Up the Mountain to See the Waterfall

Chapter 1

Julia was forking at the bits of her fried sweet potato. She stirred it in the red pepper and shitto until it was smeared in it’s stewy essence. Her mother was droning on about something to do with the longer more treacherous path to the waterfalls. Her sister, Lisa, was engaging. It was her turn, as Julia saw it. She lifted her hand to grab her mother’s Club beer still perspiring a lovely inviting sweat. Her mother eyed her movement toward the bottle. It was just beer, she didn’t have to be so ‘eyes on’ about it. It wasn’t like it was her first anyway. She finally spared the sweet potato any more shame of dragging its body through the pepper and munched into it. Ever since her mother introduced her to it, she had fallen in love with the ‘white’ sweet potato, as they called it in Ghana. But the pepper. She couldn’t stand it.

But she wanted to.

She munched and munched and finally made a fresh move toward the beer for some salvation from the spice. But her mother’s stare found her, again. Ignoring her mother’s subtle disdain, Julia took a larger gulp and fanned her tongue afterward. Her mother closed her eyes. Opened them. Then continued talking to Lisa.

Julia forked another potato from the main dish. She was to continue her slow torture until her attention was caught by a red car turning into the Lodge’s compound. The pack of mangy dogs lazing around by the security post drew up their tails and their noses. They followed the car as it parked beside the owner’s of the Lodge’s pickup.

Out stepped a caramel-skinned man with dark shades, a short sharp faded haircut, and a slightly built form. The man stretched his lean but taut limbs and smiled a big wide smile taking in the nature around him. Julia had done the same upon her arrival as well. One big breath of Wli. The man turned and bent into the car to turn it off and gestured to someone inside. A moment later, a lady arose from out of the car. She too was of caramel skin, but fairer. Long braided hair snaked from her dainty head down her lean body, down to the hump of her butt. Her face, half covered by big eyed diva shades. Her lips slightly parted to expose two large front teeth. The lady seemed to flow into the compound. Opening her arms up to the sky, her gown billowing to the wind. As the wind relented, the fabric rested on the lady’s body, the nipples of her breast poking ever so delightfully.

Julia turned her face away.

“Julia, I really don’t like when you play with your food,” her mother scowled.

Julia abided and dropped the fork. She gave one last glimpse at the couple who were now being helped with their bags by the staff lady, Miriam. The dogs having been shooed back to their post. Julia followed the couple with her eyes as they were taken to the room beside her’s and her sister. After Miriam had dropped their bags, with the door just ajar enough, she saw the couple embrace and share a long smothering kiss. Julia took another sip of her mom’s beer and then a bite of the potato coating it in a small dip of red pepper.

Chapter 2

“Are you excited about the hike tomorrow morning?” Lisa asked clutching a pillow to her body.

“I guess so,” Julia flung back at her sister. She was laying on her back, absentmindedly staring at the ceiling fan. Their mother had seized their phones for the family vacation. They were to bond and be present.

“What do you mean, you guess?”

“We will go tomorrow and see, won’t we?”

“I am excited, but also a bit scared, you know?” Lisa continued.

“There is a part of the way that gets very narrow and all you can see is the drop down on your side… that is what the man who owns the lodge was saying,” Julia dug into her sister’s anxieties. “People have fallen and died.”

“Stop it! That’s not nice!” Lisa balled her fists even tighter around the pillow.

Julia laughed a shrill laugh then leaned in to pet her sister.

“Dear-dear sister. Worst comes to worst there will be some trees to break your fall before you hit the ground.”

“You are awful!” Lisa pushed Julia away from her. Julia took heed and decided to stop twisting the knife into her younger sister. The truth was that she had not thought much about it since they came. She had decided to just push it to the back of her mind until it was upon her and she was doing it. That is, on the hike up the mountain to the waterfalls. Being present, as her mother had advised. Lisa got up to put off the room light and tucked herself into bed. Julia wiggled herself deeper into the covers. The nice cool evening air being whirled into a chill by the fan.

She closed her eyes.

It was a while before she realized that she was still awake. She lifted herself up and without much thought got up and left the room.

Outside was a calm night but for an occasional wind that pushed the flappy leaves of the plantain trees into a shiver. There were no stars. Stark clouds of mountainous proportions steadily crawled across. Julia was making her way to the large hut in the middle of the lodge where she and her family had sat earlier to eat when her ears caught a sound. She stopped.

