outside the small children were singing Shamu and dancing around the fire their smooth naked bellies glistened like little balls catching light they were singing Because the word had arrived the ashantis had Governor Charles McCarthy's head they were keeping on a stick outside the Ashanti King's Palace as a warning to the British this is what happens to those who defy us eh small children do you not know that if the ashantis defeat the British they will come for the Fones next James asked he lunged at one of the little girls and tickled her until all the children were giggling and begging for mercy he released the girl and put on a somber face continuing his lecture you will be safe here in this Village because my family is Royal do not forget that yes James they said down the road James father was approaching with one of the white men from the castle he motioned to James to follow them into the compound should the boy hear this qu the white man asked glancing quickly at James he is a man not a boy he will take over my responsibilities here when I finished whatever you say to me you may also say to him the white man nodded and looked at James carefully as he spoke your mother's father o bans Su has died the ashantis are saying we killed their King to avenge Governor McCarthy's death and did you James asked returning the man stare with Force anger beginning to boil up in his veins the white man looked away James knew that the British had been inciting Tribal wars for years knowing that that whatever captives were taken from those Wars would be sold to them for trade his mother always said that the Gold Coast was like a pot of groundnut soup her people the ashantis were the broth and his father's people the funes were the ground nuts and the many other nations that began at the edge of the Atlantic and moved up through the Bushland into the north made up the meat and pepper and vegetables this pot was already full to the brim before the white men came and added fire now it was all the Gold Coast people could do to keep from boiling over again and again James wouldn't be surprised if the British had killed his grandfather as a way to raise the heat ever since his mother had been stolen and married to his father his village had been swelteringly hot your mother wants to go to the funeral qu said James unclenched the fists that he hadn't realized he'd made it's too dangerous Quay the white man said even Naya's Royal status might not protect you they know your village has been Allied to us for years it's just too dangerous James father looked down and suddenly James could hear his mother's voice in his ear again telling him that his father was a weak man with no respect for the land He Walked on we will go James said and Quay looked up not attending the sh Ashanti kingk funeral is a sin that the ancestors will never forgive slowly qu nodded he turned to the white man it's the least we can do he said the white man shook hands with the two of them and the next day James his mother and his father headed north for quasi his grandmother AIA would stay home with the younger children James held the gun in his lap as they rode through the forest the last time he had held one he was 5 years old it was 5 years before in 1819 for his 12th birthday his father had taken him out to the woods to shoot at swabs of fabric that he had tied to various trees in the distance he told James that a man should learn to hold a gun the same way he held a woman carefully tenderly now looking at his parents as they rode through the bush James wondered if his father had ever held his mother that way carefully or tenderly if a war had been in the way of the world and the Gold Coast it also defined the world inside of his compound nay yaa wept as they rode inside the carriage if it weren't for my son would we even be going she asked James had made the mistake of telling her that what his father and the white man had talked about the day before if it weren't for me would you even have this son his father muttered what his mother said I could not understand that ugly funy you speak James rolled his eyes they would go on like this for the rest of the trip he could still remember the fights they had when he was small boy his mother screaming loudly about his name James Richard Collins his mother would shout James Richard Collins what kind of aan are you that you give your son three white names and so what his father would reply will he not still be a prince to our people and to the whites too I have given given him a powerful name James knew now as he knew then that his parents had never loved each other it was a political marriage Duty held them together though even that seemed to be barely enough by the time they passed the town of Ed mua his mother was going on about how Quay wouldn't even be a man if it were not for James's great UNC late great uncle Fifi so many of their arguments led to Fifi and the decisions he had made for Quay and their family after days of travel they stopped to spend the night in Duna with David a friend from qu's time in England who had moved back to the gold Co Coast years before with his British wife days even weeks would pass before they reached the interior where James's grandfather's body was being held so they could all celebrate his life Quay old friend David said as James's family approached he had a round belly like an oversized coconut for a second remembering the way he had grown up slicing the fruit and drinking what waited inside James wondered what a man like David would spill if punctured his father and David shook