Zhandalee And The First Metamorphosis. Enzo Lo Grasso
will be imprisoned by the will of the community, he will be judged by the tribes' s wise, they will be the fairs to give him what he deserves.--
At the bottom of the crowd a small hand was dimly seen by Nassor, it was extended in the air, the crowd followed the look of their chief, and a corridor appeared among the people. Mosi now on the ground full of despair, looked at the corridor and with a glance from the bottom to the top he saw his daughter, his daughter Efia, she went on difficulty with the help of a crutch, she kept her eyes closed and with her hand stretched out in the air she exclaimed:
-- I believe my father, he's never been a liar, he's a good man and he does not deserve you to treat him in this way -- She slowly approached his crying father kneeling with him and she hug him continuing to say:
--Let him stay. If he says he have seen something, it is true and if he says he was not the one who dropped the statue, he says the truth --
--Yes, but where is the evidence of what he says?,-- a man of the crowd exclaimed.
-- Look, here and there the answer to his action, I'm blind and I can barely move because of a witchcraft, otherwisa I'll help you finding the proof, but I cannot, You have to look for --
--There's no girl,-- Nassor interrupted calmly.
--I'm sorry but he will be judged at the presence of the three wise men, they will decide what to do, it does not longer belongs to us, I'm sorry. Hey! you take him and lock him up, at dawn we will take him to the wise men. --
Meanwhile, Mosi turned to his daughter, hugging her and kissing her:
--Why did you get out of bed, it's dangerous but what came to your mind? –
While two men were taking him to lock him up, they were struck by lightning, they stayed like statues of salt, with a jump they knelt lowering their heads to the ground. People followed them like a sea wave, everyone were prostrate on the ground with the face to the floor, everyone except Nassor who was giving his back to the altar with Mosi and his daughter. The tribe chief frozen by the incomprehensible behaviour of the crowd turned as if he was a single piece, with him from the ground the old kneeling man turned himself. From the back of the a shadow of a female figure appeared gradually becoming most defined to the crowd, at the end the figure showed itself totally to the people.
--Have you have seen I'm not a liar?, here it is she – Mosi interrupted the silence.
--Yes, the old Mosi is right, he says the truth, I followed everything from here and I tell you that what he says is the truth. I cannot explain how it happened but he is not a liar – Zandi continued advancing cautiously.
--Therefore it's true what you say, the prophecy is coming true now – He finished the sentence bending as a sign of obedience to Zandi, then he turned to the crowd shouting emphatically
--Our deity shown itself to us, it is here to free us, finally -.the crowd was screaming with joy.
Then the tribe chief turned to Zandi, bending and asking what she wanted. Zandi replied that she wanted to rest and be in peace.
-- We host you -- Efia pronounced.
Zandi agreed and together they pulled up the old Mosi and set out to get out of the temple, walking among the people prostrate towards them, the three people slowly moved towards the cabin of Mosi.
As soon as they reached the old shed and having closed the fragile door made by straw with twigs of a tree, the old man rested his little daughter on the bed, and he prepared another bed to which it seemed that no one long ago rested the tired body.
--Here, my divinity, I know it's very humble but I have nothing better to offer you – Mosi said with a bow.
--Stop it! I'm not what you think, I'm not a divinity, I'm a normal girl and even if I do not know came here, I assure you that you are wrong, there will be an explanation to everything that at the moment I do not know-- Zandi answered sitting on a kind of stool.
- Oh yes you are, we expected a sign and you are here, even if sometimes everything seems a case it is not completely in this way. I am now old I do not think about myself but about the future of the village and my family --
--But are you only two in this family?-- Zandi asked
-- At this moment yes, but once we were not just two, we were a beautiful happy family, we lived thanks to the fruits of the earth, I cultivated the field with my two sons Oji and Sef the small Efia helped my partner Taja. The village was flourishing and peaceful, there are good people --
-- But where are we? Which is the name of this place? -- the newcomer asked.
--We are at Zabenjo,-- the old man replied.
--I know this, but which is the name of this land, of this zone? –Zandi said.
-- Ah yes, this is called the land of Africa, but not Africa of north, Africa of south, and you will surely come from here because you speak our language, our a dialect is spoken by few people, only in these areas is used.
-- I cannot believe it, I cannot speak any language other than Italian, maybe a little English but surely I do not know any African dialect. How is it possible? I do not come from here, maybe my origin, but I lived for thirteen years in a land far away from here, called Sicily – Zandi finished leaning her elbows on her knees and putting her hands between her hairs.
--See, these powers do not belong to an ordinary man, only a deity possess these gifts -- the old man underlined.
Then Zandi asked:
-- Excuse me, tell me what happened to your family, to your village and why it is in these bad conditions? Maybe there will be a connection, because I saw you, in a kind of vision I had when I was at school, I heard your prayers --
The old man smiled, he sat down beside his resting daughter taking her hand in comfort and he began to tell:
--We lived in peace, when one day some men came to our village talking a strange language, they got out of metal means of transport, they told us they would bring wealth and work, but we already had everything. They began building houses on the mountain sacred for us. We tried to prevent the desecration of sacred places but they did it by force. Even now they are eviscerating our land looking for a yellow metal called gold. They took possession of our happiness, my daughter drank the water rising from the sacred mountain as always, but drinking that water she has fallen ill and now she cannot see anymore and she limps. Now that water has become a bearer of death because they pour from their constructions malodorous liquids, fortunately we use water from the wells that allows us to drink without getting sick. The fields are not as florid as before, the plants died because of the smoke they give off. Since then everything got worse. One day my wife and I went to pick some fruit very far from here where we could find the good one not contaminated for our sick daughter, and we left her to our two children. So when we arrived to a quiet and full of fruits place we began to grasp filling our baskets, my wife heard a voices of a child coming from a crack where there was a kind of hot steam, in an inlet in the ground. She called me and we went to the origin of the voice, we did not see anything but we heard a murmur of a small child, when she leaned out she saw him: he was a little baby of a few weeks, he was naked, it was a mystery. My wife, smaller than me, entered in the crack where there was the baby, I felt something strange but she went instinctively, she arrived to the child, she took him slowly in her arms trying to go out with him, but when she was approaching me a blaze came from the ground jumping me back. Immediately I went back to them, my wife was clinging to a rock near me but she was dying, she barely was able to put the baby next to me, then she looked at me telling me to take care of him, and that she loved us, me and her children, and then she fell into the creek, I stayed with the baby in my arms shouting the name of my wife-. Mosi stopped for a few seconds to wipe away the tears and then he continued:
-- The baby was strangely unharmed, I took him home in desperation, from that moment in my house the happiness disappeared. We did not know what to do with the child, we asked around if someone had lost a child but no one could tell us nothing, so we respected the last wishes of my wife Taja, we took the child with us and we chose together a name that began with