It wasn’t just a sound. It was continuous. Rhythmic. At this hour, there could be many sources or explanations for this sound. The world of the night brought more secret hidden threads into existence than the world of the day.

Her heart fluttered as she picked it up again. It sounded like breathing. Her mind had been tuned to one explanation for this. Conditioned even. From earlier in the day.

Julia placed her hand on her chest.

She turned to the hut by her and her sister’s room. It stood there motionless. Raffia to make the roof. Rammed earth for the walls. Circular in shape. An inanimate thing. But it was alive.

She stepped towards it. Her naked feet collecting the cold moist off the grass. Her hand was still on her chest. She stuck out her head to peep through the window. She saw a room littered with a sparing amount of clothing, water bottles, packs of tubberware, and discarded shoes.

But no humans.

Julia pulled herself then padded round the shape of the hut. She was underneath a higher narrower window. The window was too high for her to get a peep through. She searched around. The stark clouds collected and reflected a whiteness that was enough for her to spot a rock not so far from the security fence of the lodge. Wide enough for her foot? Tall enough to make a difference?

She picked it up and placed it against the wall. Her right foot on. Careful not to slip. The left foot up against the rough coating of the wall. Her hands on the windowsill, to give her the needed elevation. She poked her eyes through and saw the shower head spray water on the naked bodies of the couple. The woman’s braids clutched by the man. Her body bent over. Her legs apart. Her nipples fiercely stiff. The man behind her. Pounding. Steadily. Firmly. The loose parts of their bodies rippling. The man’s eyes caught hers.

Down.

Her hand at her mouth. She grabbed the stone and tossed it but immediately regretted as it made an audible thud on the wet ground. She ran back the short distance to her room. Slipped back into the bed beside her sister and laid there. She wished she had wiped her feet at least. The earth caught between her toes icky. Her eyes wide open. Her hand on her heart.

Chapter 3

Lisa was up before Julia, making an inexcusable amount of noise. Julia could not squeeze the noise out and had to eventually accept she was awake. She spared a look outside. The window framed a scene of gathering dark clouds. Lisa stepped out of the bathroom with her toothbrush in mouth.

“Can you make anymore noise!?” Julia snapped.

“We have to be quick if we want to walk up the mountain to the falls,” Lisa gurgled.

“It looks like rain. Has mama come in?”

“She woke me up earlier, yes. She is going to ask if it's advisable we go or not.”

Lisa went into the bathroom spat out the toothpaste then returned.

“I am going to have some breakfast. See you there.”

Julia crawled out of bed and began making herself ready for the day. She removed her clothes and kicked them into the corner of the room. Then she stepped into the bathroom and looked at her budding body in the mirror. Her hands made their way down her hips then between her thighs. She cupped her ass and turned it toward the mirror. There was a hump there. Somehow. She felt her skin up and rubbed her forming breasts. Like gentle hills they made for a serene landscape even if slightly flat.

After this initial exploration, she stepped underneath the shower. The water sprayed on her face and she closed her eyes, allowing the water to run down her body, caressing her form. The serene landscapes. The gentle hills. The valley where all things flowed and everything emanated from.

Her mind flicked back to what she had seen last night. But in place of the lady, it was her. She was being bent over. She was being pounded. Throbbing. The water was cold. Too cold. Her hands rubbed her breast again and felt her nipples hardening. The water was tickling her. She massaged her body. Then faster. Deeper. Frantically digging her fingers into her skin, pinching the inside of her thighs. Just an inch away.

Danger.

She stopped the shower.

She needed to hurry to join her mom and sister.

***

Stepping out of the room a brisk wind welcomed Julia to the day. On her left was the path to where her sister and mom were. On the right, to the couple’s hut.

A little way beside the couple’s hut was a patch of short grass encircled by yet-to-be-identified fruit trees. Performing in the middle of this stage was the lady. She had a hola-hoop clutched in her hand and her body was primed for movement. Her braids were firmly tied in a bun and her body coated in a light film of sweat. Julia stepped toward the lady as she bent her arm, twisted, and in one motion had the hola-hoop twirling upward. Then down onto the axis of her hips then her neck then her arm and back again, upward. Then again. The next fling up to the sky was higher and into the dark underbelly of the clouds above. It was down by gravity’s law but against it, flying back up again, then finally circling around the orbit of the lady, as she twisted, flung, and kicked with the hoop not stopping in it’s circling.