hands and began walk talking James had always noticed that the longer he had been since two men saw each other the louder and more impassion their voices got as though the volume was trying to make up for distance or reach back in time nana yaa nodded at David's wife cine and then loudly cleared her throat my wife is very tired Quay said and the servants came to show her to her room James began to walk with them hoping that he too could get some rest but David stopped him e James you are a big man now sit talk the handful of times James had seen David David had called him a big man he could remember back to when he was just 4 years old and had tripped on something invisible an ant maybe and had fallen to the ground tearing the Flesh of his upper lip he had immediately begun crying a violent cry that began somewhere inside of his chest David picked him up with one hand dusted off his butt with the other and stood him on the table in front of him so the two were staring eye to eye you are a big man now James you can't cry at every little thing that comes your way the three men sat around the fire the servants had built sipping Palm wine James father looked older to him but only slightly as though the three-day Journey had added three years if the trip took 30 days Quay would look almost as old as James grandfather had before he died so she's still giving you trouble eh even though you are taking her to O bonso's funeral David asked nothing is ever enough for this wife of mine qu said this is what happens when you marry for power instead of marrying for love the Bible says I don't need to know what the Bible says I studied the Bible too remember in fact I recall going to religion class more often than you did Quay said with a short laugh I have no use for that religion I chose this land these people these Customs over those of the British you chose it or it was chosen for you David said quietly Quay stole a glance at James and then looked away it was as his mother always yelled at qu way when she was truly angry you are so soft you break apart weak man and you James you're almost old enough for the marriage festivities to start should we begin looking for a bride for you or have you got a woman in mind David winked at him and then as though the wink were pulling of a switch that led to his throat began to laugh so hard he choked on his own spittle Naya and I have chosen a nice wife for him to marry when the time comes qu said David nodded carefully and tipped the cabash of wine back his Adams Apple bobbing against the stream of liquid that ran down it watching him James cringed before his great uncle Fifi had died when James was just a small boy Fifi had conspired with Quay to choose a woman who James would marry she was called Amma the daughter of Chief abiku Badu's successor to the stool their joining would be the last thing on the list of rectifications that Fifi promised himself he would fulfill for Quay it would be the realization of a promise that Kobe AER had made to AIA AER Collins years ago that her blood would be joined with the blood of fonty Royals James would marry her on the eve of his 18th birthday she would be his first his most important wife because Amma had also grown up in the village James had known her all his life and when they were young he used to play with her outside chap a biku's compound but the older they got the more Amma started to annoy him little things like the way she always laughed just a second too long after he told the joke just long enough for him to know she didn't find it funny at all or the way she put so much coconut oil in her hair that if the strands brushed against his shoulder shoulder while they were together his shoulder would continue to smell of oil when they were apart he was only 15 when he knew he could never truly love a woman like that but it didn't matter what he thought the men continued sipping wine in silence for a while in the trees the birds were calling to each other to sleep a spider crawled over James Barefoot and he thought of the anasi stories his mother used to tell him and still told his younger brothers and sisters have you heard the story of anasi and the sleeping bird she would ask them Mischief dancing behind her eyes and they would all shout no and giggle into their hands thrilled by the LIE they were telling for they had all heard it many times before learning then that a story was nothing more than a lie you got away with David tipped the Kash back again his head tipping back with it so that he could completely empty its contents he belched then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand is it true he asked the rumors about the British abolishing abolishing slavery soon Quay Shrugged his shoulders the year James was born they told everyone in the castle that the slave trade was abolished and that we could not sell our slaves to America anymore but did that stop the tribes from selling did that make the British leave don't you see this war the ashantis the British are fighting now and will continue to fight for far longer than you or I or even James can live to see there's more at stake here than just slavery my brother it is a question of who will own the land the people the power you cannot stick a knife in a goat and then say now I will remove my knife slowly so let things be easy and clean let there be no mess there will always be blood James had heard this speech or something like it many times before the British were no longer selling slaves to America but slavery had not ended and his father did not seem to think that it