Ngũgĩ Thiong - Wizard of the Crow

But the tellers of the uncanny event did not give up and went as far as to insist that the All Saints Cathedral was not the only shrine of worship where the drama had occurred. It is said that the Buler did thereafter attend a few other services in other churches with similar results: in all cases at least one glass window was shattered into seven pieces by whatever force the cross-and-Bible-wielding priests had driven out. That is why, so they say, the Buler of Aburlria suddenly announced, without clarification, that to demonstrate his belief in the equality of all faiths he would now also connect with Islam, and out of modesty and deference to the Islamic hatred of images no cameras would be allowed to follow him.

The idea was to stage this at Islamic mosques, Sunni, Shiite, or Wahabi; then at Indian temples, Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain; and Sikh gurdwaras; and end up in Jewish synagogues, with the hope that these spontaneous appearances would wipe out images of what had happened at All Saints and other churches.

For his first visit to an Islamic shrine, he ordered his handlers to look for a mosque without glass windows. After scouting around Eldares, they managed to find a mosque with a beautiful dome and minarets but, more important, with windows of wood and iron bars.

An even bigger drama ensued, but since it was not captured on film once more we have to rely on hearsay that when the imam in charge of the day’s ceremony realized, on the Buler s entry, that something was not right, he quickly raised the Quran in midair and called out in Arabic:

Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar

Ash-hadu an la-Ilaha ill-Llah

Ash-hadu anna Muhatntnadar-r-

Rasuwlu-Llah

Hayya ala-swalaah

Hayya alal Fataah

Allahu Akbar

La-Ilaha illa-Llah…

Those in attendance say they felt something like wind whirl through the air and the next minute they heard the iron bars of one of the windows creak and then saw some of them bend outward as if someone were pushing the bars to set himself free. Brandishing the Quran and the rosary at the window, the imam shouted something like Satan, and lo and behold the creaking stopped abruptly and the only sound was the imam calling out, Allahu Akbar. There are some who, like the biblical Thomas, doubt everything about this tale, but even they are unable to explain how the iron bars came to be so bent; for it is said that the mosque’s ruling council, after much internal debate, decided that they would not repair the window but let it stay like that, a witness to the victory of the Holy Quran over the wiles of Satan, even when disguised in the modern fineries of earthly glory.

The entire program of spontaneous appearances at places of worship was scrapped quietly, and a devilless normal order of worship was restored to these religious shrines. Some city dwellers put up posters: ELDARES IS A DEVIL-FREE ZONE.

It was not, for soon they found that the Satanic daemons had escaped the churches and the mosques to roam the land, for how else were people to explain two amazing reports that soon began to circulate in Eldares? The first was comic, claiming that Satan visited Maritha and Mariko in their home at Santalucia just to pick a fight.

The scarier second, beyond the realm of religion, told of Satan going about the towns and villages plucking out people’s hearts, leaving their bodies as empty shells on roadsides and dumpsites.

But there were a few people who argued that the two, Satan’s picking a fight with Maritha and Mariko and Satan’s plucking out people’s hearts, were connected, a clear case of Satan’s showing that though he had lost some battles he had not lost the war. But why pick a fight with an elderly coupler

Maritha and Mariko, wife and husband, were well known in Santalu-cia because they were always in each other’s company, going to market and shops or attending wakes, funerals, and weddings. If one or the other was spotted alone, people knew-and they were hardly ever proven wrong-that the other one was not far away.

Their cat, black except for a white patch on its forehead, sometimes followed them, and when once it came to church children adapted a familiar song:

Mari had a little cat,

Little cat, little cat

Mari had a little cat

With a skin as black as soot

And wherever Mari went,

Mari went, Man went

And wherever Man went

The cat was sure to go

It followed Mart to church one day…

Maritha and Mariko were faithful members of the All Saints. They dusted pews and windows and arranged flowers. When the cathedral started a program of feeding the homeless and sheltering them in the basement on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, Maritha and Mariko volunteered to minister to the needy wayfarers. They even fed doves and other birds nesting on the roof of the cathedral.

Maritha and Mariko were as twins. Many were the times when one would complete a sentence begun by the other. They were in their sixties, their bodies had held remarkably well, and their children, now young men and women, were secure in their different jobs. All in all, Maritha and Mariko were without a blemish, and they seemed a model for a wholesome marriage and family life.

That may explain why the entire church community was so shocked when one Sunday, not many months after the event involving the Ruler and the broken glass at All Saints, Maritha and Mariko stood before the congregation and confessed that they were tormented by an irresistible lust for other people’s flesh. In keeping with how they always did things, they told their story as if reading from the same book.

“Even walking in the streets is becoming a torture,” Mariko said.

“There is not a single night we have not prayed that this burden be lifted, but our prayers have not yet been answered,” added Maritha.

“Our own bodies no longer call out to each other, but other people’s make ours burn with desire.”

“As if Satan is beckoning us to leave the path of righteousness to break some of the Ten Commandments…”

“… which say,” they intoned together as in a chorus, “Thou shall not commit adultery and Thou shall not lust after another person’s property. “

“So far, the lust has remained in our eyes only” Maritha explained.

“But even that is a sin,” Mariko hastened to add, as if to quell any doubts the audience might harbor about how seriously he and Maritha took these temptations.

The congregation prayed that the couple be made strong and the Satan of Lust be crushed. After the service was over, Bishop Tireless Kanogori, a fellow brother in Christ, had a heart-to-heart talk with them and told them to remain steadfast, that they should remember that when Christ was once alone in the wilderness, hungry, thirsty, tired, Satan chose that very moment to tempt him for forty days and nights, and Jesus wrestled with numerous desires but remained steadfast in his courage and righteousness and in the end defeated Satan; and it was this great struggle with the Temptor that prepared Christ to assume his role as the redeemer of all the sinful. Consider, then, he went on, how lucky you are that you are not alone with Satan for forty nights and days in a wilderness full of howling winds and wild animals, that you are still there for each other in your own home in Santalucia, and we are all around you, shouting at the Temp-tor: Shame on you, Satan! And the trio broke into a hymn:

His evil Angels will come

And Satan himself will come

But my soul is armed with faith

I will knock him down