Transition Plan Chapter 63: In His Majesty's Service Part 12

The days following were much more serious. Abassi and his war chief, Tarzan, Jane, Armand, Philippe and the Captain of the British garrison huddled in a secluded hut and concentrated their negotiations on the strategy for the secret interdiction operation into Togoland, as well as the defense of Nigeria and the land of the Mangani. They were a tiny force to achieve all those goals, but they were highly trained compared to most soldiers. The French Special Forces could not mount their operation until the enemy made their move, but they could resume their training to prepare themselves. The radiotelegraph messages being received in the British garrison's headquarters near the village were becoming more nationalistic and threatening.

… Kamina Radiotelegraph Station, German Togoland…

Gunter and Karl-Heinz were busy running through the daily stacks of messages they were assigned to be sent or relayed, as well as record the many incoming messages. The German War Council in Berlin had tripled their workload as German actions escalated the tensions in Europe, and the information had to get out to the German colonies and their Atlantic fleet of warships. It was a good thing they were getting paid by the German Army to do this, because their illicit trade business had nearly come to a halt due to people's fear in Africa over what was happening in Europe.

A loud knock came at the metal radio transmitter room door. The men both startled at this unexpected interruption. Gunter got up, gripping a hand gun, and cautiously approached the door.

Gunter slid open a tiny viewing port. Two pairs of eyes looked at each other cautiously, and he asked,
"Yes?"

"I am Hans von Steuben, Hauptmann of the Kamina Militia. You are Herr Gunter?" the brown eyes asked.

It was odd to see the Kamina Chief of Police in a military uniform, but these were hard times, and there were few real troops in Togoland to defend German interests. Those were needed in Europe for the defense of the Fatherland. Only the German colony Kamerun to the southeast of Nigeria had what could be called regular Army soldiers.

"I am. Is there trouble, sir?" asked Gunter nervously. Most of Gunter's life was spent keeping far away from this man and his staff.

"No. No trouble at all. In fact I wanted to let you know we are here to prevent trouble. We have a tip that the British and French consider this radio station something of value to them, and we are here to make sure you are protected. We'll be 'around' in case there is something," the Hauptmann stated.

"Thank you, sir," Gunter offered, "Do you want some fresh coffee?"

The officer appreciated the kindness. He was dying for a cup of coffee, but refused, knowing his men had none, "No that's fine. We need to be on watch immediately. Things are not well in the world."

"We are quite aware of that," said Gunter with irony.

The militia leader noted, "I strongly recommend you from here on out you keep your door secure. Good day, Herr Gunter."

"All right. Well… thank you for keeping us safe, sir," Gunter responded.

Hauptmann von Steuben wheeled and left, shaking his head a bit that he was actually ordered to defend two of the most notorious black market traders in western Africa, and muttered to himself, "War makes strange bedfellows…"

Gunter and Karl-Heinz often operated well outside of the law, but had never left a trail of evidence strong enough for their arrest. Nonetheless, any contact with people of authority made them nervous. But with their livelihood and lives suddenly at stake, they welcomed the protection.

Gunter closed and locked the door and barred it. Karl-Heinz looked up a moment from his coding, and the two men stared at each other with grave concern, but had nothing to say. They were not military men. They had no prior idea the war would involve them as a target. Running the station was a means for quick easy money to tide them over in the faltering trade business until all this tension blew over. But it wasn't going to 'blow over'. They read all the messages. They knew. A world war was only a month or two away. All it needed was a spark. Today, they realized that even here in far away Africa, the ensuing conflagration could consume them too.

…Nigerian Council of Chiefs Village…

With all the adults occupied at daybreak by preparation for war, Jeanne and Jack were concerned, but became bored very quickly with the leaders' discussions.

"This is all 'adult stuff' and we can't do anything about it", Jack noted to Jeanne and his friends. They all agreed, and were happy not to be 'grown up's' yet.