would end they were just trade one type of shackles for another trade physical ones that wrapped around wrists and ankles for invisible I ones that wrapped around the Mind James hadn't understood this when he was younger when the legal slave exportation had ended and the illegal one had begun but he understood now the British had no intention of leaving Africa even once the slave trade ended they owned the castle and though they had yet to speak it aloud they intended to own the land as well they set out again the next morning James thought his mother looked as though the night's rest had lifted her spirits she even hummed while they traveled they all passed small towns and Villages that were built of little more than mud and sticks they relied upon the kindness of people whom Quay had once worked with or cousins of cousins whom Nana yaa had never met people who offered their floors and a bit of palm wine the further into the country they moved the more James noticed how his father's skin attracted attention among the bush people are you a white man one little girl asked reaching out with her index finger and swiping qu's light brown skin as though she could capture a little bit of the color on it what do you think quad asked his twe Rusty but passible the little girl giggled then shook her head slowly before running away to report back to the other children who were gathered around the fire starting too intimidated to ask themselves they reached Kumasi at dusk and they were greeted by Naya's eldest brother Kofi and his guards aquaba he said you are welcome here they were taken to the new King's large Palace where servants had prepared a room at the corner of the structure Kofi sat with them while they ate welcome food and updated them on what had passed in the town since they left their own village I'm sorry sister but we could not wait so long to bury him Kofi said and Naya y nodded she had known that the the body would be buried before they got there so that the new king could take office she had only wanted to make it to the funeral and Os ya she asked everyone was worried about the new king because they were at War they had to choose him quickly just after the burial of James's grandfather and no one knew whether or not this would be bad luck for the people in the war that they were fighting he is doing a fine job as Ashanti hini Kofi said don't worry little sister he will make sure our father is honored as he should be honored as his uncle spoke James noticed that Kofi paid no attention to his father his eyes never once reached qu's eyes not even when wandering he was like a blind cat that moved through the Dark Forest solely on instincts avoiding the logs and rocks that threatened or had heard it once before the funeral proceedings began the next day Naya left the palace long before James and the other men were awake so she could join with the women of the family in mournful wailing wailing that announced to everyone in the town that the celebration day had indeed arrived by noon these women were dressed in their red clothes Naya leaves and Rafia braided about their clay stained foreheads as they walked up and down the streets wailing for all the town's people to hear in the meantime James his father and all the other men put on their black and red morning clothes there was a line of drummers that would begin at one corner of the Royal Palace and then ending at the other they would drum until dawn the men began chanting then dancing then kti anida the Damu they would dance until dawn the dead King's family sat in a row so they could all be greeted by all the MERS as they came in a single file line of people began at James grandfather first wife and went all the way into the middle of the Town Square everyone in line shook the hand of each family member and offered their condolences James stood next to his father he tried to remember to keep his shoulders squared and to look at each mner directly in the eyes so they knew he was a man whose blood was important as they expected it to be they shook his hand and murmured their stories or sories and James accepted even though he had never lived in a Shanti land and had known his grandfather only as a person knows as Shadow as a figure that is there visible but untouchable unknowable by the time the last of the MERS were coming through the sun was at its highest point in the sky James reached up briefly to wipe the sweat out of his eyes and once he had he had opened them to the loveliest girl he had ever seen May the Old King find peace in the land of the spirits the girl said but she did not reach for his hand what's this James asked you do not Shake respectfully I will not shake the hand of a slaver she said she looked him in the eye as he spoke and James studied her face her hair was worn in a puff at the top of her head and her words had whistled through a gap between her front teeth though her morning cloth was wrapped tightly it had slid a little low so James could just make out the tops of her breasts he should have slapped her for her insolence reported her but the line continued on behind her and the funeral had to continue too James let her move on tried to watch her as she continued on the line but before long he lost her in the crowd he lost her but he could not forget her even as the line moved on and the rest of the people came by to shake his hand James was by turns annoyed and ashamed by what she had said did she shake his father's hand his uncle who was she to decide what a slaver was James had spent his whole life listening to his parents argue