THE SKY IS BURNING

This day was going to be the sweetest of them all. Abigail could feel it. She could feel the humid breeze brushing against her delicate skin. She could feel it soothing her mind like a good dream. She opened her eyes and she couldn’t believe that she was finally here, in Zambia, about to traverse the evening mood with the love of her life. About to seek the solace of warmth in each other’s arms, in a boat through the Zambezi river.

“How much further?” she asked him. “Don’t worry baby, we’re almost there.” He took her arm and led her around the bushes. They could already hear the sound of water animating their expectations. The trees were green all around them. The evening sun was dying slowly, shedding its final light across the expanse of the clouds like a scarlet robe.

There was a man waiting for them by the river besides a canoe. He was half naked and his hair was tousled pitifully. “Baby, I’d like you to meet Mubita. He is going to help us get to the village. I’d like you to meet the local people.”

“Are you sure it’s safe to travel in that?” she gestured to the canoe, “You know I can’t swim.”

“Don’t worry, Mubita is a professional fisherman, he knows these waters like the back of his hand-”

“What about Crocodiles and hippos?”

“This part of the river is free of predators” he assured. He breathed, “Just relax, I want us to have a good time.”

“You’re right, am sorry, am overreacting” she confessed underneath her breath. She squared her shoulders.

“Look at me baby,” he said. “We’re going to be alright” She was never strong enough to resist his beautiful brown eyes. With his masculine charms he would always get what he wanted. Wasting no time, he helped her into the boat and then he also went in to sit right next to her. Mubita pushed the boat slowly into shallow water before he could climb in to steer the boat away. All the while, he tried to avoid eye contact with this beautiful white woman. He had been payed by Henry, her boyfriend, to say no word and cause no disturbance until they got to the village. But Mubita could not help himself. As he settled in the boat, he stole a quick glance at her red lips and blonde hair. This kind of beauty was an abomination to nature.

Abigail locked eyes with the fisherman suddenly, but he looked away quickly. Her eyes lingered on him. She could see a nasty burn scar across his bare chest.

“How did you get that?” she asked him.

He took his time answering as if interpreting the English to himself, “Ki mulilo wa Nyambe” he replied in perfect lozi.

She turned to Henry quizzically.

“He said its God’s fire” he explained. “It’s a thing I learnt of as a child growing up. It is believed, among the locals, that some unlucky people would go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning with a fire wound-”

“How is that possible?”

“I don’t know. Some believe it is a punishment for sins, the fire of God.”

“Don’t tell me you honestly believe that”

“Absolutely not. They’re superstitions” he said. He moved closer, garnering her full attention. “Now baby, enough about that. I want to show you something special-”

“Okay……”

“Do you trust me?”

“I do” she managed.

“I want you to close your eyes. I shall allow you to open them in a moment.”

She did as she was instructed.

Henry immediately gestured to the fisherman to stop paddling. The boat slowed down and continued to cut softly through the gentle waves. The air stilled around them. She could feel it. She could smell a fragrance of unfamiliar flora. He took her hands atthe same time, as if helping her concentrate on the sensation lancing inside of her. “You can open your eyes” he said. She pried her eyes open slowly to let in the light. She could see the water sparkling with the rays of the evening sun. Beautiful trees ran alongside the river in perfect curves. And the sky was full of radiant color, desperately holding on to the ebbing light. Birds of hovered in the air and sung sweet lullabies. This felt like a dream, a good dream. She was loving all of it, just like he wanted. He couldn’t stop staring at her even as she lost herself in the richness of the view before her eyes. She was so breathtaking with that heavenly smile. The wind blew a few strands of her hair out of place, exaggerating her beauty and he was immediately entranced by her, completely and utterly. She caught him staring and she leaned over to kiss him right away. “Thank you for this” she said. Then she kissed him again, this time lingering passionately on his lips. His grip tightened around her as he absorbed the feeling.

Mubita coughed without warning, breaking all the action. Henry turned to him, grimacing.

“What is it?” he ordered.

Mubita took his time to say, “Neni libezi kumibulelela. Aluka fita kwale, luswanela kukuza” he said as he pointed to the gloom ahead of them.

Henry quieted for a moment.

“Baby, what is it?” she asked impatiently.

“You see the space over there, where the trees are hanging over the river?”

“Yes, I see it”

“Well, we need to keep quiet when we get there,” he said. “The local people believe in spirits and gods like Nyambe and river monsters. They say disturbing the spirits will bring a terrible calamity on the entire village. But they are also just superstitions”

“Superstitions or not, I am definitely spooked” she confessed, gripping his arm tightly.

“You have nothing to worry about” he told her as he stared into her eyes directly. Those lips were tempting him and he found himself drawing closer, about to kiss her when Mubita coughed again.

