Ben Okri - The Famished Road

Dad looked very powerful. His shoulders were big and moulded like rock-shapes. His neck was thick. I had never noticed that his jaws were so square and his forehead so large. His nose was bigger than I remembered and he had a bristly growth of beard. His muscles rippled impressively. His transformation surprised me.

He was very restless and he kept moving, kept throwingleft and right hooks in the air. He was oblivious of us. We watched him intently. He looked rough and wild. Eventually he sat down again and shut his eyes. Then he jerked his head up, and looked around.

The candle-light made his face fierce. To the ceiling he said:

‘I carried loads today till I thought my neck and my back and my soul would break. Then I threw down the load and said:

“Never again!” But I earned nothing, and I have a family to feed, and I carried the load and said: “There must be another way of earning money,” and I thought, “I will join the army,” and then later I saw Aku, our relative, and I borrowed some money from him.’

He was silent again and he shut his eyes.

‘How is Aku?’ ‘Fine.’

‘And his wife?’ ‘Well.’

‘Did you see their children?’

‘No.’

Then Dad raised his feet, to rest them as usual on the centre table. His feet hung in the air.

‘What happenedtothetable?’heasked,openinghiseyes,hisfeetstillintheair.‘It was here when I came in.’

He dropped his feet and began to look for the centre table. He looked around the room, under the bed, behind the cupboard. He went outside and came back in again. We were silent.

‘Where is the table?’

Wesaid nothing. Heglared atmeandthenatMumasifwehadbeenplayingtricks on him.

‘Where is it? Did it walk away? Did you people hide it? Did you sell it to buy food? Was it stolen? What happened to it, eh?’

He got agitated. His muscles rippled restlessly on his chest, his jaws worked furiously. Our silence angered him even further and Mum was forced to tell him what had happened. Then Dad truly went wild. He growled like an enraged lion, drew himself up to his fullest titanic height, stormed out of the room, and began raging down the passage so loudly that it seemed as though thunder had descended amongst us.

He woke up the whole compound with his fury. He banged on the doors of the creditors and strode up and down the passage demanding back his property that the creditors had stolen from him. The children woke up and began crying. Lights came on in the rooms and one by one people appeared at their doors with startled expressions on their faces. Some of the men had machetes and one man had a dane gun. The women went around saying:

‘What has happened?’

Their husbands called them back harshly. Dad went on raging, accusing the creditors of robbinghimof his entireproperty. Oneof themcameout and said:

‘I didn’t take anything. I said I would wait for you to get back.’

‘Who stole my furniture, then?’

The creditor stuttered and said:

‘I didn’t take anything.’

Dad counted out some money, gave it to him, and went on mounting his towering campaign against the other two.

‘They are hiding now behind their wives’ wrappers and yet in broad daylight they THREATENED my WIFE and SON and STOLE ALL MY THINGS! They are RATS COWARDS THIEVES AND ROGUES. Let them come out and DENY it!’

When thecompound peopleunderstoodwhatwasgoingonthey wentbacktotheir rooms. The lights went out one by one. Only the two eldest tenants came out to try and settle matters. Dad didn’t listen to them and went on shouting. One or two men, hidden in the darkness of their rooms, said:

‘It’s Black Tyger. He’s drunk.’

‘Yes, I’m drunk,’ Dad said loudly. ‘But it doesn’t stop me cursing the armed robbers.’

He went on to demand that the creditors return his furniture to his room immediately or he would break down their doors and burn down the house.

‘He’s mad,’ someone said.

‘Yes, I’m mad! I am a mad Tyger and I will burn everything down if those armed robbers don’t return my things NOW!’

The two elders made another attempt at conciliation. Then they tried to hold him down. Dad tossed them off and went on raging like a dangerous animal.

Somewhere in the compound a husband and wife began quarrelling. After a while a door opened and oneofthecreditorscameouttimidly,carryingthecentretable.With his head hung low, he crept to our room and Dad’s voice raged over him in utter scorn. The creditor dropped the centre table outside our door and was creepingback to his room when Dad blocked his way and said:

‘Is that where you found it, eh, you thief!’

‘I’m not a thief. You owe me money.’

‘Is that where you found it?’

The creditor turned back and picked up the table. I was about to open the door for him but Dad shouted:

‘Don’t open the door for that COWARD!’

So the creditor dropped the table, opened the door, went in with the table, and came out again.

‘What about my money?’ he asked in a low voice, as he passed Dad.

There was a brief silence. Then Dad threw his money on the floor.

‘There’s your money, coward.’

The creditor looked from the money on the floor to Dad who towered over him. Then he bent down and picked up the money.

‘Money will kill you,’ Dad said. ‘You drank of my beer, ate of my food, and because of a small amount of money you behave like a rat?’

The creditor scurried off to his room and locked his door. The noise of him quarrelling with his wife continued. After some time their lights went out.

Dad stood sheepishly in the middle of the passage, a little diminished for lack of confrontation. He was returning to our room when the other creditor came creeping out with the pair of boots.

‘Youtoo!’Dadcried,resuminghischargedstate.‘Soyoustolemy boots!’

The third creditor ran to our room, dropped the boots, and came out. Dad stood in front of him, feet solidly planted. There was silence. The cocks crowed. Then Dad threw his money on the floor, and the third creditor picked it up without any fuss and hurried back to his room and locked his door.

Dad stood,feetplantedsolidly onthefloor,waitingforfurtherprovocation.Hehad started moving when a woman from the room of the third creditor said:

‘If you’re so powerful, why don’t you join the army!’

‘If I jointhearmy,’saidDad,whirlinground,‘yourhusbandwillbethefirstperson I will shoot.’

I trembled.

No one else ventured to say anything. Dad waited for someone to speak. The wind swept harder through the passage. The mosquitoes fell on him. The silence deepened and the darkness became indistinguishable from the different rooms. A child started crying. Someone smacked it and it cried even louder. Other babies woke and cried and then one by one the crying ceased and the compound fell asleep. Dad came back in.

He sat on his chair. His boots stood in their proper place except that the third creditor had mischievously displayed his socks so that the holes were visible. The centre table was slightly out of place and I put it in its proper position. Dad rested his feet on the table. Then he lit a cigarette.

Mum had been sitting on the bed, her face stony, her eyes deep, her hands on her head as though shewerewitnessingthebeginnings of atragedy.

Dad’s feet stank and I noticed that his oneshoewas fallingapart.

‘No food?’ he asked, in a gentle voice.

Mum passed his food. Dad washed his hands, beckoned us to join him, and ate. I didn’t feel hungry any more and neither did Mum. Dad ate alone. He had a wonderful appetite and when he finished there were only cracked bones left on the plates. Then my hunger returned and I regretted not eating with him.