The General (© Biswapriya Purkayastha)
Page 2 "Stop," the General snapped. "I changed my mind. Let’s go up
towards the river and see what fish we find." Back they went, driving up the highway, past the witch
doctor’s house and the small village. A couple of very young naked children
watched them go. Older children were all in one or other of the armies, or
their parents had hidden them or sent them away somewhere. The General sat
erect in his seat, looking around. His heart was beating very fast, and he
suddenly felt sure something was going to happen. They saw the jeep from a long way off, from the dust cloud
it was trailing. The sight of another vehicle was so rare on this stretch that
the General leaned forward. "Drive faster," he said. "Let’s have a look at
who’s in that thing." As the Toyota got closer, the jeep saw them and began to
speed up. Soon it was driving recklessly fast, bouncing into the air. "Keep
going," the General muttered. "Faster." Shona hunched over the wheel, staring
at the road and trying to keep from the larger potholes. Slowly, the pick-up
began to gain. "Faster," urged the general. The end of the chase came suddenly and anticlimactically,
just where the road took a sharp turn before heading down towards the river.
The jeep swerved, going too fast, and went off the road, somersaulting in a
cloud of dust. By the time Shona braked to a stop, the four militiamen in the
back had already begun jumping off, weapons at the ready. "Wait," the General called. Slowly, he opened the door and
got out. "Don’t shoot yet." He walked down to the jeep where it lay, wheels
still spinning. A man lay partly under the capsized vehicle, only his head,
upper torso, and one arm showing. He was moving weakly and moaning. He looked
to be a Sambar, very dark and heavily boned. When he saw the General he held up
his one free hand in front of his face and cried out something in his language. "Why were you fleeing from us?" the General asked, not
caring that he was speaking in Karibu. He kicked the man in the neck. "Tell
me!" The man only moaned and spoke some more gibberish in his barbarous
language. The General grinned. He felt good now, anticipating the
release to come. Moving with excruciating slowness, he opened the flap of the
holster at his hip and drew out the revolver. The sun gleamed on the nickel
plating, and he watched the man’s bloodshot eyes follow the Smith & Wesson
fearfully. He scrabbled frantically with his free hand, trying to scoot under
the jeep. The General laughed and stamped on the hand. The man screamed. "What were you fleeing for?" the General asked, and shot the
man in the face. He waited until the man stopped thrashing and bent for a
moment to inspect his handiwork. There was a large circle of blood spreading
round the ruined head, and he felt great, like a god dispensing justice. He
turned to the men who stood behind him, watching. "Get this turned the right
way up," he said. "I want to see what he was carrying." While his soldiers were at work, the General walked a little
way towards the river. It was nearing the end of the dry season, so the water
level was low and sandbanks stretched out from both banks. By this time next
month, the General thought, if the rains did not fail, the river would have
swollen and the roads would be impassable quagmires. That would be good, he
thought, because there was no fear of attack from the government in Keke as
long as the rainy season lasted. He had turned to go back to the jeep when he saw a movement
out of the corner of his eye. It was only a tiny movement, a trembling of the
long dry grass, but in an instant he took two long strides towards it, the
revolver in his hand. He glimpsed a slim black arm in the grass, reached down,
and pulled savagely. "Out!" The woman was young, surely not yet in her twenties. She
allowed herself to be yanked out into the light, and stood before him,
trembling. Her skin and her crumpled dark green dress were covered with dirt,
and blood was trickling from a gash in one cheek. Her eyes were blank with
shock, and when the General shook her by the arm he held, she swayed back and
forth, as if she would collapse. [ Continue to page 3 ] |