The lady caught Julia’s staring eyes then stopped and looked plainly at her.

“Good morning,” Julia managed.

“Morning,” the lady pushed back. The hoop clutched in her hand.

“You are very good,” Lisa said.

The lady switched the hoop to her other hand.

“A lot of practice. Uninterrupted practice.”

The lady had a light fairy-like voice and eyes that did not relent. Julia looked away.

“I am sorry for disturbing you,” Julia said, deciding to turn back.

“Its okay… You get into the zone and then you come back into this world too suddenly… it can be disorienting,” the lady blinked allowing Julia a chance to re-establish eye contact.

“I can imagine.”

“What is your name?”

“I am Julia.”

“Nice to meet you Julia. You going to climb the mountain today?” The lady said nodding her head to the still visible mountain crowned by the ominous clouds.

“I don’t know. It looks like rain. My mom is asking if it’s safe to go today.”

“I dreamt of rain. I dreamt that there was so much rain it seemed the heavens were falling. And they did. But the mountain still stood, even after everything had come down. It still stood and the water in the falls was golden. Glittering…”

The lady untied her bun allowing her braids to wiggle free and snake their way down to her waist. Julia and the lady stood under the gathering darkness of the day for a little while until finally the lady said.

“I will go in now. Nice to meet you.”

Julia smiled, completed her turn, and walked toward her mother.

Chapter 4

It didn’t take an expert to conclude that it was not safe to go up the mountain. The rain fell in utter disrespect of the land. Beating. Whipping. An angry dispassionate outburst. Julia watched her mother’s lips move as she seemed to mouth what their new plan would be given this setback. Something along the lines of; wait until tomorrow morning, and if not, going down to Akosombo for a couple days, then try a day trip up to Wli one more time to hike the mountain. The sisters accepted the notion and almost as if in some cosmic confirmation of this renewed plan, lightning split the sky and thunder cracked the eardrums of the world.

The heavens were falling.

Julia was spooning her oatmeal then letting it pour back into her bowl when her mom sat by her side. She and Lisa had just finished their breakfast. Lisa was moving to the edge of the open hut, just away from the rain, to lay down on the bench chairs, feet up, to watch the movie of the storm. They were the only ones at the hut. The owners were in their house a little way away from the lodge’s accommodations. The dogs were cuddled under the metal sheet that was the security post. The security man himself was asleep, face down on his desk. Miriam and the other staff were assumedly in the kitchen.

“How are you, Julia?” Julia’s mother asked with a hand on her daughter’s.

Julia stopped her oatmeal waterfall and sat up.

“I am okay, mama,” Julia almost shrugged.

“You seem a little out there, or is that my imagination?”

Julia considered her mother. Her eyebrows tugged. Lips curved. Julia pulled her hand from underneath.

“I think my tummy is just a little sensitive. But I am fine, mama,” Julia smiled and decided to go for the shrug.

“Maybe it is the spices? You were never good with the spices. You had a lot yesterday…”

“It's not the spices…”

“Okay…”

“I am getting used to them now,” Julia continued.

“Okay, Julia.” Her mother got up and massaged her daughter’s shoulder. “If you want a beer, you can go ahead.”

“Thank you, mama,” Julia sang.

Then her mother shuffled to her sister’s side to join in watching the spectacle. Their backs turned to Julia who resumed her oatmeal waterfall as the storm raged on. Contracting the world and her thoughts until they were squished into a mush in her head, falling in lumps into a grey oatmeal-like pool of more mush.

From the corner of her eye a figure appeared.

It stalked up the pathway, blurred and hazed by the prism of downpour until it finally defined itself under the thatch roof of the open hut. The man. Soaked but for a radiant smile beaming from his face. Arms clasped on a bag that was clutched close to his body. He shook himself in a dog-like shiver then searched for a table. Miriam had moved all the unused ones into the house before the rain. The man acknowledged this and had to settle for the table Julia was sitting at.

“Is it okay if I sit here?” He asked with all his teeth showing.

“Yes, you may,” Julia responded, finding herself correcting her posture but thinking otherwise.

“Thank you,” the man sat, removed a notebook, and drew a pen out from a side pocket.

“Can I?” He asked again, pointing.

“Sorry?” Julia looked to find the point.

