CHAPTER ELEVEN #3
“He will not bother you again,” came a voice from the shadows.
Surprised, I jumped, but I knew the voice.
He spoke in a rich baritone with that beautiful indigenous lilt.
“I am sorry. I did not mean to frighten you.” Jahnu stepped from the darkness.
The large nose ring was missing but his face was still smudged with black charcoal like he had tried to wipe it off and missed some places.
Clay still covered his body—half buried, Sali had said.
“You didn’t frighten me,” I said more forcefully than I meant.
“Mimbeck…he will not bother you again. Many disagreements have we. I am deeply sorry I waited so long to remove him from my council. He is my father’s brother and desires power, but because there is evil in his heart—he has been banned from our village.
” It felt so final, the way he said it, so I wasn’t sure what to say.
It was the most words I had heard the chief speak at one time.
I stood there mute, staring into impossibly black eyes, trying in vain to conjure up some sort of reply from the thoughts racing through my mind, but my mind was muddled.
I felt differently toward Jahnu now that I knew more about his life.
The facts that he grew up without a mother, lost his father and wife in the same year, attended school, was thrust into Hundi leadership—possibly before he was ready—how could I appeal to his humanity to let me go?
How could I phrase my question to get the reply I desired?
“Your dance…it was…nice.” Lame.
Jahnu bowed his head gently in a show of gratitude and then took a step toward me. “I believe we have gotten on wrong feet.”
“What?”
“You and I…we have gotten on wrong feet.”
I looked down at my feet. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.” Maybe I was more drunk than I realized.
“When we met…how do you say…it is American saying.” He grinned sheepishly.
Then realization dawned, “Oh, you mean we got off on the wrong foot…when we met?”
“Yes,” Jahnu bowed his head gently again, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“I” Jahnu said, pressing his hand to his bare, clay-covered chest, “am Jahnu, chief of Hundi.” His name sounded so smooth coming from his lips, almost like a sneeze Achoo. He gestured his hand to me, “and you…”
“Oh, I’m Sidney. Sidney Jones um…nurse for…the Makian tribe.” Double lame. I couldn’t help feeling somewhat intimidated in his presence, but I couldn’t forget my goal and doubled up my assurance by maintaining eye contact.
Such dark eyes.
“Sid-de-nee.” He said it with such concentration that it came out in three syllables. I wanted to correct him, but something told me it would be lost in translation. I just nodded.
An awkward silence fell between us.
“I want to thank you…for saving me today. I didn’t have the chance to say it before.” Another dip of his head in recognition.
He broke our silent stare when he reached into the pouch on his waist and brought out something that looked familiar, yet foreign in this third-world backdrop.
“I believe this is yours.”
“My watch!” I received it from his hand, relieved at its return. But when I pressed the small button on the side, nothing happened. Of course, it would be dead. My excitement dropped, noticeably.
“It’s dead,” I explained.
“Dead?”
“I mean, it needs to be charged.”
Jahnu’s eyes flickered understanding. “We do not yet have electricity here in the highlands.”
I chuckled, “No, I guess not.” With the watch in its place, I was filled with a reassuring sense of comfort just having the weight of it on my wrist again.
“Thank you for giving it back.” Another dip of his head. “Um…my team, the people I’m with at Makia…they will be wondering where I am,” I started slowly. “If you’d send me a guide to show the way, I could be out of your hair by morning.”
Jahnu frowned, then reached up to touch his short cropped hair confused.
“I mean, I wouldn’t be any more trouble to you. I’d like to go back now.”
I watched the gears in his mind turn as he focused on me so intently that I became unsettled.
No one that I’d ever known held eye contact the way he did, and I wanted to look away because it felt awkward and strangely intimate, but I didn’t want to concede weakness, so I stared right back feigning a toughness I didn’t possess.
“You will be returned when I choose.”
I held his gaze as his words sunk in. So, I would be a pawn in his war.
Self-righteous, controlling bastard! You can’t do that!
I demand you take me back this minute! All the things I wanted to say out loud exploded in my mind like glowing sparks from a windswept fire.
My anger fumed until I felt I might shake with the force of it. But I did not look away or say a thing.
If I was to survive my time with the Hundi, I would have to learn to play by their rules. But what could I do until he decided I could return? I was already going crazy.
Without another word Jahnu turned and left me.
I wanted to make my demands at his retreating back, but something told me to take what I was given and be patient. Could I be patient? Could I stay here biding my time without causing trouble? Being amiable had never been my strong suit.
Who did this Hundi chief think he was? Prideful, manipulative, misogynist. He was unpredictable. One minute, a tender rescuer. The next, a conniving manipulator—and apparently in control of what happened to me. At this I seethed inwardly.
Fine. I could play this game, too. I would play this game. And this time, I would win.