought that his prayers had been answered.
Then, the NiMi boy showed up.
However, the little runt had made a big mistake, and was now going to be forcibly removed from the country, and good riddance. Tolu rubbed his eyes, and then ran up to the bathroom to see what was causing his eyes to itch a lot lately.
In the bathroom, Tolu leant closer to the mirror and noticed that his pupils reflected strange red dots that seemed to appear and disappear depending on how he tilted his head. He’d never seen such a thing before. He’d have to make an appointment with the eye doctor.
The doorbell chimed. Tolu touched the mirror and a projection of a video feed from the entrance showed Edikan standing at the front entrance with John.
“What do you want?” Tolu asked, irritation colouring his voice.
“Open the door, Tolu. We have something to show you,” John said.
“Show it to the police.”
