Chapter Twenty-Four

The sound of a matches box rattling tells me the whole thing is over. I open my eyes just as she pulls back. She smiles to the other women and nods once. The box is full. I take my box outside with me. The crowds wait in silence. I open the box and deposit it's contents on the floor. They chant and cheer.
But the cerebration doesn't last long as it's now Mlondo’s turn. She disappears into the same hut I did for her testing. Seconds later the virginity tester sprawls outside.
“Goddess,” she says, voice alarmed, eyes almost spilling out of their sockets. “Mlondowekhaya says ya allowed him to paticipate. He has a penis.”
“Just test him. I'm sure it won't be that difficult.”
She looks outraged. “But how?”
I shrug.
The woman pops her head into the room and asks Mlondo to follow her. We all do. Even the women that were sitting in the shade of the trees drinking traditional beer. She leads Mlondo to the kraal where she stands a few feet away and instructs Mlondo to enter. Mlondo does. I don’t hear what she says to Mlondo but the next second Mondo rolls his shoulders back, turns his back to the crowds and pees over the kraal wall. The idea is that since the kraal is an ancestral place, only a male virgin’s pee can reach the other side. And Mlondo nails it. They give him his full box and I'm the first to cheer him. The crowds reluctantly follow.
As with tradition the closing event is the Kiassi game. Queen Mother leads us to the courts were the rest of Noddon awaits. We quickly change clothes.
Kiassiball is traditionally played with a leather ball that has sharp razor teeth. At first glance the ball is just like any other but the second ya hold it in yer hand ya have three seconds to throw it to another person before teeth appear and it bites. The goal is for the ball not to drop and to be constantly in the air. ya drop it, it's minus a point on yer team. It bites ya, it's a point to the opposition.
The sport is played once a year, today, by three teams. The three teams are; The Royal Hawks which wear Blue; The Noddon Sparks which wear silver; and The Calm Shadows which wear black.
Jiscer choose the teams. He slithered around us, making small talk until he wrapped around a bunch of us and we made the Calm Shadows. We are known for making the ball hard to track. It's a Shadow rule: pass the ball the second ya touch it.
Kaseke is a Royal Hawk, known for taking risks, they usually have more bite wounds. They'd rather take the bite than drop the ball.
The Noddon Sparks are fast thinkers, they usually think of everything. Of every trick in the book.
“Want to take a couple of bites?” Mlondo says, walking into the game room. There's excitement all around as we all separate into our respective teams.
The balls awake at once. Happy for a chance to feed. Kiassiballs receive information about their surroundings by interpreting chemical signals given off by human bodies.
I glare at Mlondo across the room. She's a Spark. “So ya think I'm slow huh? That I'll give those bats my blood?”
“Well... aren't ya?” she shouts back.
I walk up to her, hands at my waist. “Is that a challenge?”
She closes the space between us and dips her head, so that our noses touch. “Get ready for some real ass whipping,” she says.
Mlondo's team surrounds me. The Shadows holler from across the room. Some make their way toward us. Queen Mother gets between us, smiling like the rest of us.
"Save the energy for the game ya'll."
She was a Hawk back in the day and she slithers off to the spectators seats where other Hawks supporters sit. It's like a soccer match. All the teams supporters gather on one end of the arena.
We all take our positions in the court. My team behind me. The voice overhead booms again, telling everyone to settle in. It becomes quiet.
Kaseke was recently made captain. His gift always helps his team win. He always know where you intend to throw the ball.
“Okay,” D'ziko says, doing warm ups. He appears suddenly. “Ready, sweetheart?”
He's a Spark captain.
I nod.
K’Nyamba sighs in disappointment. He's the sky guidain.“That leaves me no choice then.” He flaps his wings and he's in the air. Waiting for the game to begin.
K’Nyamba is always the commentator.
I drawn out his voice the second he begins talking. I don't need any distractions. The match progresses with D’ziko’s team going first.
