The Ear, the Eye and the Arm (41 page)

Above the wind tumbled the voices of animals: yips and barks, growls, bleats, caterwauls and roars. With them were the voices of men, women and children. They weren't angry. Rather, they rejoiced as though released from long slavery.

"It's the people and animals who were sacrificed to feed the Masks," said Tendai.

The gray tide swirled around the room and fled out across the landing dock and into the sky. Into
Mwari's
country.

"Now I've got a pulse," said the paramedic. "That's funny. Why couldn't I find it before?"

Arm opened his eyes and looked up at Tendai. "I'm hungry," he said.

"What you need is a nice hot garlic soup," said Eye as Arm was settled into an easy chair in the corridor.

The maitre d' shuddered. "I don't know what kind of swill they serve where you live, but
no one
eats garlic soup in the Starlight Room."

"It's their loss."

"I might have a tasty
potage d'haricots
in the kitchen, however," said the little man.

"He means bean soup," translated Ear. The maitre d' scowled.

The Gondwannans and the She Elephant were packed off in police vans. Obambo Chivari was flown to the prison hospital to see if someone could straighten out his neck. Tendai tried to help the waiters arrange chairs in the corridor, but they told him to sit down.

"You're our guest of honor," they told him. So he, Rita and Kuda were placed at a table with Mother and Father. Ear, Eye and Arm were allowed to stay in easy chairs because of their injuries. The dinner guests and workers from the Starlight Room settled down wherever they could find seats.

"My eyes are almost back to normal," said Eye. "Normal for me, that is. I'll have to put on dark glasses soon."

"My ears hurt, but the doctor says they'll be good as new in a few days." Ear was bundled up in thick bandages that doubled as muffs.

"You're lucky I had my first-aid kit with me," said the doctor. "How do you feel, Arm? I'll admit I don't know how to treat you."

"It's strange. All my life I've felt the emotions of others. Now they're gone."

"Is that bad?" asked Mother.

"It's . . . lonely."

"What happened inside the country of the Masks?" Father said. Tendai wished he hadn't asked that question. Even the memory of the Presence behind the Big-Head Mask made him sick.

Arm stared down at his long fingers before answering. "There's nothing like it in our world," he replied slowly. "Imagine fire that burns but has no warmth, darkness that blinds you but is no relief from light. All I can say is that it was like being dropped in a vat of acid. Whatever makes real things
real
was eaten away. I can't describe it! Only that it was horrible!" He hid his face in his hands.

"If you can't read minds anymore," Mother said quietly, "you can keep Sekai."

Arm looked up. "Yes. That's true. By the way, who's looking after her?"

Mother looked embarrassed. "Well, the Mellower came out of his room for the first time today —"

"That does it! He'll put salt in her formula. He'll let her roll off a table." Arm tried to get up, but he was still too exhausted.

"I'm sure The Mellower knows how to take care of children. After all, he raised mine," Mother said.

 
Tendai didn't care to mention all the times he, Rita and Kuda had found him asleep with a newspaper over his face.

"Who's Sekai?" asked Rita. When this was explained, she did a celebration dance, as the Resthaven girls had done when Tendai was carried home in triumph from his fight with Head Buster. "Yea! Hurrah! The story has a happy ending!"

The old-fashioned clock by the elevator churred as its gears began to turn. It chimed sweetly. "It's twelve o'clock!" cried Rita. "It's your birthday, Tendai."

"Really?" the maitre d' said.

"I'm fourteen years old," Tendai replied.

"Then we have to celebrate!" The maitre d', the cooks and the waiters scurried off to empty the pantry. They brought plates of cold ham and chicken, bowls of fruit salad, caramel pudding and ice cream. Tendai was presented with a cake and fourteen candles.

"Make a wish! Make a wish!" chanted Kuda.

Tendai remembered his last birthday. It seemed one shouldn't make wishes idly. Who knew which spirits were listening? He considered a moment and then thought, I wish for courage. Because with courage, you weren't afraid to look at the truth. You weren't afraid to ask questions or do the right thing.

Good choice, young warrior,
whispered the
mhondoro
from far away.

"And now we have to sing 'Happy Birthday,' " Rita announced. Tendai groaned. His sister stood on a chair and directed the singing. Everyone joined in, from the youngest dishwasher to the maitre d'. Father sang loudest of all. His deep bass voice threatened to drown everyone else out. The song was so successful, they did it again. A late dinner party arrived from the elevator.

"This place is a mess," complained a man. "Look at the furniture higgledy-piggledy in the corridor."

"The kitchen staff is eating with the guests," exclaimed a woman. "Bad management is what I say."

"And what I say is, you can go home and open a can of beans," shouted the maitre d'.

"Well! I never!" huffed the woman. The late dinner party got back into the elevator and left.

"What about Trashman?" Kuda asked suddenly.
       

Everyone stopped talking and looked at him. "He's right. We've been so busy celebrating, we forgot about him," said Rita. So Father phoned the police and arranged for a squad car to pick them up on the Gondwannan landing dock.

Father, Tendai and Kuda flew off to Mufakose, while the rest went on with the party. "It was a tall building, not far from the central market," said Tendai as the squad car came in low. Mufakose was dark now. Its citizens were tucked into bed, and the noisy market was still. "That's it!" Tendai cried, pointing at an unusually tall tower in the bright beam of the car. "See? There's a landing dock at the top."

