Mike Resnick - The Lotus and the Spear

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Science Fiction Magazine, August 1992. For the personal use of those who have

purchased the ESF 1993 Award anthology only.

THE LOTUS AND THE SPEAR

by Mike Resnick

Once, many eons ago, there was an elephant who climbed the slopes of

Kirinyaga, which men now call Mount Kenya, until he reached the very summit,

where Ngai ruled the universe from His golden throne.

"Why have you sought me out?" demanded Ngai.

"I have come to ask you to change me into something else," answered the

elephant.

"I have made you the most powerful of beasts," said Ngai. "You need fear

neither the lion nor the leopard nor the hyena. Wherever you walk, all My other

creatures rush to move out of your path. Why do you no longer wish to be an

elephant?"

"Because as powerful as I am, there are others of my kind who are more

powerful," answered the elephant. "They keep the females to themselves, so that my

seed will die within me, and they drive me away from the water holes and the

succulent grasses."

"And what do you wish of me?" asked Ngai.

"I am not sure," said the elephant. "I would like to be like the giraffe, for there

are so many treetops that no matter where he goes he finds sustenance. Or perhaps

the warthog, for nowhere can he travel that there are no roots to be found. And the

fish eagle takes one mate for life, and if he is not strong enough to defend her against

others of his kind who would take her away from him, his vision is so keen that he

can see them approaching from great distances and move her to safety. Change me

in any way you wish," he concluded. "I will trust to Your wisdom."

"So be it," pronounced Ngai. "From this day forward, you shall have a trunk, so

that the delicacies that grow atop the acacia trees will no longer be beyond your

reach. And you shall have tusks, that you may dig in the ground for both roots and

water no matter where you travel upon My world. And where the fish eagle has but a

single superior sense, his vision, I shall give you two senses, those of smell and

hearing, that will be greater than any other animal in My kingdom."

"How can I thank you?" asked the elephant joyously, as Ngai began the

transformation.

"You may not wish to," answered Ngai.

"Why not?" asked the elephant.

"Because when all is said and done," said Ngai, "you will still be an elephant."

###

Some days it is easy to be the mundumugu — the witch doctor — on our

terraformed world of Kirinyaga. On such days, I bless the scarecrows in the fields,

distribute charms and ointments to the ailing, tell stories to the children, offer my

opinions to the Council of Elders, and teach my youthful assistant, Ndemi, the lore

of the Kikuyu people — for the mundumugu is more than a maker of charms and

curses, more even than a voice of reason in the Council of Elders: he is the

repository of all the traditions that make the Kikuyu what they are.

Some days it is difficult to be the mundumugu. When I must decide disputes,

one side will always be unhappy with me. Or when there is an illness that I cannot

cure, and I know that soon I will be telling the sufferer's family to leave him out for

the hyenas. Or when Ndemi, who will someday be the mundumugu, gives every

indication that he will not be ready to assume my duties when my body, already old

and wrinkled, reaches the point, not too long off, when it is no longer able to

function.

And, once in a long while, it is terrible to be the mundumugu, for I am presented

with a problem against which all the accumulated wisdom of the Kikuyu seems like a

reed in the wind.

Such a day begins like any other. I awake from my slumber and walk out of my

hut into my boma with my blanket wrapped around my shoulders, for though it will

soon be warm the sun has not yet removed the chill from the air. I light a fire and sit

next to it, waiting for Ndemi, who will almost certainly be late. Sometimes I marvel at

the facility of his imagination, for never has he given me the same excuse twice.

As I grow older, I have taken to chewing a qat leaf in the morning to start the

blood flowing through my body. Ndemi disapproves, for he has been taught the

uses of qat as a medicine and he knows that it is addictive. I will explain to him again

that without it I would probably be in constant pain until the sun was overhead, that

when you are as old as I am your muscles and joints do not always respond to your

commands and can fill you with agony, and he will shrug and nod his head and

forget again by the following morning.

Eventually he will arrive, my young assistant, and after he explains why he was

late today, he will take my gourds down to the river and fill them with water, and then

gather firewood and bring it to my boma. Then we will embark upon our daily

lesson, in which perhaps I will explain to him how to make an ointment out of the

pods of the acacia tree, and he will sit and try not to squirm and will demonstrate

such self-control that he may well listen to me for ten or twelve minutes before

asking when I will teach him how to turn an enemy into an insect so that he may

stamp on him.

Finally I will take him into my hut, and teach him the rudiments of my computer,

for after I am dead it will be Ndemi who will have to contact Maintenance and

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Mike Resnick - The Lotus and the Spear

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