He picks up the ball, it starts counting. Two seconds in, he throws it. The second it leaves his hand it stops counting and goes back to zero. I dart left, take two steps back and jump. Bhaaam. The ball hits my hand. It's counting already. One second. I release it. Up it goes. Left it turns. Fast it goes.
Mondo gets the footing wrong. She catches it. Barely. While she rights herself, her three seconds come to a shark-bite end. She hisses.
The scores automatically update. Shadows 1 while the others remain 0.
Oh yeah.
I smile. “Are ya gonna play ball or are ya going glare at the poor kiassi?”
Mlondo narrows her eyes on me and the ball comes right at my face. At the sweet spot between my eyebrows.
I catch it but the blow lands me on my butt. I laugh. Electrocuted. Then chaaaw. Three seconds are up. The bite is maddening. It's so excruciatingly painful that I shriek.
Oh. Dammit.
I get up. And try to soothe the bite with my mouth, sucking on it. Two seconds pass and it heals automatically. Kiassi bites always do.
D’ziko marches toward me, worried. “I'm sorry. I--”
I wave him off. “No. No. That was fun. Teethy but electrocuting. Let's go again.”
He hesitates. “Ya sure?”
“D’ziko, I've been playing kiassiball since I was two. I’m throwing.”
He’s silent and unmoving at first, then winks at me and he's back to his spot on the opposite end.
My heart pounds behind my ears. Thump. Thump. Thump.
The ball leaves my hand, making an abrupt start, lurching me sideways as D’ziko tries to follow it. He's not fast enough. His teammate steps on his toes in her effort to get the ball. She doesn't.
2-1 -0.
I cheer. He smiles.
The game goes on. Thirty minutes later the scores reads; 78-75 -70. We're leading. If ya can call two points that.
“Ya don’t play fair,” I say, I feel like the breath has been knocked out of me.
By the end of the match I have three kiassiball bites and a 25 points lead.
We squabble over the game for an hour before we're all due back to the Palace.
When we arrive at the royal palace, Luluka and the rest of the princesses start a song and traditionally dance for the king and his elders.
We have an audience. All Noddon surrounding us. They elbow and push each other out of the way to get a better view. Queen Mother darts through the crowds with ease. When she reaches me, she has purple feathers under her armpits. She sticks them into my traditional headband. The crowds clap and cheer. Now my importance is acknowledged.
Queen Mother drags me to the front. I know what this means but I can’t sing. I’ve never had a great singing voice. The crowds wait. My knees shake.
Just do it, girl. Mlondo. In my head again.
I swallow and then sing. The same sangoma from earlier beats the drum and I lose it. My dance freak demon awakened. I lift my leg to the waist and then switch to the other. Then it's the shoulders and then throw my arms above my head. At this, the villagers go berserk. They fuel me. I keep going, burning my energy with each step. I make sure to lift my Reed up high. To show them my pride. I’m careful my bush knife doesn’t cut my reed. Gods forbid. They'd think it broke.
It is as I'm lifting my leg for the last time before the song ends that my reed gives a sudden, frightening lurch. I'm jolted to the left and my arm almost ripped off. I try to stop but it seems the Reed has a mind of it's own, this time it lifts me into the air and I come crushing down. I land on a sitting position.
The crowds are still cheering. No one seems to have noticed that I've lost control. I can't even let go of the Reed. It seems as though it's stuck in my hand. It rolls me on the floor. The crowds cheer louder still, the drums beat louder.
My bush knife swings to the left and misses my right arm by an inch. My arm goes up again and violently lowers to my stomach. Mlondo joins me first. And then the princesses and soon, the rest of Noddon. They surround me,watching, terrified.
They hold my arms away from me. Mama injects me with merryz, to temporary paralyze me. The second my arms go limp, she rips both the Reed and knife away from me and hands them to the woman behind her.
"It must've been someone using magic on you," Mlondo says angrily.
I gulp. I don't have any enemies.
"I didn't see anyone who might've been casting a spell," mama whispers. "Guess we may never know."