“What’s your problem man!” he snapped.

“Baby calm down, there’s no need to get angry”

“He’s doing it on purpose.” He breathed, still infuriated. “What is it?” he repeated.

Almost immediately, his phone rung in his pocket for a few but seemingly long seconds.

Without even looking at the caller ID, he decided to end the call.

“Your phone has been ringing all day long. Are you going to continue ignoring your calls because clearly someone is desperately trying to reach you?”

“It’s not important,” he lied, “It’s just people from work”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, am sure, I can switch it off if you want”

“No, it’s fine. Just worried it will distract you” she said that referring to herself.

“You are the only thing that matters. I cannot be distracted.”

She took his hands and placed them on her exposed thighs. His heartbeats rose dangerously.

“That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.” She embraced him urgently, making the boat rock unsteadily. His hands continued to feel the rest of her and he kissed her, once maybe twice but they weren’t counting. The canoe entered the space under the canopy of trees and there was an unquestionable discomfort in the air. The two lovers stilled immediately, still in oneness. The fisherman was trembling but no one could see that in the dense gloom. This was it. This was the place that the locals feared the most. And the boat felt like it had slowed down, making them endure every second of it.

In that disturbing moment, suddenly, Henry’s phone rung in his pocket. He attempted in a rush to pull it out and Abigail immediately caught a glimpse of the caller ID. It was a woman named Precious. She snatched the phone from him and unlocked the phone to investigate more.. Then she could see nude pictures of Precious popping up on the screen as incoming messages. This was definitely his mistress. She cursed. Her hand shot out and slapped him. Now she was crying.

“Who the hell is Precious!!” she managed.

“Baby, calm down, I can explain. It’s not what it looks like-”

Mubita was busy shushing them with his eyes red and wide. They were going to disturb the spirits………

“Please calm down, let me explain” he attempted.

“How long?” she asked, “How long have you been sleeping with other women?” she moaned.

“There are no other women, it’s just her-”

“Is that supposed to make me feel any better?”

“She means nothing to me baby, believe me”

“Don’t call me that. I don’t know if I can believe anything that comes from your mouth anymore.”

“Nothing has changed” he begged, “Precious was just an old flame trying to get back with me. I have tried to end things but she keeps coming”

“You can go to hell. As soon as I get off this boat, I am finding my way to the airport and you’ll never see me again”

“Baby don’t do this”

“Call me baby one more time, I dare you…….”

“Can we talk about this when-” he stopped there, leaving his words hanging at the sound of a woman crying somewhere in the water. He listened for a moment, “Do you hear that?”

The crying was unmistakable, everyone could hear it. It was a woman voice. This immediately sent their hearts racing.

“Do you see that?” he pointed, trembling. Their focus followed his finger but they could not see anything even as their eyes adjusted to the dark.

“See what?”

“Don’t you see that?” he repeated with a squeal this time.

“Henry you’re scaring me”

The crying in the water stopped suddenly and Mubita fell on his face to pray in his native Lozi language.

Henry was now sobbing loudly with his eyes gazing fixedly at nothing in particular, “It is smiling at me” he moaned. “I…..can’t look anymore”

As soon as he turned away, the canoe begun rocking violently from an invisible force. Abigail broke into demented screaming. The boat spun around a few times and again in another direction before stopping suddenly.

“It is coming this way!” he moaned some more when his focus settled in the earlier

direction. Abigail was crying with muffled tunes and Mubita joined with effortful lamentations saying, “Nyambe luswalele!” which translates, “God forgive us!”

“Go away!” he attempted as he fell on his back and screamed like a child. “Go away!”

Henry was now fighting an invisible force and the boat was about to capsize. In a moment, all was quiet. Henry stopped fighting and sat himself up like someone suddenly possessed.

And there was silence for a few erring seconds.

“Baby, are you alright?” Abigail’s voice broke through.

“Yes……I’ve never been better” he answered calmly. He was sitting, placidly still and his gaze narrowed on Mubita.

“Baby, are you sure you’re okay?” She barely finished her sentence and he pounced on

Mubita, trying to choke the life out of him. Abigail jumped on Henry’s back, pulling him away.

Mubita was gasping for air and unable to unclasp the hands from this possessed man.

“Henry stop, you’re killing him!”

The fisherman’s struggle weakened as the life drained from him slowly. Finally, she bit him on the shoulders. He swung around and slapped her with the back of his hand. She fell over and plunged into the water.

She wriggled and flapped trying not to sink, fighting for dear life. She could not swim.

“Henry….please……help!” she begged. She gurgled a few times when water entered her mouth. She knew she was dying. Henry continued his assault on the fisherman. At this point, she could only think of saving herself first.