about who was better Ashanti or fany but the matter could never come down to Slaves the ashantis had power from capturing slaves the fonty had protection from Trading them if the girl could not Shake his hand then surely she could never touch her own they finally laid o banso the Old King to rest the gong was rung to let the town's people know that it was done so they could all return to their normal lives it would not be over for the family members for another 40 Days for another 40 days they would wear the morning clothes sort through and divide the gifts and worry over the king's successor James parents would be leaving within the next couple days and James knew that he didn't have much time to find the girl who had refused to shake his hand he went to his cousin kwami kwami was approaching 20 years old and already married twice he was fat dark man who spoke loudly and drank often but he was kind and loyal James and his family had visited once when James was only seven he and quam had been playing in their father's grandfather's golden stool room a room men had been killed for entering Uninvited a room that had been expressively forbidden to them while playing James had knocked over one of their grandfather's canes in one of those coincidences that could only be attributed to evil spirits the can had landed in the palm oil lamp Catching Fire and the two boys worked quickly to put it out smelling the fire the whole family had come to see what was going on who is responsible for this their grandfather shouted he had been a Shanti King for so long that his voice seemed no longer human more like the Roar of the L A lion James had looked down immediately expecting kwami to tell on him he was The Outsider only in town once every few years kwami was the one who had to live there with they're lying of a grandfather and his quick powerful rage but kwami had said nothing even as their mothers laid them across their laps and beat them in unison kwami still said nothing kwami I need to find a girl James said cousin you have come to the right place kwami said laughing loudly I know every girl who walks in this town describe her to me so James did and when he had finished his cousin told him who she was and where he could find her James went out into the town he barely knew looking for the girl he had met but once he knew knew his cousin would keep his secret for her when James found her she was carrying water in a bucket on the top of her head heading back toward her family Hut she did not seem surprised to see him and she was confident that whatever he felt during their brief time together she had felt it too can I help you with that James asked pointed to the bucket she shook her head horrified no please you shouldn't be doing this kind of work call me James James she repeated rolling the strange name around in her mouth testing it as though it were a bitter melon hitting the back of her tongue James and you are aosa Mena she said the two kept walking the few towns people who recognized James stopped to bow or stare but mostly people went on about their daily lives fetching water and carrying wood back for their fires it was a 10-mile walk from the stream to aosa Hut in the bush on the outskirts of town and James was determined to learn everything there was to know about her why would you not Shake my hand at the King's funeral James asked I told you I will not shake the hand of a fonty slaver and am I a slaver James asked trying to keep his anger from entering his voice if I'm a fany am I not also a Shanti was my grandfather not your king she smiled at him I am one of 13 children now there are only 10 of us who remain when I was a small girl there was a war between my Village and another they took three of my brothers they walked in silence for a few minutes longer James was sorry her loss but he knew too that all loss is just a part of life even his mother important as she was had once been captured stolen from her family and planted in anothers if your village had won that war would you have not taken three of someone else's Brothers James asked unable to resist the question aosa looked away the bucket on her head was so steady James wondered what it would take to knock it down maybe wind maybe an insect I know what you're thinking she finally said everyone is a part of this Ashanti FY GA British Dutch America and you are not wrong to think like this it is how we are all taught to think but I do not want to think this way when my brothers and the other people were taken my Village mourned them as we redoubled our military efforts and what does that say we avenge lost lives by taking more it doesn't make sense to me they stopped walking so that she could adjust her wrapper for the second time that day James tried as hard as he could not to look at her breasts she continued I love my people James she said and his name on her tongue was in indescribably sweet I am proud to be a Shanti as I am sure you are proud to be fonty but after I lost my brothers I decided that as for me aosa I will be my own Nation as James listened to her speak he felt something well up inside of him as it never had done before if he could he would listen to her speak forever if he could he would join that Nation she spoke of they walked further the sun was getting even lower in the sky and James knew it would be impossible for him to make it home before nightfall still they slowed down so that it seemed their feet were not even moving at all really just coasting slowly as though their bodies were being lifted and flown awkwardly by the mosquitoes they