The Witness of Usehjiki

Kuwin hid in the kitchen while the others screamed at each other. If he was in a better state of mind, Kuwin would have worried about his neighbors. It was night, after all, and most of them would hate to be disturbed.

But Kuwin couldn’t worry about them.

“I cover my mind with the blood of Jesus,” he said, leaning on the sink. “I am blessed. I am free,” he placed his head on his hand. “I am forgiven. Please, Jesus, forgive me. I’m not scared. You said that if I took your yoke and I learned from you, you will give me rest in my soul. Your word is truth.” He sighed. “Your word has to be true.

He stood and paced from the sink to the kitchen door and back. He’d seen people crumble under the weight of life and forget their place. But he’d never imagined that his life would be at stake and his fate would be left to the machinations of mortal men or ancestral powers.

There was a quiet knock at the kitchen door. As he looked up from the sink, Osa poked her head into the kitchen.

“Are you okay, Pastor Kuwin?” she asked.

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

She entered the kitchen, carefully closing the door behind her as she leaned back on it.

“I thought I’d explain myself.”

“Believe it or not, whatever reasons you have aren’t very important to me, right now.”

“Pastor-”

“You came to church because of me, and you got close to me because of the key. The moment you got what you wanted, you left. The only reason you’re back here is that the witness wants to kill you.” He looked at her. “Did I miss anything?”

She averted her eyes.

“Not really.”

“I could have died that day, but still,” he said, trying hard to keep his voice from quivering. “I’d have been celibate and my relationship with God wouldn’t be the shaky mess that it is right now.”

“You gained understanding-”

He banged his hand against the sink.

“Who said this was something I was meant to understand? I had peace of mind and you…” He pointed a furious finger at her. “You stole that from me!”

She didn’t reply, didn’t look up. Just kept her hands at her back and her head bowed. She’d destroyed Kuwin’s life and yet, here she was, without the words that she was supposed to speak. Kuwin didn’t even know what he wanted from her. Did he want her to beg? To apologize? Offer his soul redemption? He had no idea.

“Say something!” he commanded, shaking with fury that he couldn’t comprehend.

Osa raised her head.

“Maybe you’re looking at this all wrong.”

“How could I possibly be looking at this wrong?”

“I’m not a Christian-”

“You don’t say.”

“But,” she said, raising her voice slightly as if she was a little irritated with him. As if she had any right to be. “Your god doesn’t exactly speak words. He uses signs and wonders, right? Maybe your relationship has evolved and you’re still looking for signs and wonders in old places.”

Hunh, Kuwin thought, hesitating. He wanted to argue, but what leg did he have to stand on? He’d tried to induce a conversation with God in the ways that he knew how, but that hadn’t worked. Maybe God was speaking to him in other ways that he was ignoring because they weren’t recognizable.

Maybe God was speaking to him through this deceitful, dangerous woman.

“I don’t pretend to understand what you’re going through,” she said. “But I don’t regret it.”

“How could you say that?”

“My mother died for this,” she said, her voice stiffly stern. “My entire clan is in your living room. We have sacrificed more than everyone. If all you’ve lost is some minor convenience or simple ignorance of the truth of our reality, then I’m sorry, Pastor Kuwin, but I can’t muster enough energy to give a damn.”

“Osa-”

“No, you listen to me,” she said, walking towards Kuwin as Kuwin took a step back from her. Her eyes dropped to his feet. Immediately, she stopped moving. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I wouldn’t put anything past you.”

She bit her lips, fuming in barely concealed frustration. It was just as well because Kuwin was probably more frustrated than she was. He wasn’t going about trying to force conversations with people who didn’t want to talk to him, and he wasn’t threatening them with bodily harm. She was the problem here. Not Kuwin.

Shaking her head, Osa went back to the door, opened it, and left, with the door closing slowly behind her.

“I don’t care how strong the witness is,” Ahimad said, his loud voice carrying from the sitting room to the kitchen. “If we have to kill anyone to survive, I will support it.”

