When the Rug Gets Pulled Out from Under You

Asukai

That night, Asu went to bed and read the strange diary until she fell asleep. She dreamed of a massive fountain spewing from between two rocks, water gushing out in high jets and falling on smooth rocks at the top of a mountain. She saw herself standing at the point where the water was coming out. 

Her heartbeat raced at the speed of the water rushing into the sky. She laughed and the water rushed higher. It felt as though the water was coming out of the rock because she was standing in that exact spot. As though the water was answering her call. Happiness filled her as the water flowed down filling a fading river in the distance. She was sure the waters from the fountain would fill the river and travel beyond, far beyond…

A piercing scream jerked Asu awake, pulling her away from the strange exhilarating dream. Asu sat up on her bed, disoriented. Her covers were on the floor, and her nightgown was soaking wet with sweat. She let out a soft sigh and pushed off the damp scarf covering her hair, thinking she had also dreamed up the scream.

Then, the scream came again.

Asu jumped out of bed because the scream sounded like it came from Hera.

“Hera?” Asu ran to her door and jerked it open. She ran into the corridor and let out a startled scream when she saw her grandmother running down the stairs, and then along the back corridor after two men dressed in black. Asu followed them down the stairs.

“Help!” Hera shouted, and that’s when Asu saw the back door open and a man carried her sister out.

Hera was held over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She struggled to get off, but he was holding her tight.

Siti was in a full run, chasing after the intruders. Asu ran after her grandmother in an absolute panic. When she got outside, it was to find the compound was lit up with torches. Her cousins and the workers who lived in the compound followed the culprits deeper into the farm.

Confused, Asu ran after them, unsure why they were all going to the farm and not to the road to get help.

Who had taken Hera?

Asu followed her cousins and her grandmother, heart pounding in her chest, her feet bare her slippers had slipped out a while back. They crossed into the coffee farm. Deeper still into the semi-forest in the middle of the farm. Asu tripped over a fallen banana stalk, she fell and scraped her palms.

A strong hand lifted her and made sure she was steady on her feet. She murmured her thanks but did not pause to see who had helped her up. She kept running, hoping to catch up with her grandmother and cousins. The torch lights led the way and she soon found them standing before the old fig tree in the middle of the farm.

Her grandmother was kneeling on the grass. She was crying, digging in the grass near the tree. Next to her, Prisca and Sibila stood staring at the fig tree, their shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Where is Hera?” Asu asked, touching Prisca’s right shoulder. “Where did she go? We need to call for help.”

Asu started to reach for her pocket but cursed when she realized she had rushed out in her nightgown. Her cell phone was still in her room. She had not even thought of grabbing it the moment she saw her grandmother running. Damn it!

“Do you have a phone?” Asu asked, squeezing Prisca’s shoulder. “We need to call for help. Where did they take Hera? What are you all doing standing here? We need to call for help!”

“Stop!” Grandma Siti said, getting to her feet, and turning to face Asu, the tears in her eyes shook her to the core. There was something else in her grandmother’s eyes that bordered on anger.

Anger toward her.

“You’re the only one who can help Hera now.”

“What? H-How?” Asu asked. “Do you want me to run and get help? I-I will—rush to the neighbors—”

Asu started to turn away, but Siti gripped her shoulders and shook her.

“No one in the mortal realm can help Hera,” Siti said, her tone harsh, so harsh, it scared Asu. “You can find her in the hidden realm. None of us can enter. Only you. You must save her. You owe us this much.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” Asu said, shaking her head, tears filling her eyes at the frightening look in her grandmother’s eyes.

“You’re going to get her back,” Siti said. “Sibila, take her back to the house, get her ready. Call Muruthi, let him know it’s time.”

Sibila gripped Asu’s left arm and dragged her back with a gleeful laugh.

“What are you doing?” Asu asked. She barely had time to ask as Sibila pulled her back to the main house with force. “Sibila, what is going on? Why aren’t we calling for help? The police, the chief, the village elder. Any of them can help us find who took Hera. What does grandmother mean I should bring her back?”