The water was freezing cold. She was soon going to drown. Suddenly, right below her feet, she could feel something move. Helplessly she couldn’t do anything but cry a little louder. It moved again and brushed the side of her leg. Now she was in full fright mode. She took a desperate deep breath and sunk her head to look in the water. When she was completely submerged, she opened her eyes and she could see it. In the dark water it only looked like a shadow of some creature. She couldn’t tell whether it was a hippo or crocodile or the river monster. It was circling her slowly, stalking her.

Soon she could see a few more of the shadows appearing from nowhere. Whatever they were, she knew they would rip her to pieces and she pledged she wasn’t going to die like this. She opened her mouth to drown, to die a less painful death. She could feel the pain devouring her whole body. She was dying. A human hand reached into the water, grabbed a fist full of her shirt and pulled her out quickly. She fell on her side inside the canoe, coughing out water and fighting to catch her breath. It took her a moment to regain her composure. She looked up and Henry was just sitting there, besides a dead body with his head in the palm of his hands.

“I killed him” he whispered as he sobbed. It seemed like he was back to normal. “I didn’t mean to, you have to believe me….”

“Baby it’s not your fault.” She sat up next to him, tears shimmering in her eyes. “I know you didn’t mean to do it. That wasn’t you. You would never hurt anyone”

“This is all my fault-”

“No, it’s not. You mustn’t blame yourself”

His voice gave away to crying again. She picked up his head, mirroring his emotions.

“It’s going to be alright. We are going to be fine” she told him. She thought of all the ways she could make him calm down. “Baby look at me. We need to get out of this place.”

“I just killed a man” he moaned, ignoring her. “Someone is dead because of me”

“Henry stop! You need to pull yourself together. It’s not your fault that he’s dead. It is this place and we need to leave now”

“Okay……you’re right.” He sniffed. He breathed in deeply and looked around. It was all dark and menacing. “What if it comes back?”

“I don’t know. You need to stay focused” she said. “Just look at me, and only me.” She took his hands gently, staring at him. “You can not be distracted from me remember?”

Her words were enough to compel him to forget everything else momentarily. “Kiss me baby” she told him. He took her without question. He absorbed her lips, exploring her mouth as he tightened his grip around her. He was suddenly imagining paradise.

With their eyes closed, right there, they could hear an eruption of thunder in the sky. It was loud. It was unexpected. They looked and they could see, high up in the clouds, lightening mingled with fire. They could see fire moving like shooting stars to the village they were heading to. It was like the entire sky had been set ablaze.

The two lovers froze with unimaginable fear. The fire did not stop for a while. Clouds of smoke ascended into the visible sky from the village and they realized that this was happening because of them.

A gust of cold wind developed from nowhere and blew speedily past them. The sky was dark once more when the horrid fire show was over and again, they remembered that this place was not safe.

“Am so sorry baby. I should have never brought you here” he begun, “And am sorry that you had to find out about Precious this way”

“Let’s not talk about this now. Let us first get through the night-”

“I just want you to know that I love you very much and I never meant to hurt you” he interrupted.

“Henry please. Let’s not do this now”

“Alright, I’ve stopped” he said. “I’ll get us out of here first.” He looked around for the paddle and soon realized that it had been lost in the water. He thought for a while, terrified.

“What are we going to do now? We can’t swim to shore” she told him. “I mean, I can’t swim.

And even if we could, I saw something in the water”

“What do you mean you saw something ?”

“I saw……..creatures in the water. I think they are hippos or crocodiles”

“I already told you, there are no predators in this part of the river”

“Henry, I know what I saw !” she snapped.

“Keep your voice down” he begged, trembling. “I know swimming is not an option right now”

“So, what do we do?”

“We’ll have to paddle with our hands”

“Are you serious?”

“Do you have a better idea?” he asked back in a matching tone.

She didn’t reply right away. Then she finally said, “Maybe we should just wait it out until sunrise. Hopefully in the morning other fishermen will come this way”

“What fishermen? Didn’t you see what happened? The village is gone” he pointed out with emphasis, “No one is going to come to help us. We are all alone here”

“Be that as it may, I am not putting my hand into the water, there are creatures just waiting to eat us alive”

“Fine, just sit there and do nothing.” He reached his hand into the water without hesitation, infuriated, and he begun making gentle caressing strokes as quietly as he could but the canoe could only spin around on the same position. He tried paddling a little harder. He saw the ripples forming and feared that the predators might be real. He was now breathing heavily, exhausted. “It’s no use” he confessed. “We are stuck here. I’ll just have to swim to shore alone and see if I can find something to use” he told her plainly. “What? You want to leave me here alone?” she questioned, hoping that he didn’t mean it. “There is no other way”