Description
Nkomo, whose name means Cow, or Cattle, is named for the wealth of the people, and he has never once been embarrassed by it. Among his tribe the herd is the measure of everything, of what a family is worth and what a season yielded and whether the winter will be survived, and the boy was given that name at birth and has spent his life proving it was well chosen. He is the tallest man in the village. He is also among the quietest, and the two facts together make a room go still when he enters it.
He is the one they send out. Beyond the far ridge, past the water the others know, into country the village has no name for, and he is back before the fire has burned down. The distance costs him nothing. He does not speak about how it is done and no one asks anymore. What returns with him is medicine for an elder, and salt, and the roots that only grow where nobody goes, and he sets it all down and says nothing about the road. Praise him and he will look at his hands. He would rather be sent again than thanked once.
He likes the walk back best, when the country is empty and he is carrying everything the village needs and there is no one to talk to about it. He is the younger brother, and Duma is the older, and Duma is half his size and twice as loud, and Nkomo has never once corrected anyone about which of them leads. He does not need it. He knows what he carries. When something comes for his people he crosses the ground between it and them faster than the eye can follow, and the thing that was coming does not arrive.
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