could feel buzzed around them are you promised to anyone James asked aosa glanced shyly at him my father does not believe in promising a girl before her body has shown that she is ready and I have not yet receive my blood James thought about his own wife to be back home in his village selected for him because of her status he would never be happy with her and his marriage would be a Loveless and biting one like that of his parents but he knew his parents would never approve of aosa not even as a third or fourth right wife she had nothing she came from nowhere nothing from nowhere it was something that his grandmother AIA used to say on nights when she seemed most sad James couldn't remember a day when he hadn't seen AIA and all black nor a night when he hadn't heard heard her faint crying when he was still a small boy he had spent a weekend with her at her house near the castle in the middle of the night he had woken up and heard her crying in her room he had gone to her and wrapped her into a hug as tight as his little arms could muster why are you crying mama he asked touching his fingers to her face trying to catch some of the tears to blow and make a wish as his mother sometimes did when he cried have you heard the story of babba my own she asked pulling him onto her lap and rocking him back and forth that was the first night James heard it but it wasn't the last now James grabbed osa's hand stopped her from moving the bucket on her head began to sway and she lifted her hands to study it I went to marry you James said they were only steps away from the girl's Hut he could see it through the bushes young children were wrestling each other in the mud coming up their faces caked in brown a man stood chopping tall grass with his machete each time the blade hit the ground it shook the Earth James thought he could feel it move under his feet how can you marry me James the girl said she looked worried now her eyes stealing over to where her family waited if she was too late with the water her mother would beat her and then yell at her until dawn no one would believe that she had been with the Ashanti King's grandson and if they did believe it they would only Smell Trouble when your blood comes you must tell no one you must hide it I'm leaving tomorrow but I will come back for you and we will leave this town together start a new life in a small village where no one knows us aosa was still looking at her family and he knew how crazy he sounded and he knew how much he was asking her to give up the Ashanti puberty puberty rights were a serious matter there was a week-long ceremony to bless the girl's fresh Womanhood the rules thereafter were strict women in menes could not visit the stool houses could not cross certain Rivers they lived in separate houses and painted their wrists with bright white clay on the days they bled if anyone found out that a woman had bled but not told the punishment would be great do you trust me James asked knowing it was question he had no right to ask no Osa finally answered trust is a thing to be earned I don't trust you I have seen what power can do to men and you are one from the most powerful families James head grew light he felt faint like he would soon fall but aosa continued if you come back for me then you will earn my trust James nodded slowly understanding he would be back in his village by the end of the month at his own wedding by the end of the year a war would continue and nothing not his life nor his heart was guaranteed but listening to aosa speak he knew he would make a way James could not explain to Amma why he did not want to sleep in her hut they had been married for 3 months and his excuses were wearing thin on their wedding night he had told her he was ill for the entire week after his body had taken over the excuse making for him his penis lying limp between his legs each time he went to her even on the nights he she braided her hair the way he liked and rubbed coconut oil on her breasts and between her thighs after that week he had spent another two pretending to be too embarrassed to go to her but soon that too had failed him you must go to see the Apothecary there are herbs you can take to help with this if I do not get pregnant soon people will start to believe there's something wrong with me Amma said he felt bad for her it was true failure to conceive was always believed to be the woman's fault a punishment for infidelity or loose morals but in these few short months James had gotten to know his wife well she would soon to tell everyone in the village that there was something wrong with him and the word would get back to his father and mother that he had not yet fulfilled his husbandly duties he could hear his mother now oh and yamy what have I done to deserve this first a weak husband and now a weak son James knew he would have to figure out something soon if he wanted to remain faithful to the memory of aosa it was a memory he gripped tightly it had been nearly a year since James had promised aosa that he would come back for her and he had come no closer to creating a plan to fulfill that promise the ashantis were winning a battle after battle against the British and people of his village had begun to murmur that maybe the ashantis would win against the white men and then what would more white men come to replace the ones who had died who would protect them if the ashantis came to meet them to finally exact revenge for abiku Badu and Fifi's grievances towards them they had made an alliance with the British so long ago maybe the white men had already forgotten