Beneath the Darkening Sky by Majok Tulba

Author:Majok Tulba [Tulba, Majok]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780742427
Publisher: Oneworld Publications

With so many of the soldiers away, I’m on duty as a lookout with two new recruits. We walk in the jungle and watch out for enemy spies. If we found them we’d run for help – we still only have our dummy guns, not real ones.

The three of us are the fastest runners in the camp. But we cannot run faster than bullets. I don’t know why they send us out with no guns but we are not allowed to ask. We only say, ‘Yes sir.’

So we walk in the dark jungle. As we walk, all I hear are scary noises.

Even among the trees the sun is hot and there’s no water. We walk for ages before we come to a little stream in the bushes. The stream isn’t really a stream. It’s more like a hole in the ground. We use a small broken bowl to scoop the water into our canteen and then wait for the hole to fill up again. It takes forever. I hear birds chirp and monkeys hoot. Clouds of pure-white butterflies flutter through the damp air. I keep my eyes on the lookout in the underbrush. I like coming to the jungle when I’m with Priest because he has a real gun.

After we have drunk our fill, we sit. I am tired from the hot day, and from the late nights playing to the Captain and Christmas. I just want to rest for a while.

I hear soft cracking sounds. I open one eye but see nothing. Maybe it’s a bird. I go back to sleep. Before I realise that’s what I’m doing – sleeping – someone kicks me in the side and another throws something at me. It feels like a rock, it slashes my calf, it must be a machete. I scream and roll on the ground. I try to look up but the kicks and beatings come from everywhere.

Have we been captured by the enemy?

‘Please let me go!’ I yell.

The other two boys are getting beaten too. I can hear them cry and yell. I see boots, many boots caked in red mud, marching towards me, circling me, attacking me. I have no strength left. I can’t find my voice. I can’t get up. I can’t fight back. I’m on fire, I’m burning.

‘God help me!’ I cry.

The beating stops. Maybe Priest is right, maybe God has heard my prayers.

‘Yeah, God has heard your prayers,’ a voice says.

I know that voice. I roll over on my back and open my eyes.

Akot and the Mobile Force stand up high and proud. He carries the longest stick. They giggle and smile at me and my two comrades. My own brother has beaten me while I lay asleep.

‘Sleeping on duty?’ he asks in a cold voice. ‘Or were you guys trying to run away?’

‘Definitely running away, this is not even the side they were supposed to guard,’ answers one of the Mobile Force.

‘You guys are dead,’ Akot says.

My heart aches.

‘Akot, you’re my brother,’ I yell. My voice is dry and wants to cry.

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