“Napkins to dry my hands.”

“Ah, of course. Yes, sure. Here…”

He wiped his arms from his elbows then in between his fingers. Satisfied, he crumbled the napkin, got up, and deposited it in the bin.

“It’s wonderful. The rain,” he awed as he sat down again.

“Yes, and very loud,” Julia cupped her ears.

The man laughed.

“While walking here in the rain, I thought, ‘wow! I feel alive!’ It’s a short walk but I had my mind set on getting here as soon as possible so as not to get too wet. But I was already too wet. So what was the point of getting here so quickly? There wasn’t any point. It is just what one is supposed to do when it rains. Seek shelter. But now I am here and I think maybe I should be there in the rain. It has taken away the point of getting here quickly. So I can now be free and be washed by it. Cleansed.” He was writing as he spoke.

Julia did not know what to say so she remained quiet.

He jotted down some more points as a lightning bolt shredded the sky and again thunder rumbled.

There was laughter from the edge of the hut. The rain had splashed on Julia’s mother and Lisa. They were both moderately wet but happy enough as they shot up and came towards Julia.

“Hello?” Julia’s mother stretched her hand to the man.

“Hello, I am Christopher. What a storm, right?” He gestured to the skies.

“It is a bit scary. But yes, also very beautiful in a way.” Julia’s mother replied, massaging her daughter’s shoulder. “Julia we are going inside to my room to play cards, you will join?”

“Yes, mama. In a moment.”

“Nice to meet you Christopher,” and they were both running into the rain down to her mother’s hut.

“Do you think it is scary? The rain?” Christopher asked Julia.

Julia looked out to the world around them. Trees slanted this way and that, as if drunk. Rivulets were forming all over the lodge’s terrain. Flowing down man-made and natural gutters. Cutting the world in its shape. The sky right on top of their heads.

One of the dogs sat up and crooned a long howl at the sky.

“I can see why someone can be scared.”

“I didn’t ask if someone can see it as scary. I asked if you think it’s scary,” he leaned back on his chair, his pen on its notepad.

Julia looked into his dark eyes.

“It is not scary for me.”

He was looking into her eyes too.

“Good,” he pushed toward his notepad and pulled the pen opener off his pen. He nibbled at its end, jotted down something, then placed it back on the notepad.

“Are you a writer or something?” Julia felt obliged to ask.

“I am a farmer,” he twitched his eyebrows.

“Oh! Okay? That is interesting. What do you grow?”

“I grow stories,” Christopher let the smile that had been threatening all the while to open up his face into a big boom of laughter.

Julia couldn’t help herself but laugh too.

“That was funny, right?”

“Yes, it is so silly it is quite funny,” Julia admitted.

“I practice all day. My lines. The delivery. The pause in between. Stand in front of the mirror and actually practice it. No joking. I like this socializing thing. Not the mundane hellos and thank yous. No, I mean the parts that get to the centre of someone. Their zen. In my mind I am thinking, how quickly can I get someone to lower their defenses, that’s if it’s someone I want to know, for me to get to this zen. So I use these tricks, one might say, tricks of conversations. Of using cues, sending good vibes, jokes,” he twitched his eyebrows again. “To cut through the walls and get to you,” he placed his hand on his heart, “and you get to see me.”

He was leaning toward Julia and everything seemed too close. The world. This man. His face. The hairs on his mustache. The pink of his lips. She remembered the previous night. Had he seen her?

“Did you like what you saw last night?” He leaned back, the smiled wiped off his face.

She did not break eye contact but her mind returned to the image of the lady bent over being pounded by Christopher under the shower. He was just ‘the man’ yesterday. But now he had a name. And she was saying it as she was being pounded in her fantasy. The spray of the shower cold. Their bodies hot. Her hands grasping for leverage.

“I … I …” her eye’s betrayed her and settled on her bowl of unfinished oatmeal. “I could not take my eyes of it. I do not know if I liked it or not. But I do not feel comfortable right now and would want to go if that’s okay.” Her eyes found Christopher’s again.

“Of course. I am sorry for making you feel uncomfortable.”

“It has been nice talking to you,” she said as she scooted up.

“If you are ever comfortable again with me, I am here.”

Julia wasn’t even thinking of the rain until its cold spray reminded her of its grip on the day.

“But…” Christopher started before she could submerge. She turned to look at him. “I too felt uncomfortable with what you did. Spying on us like that.” And again, that smile of his spreading over his face like dawn’s rays.