James had not forgotten Noosa he could see her every night when he slept her lips and eyes and legs and buttocks moving across the field of his closed eyes in his own Hut on the outer edge of the compound which he had built for himself and Amma and the other wives who were supposed to follow he had not forgotten how much he had loved being in his grandfather's Town among the ashantis the warmth he'd felt from his mother's people the longer he stayed in fonty land the sooner he wished to get away to lead a simpler Life as a farmer like aa's father not as a politician like his own father whose work for the British and fonty so many years before had left him with money and power but little else James are you listening to me Amma said she was stirring a pot of pepper soup a wrapper slung across her waist her back leaning forward so it seemed her bare breasts would dip into the broth yes darling you are right James said tomorrow I will go see Mama pen Amma nodded her head satisfied mama payen was the premier Apothecary for hundreds of miles around Junior wives sent went with her to her when they wished to quietly kill the senior wives younger brothers went when they wanted to be chosen as successor over their Elder brothers from the Ocean's Edge to the Inland Forest people went to her when they had a problem that prayers alone could not fix James saw her on a Thursday his father and many others had always called the woman a witch doctor and she seemed to physically embody that role she was missing all but her four front teeth evenly spaced as though they were chased all as though they had chased all the other teeth out of her mouth and then joined together in the middle triumphant her back was perpetually hunched forward and she walked with a cane that made out of was made out of a rich black wood carved to look like a snake was coiled around it one of her eyes always looked away and try as hard as he might moving his head this way and that James could not convince that eye to greet him what is this man doing here M payen asked air James cleared his throat unsure if he should speak M payen sat spit on the ground more Flem than saliva what does this man want with manayen can he not leave her in peace he who does not even believe in her powers auntie manayen I have come from my Village at my wife's request she would like me to take some herbs so that we can make a baby he had rehearsed his speech on the journey there about how he wanted to make his wife happy while also making himself happy but the words eluded him he could hear the uncertainty the fear in his voice and he cursed himself for it he calls me auntie he whose family sells our people to the whites abroad he dares to call me auntie that was my father and grandfather's work it's not mine he didn't add to that because of their work he didn't have to work but instead he could live the family's name and power she watched him with her good eye in your mind you call me witch eh everyone calls you witch tell me is M pen the one who lay down for a white man to open her legs the white men might have left had they not tasted our women the white man will stay until there's no more money to be made eh now you speak of money M payan has already said she knows of your family makes money by sending your brothers and sisters over to abuk to be treated like animals America's not the only place with slaves James said quietly he had heard his father say it to David before but when they talked about the atrocities of the American South that he had read in the Abolitionist British papers the way they treat slaves in America My Brother David had said it's unfathomable unfathomable we do not have slavery like that here not like that James skin was starting to feel warm but the sun had already dipped underneath the Earth he wished he could turn and leave mpay Yen's wondering eye had landed on the tree in the distance then moved up to the sky then just past Jam's left ear I don't want to do the work of my family I don't want to be one with the British she spit again then focused her roving eye directly onto him and he began to sweat once she had finished her eye returned to its ambling finally satisfied with what it had seen in him your penis does not work because you don't want it to work my medicine is only for those who want you speak of what you don't want but there is something you want it was not a question James didn't think he could trust her and yet he knew that with her bad eye she had seen him really seen him and since he had not been able to make the earth move on its own he decided to trust the witch doctor to help him move it I want to leave my family and move to a Shany land I want to marry a kosa Mena and work as a farmer or something small small M payen laughed the son of big man wants to live small small eh she left him standing outside and went to her Hut when she came back she was carrying two small clay pots that had flies buzzing around the tops of them James could smell them from where she stood she sat on a chair and began swirling her index finger inside one of the pots she pulled her finger back out and licked what was on it James gagged if you do not want your wife why' you marry her maayan asked I was required to marry hers that our families could finally join James said wasn't it obvious she herself had said it he was the son of a big man there were things he had to do things he had to be seen doing so that everyone would know that his family was still important what he wanted what he most wanted was to disappear his father had seven other sons who could marry