Reading the Ceiling by Dayo Forster

Author:Dayo Forster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dean Street Press
Published: 2016-03-29T04:00:00+00:00

I climb in, but there is nowhere obvious to sit. I start to sit in the middle.

‘No, move up a little, nearer the front. You can sit on this.’ He throws a pile of fishnet, still damp, into the inch of water lying on the bottom of the boat.

He lifts up a long pole which he tucks into the pirogue. The boys exchange a few words as they push the boat into the water. The back dips lower once it is free of the mud, and a bit of brown river water sloshes in.

My navigator clambers in and the boat tries to right itself. My arms lift of their own accord, trying to balance me. The boys laugh.

‘A short ride only. Maybe to that tree over there?’

I point to where I can see a gnarled neem tree further up the river bank, where the river starts a gentle loop.

He sticks the pole into the mud, pushing hard. His ebony-covered muscles strain with the effort.

‘We live quite close to here.’ He nods in the general direction of the river as it flows down from Segou. ‘What about you?’

‘That way.’ I point in the opposite direction, as the river flows towards Kayes and the border with Senegal. ‘My office is near there – I work to help governments sell the things we grow in West Africa at a good price abroad.’

‘Like cotton?’

‘Yes.’

‘You should have come when my father was alive.’

We both pause to watch a fish eagle swoop low and pluck a piece of wriggling silver from the river.

‘What did you do after he died?’ I ask.

‘We came here, to our aunt in Bamako, after we used up all our maize. This was in the drought.’

‘Did your mother come with you?’

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