Julia stepped into the rain and was instantly wet. She lifted her face up. The cold rain sent shrills through her skin with such immediacy it was at first a shock but then became a serene pleasure. And as it lashed on her in its continuous flurry, she became aware of herself. Less as Julia and more of someone, or something, that was merging with the world around her. Under the rain. Under the gaze of the mountain.

Chapter 5

Like an off switch had been flicked, the world of rain was displaced by the sheen and heat of an angered sun. Unhappy at how it’s wield of the earth had been ripped from it by the clouds. The air grew humid as Julia trekked behind her sister, who in turn was on the heels of their mother and the guide. The guide was brazenly walking the hill with just his chale wotes along with a softly hummed tune and his four legged companion, Max, the dog.

It seemed the gods had indeed wanted them to climb this day. The earth was soft in some places but hard in others after the rain yesterday, allowing the family to make good headway through the thick of the forest at the base of the mountain. But as the steps continued up, the incline increased, and breaths became labored, trees less dense and the sun ever more present. Its anger more scornful.

“Can we stop for a moment,” Lisa moaned, stabbing the walking stick the guide had broken for her into the soil and seating herself on a conveniently placed rock.

“Sure. And let us re-apply the sunscreen,” their mother added, pulling her backpack down and handing them each a tub of cream. She offered one to the guide who had climbed up to check whether their route was still traversable after the rain. He politely refused.

“My skin is black madam, I don’t need it,” he smiled, kicking his chale wotes off then slipping them on again.

“You can also get skin cancer no matter the color of your skin,” Julia’s mother insisted, collecting the tubes from her daughters before shooting the young guide a concerned look.

“We here have walked up and down on this mountain in the sun for many years. From a young age to old. We are healthy and live well,” he smiled.

Julia saw her mother make an attempt to respond. She didn’t understand why she had to nag and impose. She didn’t need to. Just let the guy do as he pleased. Let him be. ‘Why bring our German and foreign ideas to these people who are just happy to live their lives as they want,’ she thought.

Julia scowled at her mother who glanced her way, then stopped whatever point she was going to make about scientific facts.

“Okay! Lets go,” Lisa was up on her feet and they were on their way again.

“Did you want to go the way around the Togo border? Or the one over the mountain to the high waterfall? Or you want to do the short one, to the big waterfall?”

“I think we paid for the one over the mountain. To the higher falls,” Julia’s mother replied.

“To go to the Togo border, we might encounter some border patrols. They will ask for your documents. Sometimes, they can cause problems.”

“We have them.”

Julia had the impression that the guide was pushing for the shortest time spent with her family.

“Which one is the one that is most dangerous,” Lisa piped.

“I don’t get you?”

“The man at the Wli Lodge said that there is a route that is very narrow at the top,” Julia’s mother clarified.

“Aaahh! Oh! Mmm, you don’t worry. You want the higher falls?”

Lisa nodded and her mother as well. Julia kept her face indifferent but nudged her chin up to say ‘let's get moving then.’ The sweat on her body profuse and the material of her clothes clinging.

They marched onwards.

***

She had convinced herself that she wouldn’t be bothered by this alleged ‘dangerous’ passage. Or rather, Julia just did as much as she could not to think of it. Pushing it to the back of her mind. Her newly adopted philosophy of the ‘now’ that her mother had introduced felt good to her young mind. Of living in the moment. But the moment was soon arising where she would have to live in the danger of crossing the narrow passage. They were about reaching the ridge of the mountain and it could almost be taken for granted where they were in the world and how they could literally see it from far and wide. Julia did just this. Having reached a natural break, the rest of the group slightly ahead, on the path up under the shade of trees, she stopped and let her eyes adjust to the view around her. A sea of green. Trees for eons on all sides. A communication tower poking up to the sky to the east. Towns with roofing sheets glittering under the sun, spotted across the green sea. Thin strings of grid lines connecting each town. The odd solitary bird, gliding listlessly under the blue sky.

“Come on,” the guide called to Julia. She heard a panting breath and looked down to see Max the dog staring up at her from a small bush. The guide called again and the dog shuffled out of its momentary respite and went to its master. Julia followed, climbing over and around jagged rocks that made way to a patchy loose earth leading to what appeared to be a tricky path…. that led to her mother and sister.