They set down, and two policemen got to work on the door with crowbars. "I hope he's all right. He didn't have any food," Tendai said.

"I brought him a big piece of cake," said Kuda. The policemen peeled back the opening.

"Phew! It smells! Set out lanterns by the door." Father shone a flashlight around the room.

"It — doesn't look the same." Tendai saw that the stuffed hyena, dried owls and mummified bats had been pulverized. The black curtains lay in shreds on the floor. The altar was smashed to kindling, and the dried herbs were reduced to dust. Trashman was curled up in a corner, sound asleep.

"I think he had a temper tantrum," observed Kuda. "I get them, too, sometimes."

"He ate the candles," a policeman said in disgust.

Kuda went up to Trashman and prodded him. "Have some cake."

The man awoke. "Kuda," he said with a big grin. Then he and the little boy shared the cake and babbled the doings of the past few hours to each other.

"This building is full of stolen property." Father shone his light through a trapdoor, and Tendai saw a king's ransom of gold, jewels and money. The whole tower was loaded with the ill-gotten wealth of years of crime.

"What will we do with it?" he asked.

"Find the original owners if we can," said Father. "The rest . . . well, you know how many poor people exist in this country: the beggars in the Cow's Guts, the
vlei
people, the thrown-away children. And the honest hard-working people — they need things, too. It'll be gone in no time."

Tendai nodded. He was proud his father was speaking to him as an adult.

"No thanks. I'm full," said Kuda as Trashman offered him the stub of a candle.

EPILOGUE

Obambo Chivari and the other Gondwannans were shipped home. They met unpleasant ends at the hands of their own people for losing the masks.

The She Elephant, in view of the help she gave, was only sentenced to two years in prison. She enrolled in a cooking course and perfected her considerable skills. When she was released, she went back to Dead Man's Vlei. After a stay in the new shelters General Matsika built for them, the
vlei
people began to join her.

When Tendai was sixteen, he got his first pilot's license. He flew low over Dead Man's Vlei. The cooking pots were steaming. Knife and Fist, recently finished with their prison terms, were lounging in easy chairs, but Granny wasn't with them. She had entered a convent in Mozambique, where she spent many happy hours listing people's sins and praying for them.

Of the
vlei
people there was no sign. Perhaps a shimmer of the ground indicated when one of them moved. The She Elephant came out of her burrow and shook her fist at the little sports car. Tendai flew away.

Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham was allowed to go home after she promised to do a thousand hours of public service. She was assigned to a clothing charity in the Cow's Guts. She watched carefully to be sure no one got more than his share. Trashman had somehow memorized his way to her garden. He drifted through every few months in search of T-bones and guavas. Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham let him in because she was afraid of General Matsika. As Trashman munched his way through the garden, she retired to the Invalid's Room with a glass of sherry.

Trashman was impossible to reward. He simply accepted whatever was given him, whether he deserved it or not. No matter how kind the Matsikas were to him, they would awaken one morning and find him missing from the heap of grass clippings he preferred as a bed. He wandered throughout the city. Sometimes he disappeared altogether. Tendai thought he had found a way into Resthaven.

Tendai occasionally visited Resthaven Gate, at which he listened intently. He never heard anything. The entrance never opened. The bell went unanswered. No one, with the possible exception of Trashman, even knew if the people inside were still alive. But Tendai thought they were.

Monomatapa's people went on in their timeless way, farming, hunting and thatching their round huts when the season of long grass was upon them. And at night, they gathered in the
dare
to tell tales. Or so Tendai believed. Someday, when the spirit of Zimbabwe stumbled and the
mhondoro
grew faint, the gate would open again and remind the rest of the world of what it once had been.

Tendai himself studied medicine when he was old enough for college, but he also spent time with the Lion Spirit Medium in the Mile-High Macllwaine. That person agreed to train him in the special discipline that would allow him access to the
mhondoro.
Having once been accepted by the spirit of the land, it seemed likely he would be chosen again.

Rita became a prizewinning math student, and Kuda, to no one's surprise, was possessed by his great-great-grand-uncle, a famous fighter pilot, and was taught military strategy from the inside out.

Eye very quickly got back his wonderful sight. Ear's wounds healed until you could hardly see a mark, unless he opened his ears wide, and only then with the sun behind them. But Arm never recovered his psychic abilities. He was certainly more sensitive than most people, but he never again was able to read minds.

The President awarded the three detectives the People's Medal and gave them lifelong pensions. After all the publicity, they suddenly had more clients than they knew what to do with. They became moderately rich. They were able to buy a house in Mufakose, which was a better place than the Cow's Guts to raise Sekai.

The Mellower was given new duties. He accompanied the children to and from their new public school. He held the students spellbound with tales of old Zimbabwe, and the teachers competed to lure him into their rooms. He was not permitted to Praise there or at home, however.

General Matsika said they all had been listening to Praise too long, and it made them blind to real problems. But now and then, because it made him so happy, the Mellower was allowed to visit the detectives.

He Praised the wise farseeing eyes of Eye and the keen hearing of Ear. He recited the virtues of Arm and described the fantastic cleverness of all three. Ear, Eye and Arm listened until they were so filled with happiness, not another kind word could slip in.