0374129231 by Mia Couto

Author:Mia Couto
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780374710958
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Hunter’s Diary

FOUR

Rituals and Ambushes

Where men can be gods, animals can be men.

—THE WRITER’S NOTEBOOKS

Hanifa comes to call me in the middle of the night. She is so terrified that I rush off after her without changing clothes. With a long nightgown hiding my knees, I look like a clumsy ghost.

The lions have reached my house.

They’d been prowling around the village ever since nightfall. Hanifa had heard them in the distance.

I didn’t hear anything, I confess.

The woman has no doubts. There are three of them and they’re making for the village. We wouldn’t hear them again. The closer they get, the more careful they become. I pick up my gun and step out into the garden, gauging the darkness and the silence. Hanifa follows me. The writer, gripped by terror, brings up the rear. In no time at all, we are standing in the Mpepes’ yard.

Don’t switch on your flashlight, sir, the woman whispers to the writer.

So how am I going to see where I’m going? Gustavo asks.

Be quiet, the pair of you! And you, Hanifa, go and get Genito immediately! I order.

He’s sleeping.

Suddenly Hanifa points at some bushes which are stirring and urges me:

Fire, it’s the lions! Fire!

My forefinger on the trigger grows taut. In the arch of bone and nerve lies the decision of the gods: whether or not to extinguish a life in a bolt of lightning. But in this case, my quivering finger hesitates. It’s a lucky delay: A figure emerges from the shadows, hands raised like a drunken scarecrow.

Don’t shoot, it’s me, Genito!

The tracker had gone to buy some liquor in the nearby village. He raises the bottle as proof.

Now go inside, Hanifa. You know I don’t want you out here at night.

Your wife went to call us, the writer explains, because she seemed to think there were lions in the neighborhood.

The tracker looks at the bush from which he has just emerged. He shakes his head, raises the bottle to his lips, and takes a generous swig. He makes sure his wife has gone back into the house. He sits down on the ground and invites us to drink with him. Neither of us accepts. We stand there looking at the stars until Genito breaks the silence.

Hanifa knew it was me. She knew I was on my way home.

I don’t understand, says Gustavo.

Do you know what happened here? It was an ambush. Hanifa wants to kill me.

Don’t be so absurd …

She thinks I’m guilty of terrible things.

What things?

Our things. You know something? There’s no law here, no government, and even God only visits us occasionally.

* * *

When I get back to my room, I remove the cartridges from the chamber of my rifle and repeatedly press the trigger. I’m still trembling slightly, but in general my body obeys me immediately. As always, I take time to reconcile myself to sleep. Staring fixedly at the ceiling, I once again picture my last visit to the psychiatric hospital. I can’t get Roland’s farewell out of my mind—his long hands gain wings and flutter blindly around the room.

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