An Anansi in a Drought

My father was the first Anansi to ever exist. We are a rare spider species that live in Africa. In fact there are only four Anancies: me, my brother, mom, and dad. My dad was once human, but the sky god Nyame (Ni-yom-a) thought he was a trickster and a bad influence on his people, so he turned him into a spider to teach him a lesson and so he would leave the people alone.
His wife tried to convince Nyame that my father was not a trickster and so he turned her into a spider too. My dad admits now that he was a pretty good trickster though. I Khethiwe (Keh-tee-wey) Dlamini (La-meanie) was getting lessons from my dad on how we Anancies can make it rain. But when the drought came he stopped giving me lessons.
Since Nyame thinks he is a trickster he refuses to solve the drought to make him look like the trickster that Nyame thinks he is. I think it should make him want to solve the drought more, to prove that he’s not a trickster, but I guess that is why I am not him. You might be wondering why Nyame doesn't just make it rain. It is because he simply does not care enough for this small section of the Earth, but the people here are becoming parched.
My dad is the only Anansi that knows how to make it rain since he stopped teaching me and my brother Khong how. I am trying to summon rain. I feel the water on the tips of my leg’s, there is now a trickle coming from the sky that can fill about one well bucket, but keep in mind we are spiders so it only fills a spider sized one. I cannot make it rain much more, perhaps maybe the amount of my body. Khong says, ”You're two years older than me, but you can barely make it rain you should be able to, but the reason you can’t is most likely because you are just a weak, pathetic girl.”
I hate this so much, if me and dad did not bring some water, just the tiniest bit so we can have water- but as I said no one else can have water. We would see how often we could keep sanitary and stay properly hydrated without it.
I think girls and women are sometimes thought of as… fragile, and we do not want to ruin their prettiness now do we? Anancies have a bad rap because of how my dad acted as an adolescent, but he is not much of a trickster anymore. My mom does the capturing of the prey. My dad takes leaves from our web and throws them out so we will not look so noticeable that we will not be able to get prey.
It is not just the people in the village that are parched, but also the animals, besides us of course. Which means we get less prey, and my frog friend Gxuma (Poom-a) needs it really wet. I secretly give Gxuma and her family water, but I have to do it at night so no one sees, otherwise someone might steal the water for themselves. The water only lasts until morning, as it dries up, but luckily they know a secret water hole in a cave not too far from their house inside a hollow log.
I am currently practicing with my mom, catching prey. I whisper, ”How much longer?”
“Shhh, you don’t want to scare any prey away,” we have been sitting here for two hours and I have not caught even a single fly. Mom has caught a big, fat, juicy yellow jacket though. Our web is so silky smooth, it’s really round until the corners with the corners being pointer. I am very impatient. I see a fly approaching right now, I catch it wrapping it in silk.
“I did it, I caught a fly!” I exclaim.
“Nice job Khethiwe,” My mom complements proudly.
I show off bragging to Khong, ”Look what this, ‘pathetic girl,’ can do,” I say using his words against him.
“Whatever, it’s just one fly I can probably catch six with my eyes closed, but I wouldn’t do that anyway since it is a female's job. Plus I’m sure you took suuuuper long just to catch one, single, fly. It's not even enough for a full meal.” His words sting with a sharp tone in his voice, but not as much as they should because I know he is probably just jealous. Because he and I BOTH know that I can hunt flies or any other animal better than him.
I see my dad and now he is scolding Khong for being so rude and disrespectful to me, now this I have to grin at. My brother’s face is flushed bright red in embarrassment because dad found out about his behavior. Khong calls him father instead of dad. I call him dad most of the time, but Khong wants to sound more… formal?
Now Khong has to do his least favorite thing in the whole wide world, help dad clear our web from leaves. He hates choirs but he has to help out sometimes and this is his punishment. The sun is setting and I am watching it from our web. You wanna know something?
I’ve never really thought of being an Anansi instead of a human as a curse, but rather part of who I am. I have never been a human and honestly, nor do I want to be, because the life of an Anansi is simple and quite peaceful. Being able to admire the small things in life, like this beautiful sunset. It is making everything golden and warm, not a bad warm, but a relaxing one.
The sky is pink, blending with an orangey-gold color. I am in such a daze from the sunset with beautiful glowing fireflies around and a cool breeze that I practically jump when my mom comes up behind me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you, but it’s time for dinner.”
