Alex Kava - Exposed

Lake Victoria
Uganda, Africa

Waheem was already bleeding when he boarded the crowded motorboat. He kept a bloodstained rag wadded up and pressed against his nose, hoping the other passengers wouldnt notice. Earlier the boats owner, the man islanders called Pastor Roy, had helped Waheem load his rusted cage stuffed full of monkeys onto the last available space. But not even a mile from shore and Waheem noticed Pastor Roy glancing back and forth from his wifes tight smile to the blood now dripping down the front of Waheems shirt. Pastor Roy looked like he regretted offering Waheem the last seat.

Nosebleeds seem common on these islands, Pastor Roy said, almost a question, giving Waheem a chance to explain.

Waheem nodded like he had no idea what the man had said. He understood English perfectly but pretended otherwise. There wouldnt be another charcoal or banana boat for two days, so he was grateful for his good fortune, grateful that Pastor Roy and his wife allowed him on board, especially with his cage of monkeys. But Waheem knew it would be a forty-minute trip from Buvuma Island to Jinja and he preferred silence to the pastors chatter about Jesus. All the others had boarded first, so Waheem was stuck sitting up front, in salvation range. He didnt want to encourage the pastor to think he might save one more soul on the trip across the lake.

Besides, the othersa sad assortment of women and barefoot children and one blind old manlooked much more like they needed saving. Despite the bloody nose and the sudden throbbing pain inside his head, Waheem was young and strong and if things went as planned, he and his family would be rich, buying a shamba of their own instead of breaking their backs working for others.

God is here, Pastor Roy called out, evidently not needing any encouragement. He steered the boat with one hand and waved the other at the islands surrounding them in the distance, beginning one of his sermons.

The other passengers all bowed their heads, almost an involuntary response to the mans voice. Perhaps they considered their reverence a small fee for passage on the pastors boat. Waheem bowed his head, too, but watched from behind his blood-soaked rag, pretending to listen and trying to ignore the stink of monkey urine and the occasional spatter of his own warm blood dripping down his chin. He noticed the blind mans eyes, white blurry globes that darted back and forth while his wrinkled lips twitched, but there was only a mumbled hum, perhaps a prayer. A woman beside Waheem held tight the top of a burlap bag that moved on its own and smelled of wet chicken feathers. Everyone was quiet except for three little girls on the back of the boat who smiled and swayed. They were singing softly in a whispered chant. Even in their playfulness they were evidently aware that they shouldnt disturb the pastors words.

God hasnt forgotten you people, Pastor Roy continued, and neither will I.

Waheem glanced at Pastor Roys wife. She didnt seem to be paying any attention to her husband. She sat next to him at the front of the boat, rubbing her bare white arms with clear liquid from a plastic bottle, stopping every few seconds to pick tsetse flies from her silky, long hair.

All of Lake Victorias islands are filled with the outcasts, the poor, the criminals, the sick He paused and nodded at Waheem as if to differentiate his handicap from the rest of the list. But I see only Jesus children, waiting to be saved.

Waheem didnt correct the pastor. He didnt consider himself one of Buvumas diseased outcasts, though there were plenty of them. It wasnt unusual to see someone sick or covered with lesions, open sores. The islands were a last resort for many. But not Waheem. He had never been sick a day of his life, at least not before the vomiting started last night.

It had gone on for hours. His stomach ached from the reminder. He didnt like thinking about the black vomit speckled with chunks of blood. He worried that he had thrown up pieces of his insides. Thats what it felt like. Now his head throbbed and his nose wouldnt stop bleeding. He readjusted the rag, trying to find a spot that wasnt soiled. Blood dripped onto his dusty foot and he found himself staring at the pastors shiny leather shoes. Waheem wondered how Pastor Roy expected to save anyone without getting his shoes dirty.

It didnt matter. Waheem cared only about getting his monkeys to Jinja in time to meet the American, a businessman dressed in equally shiny leather shoes. The man had promised Waheem a fortune. At least it was a fortune to Waheem. The American had agreed to pay him more money for each monkey than Waheem and his father could make in a whole year.

He wished he had been able to capture more, but it had taken almost two days to secure the three he had shoved together into the metal cage. To look at them now no one would believe the struggle he had gone through. Waheem knew from experience that monkeys had sharp teeth and if they wrapped their tails around a mans neck they could slash his face to shreds in a matter of minutes. Hed learned that much from the two short months he had worked for Okbar, the rich monkey trader from Jinja.

The job had been a good one, but there were nets and tranquilizer guns that Okbar had provided that made it seem simple. Waheems main responsibility was to load up the sick monkeys the British veterinarian expelled out of the shipments; shipments that included hundreds of monkeys that would go onto a cargo plane destined for research labs in the United Kingdom and the United States.

The veterinarian thought Waheem loaded up the monkeys and took them away to be killed, but Okbar called that an outrageous waste. So instead of killing the monkeys, Okbar instructed Waheem to take the poor sick ones to an island in Lake Victoria and set them free. Sometimes when Okbar came up short of monkeys for a shipment he had Waheem go out to the island and get a few of the sick ones. Oftentimes the veterinarian didnt even notice.

But now Okbar was gone. It had been months since anyone had seen him. Waheem wasnt sure where he had gone. One day his small, messy office in Jinja was empty, all the file cabinets, the metal desk, the tranquilizer guns and nets, everything gone. No one knew what had happened to Okbar. And Waheem was out of a job. Hed never forget the disappointment in his fathers eyes. They would have to return to the fields and work long days to make up for the job that Waheem had lost.