Golden Boy Read Online Free Page A

is over and we have to get out. I reach over and softly jostle Asu and Mother’s shoulders, waking them up. They nod and, when the driver pulls over at the first village inside the gate and looks at us in his mirror, we file quietly out of the bus.

    The Maasai village just inside the Serengeti park gates is a small place, about ten circular mud houses clustered around a central cattle pen. When the bus pulls away, Mother, Asu, and Chui head into the village to buy some food. No one suggests I go along, not even Asu. In any village, strangers are unexpected enough. They don’t need me there, stranger than strange.
    I walk away from the village, just to make sure I don’t complicate things for them. I find an umbrella acacia tree over a rise and I sit in its shade to wait. When I hear a rustling to my left and see a head duck quickly behind a bush, I realize I’ve been found by children from the village. They must be very young to not have chores or herding to do. I try not to let their muffled laughter bother me while I wait for them to go away again. Then a small rock flies out from behind the thorn bushes.
    I can’t believe it: They’re throwing rocks at me for fun, like I’m a street dog. I want to shout at them to go away, but I remember my family inside the village, trying to buy things we need. I can’t help them barter, but at least I won’t turn the village against us, either. I cover my head with my arms and let the rocks bounce off. I begin to count in my head, slowly, to pass the time until they leave me alone.
    Mmoja, mbili, tatu,
I count.
Nne, tano, sita, saba.
I can feel myself starting to bruise.
Nane.
    I am at
thelathini,
thirty, when I finally realize that they are not planning to go away until they have made me do something. I’m sore and angry, and this makes me stupid. I pull off my hat and stand up. I let my eyes wave around without even trying to focus them. I make a wailing ghost noise in my throat.
    â€œOooh!” I say. “You’ve made me angry! Now I’m going to curse you and your families!” I start to walk toward the bushes.
    The children drop their rocks and run toward the village so fast, they stumble going down the hill. I laugh a high and ugly laugh, making sure they hear me. For a brief second, I feel a flush of triumph. A minute later, I realize how much of an idiot I am.
    Rumors of a witch-boy in the fields will make it impossible for us to stay here very long, maybe not even a night. I sigh and hunker down miserably to wait for my family.

3.
    Mother comes up the hill with an armload of red and purple cloth and an unusual light in her eyes. The other two follow her. Asu looks disgusted, but Chui is smiling. I don’t know what to think. I wasn’t expecting them to buy clothing. Dumping it all in a heap, Mother pulls out one long piece of red-checked cloth and starts to wrap it around herself.
    â€œI can’t believe you’re doing this!” Asu says to her. “You look ridiculous!”
    Mother ignores Asu entirely. “Put some of these on,” she says to me. The sides of her eyes crinkle as she says this.
    I stare at her, baffled.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œJust put them on. You, too, Chui.” She holds a piece of cloth out at arm’s length. “Asu,” she says warningly, “do as you’re told.”
    Chui reaches into the pile and starts to drape a big purple thing around himself. Asu grabs the cloth from Mother and glares at her.
    â€œThis is a terrible idea,” she says, then turns her back on Mother and starts to wrap the cloth around herself, hiding the original color and drape of her
khanga
from home.
    â€œ
What
are we doing?” I ask again, although I, too, am following Mother’s lead, dressing myself in a red cloth with thin purple stripes.
    Asu sighs and looks over at me.
    â€œMother has decided that it would be a great idea for us to sneak through the Serengeti on