‘Was this it?’ she thought. ‘Was this the dangerous narrow path?’ She had at times had something be built up to such great expectation that when she eventually experienced it, she hardly noticed, or sometimes missed it entirely.

All up the climb, her mind was able to scan the terrain and conceptualize how her body was to make its way up or around a given obstacle. This was also helped with the guide showing the way of course and sometimes Max streaking forward. But seeing the way and climbing it were different things altogether. In a way, she had kept herself focused on the point at which the dangerous path would be reached. Training her mind and body for it.

Now, this tricky path had come. Could it be this? On her right, a deep sharp plunge down into the sea of green. She took a second look. Leaning however much her body was willing to lend to the abyss. Of the hollow feeling you feel when something so vast is just a step away. You could make a choice and die for it. Because of it. She lingered for a little while.

“Let's go. Don’t pay too much attention to it,” the guide said smiling.

Julia looked up at him. Before taking a step toward him, she crouched to the ground and picked up a small but heavy stone. She got back up and tossed it high into the sky then watched it arch its way to its peak then down, down, down into the sea of green. Without a sound, it was gone.

She minded her away across the narrow path and before she knew it she was being helped by the guide on the other side, once again behind her family.

Julia saw her sister slow down until they were by each other’s side.

“It wasn’t so bad, was it?” Lisa elbowed her older sister with a smile. Her face was furiously red and glistening with sweat.

Julia wondered how she looked.

“Was that it?” Julia asked. She didn’t know still. It seemed to just go by. They continued onward.

***

They stood and awed. Flowing from within the jagged mountain was a stream of water. An eternal gush. They stood and awed. The water cascaded onto rocks slick with algae down to a slab that stuck out of the sharp face of the mountain as if it were a palm trying to hold water from a tap. But the force was too strong so it splashed over down further into a place for which they could not see. The view swallowed by the forest underneath. Only the sound of water echoing against the sheer mass of rock could be heard from the ridge on which they stood, awing.

Julia stood with them but did not awe. Her mind had found its way to another valley from which another stream of water flowed. It too, eternal. Cascading from one woman to the next through all time. This waterfall before her was imitating as she saw it. In her mind, her fingers began to pull near her inner thigh. Searching for this eternity within her. She stopped herself before it went any further. She wished they would move along. But her mother and sister were transfixed. It could not be denied, this splendor. The carving of time. The molding of rock. The life given to it by the vegetation sprouting from all sides. Tree, bush, grass, canopy. And the water falling.

But Julia was not having it. What was she expected to feel? Was she supposed to bow to it? Was she supposed to feel some warmth inside her, an appreciation of the majesty of nature? She didn’t feel any of it. Just the discomforts of the heat, the sweat, and the aches developing all over her body.

“Let us continue. It is hot!” Julia demanded and without waiting, she pushed forward. Their guide belatedly rushing to get in front of the group once again.

***

The descent to the pool under the waterfall was a brutal exercise in half tumbling, half breaking falls through the thick of the forest. Scraping over exposed roots, untangling from vines, until a gentle slope prevailed allowing for a more civilized gait. The women were red-faced, cheeks puffed and soaked in sweat. Along this gentler path, broad leafy plants covered the ground and reflected a purplish glow, almost blue, making it seem as if there were pools of water on the surface of the dark forest floor. Julia had to catch herself once or twice to this mirage. And all the while the restless gush of the water could be heard, louder and louder with each step they took until finally a way emerged with twinkling sunlight catching on the briefest view of falling water through the thick vegetation. An uproarious sound. The waterfall.

And this time, she awed.

Instinctively, she lifted her head up but the sheen was too bright.

“Come here,” a voice said.

Julia followed. Head down, taking note of the light spray kissing the side of her face as Max sprinted passed her and into the water. Julia found herself where the voice had stopped and with squinted eyes craned her head back and took in the gushing, flowing, everlasting water until she could just about make out the tip of the overhang. Water splashing every and anywhere over it and then down into the pool. The sun, dazzling overhead.

“I have food if you want?” the voice said.

“Where is Lisa?”

“In the water!” her mother laughed.

And true enough Julia turned to find Lisa swimming directly toward the shower underneath the falling water under the overhang.

“Your friend is here,” her mother added, flicking her head up to a massive grey rock sitting by the shore of the waterfall’s pool. Julia squinted even harder, making out two brown-skinned bodies wrapped in each other exposed to the sun and the spray of the splashing water.