Sibila walked through the coffee rows not pausing, already knowing the route with her eyes closed. She did not speak until they were in the great living room in the main house.

“Don’t think about running out,” Sibila said when she pushed Asu into an armchair in the living room. “I need to get your bags. We have a lot to do before you have to go.”

“Go where?” Asu demanded as Sibila hurried to the stairs.

Asu watched her take two stairs at a time and decided everyone was crazy. She got up determined to return to her bedroom, but a hand clamped her shoulder, forcing her back into the armchair.

She looked back and bit back a scream when she saw the two men standing behind her. They were workers who had lived at her grandmother’s farm for as long as she could remember. Had they followed them from the fig tree? Why would Sibila want to keep her here?

“I need to get my phone,” Asu said, to the closest one. “I’ll call for help—,”

“The necessary calls have been made,” Sibila said, coming down the steps carrying a large leather bag. She also had Asu’s book bag and the diary from her bed. “I have your things. Who knows if you’ll be able to come back? It’s good to carry everything.”

Asu’s fear deepened at the gleeful expression on Sibila.

“Let’s take her to the annex,” Sibila ordered.

Asu stood up ready to run when the two men reached for her. The two workers gripped her arms tight and dragged her to the back door of the kitchen. The annex was a self-contained building. Used by guests who were not family. Asu had never truly entered the room, visitors always occupied it.

Sibila opened the door when they reached it, and the two men pushed her in.

“Wait for us,” Sibila said to the two, then closed the door. She placed Asu’s book bag on the small table by the door and then looked at Asu. “I won’t pretend to know what you’re thinking. I’ll only say this once. You will have to do what I ask you to do next. It doesn’t matter whether you want to or not. Don’t make me force you.”

Asu stood in the small living room and stared at her cousin caught between shock and fear.

“Sibi,” Asu said, her voice shaking at the determined look in Sibila’s eyes. “We can talk this out. Whatever it is, you-you d-don’t have to do this. W-whatever this is.”

“It’s not that hard to do,” Sibila said, opening the fancy leather bag she held.

She pulled out clothes made from raw cotton that was a beautiful cerulean blue. The color was so vivid, that Asu was caught between wanting to touch it and running away from it. After all, she had no idea why Sibila and her grandmother wanted her to change into these clothes.

“Go to the bathroom and change into these clothes,” Sibila said, pressing the fabric into Asu’s hands. “Hurry. We have to get back to Grandma Siti.”

Asu held the clothes for a minute looking into Sibila’s forbidding gaze.

Sibila was always tough. Her personality was harsh and unrelenting. Prisca would have already broken down and told her what was going on, but not Sibila. Her expression was tough, and her forbidding stance was enough to make Asu turn around and head to the bathroom.

Asu entered the small bathroom that was off the living room and closed the door. She stared at the girl in the mirror above the sink and stifled her gasp. Her cream nightgown was damp with sweat and the dew from the coffee plants.

Her dark hair was sticking up in a messy afro. It was long, and she usually tamed the heavy mass with ribbons and well-placed pins. Now, she was sure she could not run a comb through it. Shaking her head, she looked to the shower stall in the corner and decided on a shower. Maybe it would clear her head, convince her she was not still dreaming in her bed.

“Come out if you’re done,” Sibila banged on the bathroom door five minutes later, and Asu ignored it.

Asu used a rubber band she had found in the drawer on the sink counter to hold her hair in a high ponytail. It had calmed down after wetting it, but she still needed a good combing. She dropped her hands to the sides when she was done with her hair.

Asu stared at her reflection in the mirror.

The cerulean clothes Sibila had handed her were cut differently from any clothes she had ever seen. The skirt had no seams. It was secured at the waist with a cerulean ribbon made with the same fabric. It was long to her feet and voluminous. Asu liked the way the soft fabric felt on her skin.

The blouse was even more curious. Once again, no seams, but the front bodice and the back were attached with tight ribbons woven to hold them together. It felt comfortable, hugging her curves in a decent embrace. The sleeves were also attached with cerulean ribbons, they were wide on her upper arm, and tight at her wrist. The scent on the fabric reminded her of a flower, though she could not name it if she tried.