“It’s ok, I’ll go get some water to have with dinner.” I am going down from our web and getting water that I summoned earlier today. I carry the bucket of water up into our web setting it next to our food. I think maybe the reason Khong does not care for females much is because he is a little more spider than me.
Since some male spiders are aggressive toward females. He is the only one of us that is mad at Nyame for cursing us because, honestly, the rest of us do not mind, in fact we might even kind of like it. Mom just caught a couple of fireflies. They are really pretty, but also so tasty.
Khong is picky on his fireflies as he will eat their heads and legs, but does not like to eat their glowy things. To be fair it is basically their butt, but I like the whole firefly. Now we play our version of charades, we absolutely loved and adored it when we were little. It is just about the only thing Khong actually likes.
Anancies can shape shift, which makes me wonder why my brother is so mad at Nyame, so instead of acting out an animal we turn into one and make the animal's sounds. The other Anancies or Anansi turn around so they don’t know what animal it is. If no one guesses in a minute then they turn back around and another Anansi goes. I go first this time shape shifting into a Bushbuck, a type of deer.
I make a sound and mom says, ”Badger?”
“Nope.”
My dad says, ”Jaguar?”
“Nope.”
Khong says, ”Dog?”
“Nope.”
My mom says,”Oh I know a deer!”
“What type?”
Dad says while snapping, ”Oh, oh it’s a-a bushbuck.”
“Correct!”
Now it is Khong’s turn and he chose a cat, a large spotted genet which no one got because it was too hard to know what type of cat it is, so that was pretty wise. Mom did a Caracal, another cat which was easier to identify. I won that round. Dad does a grey Mongoose, Khong gets this one. Overall Khong wins.
He is really good at this game and I have only beaten him at it four times in my life! I have been playing it since I was three. He could not even play until I was five since he was not able to shape shift, boys take longer. I will cherish the memories of playing this game forever, but something tells me mom and dad typically go easy on us at this game.
We play it on the ground, as a caracal and other animals would be heavy enough to break our web. We call the game, “Shape shifting Charades.” We go back to our web and go to sleep. I wake up in the morning summoning water for me to drink from the sky.
Last night I woke up and gave Gxuma and her family water don’t worry, I did not forget about them. I see mom making silk strands, dangling off our web as decoration. It kind of reminds me of a dream catcher except it is actually a bug catcher or bug trapper. Dad is clearing some leaves and Khong is, being a lazy boy still sleeping.
I help my dad with the leaves, ”Khethiwe I told you to summon water right below this tree so it draws less attention to yourself.” He says while pointing at a short tree that can hardly be considered a tree. It is wilting from lack of water.
“Sorry dad, I wasn't thinking about it.” He goes over to the tree and summons some rain when I see a human. What is a human doing out here away from the village? Should I tell mom? No, they are probably just going for a walk, but since when do they have enough water to go on walks in this desert's heat?
I hear my dad cry out in agonized pain, ”Dad,” I say in a small, confused, and worried voice, I feel my muscles tense. I see the person running away trying to make sure no one saw what he did. I run toward dad and see mom running toward him too. Khong is now wide awake in confusion.
He heard a yell and now he is probably like, what the heck, I was sleeping! I see a brown feathered arrow stuck in his abdomen. He is bleeding pretty badly. I am scared but, is it possible to be scared and yet grossed out at the same time?
I decide it is and dad says, ”Don’t cry Khethiwe my ndodakazi enhle.” Which means beautiful daughter in Zulu. I did not realize I have been crying until now. Right behind me is mom and she seems really scared.
“Khethiwe, can you go ask Gxuma where the water hole is and bring a bucket full back?”
“How did you-”
“Well for one she needs water to survive, even more than you give to her. For two, you should know that I am a light sleeper. You really thought I wouldn't notice? Please hurry.”
“Ok.”
I move as fast as my furry spider legs will take me to Gxuma's hollow log house. I am rap-a-tap-tapping knocking repeatedly on the makeshift door they made. I am knocking so hard that my hand is throbbing and it almost seems like I am punching the door made of bark, and that it will fall into their log in any second. Gxuma comes out saying, ”Have you ever heard of sleeping in, I just woke up like two minutes ago.”
“You.. know..I…don't… really… sleep…. In…” I say breathlessly from running feeling like I might have a heart attack.
“Calm down, and catch your breath Khethiwe.” So I catch my breath.
“It's an Emergency!” I say not calmly at all. I tell Gxuma what happened to my dad and say that we need to go to the water hole.
