The Rising - Ennead 2

Scene 12.2 - Through the Looking Glass

Trip was an animal! The world had turned into a jungle, and he was the predator.

I don't like to get my assumptions shattered. This was beyond that. Even now I still feel like I'm dreaming.

I saw... I mean... sh*t! my memory is messed up right now. Why is it so easy to block things out?

Before I continue, maybe it's better if I tell you how I fell into the middle of supernatural Vietnam.

K wasn't really talking to me when we got to the remote rural community. The one he was taking his guests to on that weekend trip. I mean, he was actually getting along with Kuuku, if you can believe that. Perhaps it wasn't totally about me, I got this sense that he was distracted.

The tall, grumpy, white guy claimed he was some sort of human anthropologist. At the very least he talked like he was. He went up there to some research or something. Of course the villagers bought it easier than I did. You know how our people tend to trust something when it's a white man saying it.

I don't know what sort of questions he was asking. It really wasn't something I was interested in. Apparently, these people in the community had migrated from the capital city years ago. Beyond that, they had stories of the migration from wherever the Ga peoples came from. Most of that would probably have been tall tales, but hey, I wasn't the anthropologist was I?

Anthropologist guy needed help from Kwame and Kuuku. I was an extra wheel, so I went looking for something to do. Trip tagged along, of course. He couldn't speak a word of any of our local dialects, and he was drawing enough attention to make him uncomfortable with standing around aimlessly.

I actually felt a bit sorry for the kid. He was genuinely nice. It made no sense when I thought about it. What was his part in this whole research story thing?

The anthropologist muddled things up further when he said, "Not too far Mr. Astor, ya? We might need your assistance."

"Sure. No problem. My cell is on me you know?"

"I've seen things boy. Just trust me."

Trip shrugged it off, but that surname had set my mind-gears spinning. As we wandered off towards the communal hand pump. I started to dig.

"Astor isn't a common surname is it?"

He shrugged and grinned, "Isn't it?"

I bet he had used those good looks and that boyish grin to throw the blinder on a lot of girls. I wasn't so weak.

"You said you're from where again?"

"Nowhere major. Virginia, but my people mostly came in from New York and New England. We tend to stick where we're needed."

"Needed? Are you guys so indispensable?"

"You wouldn't understand," he shrugged, "our lives are a bit more complicated than they look."

"Oh yeah? and how do they look?"

"Privileged. Spoilt. I don't know. You wouldn't think any differently. I'm pretty sure."

By now I had spotted the family resemblance. He was taking childish joy in working the pump handle when I asked, "Anyone worth half a billion dollars is bound to be little bit spoilt. Don't you think so?"

He threw his hands up in mock surrender. "So now you're putting me on trial too?"

I wasn't putting him on trial. I admit he didn't look like what I'd expect. That said, I couldn't help judging him a little bit.

"It's actually closer to a billion now, last I heard." He remarked off-handed before he started strolling towards the patchy dirt-and-grass of the village school's football pitch.

"One billion dollars," I tried to be as blasé as he had "that's not so much money."

That irritating shrug and grin again, "Isn't it silly to value a person with money? One of my best soldiers isn't even worth..."

He paused and made it awkward, so I tried to make a joke of it.

"Soldier? So you're a warlord now?"

His brows crinkled into a furrow for barely a moment before he coughed out a laugh. "A friend, is what I mean. His name is Carlos. He's actually earned his stuff. Georgetown don't give scholarships to just anyone."

He continued, more to himself than to me, "What do I even earn? An elite private school paid for and an internship with a senator bought with my family name..."

"Oh boo hoo," I snarked, "I feel your pain so bad!"

He laughed again. A genuine one this time.

"You're more caustic than you look at first glance Ewuresi"

I winced when he mangled my name. At least he tried.

A voice called out to us from the school.

"A little help here?"

It was an old man, bald and pruny. He stood upright, like an ex serviceman. The deadly look in his eyes was blunted by the comic way he had belted his grey trousers so high. His oversized shirt, paled with repeated washing, had 'short sleeves' that went almost up to his wrists.

It wasn't my town, but he was an elder, so I pulled the prince along to help the old man carry a blackboard. He was moving it from under a shed into a classroom with an actual roof.

The old man grunted out a barely audible 'thank you' when Trip and I were done and then he went, "Must be good to be young eh? What are you two visitors doing here?"

He claimed to be the headmaster of the tiny school. Like I said before. I know how to respect my elders, and I tried my best as I spoke. There was just something about him that seemed to be... disapproving or something.

"You want me to believe that?" he asked when I was done. "The white boy doesn't look like he's even done a day of real work in his life."

"That's a bit unfair," Trip sulked, still genial "I sometimes to wake up and have to do things that I don't want to."

The old man harrumphed as he locked the classroom door. He had to give the door a sharp pull and lift before the key turned.

He looked directly at us for the first time. Well, more at Trip than me.

"Don't you ever get tired of keeping that up Mr. Astor?"

I didn't have time to ask how he knew my companion's surname. That was when the screams started.

Author's Note
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