Kuwin braced himself against the wall with a few deep breaths. For a moment, he’d forgotten that Osa wasn’t the only trigger-happy problem in his house, at the moment. He’d been gone for so long that only God knew how deadly and horrible their plans had devolved. Maybe that was why God brought them to Kuwin. Maybe it was his place to temper violence with compassion. If that was the case, then Kuwin had to get out there. Quickly.

He filled a tray with soft drinks and some snacks. He had to man up and hear what they had to say. He loved God and God loved him. It would be foolish to ignore the wisdom that could be God’s guiding hand. There had to be a reason that he was the first Usop key-bearer to be saved. And if these were the people with his salvation, then Kuwin was going to give them an ear. And a few words, if need be.

“Bless me, Jesus,” Kuwin said, dropping the tray on the center table. “Please have a drink.”

“We won’t have to kill her,” Ifiso said. “All we have to do is lock the witness back in the room.”

“It wasn’t easy the first time. Do you understand that she has the strength of forty warriors and the intelligence to match it?” Enechi asked. “We will never get the chance again.”

“Yes,” Toso agreed with Enechi. “Besides, I’m not too sold on Osa dying next year.”

“I don’t have to die. I’ll just not touch the key.”

“Excuse me?” Enechi asked.

“Unlike you guys who have thousands of distant relatives, we three are the only Oseki left.”

“And whose fault is that?” Ahimad asked.

“We’ll help you put the witness back but how we deal with our sector of the country is our business.”

Enechi shook his head and stood.

“No. I’m done with your family making decisions that affect the rest of us.”

“This does not affect you.”

“If you don’t touch the key, you lose your divinity. You may want to be commoners, but when your people start to see you as equal to them, what’s to say that sort of mentality won’t seep into the other clan commoners?”

“Give us a moment, all right?” Toso said, holding onto her sister. “We just want to rebuild. None of us have kids. No extended family.”

“I. Don’t. Care.”

“Well, you should,” Ifiso said. “We’re triplets. We all have the same birthday. If Osa holds the key, she’ll die next year. So will either of us who inherits it from her. If we all die without future Oseki clans-blood, who will hold your precious key?”

“You have a year before you turn forty,” Enechi said. “Go get pregnant and do your duty?”

“And leave the next generation of Oseki to be raised by commoners?”

Enechi hesitated, looking at all three of them.

“What’s your solution, then?” Ahimad asked.

“Give us time to grow,” Ifiso said.

“We’ll rebuild the Oseki clan and have multiple lines,” Osa added. “Our ancestors kept the family in one line out of guilt for what they did. But we don’t have that luxury anymore. We’ll grow and when I’m old, I’ll take the key again and die. Then one of my children will inherit it.”

Kuwin wanted to argue. How could she so easily and knowingly sacrifice her children for power? How could any of them? He wanted to say they were crazy for even thinking about it. But then he thought of his family and a part of him understood why.

“So how do we capture her?”

“We can’t capture her,” Enechi said. “She’s too str...” his voice trailed off as he sat up, abruptly.

“What is it?” Ahimad asked, picking up another drink. “What happened?”

“I have an idea,” he said, eyes fluttering as if deep in thought. “We can’t put the witness back, but there’s another way.”

“Which is?” Ifiso asked.

“We can make a new witness,” he said. “I have the records and resources. I can do it, just as long as we’re all a part of it.”

“Are you sure?” Osa asked, walking away from her sister.

“It won’t be easy, but I’m sure it’s doable.”

“How does that help our current problem?” Kuwin asked. “Even if we get a witness, how is that going to stop us from dying when the old one shows up to kill us?”

“She’ll be nothing to our new witness. Think about it. She’s been starving for five centuries. She won’t stand a chance against a new one.”

“And you’re sure of this?” Osa asked. “What do we know about Seneseba?”

“We know that she’s weak. We know that she’s lost in a world that she doesn’t understand, and it would take her some time to find us. But more than that,” Enechi said. “We know that when we make this new witness, she’s going to be completely and totally under our control.”