She placed her backpack in the clearing the guide had quickly made for them. As her mother unpacked the food items, Julia removed her clothes revealing her swimwear that she adjusted before heading to the pool. Her sister, seemingly laughing as the water rushed over her, her point of interest.

The water was sharp and cold catching Julia’s breath in her mouth. But with each step her body regained its composure and soon with the movement of her limbs, a warmth from within emanated. Her body submerged. She closed her eyes and dipped her head in. At once the roaring water was silenced. She could ‘see’ herself in the water. Singular. Her arms and legs kicking. Her body naked.

Where did she end and the water begin?

She remembered what the man said yesterday. The man who didn’t have a name and then did. Christopher. ‘So I can now be free and be washed by it. Cleansed.’ She continued to see herself deep in the water. But now her body was limp. Floating within the depths of the world. How many through time had submerged themselves like she was now? All water was this water. When she reemerged on the surface, who would she be? ‘Be present,’ she heard her mother say. Let yourself be.

***

There was no true way to judge the exact amount of time that had passed at the waterfalls. Only the slight movement of the sun in the sky could hint at it. Shadows were beginning to eek their way onto the surface of the world. A slant from the source of light. In this world, outside of the grasp of mechanical time, there were three phases of day. The rising sun, the setting sun, and night.

Julia lifted her body up from the blanket on which she had been sleeping. Her skin was glowing and her eyes burned with a yearning for more sleep. She looked up and saw her mother packing things into their backpacks. Lisa, however, was by the large stone on the shore of the waterfall’s pool. Christopher was talking to her and Julia felt herself get up and rush toward them.

“What is going on?” Julia demanded, standing in between Chris and Lisa.

“Hello, Julia. You seemed to have slept very peacefully,” Chris smiled at her then winked at her sister.

“What are you doing here?” Julia turned to her sister and demanded, ignoring Chris’s comments.

“Slow down there, Julia. Nothing is going on at all, is there Lisa?”

“I wasn’t talking to you!” Julia snapped.

“Jeez, Julia, really, calm down. Why this behavior all of a sudden?” Lisa’s eyebrows squeezed with concern. Her sister’s hair was wet, body slick with water, and her arms covered in tiny glistening droplets.

“You don’t know this man, so you shouldn’t be talking to him,” Julia said raising her chin and clamping her hands on her hips.

“You were talking to him yesterday. He is staying at the same lodge we are in, with his girlfriend…” Lisa nodded at the water where the woman could be seen bathing under the showers of the waterfalls.

“Yes, I did speak to him… I …” Julia hands dropped from her hips. She couldn’t account for her reaction. Not in any way that wouldn’t implicate her, it seemed. And as if Chris read this all in the flicker of her eyes, or the deflation in her body, he chimed in.

“It’s okay, Lisa. I think your mother is calling you anyway to leave. I will stay here for a little longer,” he could almost be considered normal, Julia thought repulsively.

“Nice to meet you and maybe see you before we leave,” Lisa waved then skipped away.

Julia, slowly, creaked her body to face Chris. Her nostrils in flares and her fists clenched.

“What were you saying to my sister?” Julia said through clenched teeth.

“I was telling her how I was a writer and how with all my powers I could still not capture the magic of this place. Of this time. Of the time that has passed through this place. It seems like another era. As if we are the only humans on Earth. What a thought? Why would that come to mind? Why would we think it and hold on to that thought? We are humans and are social. If we were here alone, could that be happiness? It's an illusion. So much so that you can convince yourself of it. I don’t like other humans in the world,” Chris’s monologue was now focused on Julia. His eyes were on hers. Like they had been the other day. But in place of that malicious stare was a sadness. “I do like you Julia. You are interesting to me… Here…” Chris pulled an envelope from underneath his notebook, which she just realized he had been holding this whole time, and handed it to her. “I wrote something for you…”

Julia eyed the envelope. Her hand unclenched and reached for it, grabbing the very corner of the envelope and pulling it away from Chris.

“Read it at a later time, if you’d like,” he got up and climbed back up the stone.

Julia looked up but couldn’t see him as the glare from the sun, glinting off the falling water, temporarily blinded her. She shielded her eyes then heard her mother calling for them to go home.