the Archer or who could carry on the arer Collins Legacy he wanted to be a Man Without a name I want to leave my family without them knowing I have left them he said M payen spit on the pot and then mixed it again her good eye looked up at James is this possible Auntie they say that you make things impossible things possible she laughed again H but they say that about anasi about iny about the white men I can only make the possible attainable do you see the difference he nodded and then she smiled the first smile she had given him since his arrival she beckoned him toward her and he went hoping that she would not ask him to eat whatever was in that stinking pot she motioned for him to sit before her and he did so wordlessly his parents would not like how he was stooped below her in her seat so that it seemed she was higher born one than him he could hear his mother's voice saying stand but he kept kneeling perhaps maay Yen could make it so that neither his mother's voice nor his fathers would ever be in his head again you have come here asking me what to do but you already know how to leave without anyone knowing you've left M payen said James was quiet it was true he had thought of ways to make his family think he had gone to asando when really he had journeyed elsewhere the best idea the most dangerous was to join The NeverEnding Ashanti British war everyone knew about the war how it seemed it would never end how the white men were weaker than everyone once thought even with their large castle made of stone people think they are coming to me for advice manayen said but really they come to me for permission if you want to do something do it the ashantis will be in utu soon this I know she was no longer looking at him instead she focused on the contents of the pot there was no way this woman could know what the plans of the ashantis were theirs was the most powerful Army in all of Africa it was said that when the white men first came upon the Ashanti Warriors in their bare chests and their loose cloth wraps they had laughed saying are these not the cloths our women would wear they had prided themselves in their guns and their uniforms the button- down jackets and trousers then the ashantis had slaughtered them by the hundreds cut out the hearts of their military leaders and eaten them for strength after that at least one British soldier could be seen wetting those trousers once they praised as he returned from the men they once underestimated if all they said about the Ashanti Army was true it was impossible that they would be poorly organized enough to let a fonty fetish woman know of their plans James knew that her roving eye had found itself in utu in the future and had seen him there just as it had seen his heart's desire just then but still James did not go to utu Amma was waiting for him when he went back home what did M payen say his wife said she said you must be patient with me he said and his wife huffed dissatisfied James knew she would spend the rest of the day gossiping with her girlfriends about him for a week James was miserable he started to have doubts about aosa about his wish to live a small life was his life now so bad he could stay in the village he could continue to work of the work of his father James had all but decided to do this when his grandmother came over to eat one night AIA was an old lady and yet it was still possible to see the youth that once somewhere that was once somewhere beneath the many lines on her face she had insisted on living in Cape Coast in the house her husband had built even after Quay had grown prominent in her Village she said she would never again live in the village that evil had built as they all ate outside in qu's compound James could feel his grandmother watching him and after the house girls and boys had all come to collect their dishes and James grandfather and mother had retired for the evening he could feel his grandmother watching him still what's wrong my own child she asked when the two of them were finally alone James didn't speak the Fufu they had eaten sat like a rock at the bottom of his belly and he thought it would make him sick he looked at his grandmother they said she was once so beautiful that the castle Governor would have burned their whole village down just to get to her he tou she touched the black stone necklace she wore at her neck and then reached for James's hand you are not content she asked and James could feel the pressure behind his eyes as tears threatened to break through he squeezed his grandmother's hand I have heard my mother call my father weak my whole life but what if I'm just like him James said he expected his grandmother to react but she remained silent I want to be my own Nation he knew she wouldn't be able to understand what he said and yet it seemed seemed that she had heard him even though he spoke in a whisper she heard him his grandmother didn't speak at first just watched him we are all weak most of the time she said finally look at the baby born to his mother he learns how to eat from her how to walk talk hunt run he does not invent new ways he just continues with the old this is how we all come to the world James weak and needy desperate to learn how to be a person she smiled at him but if we do not like the person we have learned be should we just sit in front of our fuu doing nothing I think James that maybe it is possible to make a new way she kept smiling the sun was setting behind them and James finally let himself cry in front of his grandmother and so the next day James told his family that he was going