Oware Mosaic by Nzondi

Author:Nzondi [Nzondi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Omnium Gatherum Media
Published: 2019-09-20T07:00:00+00:00

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I disengaged the game and opened my eyes, but there was nothing but darkness. My body was dripping wet. There was a sound that was as familiar as the crashing of beads draping over my shoulders during the initiation ceremony of Dipo. It was a something burning, and flooding around that sound was waterfall crashing into a watering hole.

Where am I?

Raging waters splashed into a watering hole less than a meter away from me. Something raged like the wind ripping through bed sheets hanging on Auntie Yajna’s clothesline in our backyard. The odor of oil amidst the thick smoke in the air led me to believe it was a vehicle on fire.

How did I get here?

Sniffing, I caught the faint scent of a human, female. There was a hint of feminine deodorant. For a few intolerable seconds, I couldn’t remember my name. My pulse thumped hard in my neck. Blinking, I sat up. My head was also on fire, pure agony. I blinked again, in desperation, reaching around my surroundings blindly.

Am I blind?

I grasped the earth, and let the dirt slip through my fingers. Anxiety seemed to be the only thing that was tangible. Taking slow, calming breaths, I stood, tasting human blood on my tongue. I retched, my stomach protesting in violent convulsion. The nearby flames bathed my skin in warmth. I lifted my hands and did not see them.

Why can’t I see?

I climbed to my feet and tripped over something. After regaining my balance, I reached down and felt for what tripped me up and realized it was a body. The person was still breathing.

Who is this?

Taking a cautious, still perplexed step forward, a faint noise swelled from the distance, growing louder with each passing moment. At first, it was an eerie clicking sound, similar to a door creaking or…a strange bird call, perhaps. This is my neural implant. The game construct is malfunctioning.

The more the sound grew, the more it pierced my ears until it became unbearable. The only way to describe the sound was to say that whatever it was, it was screaming, as if in deep agony, bringing with it a sound like magazine pages flapping in the wind.

Birds! I can see them! Birds! But…this is not real. I’m experiencing a literal virtual illusion, a conundrum to the tenth power. A waterfall? Are those birds singing? Insects buzzed over my head, and small critters crept and crackled softly over leaves. Am I in the woods?

I wasn’t in the game anymore, I knew that. I was in real life mode. Somehow, in my mind, a world materialized. Even though I was blind. I knew it wasn’t the House of Oware game, but something else. Something quite different.

I believed that my neural implant executed an override of my optical nerves once signals went to my brain, communicating my blindness.

I had no idea something like that was programmed in my mind. Was it a form of neurological appeasement? A way for me to cope until my sight came back? Would it come back?

I stood in a rainforest.

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