The Vehicle Of The Living, Part One

16. Academic internship

With the rainy season on its way, it was almost time to go back to school. In Congo's capital, average temperatures had not stopped climbing for almost two decades, due to an incessant rural exodus and anti-environmental construction methods, meeting only urbanization for survival standards, namely, a city's urbanization plan that is not based on long-term development, but rather dictated by demographic pressure. Gradually, with the help of her family, Liza recovered from her tumultuous trip to the country's interior. Mutis and his whole family went to Morocco temporarily, to escape the growing tensions in Bakunga. As for Kalo, Kaba's friend who had served as their guide during the excursion to Babowa, he was nowhere to be found. Liza thought Minister Eric Mukendi would contact her before she returned to Tanganyika, but this was not the case. During the final two weeks she had left in the capital, she waited in vain for a sign from her mysterious protectors. On the morning of her trip, her father had some very encouraging words for her, as he reminded her how proud her mother would have been of the woman she had become.

The young woman landed in the capital of Tanganyika after a six-hour flight that had made a stop in Kigali, Rwanda. Her friend Dendu picked her up at the airport, then drove her to her student residence. He seemed very happy to see her again when she arrived. Their friendship had survived many storms before, but it still wasn't stable.

One of four siblings, the only son of a senior port manager in Dar es Salaam and the Governor of the Central Bank of Malawi's sister, Dendu Jonathan Makundi was rich, but not a spoiled child, although he inevitably led a comfortable life. Ever since he was very young, his parents had been preparing their only male heir to take over. He was sincerely generous and kind, which effectively overshadowed his character of a rich kid. A tad plump for his one meter eighty frame, metrosexual, and attractive to a multitude of women, loyalty in love was out of reach for him, but he tried to be sincere, at the very least. It was this last trait that made his friendship with Liza possible. In return, Dendu found in the young Congolese woman a person who was uninterested in his family's assets, someone who truly knew him and liked him for what he was deep down inside.

On the road, Liza answered his questions succinctly, and he could tell something was wrong. It was early evening when they got to their destination.

"Are you sure everything's okay, Liza?" he asked her.

"It was nice of you to come pick me up at the airport," she replied in a detached tone.

"Please, tell me what's wrong," he said.

"Were you behind the burglary of my room last year?" she asked, not pulling any punches.

"How can you think that?" he asked, clearly hurt that she would imagine such a thing.

"There's no point in lying, Dendu!" she said, getting angry.

"Who told you that? It's completely absurd. Come on!"

"If you could do that to me, I think we'd be better off terminating our friendship," she retorted coldly.

"I really don't know what you're talking about," he protested.

"Thank you again for picking me up at the airport," she said sincerely. "You can go home now; I can bring my things up on my own. And I think it'd be best if our paths never crossed again."

"You're accusing me of a crime I didn't commit, Liza. What's more, you've been acting very strangely since you got back," he lashed out.

"Goodbye, Dendu," she finally said, ending the conversation. "Be careful on your way home."

When she was alone in her dorm room, she pulled Tehla out of the bottle for the first time since her return. The object had lost none of its splendor. The sight of it gave her the comfort she needed, rekindling in her the feeling that no danger was great enough to hold her back in her search for the truth about Tehla. She was suddenly angry with herself for having forgotten, during the difficult times she had just gone through in Congo, how much her life had been transformed and how much more alive she had become since the first moment she had seen this object.

The young woman knew she had no choice but to wait to be contacted again. She could neither return to Bakunga nor attempt to contact Minister Mukendi. However, an entire year passed without anything major happening. Dendu, meanwhile, had resigned himself to accepting the end of their friendship, without acknowledging any wrongdoing.

It was time for Liza to decide whether she was going to continue studying in Tanganyika or not. Her father was discouraging her from returning to seek employment in their country, insisting that she continue her studies elsewhere on the continent or beyond it. It was during this period of time that she received an envelope containing an invitation to attend a training workshop in the Seychelles. This would constitute an academic internship for her, taking place over summer break in a country she had never thought of visiting. The idea delighted her markedly. But when she realized that no one else at her institution had received such an invitation, doubt crossed her mind. Was this the signal from her "protectors," for which she had been waiting for over a year? Perplexed, she nevertheless decided to visit the consulate of the Republic of Seychelles in order to figure out what was going on. There, she was introduced to an agent named Ernesto, who was expecting her.

In his forties, consulate officer Ernesto looked familiar to Liza, even though this was the very first time they'd met. He said he was honored by the young woman's presence, then explained that the suggestion for the training she had been invited to take part in had come from the University of Seychelles, and that only one student had been selected, for the whole continent. He praised the merits of the program and the significant experience she would gain from it. After the exchange, he offered to accompany her to the consulate's exit.

"In three days, your travel documents will be sent directly to you, like the invitation was. So, you won't need to come back here," he explained to her.

"I am already delighted to be participating in this workshop. Thank you," she replied politely.

"I'm the one who should be thanking you for agreeing to participate, Liza," he said, smiling. "Please dispose of the invitation the same way you did the message in the envelope Eric gave you in Bakunga," he slipped in, lowering his voice. "Have a good trip and an excellent stay in the Seychelles."

"Understood. I'll make it disappear and won't tell anyone about it. And if you can, say hello for me to the messenger from Bakunga," she said, quite pleased.

Hearing his allusion to Eric Mukendi, Liza realized that, for several years now, surely, she had been followed by an organization that he belonged to. There was no longer any doubt at this point. It was obvious that this had something to do with Tehla, but she was having a hard time understanding her own role in this story.