The door opened and Sibila stood glaring at her.

“If you’re done admiring yourself, we still need to go back to Grandmother,” Sibila said. “There are tights in the leather bag and a pair of black boots. Come on, we don’t have all night. Who knows what’s happening to Hera.”

Asu gasped at her sister’s name. She rushed out of the bathroom and went to wear the tights Sibila had placed on the small coffee table. She pulled on the stretchy dark blue tights as she fought back a lump of tears.

“She’s my sister,” Asu said, as she stood to pull up the socks up her thighs, pushing away the fabric of the pretty skirt and feeling annoyed by this whole situation. “If anyone wanted to help her, it would be me. I don’t know why you think I would watch her be in trouble and do nothing.”

“Great, then hurry it up,” Sibila said, pointing to the boots by the coffee table.

Asu stared at the fine black boots waiting on the floor. The sole was thick. Two inches thick. The front was pointed, the back of the boot well molded into a low heel. Asu sat on the coffee table and slipped her right foot into the boot. She frowned as she realized it had no laces. There was only an azure metal that looked like a buckle.

She touched the buckle and it flowed into a band forcing the leather of the boot to mold to her foot. Asu bit her bottom lip with the ease in which the boots fit. She did not comment on the buckles, and Sibila was too anxious to notice how they had locked.

Shaking her head, Asu stood and was no longer shocked at Sibila’s attitude when a matching cloak was thrown over her shoulders. She caught the ribbons on her shoulders and secured them at her collarbone. The cloak felt light on her shoulders but it wrapped her up in warmth. It was made of a more refined cotton, still cerulean.

Asu had no time to admire the cloak. Sibila pushed her to the door, it opened and the two men took over the job. Gripping Asu’s upper arms tight, they started a fast walk back into the coffee farm. Asu fought down panic, taking in deep breaths, aware of Sibila keeping up behind them.

Then, they were in the forest and standing before the old fig tree. This time more people were waiting. Uncles, aunts, Sibila, and Prisca’s mother and father. No workers were allowed here, only the generations of the Kinga family. They made a circle around the old fig tree. Rows of family.

“Good work, Sibila,” Grandmother Siti said. “Bring her to the front.”

Asu clenched her hands when the two men dropped her in front of her grandmother.

“Be kinder,” Grandmother Siti said. “Prisca, help her up.”

“Grandma,” Asu said, as Prisca helped her to her feet. “What’s going on? Why do you need me to dress in these clothes to get Hera?”

“I’m sorry, Asu.” Grandmother Siti stood before her and held her gaze. “I had hoped we would have more time to talk, to explain, but your side has made the first move. I know we owe you more, but Hera is one of us.”

“What about me?” Asu asked in shock. “What do you mean by my side? My side is here with you.”

“No!” Grandmother Siti said, her eyes filling with tears. “You are not one of us, Asu. You’re from elsewhere. A place I cannot go, only you can go there to save our daughter. Please, bring Hera back.”

“But grandmother—,” Asu started, trembling with fear.

“Give me a knife, Sibila,” Siti said, looking away from Asu.

Sibila held out a knife to Siti and Asu froze as she realized that there was blood on Siti’s right palm.

Asu started to step back but Siti grabbed her right hand and held on tight.

“You’re the only one who can find Hera,” Siti said. “I had hoped there would be time to explain who you are to all of us, but there is no time. Those two who stole Hera seem to have closed the pathway to our mortal realm. They have done something to the pathway. We can’t open it from our side. I’ve tried to open the pathway, but it will not respond. I think you’re the only one who can go in now.”

“Go where?” Asu asked, struggling to pull her hand out of Siti’s tight grip.

Prisca watched her with pity in her eyes. But mostly, she watched Asu with an expectation that Asu did not understand. Asu frowned when Siti shook her.

“Pay attention,” Siti said. “You’re from the eternal realm beyond this fig tree. Your true mother gave you to me to guard and protect until the day you came off age. She said it would be when you turned twenty-one, but they’ve made their move when you’re twenty. Either we were late, or something went wrong on her end,” Siti said, her voice shaking. “Those two shadows who came in here must have confused Hera for you. We have been good to you. Please, save my granddaughter.”

