Chapter 8: Saving Them a Place
Chapter 8 · 8 min read
Before the horn, in the sleeping shed, Mama Leki was already awake. As always, she counted everyone, making sure the family was still whole.
One. Two. Three.
Then she sat up.
Two mats were empty.
Lumani’s and Kamau’s.
For a long moment she did not move. Then she stood, quiet as smoke, and touched the cold surface of Lumani’s mat with her fingertips.
“Mama?” Ayo’s voice was small in the dark.
“Shh,” Mama Leki said softly. “Sleep a little more.”
But Ayo was already sitting up, and Jabari after her, rubbing his eyes. Kofi did not wake. He could sleep through the horn, and had done it twice.
“Where is he?” Ayo whispered.
Mama Leki looked at the two empty mats. She did not answer. Then Ayo understood. Mama Leki did not know either.
“Get ready,” Mama Leki said. “The horn will sound soon.”
Jabari opened his mouth. Then he saw Mama Leki’s face. He closed his mouth. Jabari never stayed quiet. Now he did.
Jojina was the smallest in the shed, and the loudest. On the next mat, she peeked out from under her blanket. “Where did weird-eyes go?”
“To work early,” Mama Leki said. “Close your eyes.”
The girl did not close her eyes. She watched the empty mat until the horn.
When it finally sounded, they walked out in a line into the cold gray morning with the others. Mama Leki watched the two empty places where Lumani and Kamau should have been. She kept her face still. That was her job now.
But when the line moved toward the pits, she looked once over her shoulder, toward the mist at the edge of camp.
She turned back to the children, and smiled, and told them to keep up.
At the pits, the guards walked up and down the rows. It was not safe to talk.
Ayo kept looking at the empty place where Lumani should have been. Kofi worked beside her, quieter than usual. Twice he reached for a tray that wasn’t his, as if his hands were searching for Lumani’s work to share.
Jabari slapped wet clay into his frame. Too hard. Mud flew onto his arm.
“Careful,” Ayo whispered.
“I am careful.”
“You are angry.”
“I am not angry.” He slapped the clay again. “I am making bricks.”
A guard passed behind them. They all bent lower. When his boots moved on, Kofi leaned closer.
“Where is he?” he whispered. “Where are they both?”
“No,” Ayo said quickly. “They are hiding. They will come back.”
Jabari stared at the clay. “He is hiding. He is good at hiding. He will come back.”
Kofi nodded.
Jabari tried again. “Maybe I should go mud-skating. If Lumani hears everyone laughing, he will come out to see.”
“Jabari,” Ayo said.
“Last time he laughed so hard he almost fell in the clay.”
“You fell in the clay.”
“I know.” His voice cracked. “But he laughed.”
For a moment, none of them spoke.
At the drying mats, one of the women looked up. She saw the three children working with their heads down, and the empty space beside them. She did not say anything. She only nodded at Ayo, a small, slow nod. Ayo nodded back.
Then Jabari pressed his thumb into the wet clay, right in the corner of the brick. A small mark. Then a second one beside it.
“What are you doing?” Kofi whispered.
“Saving them a place,” Jabari said. “One for Kamau. One for Lumani. When they come back, they will see we did not forget.”
Kofi looked at the marks. “When they come back,” he said, slowly, like he was testing the words.
“When,” Jabari said again, firmer this time.
Ayo pressed her own thumb into her brick, next to his. “They will be hungry,” she whispered. “We should save them some bread tonight.”
“Kamau will complain it is too dry,” Kofi said.
“Then we will tell him to come back faster next time,” said Jabari.
For the first time all day, Ayo almost smiled.
Kofi pressed his thumb into the clay too.
Four small marks, waiting.
Then came the headcount.
Ayo’s hands went cold. Everyone knew what a missing worker meant. Malanga called the names. Row by row. The children held their breath. When you heard your name, you said “Here.”
“Baraka” — “Here.”
“Ayo” — “Here.”
“Jabari” — “Here.”
“Kofi” — “Here.”
“Kamau.”
“In the cells,” a guard called from the gate.
Down the row, a woman whispered, “Kamau? What did he do?” Across the ditch, the older boy’s head came up. Ayo did not turn around.
“Lumani.”
A pause. Ayo stopped breathing.
“Western pits,” Malanga said, and wrote it down.
Ayo stared. Jabari’s mouth opened. Kofi blinked.
No one dared ask what it meant.
The guards moved on to the next row. The work horn sounded, and everyone bent back over their frames.
Jabari waited until the nearest guard was far enough away. Then he leaned toward Ayo.
