To Hear The Lion

The door hissed when Uncle Albin pushed it with his fingertips. A flash of lightning lit the room and he noticed the empty bed. Though the vacant mattress was not unusual, the missing blanket was. Adunya often slept on the floor, his head propped on a shoe box or shoe for a pillow. But Adunya never covered himself with the wool blanket. Even on the rare occasion when he used the bed, he slept on top of it.

A roar of thunder, long and close, shook the cabin. Uncle Albin thought he heard a whine. He wrapped his free hand around the front of the flashlight he carried. Just as his thumb touched the switch, an extended flow of lightning filled the shadows with a metallic blue haze. A lump in one corner trembled.

"Adunya," he called out softly. "It's Uncle."

No answer.

Uncle Albin's palm blocked most of the flashlight's brightness. He followed the subdued light toward the boy he had adopted from Ethiopia.

"Adunya, he said again. "It's Uncle." He sat on the bed and eased the blanket away.

Adunya's eyes, wide and glossy with tears, glistened with fear. The fingers of his right hand trembled as they tightened around the wooden handle of his real father's machete.

Uncle Albin did not reach for the blade. "The storm will end soon, my boy."

Adunya stared out the window. Neither of them spoke or moved for a moment. The boy seemed to be bracing himself for the next strike. He jumped when it came.

"I miss Father," he said after the thunder echoed away.

"I miss him too."

"Father hunt the lion with you."

Uncle Albin nodded, remembering the unsurpassed skills of his head tracker--his friend. "Your father was a great lion hunter."

"He tell me the lion voice at night could chase the thunder away."

"Your father was a wise man."

Another bolt of lightning. Another rumble of thunder. Adunya cowered in the corner, unable to look at Uncle. Unable to accept his shame.

He waited for the quiet, keeping his eyes to the floor. "I miss the lion," he said.

Through the window, the dark outline of a leafless tree looked like the claw of a banished demon reaching for its next victim.

Adunya's father had a brother who lived half the year in Addis Ababa. Uncle Albin and Adunya would travel back together and he would allow the boy to choose.

Uncle Albin turned away. He did not want the boy to see his glossy eyes glistening with fear.