“Grandma Siti,” Asu said, shaking her head. “I’m also your granddaughter. I—”

“You’re not from here!” Siti said, her voice rough and harsh. “You were only meant to live here temporarily. She should have already come to get you. I don’t know why she didn’t. Why she doesn’t allow the pathway to open anymore.”

Siti shook her head, clearly distressed about Hera. Her tears were filling her eyes again. Tears for Hera, not for Asu.

Sibila held up the bag she had been carrying.

“These are her things,” Sibila said.

“Place her bookbag in the leather bag,” Siti said. “Did you give her everything that was in the leather bag?”

“All the clothes but the bronze arm bracelets,” Sibila said. “I don’t know how they go on. They look too small to fit her wrist.”

“She needs them,” Siti said. “I saw the women wearing them, so she cannot be without them.”

Sibila rummaged in the leather bag until she came up with a pair of small coiled bracelet.

Siti took them from her and brought them to Asu’s right hand. The metal moved on its own, wrapping around Asu’s wrists.

“She doesn’t need to wear it,” Siti said, meeting Asu’s gaze. “The eternal realm’s things recognize its own.”

Siti took Asu’s left wrist and the second bracelet did the same thing, resting on Asu’s left wrist. Asu felt a hole gape in her heart.

Her questions about belonging were answered so brutally, that she could barely breathe.

“What about her hair?” Prisca asked. “Will the rubber band do?

“The pathway will discard all things from our side,” Siti said. “Don’t worry about it. Asu, we have protected you for twenty years. We hope you shall return the favor by protecting our Kinga daughter. She’s the next matriarch of our family.”

“But Grandma,” Asu said, tears filling her eyes at the expression on her grandmother’s face. Wasn’t she a Kinga daughter too? Why were they treating her like an outsider? As though she did not belong.

“Grandma Siti,” Asu started to protest, hating the dress she wore, and the bracelets on her wrists. They felt like a sentence. She wanted to go back to the house, read a book, make tea, and return to Nairobi later for school.

Siti pressed the handle of the leather bag into Asu’s right hand.

Asu held it, as it held all that belonged to her.

“I have nothing else to give you, Asu. I can only share the rules my mother gave me for that place. One, don’t be afraid. Two, don’t be disrespectful but show gratitude. Three, never abandon the promise.”

“I don’t understand,” Asu said. “Why are you doing this? What do you mean I don’t belong to you? How am I supposed to save Hera? We should call the area chief if she was stolen. We may be able to get to the thieves who carried her out of the house. Please, Grandma, Prisca, Sibila, please.”

Grandma Siti ignored Asu’s pleas and instead took her left hand. She held up the knife Sibila had given her.

Asu had no chance to protest before Siti opened her left palm and swiped the knife over her skin.

Asu screamed at the long painful cut the knife made. The next minute, Siti pressed Asu’s bleeding palm to the fig tree with all her strength.

Asu kept screaming at the pain, at the confusion, and then it was with fear when the fig tree lit up bright. A white light filled the dark, opening a doorway into the tree.

“It worked,” Siti said in shock. “We should have always tried your blood. Asu, I don’t know what you’ll find at the end of this pathway, but you must go if you want to help save Hera. Go.”

Asu had no chance to ask more questions.

Siti pushed her into the doorway made of bright light, and before she had a chance to protest this strange set of events, the doorway closed, and she was standing in the darkness hugging her bag.

Heart pounding too fast, her eyes filled with tears, Asu wrapped her arms around the leather bag and started walking. The boots she wore had a very solid sole, they felt comfortable, but the ground was uneven. Asu stumbled through the dark…tunnel.

There was no light. She stumbled again, tripping over a rock or bump on the ground, and reached out to the wall on her left with her bloody hand. The moment her hand touched the cool wall of rock, it dissolved into water, and she fell into a wide hole in the wall.

****

Chapter Seven | Table of Contents | Chapter Nine