Ben Okri - The Famished Road

‘Kill that dog!’ I shouted.

The dog had an almost human expression of bewilderment on its face. Someone threw astoneatit.Iaimedakickatitsmouth.Thedogfled,howling.MomentslaterI saw the wizard coming down the street. One of his eyes was swollen. He avoided me for the rest of the evening.

Apart from the witches and the wizards, who brought an almost sweet smell of evil to the crowd, there were thugs from both of the main parties as well as some from the lesser organisations. They had come to see what Dad looked like and to pay their respects to the man who had tamed the legendary Green Leopard. The thugs struggled to get to our room, but the crowd was too dense along the passage. So they lolled around the compound-front, flexing their muscles, expanding their chests, and chatting up the women.

Evening fell and more people poured in from all over the place. Boxers turned up in their training shorts, with their boxing gloves on, with towels round their necks. Men with guns and rounds of ammunition also turned up. They were soldiers and policemen, some of them. They strolled proudly into the gathering and chatted with the prostitutes. They, too, had heard of Dad’s feat. They were all ex-ghetto men, who woretheir wretched pastsproudly.They keptaskingforDad,buthewasnowhereto befound.Hewasn’t intheroom,alongthepassage,inthetoilet,oratthecompoundfront.

Then as we were looking for Dad we saw a procession of beggars coming down the road. They wereledby ahypnotically beautifulyounggirl.Therewereaboutsevenor eight of them. Some of the beggars had legs that were limp and pliable as rubber. Some had twisted necks. Others had both feet behind their heads. One of them had one eye much higher up on his face than the other. Another seemed to have three eyes, but on closer inspection it turned out to be a wound like a socket with an eye missing. One was almost completely blind and could see only through pupils so scrambled up and confusing that they seemed like mashed egg yolk. It was when the girl got closer that we saw she was blind in one eye. All the beggars trailed alongthe ground, in filthy clothes, each with sticks and pads of cloth beneath the joints of limbs that scraped on the rough earth. Dust rose with their advance. Then to our puzzlement the beggars, looking up with the bright faces of arrivants, turned into our compound-front. The girl arranged them into a semi-circle. Then I saw that the procession of beggars were a family. The most deformed was the father. He seemed to have all their deformities. As the line went towards the youngest each member seemed to have a peculiar variation of a particular deformity. It ended with the clarity of the little girl’s blind eye. I couldn’t stop looking at the girl. She was extremely beautiful, like a flower whose flaw is its luminous perfection. She was also curiously familiar, like the distant music heard on those afternoons when all the world is resolved into a pure dream, a music without a location, the music of one’s mood and spirit, distilled by a secret affinity. I went over to the beggars and asked who they were.

‘We are from a distant place,’ said the girl, ‘and we heard that a famous boxer was throwing a party for people who are hungry. We have always been hungry and it took us a whole day of travelling to get here.’

I immediately renewed my search for Dad. I found him in the room, surrounded by boxers, all of whom wanted to try their new techniques on him. Dad was in a frantic state. Theroomwasovercrowded.Peoplewerescreaminginterroratthespacesbeing crushed about them. The clothes-line had been pulled down and our clothes lay scattered on the floor and trampled on by mud-covered shoes. The window had been splinteredopenby oneoftheboxerswhowaspractisingasouthpawpunch.Thebed was in complete disarray with children jumping about on it. Our cupboard had been invadedby strangerswhowerehelpingthemselvestoourfood.Therewasnowhereto move in the room. In a corner one of the boxers relentlessly punched the wall with his bare fists. Mum sat where all the clothes had fallen. She had a frightened expression on her face. I couldn’t reach either Mum or Dad. As I fought through it I became conscious that the crowd was actively preventing my entry. I was completely encompassed by witches and wizards. One of them smiled at me and revealed her dazzling white teeth. A tall witch looked down at me. She was very pretty indeed and had an almost royal bearing. Then she got out a pair of glasses and put them on. Her eyes looked monstrous. She laughed. She put her hand on my shoulder. It brushed against my face. Her hand was so cold in that heated place that I came close to fainting with shock. The witches and wizards closed in on me. I felt myself suffocating. Their smells were so sweet, so without sweat, it made me ill. The one with the swollen eye brought out a black sack. I screamed. When I stopped screaming they weren’t around me any more. I found myself surrounded instead by thugs. One of them slapped my head.

‘What’s wrongwith you?’ hesaid.

I made a new effort to get to Dad. I called to him. At the other side of the room I could hear him telling everyone to leave, that the party would be held at the housefront. No one listened. He spoke louder and said he wouldn’t serve any drinks or food if people didn’t leave the room. Gradually they pushed their way out. They were rowdy inthepassage,mutteringtheirdisappointments.OnlyMadameKoto,someof the prostitutes, Ade and his family, and the blind old man remained.

‘What are we going to do?’ asked Dad.

‘Youinvitedthem,’Mumsaid.‘Why areyouaskingus?’

‘I didn’t invite the whole planet!’ Dad said.

‘What’s the problem?’ Madame Koto asked.

‘Not enough drinks, plates, chicken, chairs.’

‘What do you have?’ said the blind old man.

‘Too many people.’

I went up to Dad and told him that some beggars had come to see him. I told him they’dbeentravellingforawholeday andwerehungry.

‘You mean beggars came to see me, eh?’

‘Yes.’

‘And they travelled for seven days?’

‘One day.’

‘And they are outside?’

‘Yes.’

‘Come and show them to me,’ Dad said, staggering.

Then I realised he was very drunk. We left the room. Outside, it was crowded. Dad mingled with the soldiers, his fellow load-carriers, cart-pullers, and boxers. He became very exuberant and talked about political miracles. By the time we got to the housefront, I had lost him. A group of thugs descended on him and they got very animated about some issue. I went over to the beggars. The old man began to sing. The girl stared at me with her sad hungry eye. All around there was chaos, People werestrugglingfor thefoldingchairs. Boxers began sparring. Witches and herbalists convergedandheatedargumentsgrewfromtheirconflictingphilosophies.They had furious rows about the superiorities of their powers and their way, the values of their accomplishments, the extent of their influence in the visible and invisible worlds. One of the herbalists brought out a red pouch, waved it about, and threw it on the ground. A cloud of green smoke rose in the air and hung over the gathering. Another herbalist brought out a bundle wrapped in silver foil, screamed incantations, and threw the bundle in the air. The green cloud dispersed. The soldiers crowded the prostitutes. Madame Koto came out of the room and ordered one of her women to call her driver, whohadbeenseendrivingup anddowntheplace,terrifyingwomen,drunkenly threateningpeoplewho crossed thestreet, blastinghis horn, and shoutinginsults at thosewho moved too slowly. Thethugs crowded MadameKoto and sangher praises. Dad got on to the cement platform and attempted to make a speech. He was very drunk and he weaved about, a bottle in his hand.

‘There is food for everybody!’ he shouted. ‘There are drinks for everybody! Madame Koto has made a generous contribution.’