Mia Couto - The Tuner of Silences

— Come on, Father. We’ll come back tomorrow to listen to the hymns.

— Tomorrow? So when is tomorrow?

— In just a little while, Father. Come, I’ll bring you back here.

So at the same hour every day for weeks and weeks, I took my father to the church steps, moments before the tuneful voices rose up to the heavens. Every time I tried to withdraw, he would grip me. Silently, and without moving so much as a finger, he wanted to share that instant with me. He was trying to re-create the veranda where we used to lay our silence to rest. Until, one day, I realized that he was murmuring the words of the hymns. Silvestre, even voiceless, was still joining in with the singers. Without anyone else being aware, Vitalício’s words were ascending to the heavens. It was a lowly heaven, lacking in vitality. But it was the beginning of an infinity.

I awoke to the sound of female voices. I peered out of the window. Hundreds of people filled the street and were bringing the traffic to a halt. They were shouting slogans and brandishing placards on which one could read: Stop the violence against women! Among the throngs of people, I caught sight of Zachary Kalash, who was pushing his way towards our house. I opened the door and, without stopping to excuse himself, he pushed his way into the house as if he were seeking shelter.

— What a racket these broads are making! Noci’s there raising hell.

He was wearing his military uniform and dragging a bag and a case along with him. I led him through to the kitchen which had, so to speak, been our room for entertaining visitors ever since our sudden, frenetic arrival.

— Where’s your brother? — he asked me.

Ntunzi had come home less than an hour before, from yet another nightly escapade. He’d gone to bed still fully clothed, reeking of alcohol and cigarette smoke. Ever since his arrival in the city, my brother had hardly set foot in the house. From one night to the next, he hung out with people that Uncle Aproximado classified as “totally undesirable.”

— He’s still sleeping.

— Well, go and call him.

Zachary waited in the kitchen, but didn’t sit down. He kept opening and closing the curtains as if the commotion in the street were disturbing him. “This world’s finished!” I heard him complain. I stumbled about in the darkness of the room, shook Ntunzi and urged him to hurry. I went back to the kitchen and found the soldier helping himself to a beer:

— I’m going back to Jezoosalem. I’ve come to say goodbye.

Everyone had found a place for themselves. I’d rediscovered my childhood house. My father had found a home in madness. Only he, Zachary Kalash, hadn’t found a place in the city.

— Are you going for good, Zaca?

— No. Only until I’ve completed certain duties.

— So what are you going to do in Jezoosalem?

— I’m not going to do anything, I’m going to undo. .

— What do you mean?

— I’m going to blow up the ammunition store, and bury the weapons. .

— You don’t want any more wars, isn’t that it, Zaca?

His face exhibited a sad, enigmatic smile. He seemed afraid of the answer. He ran his finger around the rim of the glass and produced a humming sound.

— D’you know something, Mwanito? I went to war to kill someone —and he waved his arm towards some vague presence.

— Someone?

— Someone inside me.

— And did you kill him?

— No.

— So what now?

— Now it’s too late. That someone has already killed me.

When he was small, the same age as me, he wanted to be a fireman, to rescue people from burning houses. He’d ended up setting fire to houses with people inside. A soldier of so many wars, a soldier without any cause at all. Defend the fatherland? But the fatherland he’d defended had never been his. That’s what the soldier Kalash said, his words tumbling out as if he were in a hurry to finish his intimate revelations.

— You know, Mwanito? Jezoosalem was more of a fatherland to me than any other. But anyway, let bygones be big ones. .

We were interrupted by the arrival of Ntunzi. Red eyed, his hair a mess, still unsteady on his feet from sleep. Zachary didn’t even greet him. He opened his bag and pulled out a rucksack, which he tossed at the new arrival.

— Take that rucksack to your room and pack your kit in it.

— Pack my kit? What for?

— You’re going with me to Jezoosalem.

— Where? — He fired back, laughing out loud, only to then proclaim in all seriousness:

— Don’t so much as think about it, Zachary, I’m not even leaving here dead.

— We’ll only be a few days.

I knew how arguments developed in our little tribe. Aware that tension would soon boil over into conflict, I intervened in an attempt to calm things down:

— Go on, Ntunzi. There’s no problem in keeping Zachary company. It’s just a question of going and coming back again.

— He can go by himself.

Zachary got up to face Ntunzi while at the same time drawing a pistol from a holster hanging from his belt. I stepped back, fearing the worst. But Kalash’s voice had the calm of a will that has been mastered when he spoke:

— Hold this pistol.

My brother looked aghast, as startled as a newborn baby, with his limp hand barely able to sustain the weight of the gun. Kalash took a step back and contemplated Ntunzi’s pathetic demeanour.

— You don’t understand, Ntunzi.

— What don’t I understand?

— You’re going to be a soldier. That’s why I’ve come to fetch you.

Ntunzi let himself collapse onto a chair, his eyes absorbed in nothingness. He sat like this for some time until Zaca Kalash took the pistol and helped him to his feet.

— We already guessed what would happen to you here in the city. I’m not going to let you stay here any longer.

— I’m not going anywhere, you can’t give me orders. I’m going to call my father.

We followed my brother down the hall. The door to the bedroom was flung open, but Silvestre didn’t bat an eyelid at the uproar. The soldier put an end to the argument with a yell.

— I’m ordering you to come with me!

— The only one to give me orders here is my father.

Suddenly, Silvestre raised his arm. Our old man wanted to speak. But all he could do was whisper:

— Get out, all of you. You, Ntunzi, stay here.

Zachary and I withdrew and sat down again at the kitchen table. Zachary opened another bottle of beer and drank, without another word. Outside, the cries of the demonstrators could be heard: “Women: protest, protest!”

— Close the door so that your father can’t hear it.

When he came back to the kitchen, Ntunzi’s spine was curved like a pregnant woman in reverse, such was the weight he seemed to bear, as he came over to me:

— Goodbye, brother.

I hugged him, but my arms were too short for so much bulk. My hands patted the canvas of his rucksack as if it were part of his body. Ntunzi and Zachary walked out of the door and I stood watching my brother recede as if the open road were to be his inescapable fate. They slowly pushed their way through the women demonstrators. As I got a better look at his way of walking, it seemed to me that in spite of his hangover from the previous night, Ntunzi was marching forward with a military step, an exact copy of Zachary’s.