Simi looks around the room, wondering if everyone is still awake, or if they are sleeping on the rise and fall of the story. Jacobus’ head is bowed, and does not lift as Tonderai continues.

“Up at the Table all the Favourites are happy for there is quiet below. Even Snake has ceased his whispering, for now he sleeps in the day to be ready for Girl’s stories in the night.

Grandpa too is pleased, for there is peace beneath his Table. There is quiet at his feet and there are crowds at his window. The watchers make him very happy. They have come to see me, Grandpa thinks. Always they come. I am great. I am greater even than great.” Tonderai thumps his chest. “Grandpa grows veeery proud. Soon his head is so big, that the window has to be opened even wider, but Girl does not mind for the fresh air is good for them, and besides, she has a hope. Girl hopes that some of those at the window who look in, will see that all is not well, that Grandpa’s feast leaves nothing for those beneath.

Girl hopes too that the fresh air will be good for Uncle, for she knows he works too hard. He is very thin now. She sees this, but the others do not for they barely see Uncle at all. It is only she and the Children who go to him, and they go for he is gentle. He does not talk of soldiers. He does not talk of war. And he does not beat them. Instead he makes them toys from old pieces of wood. And sometimes he will play the mbira for them. Some days Girl goes with the Children when they visit Uncle, for she wants to be sure that they do not bother him too much, and that they do not see or talk about his work. When she goes, Girl sees that the Children play, that they notice nothing, and she begins to relax. And then one day she hears this.”

Tonderai pauses, then, with his voice now full of the cheerful curiosity of a child, he begins again.

“‘Uncle, what is the work you do on the Table?’

Girl gasps, but Uncle is calm. He has thought of this question.

‘Ah …’ he says with a wink to Knowledge the orphan child, whose head is full of questions. ‘Come, come with me, and see what I do.’

Uncle takes Knowledge by the hand, and Girl and all the Children follow him to the Table, and there they see that one of the legs of the Table is very beautiful, for it has animals carved into it. Giraffe, lion, monkey, elephant, and even the little duiker are there.

‘What is this animal?’ asks Knowledge as he traces one finger around a shape he has not seen before.

‘That is Pangolin,’ says Uncle. ‘This animal, Knowledge, is the most ancient of them all. If you find one it will roll into a ball. It will look like this.’”

Tonderai stands silent, his hands cupped together. Simi watches as he looks down, as though searching for something curled in the darkness between his fingers.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023