“Western pits?” he whispered. “Lumani has never worked in the western pits.”
“I know,” she said.
“So why did Malanga say it?”
“Shh.”
A guard walked past. They pressed clay into their frames and kept their heads down. When he was gone, Kofi slid closer.
“Maybe Malanga made a mistake,” he whispered.
“Malanga writes down every brick,” Ayo said. “He does not make mistakes.”
Jabari’s eyes went wide. “Then he lied. For Lumani.”
“Why would he do that?” Kofi asked. “He almost whipped you.”
“I do not know.” Ayo pushed the clay harder into the corners. “Maybe he wants to help. Or maybe he wants Lumani to come out of hiding so they can catch him too.”
Kofi went pale. “Then Lumani should stay hidden.”
“He will,” Jabari said quickly. “He is smart. Kamau and I taught him well.”
Ayo gave him a hard look.
“Okay, okay,” Jabari said. “Only Kamau.”
“And Kamau?” Kofi asked quietly. “They said the cells.”
For a moment, nobody answered.
“Kamau will get out,” Jabari said. “He always finds a way.”
“How?”
“I do not know how. He just will.”
The guard turned at the end of the row and started walking back.
Ayo spoke fast and low. “We will ask Mama Leki. She will know what to do.”
Jabari nodded. Kofi nodded.
They went back to work. But every time the gate creaked, all three of them looked up.
On the way to the shed, they passed the work board by the gate. Jabari stopped. There, chalked under WESTERN PITS in Malanga’s neat hand, was Lumani’s name. Jabari nudged Kofi with his elbow. Kofi saw it too. Neither of them said a word.
In the shed, the evening felt very long. Mama Leki stirred the last of the stew. Nobody touched their bowls.
Jabari sat on his mat with his mouth shut. Ayo sat across from him, watching the door. Her knuckles were scraped raw. She caught Kofi looking and tucked her hands under her arms.
Kofi sat between them, turning a smooth pebble over and over in his hands.
Next to them, Jojina sat up. “Is Weird-Eyes coming back?”
“Go to sleep,” Ayo said.
“But is he?”
Ayo stood and went outside. Nobody followed her. She stood in the cold dark and looked down the path until her eyes hurt. Then, where no one could see her, she cried. Just for a moment.
When she came back inside, her face was calm again. She tucked Jojina’s blanket under her chin.
“Yes,” she said. “He is.”
Jojina closed her eyes. Soon her breathing slowed and softened.
Mama Leki looked at the three of them. “You are too quiet. You’re allowed to speak.”
Ayo glanced at the door. “Malanga said Lumani was in the western pits.”
“Lumani has never worked there,” Jabari added.
Mama Leki set the spoon down. “Who else heard?”
“Everyone in our row,” Kofi said.
She sat down beside them. “Then nobody talks about it. Not to anyone. Not even in whispers.”
“But why did he say it?” Jabari asked. “Is Malanga helping us?”
“I do not know what Malanga is doing,” Mama Leki said. “And I do not trust what I do not know.”
“Ayo thinks it might be a trap,” Kofi said.
Mama Leki looked at Ayo. “Smart girl. It might be.” Then her voice softened. “Or it might be something else. We wait and watch.”
“Where do you think Lumani is?” Jabari asked.
“Somewhere safe. Kamau would have made sure of that.”
“Then why has he not come back?”
“Because he is doing what Kamau taught him. Stay hidden until it is safe.” She touched Jabari’s arm. “That boy listens better than you think.”
Jabari let out a breath. “You know how Lumani is. He probably found something strange in the ground, and he is staring at it. Weird eyes, weird stuff.”
“Will they hurt Kamau?” Kofi asked quietly.
Mama Leki was quiet for a long moment. Her eyes went to Kamau’s rolled-up mat.
“Kamau has been in trouble before,” she said. “More times than you know. And every time, he came back and complained about my cooking.”
Jabari almost smiled. “He says it needs more salt.”
“He is wrong,” said Mama Leki. “But I will allow him to say it again when he comes home.”
“When Lumani comes back,” Ayo said, “we act normal. We do not look happy or surprised. We do not say anything where the guards can hear.”
“Right,” Jabari said. “Normal.” He paused. “What if my face gives me away? It has its own ideas sometimes.”
“Cover it with your hand,” Ayo said.
“Good plan. I am not very good at acting normal.”
“We know,” Ayo and Kofi said together.
Mama Leki picked up her spoon again. “Now eat. They will need you strong when they come back.”
This time, they ate.
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