So Gxuma and I am walking in the gritty, dusty, sand. It is getting in our eyes making it look like we are crying. I am a little, but it is mainly just the sand making our eyes water, from the dust and brightness of the, “red,” sand of the Red Desert. “Khethiwe, here's the cave with the water hole,” Gxuma states softly.
We go down splashing nice cool water on our sweaty faces. It feels especially nice in the hot, dry desert. One time I saw someone here in the Red Desert, the smallest desert in South Africa, and they were so parched that they drank from a cactus called a Naboom. It is highly toxic to humans, he just needed water.
Never drink from a Naboom if you are human! “Well… this should be enough water for my dad… thank you so much Gxuma, see you later.”
“By.” I walk as fast as I can without any water sloshing out of the heavy makeshift bamboo bucket with a handle made of bark from a tree. I fear for dad’s well being, because we don’t have that many ointments, but I think mom might have honey. His wound could very easily become infected.
Our web has come into view, dad laying on our web in a lot of pain. Luckily mom is pretty strong, she was able to carry him onto our web even though we have to use our silk to get to our web like a grappling hook. Mom is hovering over him, keeping him company. She will have to make a new web, as where he is laying is stained blood red.
Our web should not be this easy to see, it would make it really hard to catch prey. Khong goes to get some grass having me tear it into bandages. Before using them as bandages though I summon some rain to wash it off instead of using the bucket water so I do not get that water dirty. Mom ties them around dad’s abdomen and applies pressure.
The arrow is already out thanks to mom, gosh that must have been painful! “Amahle, I love you and your name suits you so well,” my father says weakly to mom. My mom’s name is Amahle, (A-maq-hay,) it means she is unique, kind, has wisdom, and strength , I can agree, it suits her preeeetty darn well. Before she wrapped his wound she rinsed it with the water I gave her, and she put a bit of honey on it.
The hunter probably shot dad because he was angry and wanted it to rain so he, “forced,” dad to do it. Humans do not always think these things through, because now he definitely can’t make it rain, as he is too injured. My mom says, “It’s best for our safety if you can make it rain so no other person goes crazy, besides we are running lower and lower on prey by the days, prey need water to survive too.”
“But I…I can't, you know I can’t…not that much.”
“Khethiwe, I believe in you, you should start believing in yourself more.”
“Ok…I’ll try.”
I spend the rest of the couple hours left of the afternoon enjoying nature while meditating. I try to have my inner powers open up, to help me summon the rain. At dinnertime I eat more flies and less fireflies to help me be healthier as fireflies are basically my dessert. I get a good night sleep and now it is morning.
I say, ”Khong, can you come to the village with me?” Khong isn't the brightest (even though his name literally means bright,) but he is my brother.
“Ok, I’ll… come, but only to protect you… because mom wants me to,” I have a feeling that is not why, especially since I am older than him. If that makes him feel better about hanging out with his older sister though, then suuure. We go down to the village, out right next to a house, I focus with all my heart and all my soul. I am focusing SO hard that I feel like I am barely breathing. I probably look a little blue, and Khong might even be concerned for me, but that's very unlikely.
I see clouds forming in the sky and cannot tell for sure, but I think everyone is looking up at the sky. There was just the smallest cloud in the sky, but now like magic, perhaps it is magic, many clouds have formed. The clouds turn heavier and darker by the second. They are looming ahead, onyx black, intimidatingly.
It is raining, I really did it! People are cheering, laughing, and dancing in the rain, children open their mouths wide toward the sky. My family goes over to Gxuma’s house being careful with dad. Raindrops are dripping off our web and hanging on to the silk strands on the end like shiny beads, glistening for a few seconds making it look even more like a dream catcher, until they fall hitting the ground softly with pitter-pattering rhythms.
Gxuma’s house is way drier than ours. I wake up today and go back to our web. Dad will stay in Gxuma’s house for a while though since it is easier for him to access, it is a relatively short walk from our web anyway. I guess I have a very fitting name just like mom, because my name means The Chosen One, and I am the one that solved the drought.
You know how they say, ”After a storm comes a rainbow,” well I am outside now, looking up at the sky, it has finally stopped raining after the past two days. There is the prettiest of all rainbows after a drought, and a wonderful storm. The crops might actually grow this mid Spring for the first time in almost a year and a half! It normally only really rains here in the Summer, but clearly not in a while.
One month later…. My dad is doing so much better, he still has to use sticks as crutches, but probably not for much longer, and he will even move back in with us soon. He has told me something, he says he sees and is proud of how I have gained maturity- even when he had not.