back to Cape Coast with AIA but instead he went to autu he found work with a doctor whom his grandmother knew who had worked for the British when she lived in the castle all James had to do was tell him that he was James Colin's grandson and he immediately received work and had a place to stay the doctor was a was Scottish and so old he could hardly walk upright let alone heal illnesses without catching them he had moved to autu after working for the company for only one year he spoke fluent fonty had built his compound himself from the ground up and had remained unmarried even though many of the local women had brought their young daughters to him as offerings to the town's people he was a m mystery but they had grown fond of him affectionately called him the white doctor it was James's job to help keep the medicine room clean the white Doctor's Medical Hut was next to his living quarters and it was small enough so that he didn't really need James's help at all James swept organized the medicines washed the rags sometimes in the evenings he would cook a simple meal for the two of them and they would sit in the yard facing the dirt stretch of the road while the white doctor told stories about his time in the castle you look just like your grandmother what was it the locals used to call her he scratched his fine white hair the beauty AIA the beauty right James nodded trying to see her through the doctor's eyes your grandfather was so excited to marry her I remember the night before she was to come to the castle we took James to a company store just as the sun was going down and he drank up almost all the liquor shipment James had to tell the bosses back in England that the ship had transported the liquor had sunk or been taken over by Pirates something like that it was a great night for all of us a little rabble rousing and Africa a dreamy look came over his face and James wondered if the old man had gotten the adventure he seemed to have been chasing here in the Gold Coast in a month James would get what he had been chasing the call came in the middle of the night fast-paced high pitched panting and shrieking as the Watchmen of utu went from Hut to Hut shouting that the ashantis were coming the British and fonty armies stationed there sent out word for backup to join them but the panic in the watchman's eyes told James that the ashantis were closer than any help could be be already by that point Villages throughout font land Gand and denira had been living in fear of Ashanti raids British shoulders had been stationed intermittently in the towns and Villages surrounding Cape Coast their goal was to keep the Ashanti from storming the castle lest they do it successfully but utu only a week's Journey from the ghost was too close for comfort you must run James shouted at the white doctor the old man had lit a palm oil lamp next to his cot and pulled out leatherbound book reading with his spectacles perched at the tip of his nose they will kill you when they see you they will not care if you are old the white doctor turned the page he didn't look up at James as he waved goodbye James shook his head and he left the Hut manayen had told him that he would know what to do when the time came and yet here he was so panicked he could hardly breathe he could feel the warmth liquid traveling down his legs as he ran he could not think he could not think quickly enough to devise a plan and before he knew it shots were being fired all around him the birds took flight black and red and blue and green cloud of wings descending James wanted to hide he couldn't remember what had been so bad about his old life he could learn to love Amma he had spent so much time seeing the bad of his parents' marriage that he assumed there had to be something better what if there wasn't had he trusted a witch with his happiness with his life now he would surely Die James woke up in the bush of some unknown Forest his arms and legs achd and his head felt as though it had been beaten by a rock he sat there disoriented for countless minutes then an Ashanti Warrior was behind him or beside him so quiet in his approach that James did not notice him until he was standing over him you are not dead the warrior asked are you hurt how could James tell a warrior like this that he had a headache he said no you are o bonso's grandson are you not I remember you from his funeral I have never forgotten to face James wished he would lower his voice but he didn't say anything what were you doing in autu the Warrior asked does anyone know I'm alive James asked ignoring the man's question no a warrior hit your head with a rock you didn't move so they threw you in the dead pile we aren't supposed to touch the pile but I recognize your face and took you out so that I could send your body back to your people I hid you here so that no one would know I touched the dead I didn't know you were still alive listen to me I died in this war James said the Man's eyes grew so they looked like Echoes off the moon what you must tell everyone I died in this war will you do that the warrior shook his head he said no over and over and over again but ultimately he would do it James knew he would do it and when he did it would be the last time James would ever use his power to make another do his bidding for the rest of the month James traveled to a Shany land he slept in caves and hidden trees he asked for help when he saw people in the Bushland telling them he was a lowly farmer who had gotten lost and when he finally got to aosa on the 40th Day of his travels he found her waiting for him