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The Salt in Her Wounds · KofiTable - Mystery Box stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Namusa's fingers were still wrinkled from the water when she
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: pressed them against the rock face, feeling for the handholds
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: that would take her up and away from the pool.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: The mountain was cold against her palms, indifferent. Behind her,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Thabo and Mazulu climbed in silence, their breath misting in
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the dawn air. No one spoke. The only sounds were
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: the scrape of boots on stone and the distant call
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: of a bird that didn't care about the war beneath
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the water. At the ridge, Nomusa stopped. The sun had
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: fully cleared the peaks now, spilling gold across the valley below.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: From up here, the world looked simple. Grasslands, rock, sky.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: No sign of the hunger that had been eating this
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: land for a thousand years. No sign of her mother.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: still singing at the bottom of that pool. But Nomusa
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: felt the cold in her bones, a chill that had
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with the mountain air. She wrapped her
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: arms around herself and stared at the water far below,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a dark eye in the face of the mountain. We
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: need to move, Thabo said. His voice was hoarse. He
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: hadn't slept. None of them had. Before the others come looking,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Nomusa turned to face him. His eyes were still red-rimmed,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: his jaw tight. She remembered the way he'd held her
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: when she broke the surface, the way his arms had shaken.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: He'd thought she was dead. He'd thought he'd lost her.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: The memory of his panic was a raw, tender thing
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: between them now. You should have let me stay under,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: she said quietly. I could have reached her. No. Thabo's
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: voice cracked. You couldn't. and I wasn't going to watch
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: you drown trying. He took a step closer, his hands
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: clenched at his sides. You don't get to do that
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: to me, Nomusa. You don't get to sacrifice yourself and
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: leave me to explain it to the others. Mazulu stepped
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: between them, her staff clicking against the rock. Enough. What's
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: done is done. The question is what we do next.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: She looked at Nomusa. her sharp eyes unreadable. You said
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: we need to gather the others. Who? Namusa wiped her
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: face with the back of her hand. The water had dried,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: but she could still feel it. The cold, the pressure,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the song vibrating through her bones. Everyone. The Sangomas in Soweto.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: The Keepers in Limpopo. Anyone who still remembers the old ways.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: She paused. And Lacede. Thabo frowned.' Lasiti? She's in Molechi.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: That's a day's drive from here, at least.'' She' s the
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: one who found the Hlocophila stone,' Nomusa said.' She' s connected
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: to the ancestors in a way I don't fully understand.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: If we're going to kill the hunger, we need her.'
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Mazulu nodded slowly.' I' ll send word to Mukululi. He's been
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: watching the mountain. He'll know if the hunger stirs again.'
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: She turned and began the descent, her wiry frame moving
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: sure-footed over the rocks. Nomusa watched her go. Then she
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: looked back at the pool far below. The water was still, peaceful,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: but she knew what lurked beneath. She knew what her
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: mother was sacrificing. A wave of nausea rolled through her,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and she pressed a hand to her stomach, feeling the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: hollow ache of hunger. Not the hunger in the pool,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: but her own, annoying emptiness that had been there since
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: her mother vanished. She had eaten nothing since yesterday, and
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the thought of food made her queasy. I can't leave her,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: she whispered. Thabo touched her shoulder. You're not leaving her.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: You're finishing what she started. Nomusa closed her eyes. The
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: song was still there, faint but steady, rising from the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: pool like smoke. her mother's voice, singing her goodbye, singing
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: her forward. She let the sound fill her, let it
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: push against the fear that had taken root in her chest.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: When she opened her eyes, the sun was warm on
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: her face, and she knew what she had to do.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Let's go. They descended the mountain in silence, following the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: path Mazulu had taken. The sun climbed higher, burning off
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the last of the mist. By the time they reached
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the base, the valley was alive with sound. Birds, insects,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: the rustle of grass in the wind. Normal sounds, human sounds.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: But Nomusa felt it, a tug in her chest pulling
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: her south, toward Soweto, toward the others, toward whatever came next.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: She didn't look back at the mountain. She couldn't. But
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: as she walked, she made a promise to the woman
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: still singing beneath the water.' a promise she intended to keep.'
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I' ll come back for you, Mama.' When it's done, when
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the hunger is dead, I'll come back.'' The song followed
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: her all the way down,' a thread of sound that
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: wound through the valleys and into her dreams.' And as
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: the Drakensberg peaks faded behind her, 'she knew that the
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: hunger was not the only thing that had been waiting.'
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Something else was stirring, something that had heard her mother's
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: song falter. And it was hungry, too.