Chapter 6

Julia’s head leaned on the window of the passenger seat in her mother’s car as they zoomed past the blurred vegetation back to Accra. The Adomi bridge was far behind them and it felt like their little family vacation was truly over as her mother had begun nitpicking on the work she had waiting for her.

At the filling station Lisa had asked if she could switch seats with Julia as she wanted to talk to their mom about something. Julia was all too happy to oblige her as she wanted to fall off the face of the earth for a little bit.

So again, they were on the road and the view was a blur of green on the sides with grey asphalt in front, driven over, with the occasional swerve to avoid naughty potholes or to overtake floundering drivers.

Julia found herself on the top of the ridge looking down in between the valley’s legs, with the water gushing from its eternal source. Thinking about it now, she could hear the sound of rushing water echo in her ears and thought of time again, not in the human sense, but the geological one. And it made her feel small and insignificant. Then her mind wandered further and she was immersed in the shivering water of the pool underneath the falls.

Then her hand pulled the envelope she had received, from the man, from inside her pocket. Folded neatly, she opened it to see her name drawn out in cursive ‘dear Julia…’ Her hand pulled toward her heart as she caught herself sitting up with her breath in her throat. She glanced up to see her mom and sister engaged in animated conversation. Then her eyes fell on her lap. The envelope torn and the letter before her.

It read…

“Dear Julia,

These words are for you and you alone. What are the chances we see each other again? I doubt very high. Though I live in Accra, and I assume you do too, our paths will not cross because of where we currently are in our lives. I assume that you are not done with school yet. I didn’t even complete school myself. I was much too angsty and erratic to sit through classes and conform to the future neo-colonialist regimen. I have found my place though. Now writing for a journal for money, and then my own writing on the side for my spirit. So I guess they won.

You saw me and my friend having sex and per your age and how you were with me I am going to assume you have not had sex yet. It is okay to be curious about it. I was curious about it as well. That curiosity and my inability to talk to girls made it quite a complicated issue for me to break my virginity. So I befriended a working girl by the name of Abena (her working name was Sweet B), and I paid her for sex. I paid her to take my virginity. She was a nice laughing girl. A big smile. I was a shy but curious boy. She showed me a lot of things. In another life, I could see how she could have been very different. If circumstances and luck shined brighter on her. But you know we Ghanaians carry a light about ourselves, inside of us. So whatever situation we are in, we find the sunshine within ourselves to make life a happy one. And she shared this light with me and many other things. When my life was tepid, clouds overcast on the future I couldn’t see because my eyes were set at my feet. With her sex, I began to look up.

Sex is the meeting point of two souls. It’s the place where God made humanity. It is at once sacred yet also bountiful. My friend and I have a lot of sex and we are something of what one can call ‘sex adventurers.’ I love her for this but do not love her. In fact, this trip we are taking is to be our last ‘hurrah’, so to speak. She has told me that she wants more from me but I am unable to give her that. I do not know what more is. I do not think I can give it to her, or that I want to give it to her. Or anyone. And that is what a lot of love is about, wanting to do something for another. I am yet to find this person.

But here I am wanting to put these thoughts of mine on paper for you to read.

I am going to leave Accra for Sunyani for a while. There is a story brewing there that I want to immerse myself in. You should come up when you can. I have written out my address at the back of this page so you can post a letter to me if you want.

I see a lot of myself in you. I am sorry for acting strange to you that time. I am no normal person though. Don’t expect the expected.

So, until we meet again.

Yours,

Christopher, the Farmer.”

Julia folded the letter and slid it back into her pocket. The car had stopped and there was a woman exchanging cash for one of Julia’s mother’s containers. Her mother took her containers everywhere so as not to not to use plastic bags. After the windows were rolled back up and money was safely stashed, Julia’s mother turned and offered her daughter some fried yam. Their crisp yellow sharp bodies looked inviting to Julia. She grabbed one and then her mother pulled another container. It had red pepper in it.

“Do you want some pepper?”

It was a deep red and looked quite spicy. But there was no real flavor to the fried yam, save for a slight salt. It had the texture, the crunch. But not the pepper. That was what brought it all together. Yet, it was the thing that flared up Julia’s mouth and reddened her face. It took a half second more for Julia to reach, with her yam in hand, into the pepper, dipping, collecting, then biting on.

“It’s hot!” she exclaimed, fanning her mouth. But she smiled and went in for another bite.

*THE END*