Josephine and Jane asked Jeanne and Jack to help with the tribe's children's chores to keep them busy and distracted and let them play with the others in their free time. Femi, in her advanced stage of pregnancy, couldn't do much at this point but watch after Ugo, Ndidi, and gladly took care of Lily. Josephine did everything she could to help Femi with chores and make her more comfortable. Jane had to be part of the operation's discussions in order to plan how to defend the treehouse and the land of the Mangani while Tarzan was away with the Special Forces. As much as Tarzan didn't want her involved in the conflict, they both knew she had to be prepared, even if there was no threat. They also both knew she was fully capable of fighting, and would, with a fierceness that was equal to any animal in the jungle when provoked, defend her family. The British Garrison in Nigeria had a fairly straightforward job: defend the village, and for that they were well prepared with the Nigerian warriors, whom they respected as fearsome fighters.

After the early morning's chores were finished, Jack and his closest group of Nigerian friends decided to go play and were eager to include Jeanne.

Ndidi was the best at organizing the games for everyone. That really surprised Jeanne. Boys always took charge in France, whether they were good leaders or not. Jeanne saw that the other children followed her lead, including all the boys – especially Jack - and really respected Ndidi for that.

"Let's play Akokoro," recommended Ndidi. Everyone was happy with that choice. Jeanne had no clue.

Jack said to Jeanne's puzzled look, "This is a skills game. First, we need a snail shell."

"A snail shell?" Jeanne asked.

"Yeah. Follow us," Jack instructed.

On the ocean beach, every child found a large, dead snail shell, but only ones that were conical, and stood in a circle facing each other in the bright sun. The view of the beach and the deep blue ocean was breathtaking.

Ndidi demonstrated how to play the game by spinning her shell in the sand, trying to get to turn so that it would stand with the pointed end upright and stop, closest to a big "X" scribed in the beach by another child. To Jeanne, it was like a reverse game of spinning tops. It was much harder than it looked, and there were repercussions to not doing it right. The game leader took a palm frond, and using it like a switch, rapped the back of the hand of those who couldn't get their shells upright. Ndidi didn't hurt anyone but it wasn't fun to get called out for not getting it right. Jack just couldn't get his shell to work right, and Ndidi seemed to take too much joy in rapping her friend's knuckles. Jeanne was really happy when she got her shell to rotate, and after awhile everyone was spinning their shells and getting them to land with the bases down and points up.

The real competitive phase of the game began – to get the shells to stand on end closer and closer to the target. The first one to land on the "X" was the winner. It was pretty exciting, and there were a lot of close calls and near misses as the shells spun and moved randomly. Sometimes the spinning shells would bump the others' shells and careen off in strange directions, causing a lot of laughter. Finally, one of the other boys was declared winner when he got his shell to land and stop right on top of the X target. Everyone cheered. He'd never won the game before, so they all congratulated him. Jack told Jeanne the right congratulatory words to say in Oyo, as that was the winner's home tribe. Jack and Jeanne stood and chatted afterwards.

"Wow Jack, that was hard!" she noted. It was somewhat like the game of bocce ball her Italian cousins played and even more like the table top game of 'skittles' her Greek cousin living in America liked.

"Yeah, Akokoro is harder than it looks, but you did really well," Jack praised.

Jeanne's shells had all landed nearer the target than Jack's, but it didn't make him angry like other boys were when she beat them at games.

"Jack plays nice. Just like the others," she thought.

For a moment she turned to admire the crashing surf, and asked, "Can we go swimming?"

She thought of several fun summers with her parents 'going holiday' to the French Riviera and her rich aunt's summer beach house.

"Not here, Jeanne. Too many big sharks," he noted, which startled Jeanne a bit.

Before he could explain further, the winner of Akokoro spoke. As the victor, he got to choose the next game to play, "Let's show our new friend how we play Nanpe."

Everyone was happy with that choice, and a couple of children hooted. All the children immediately ran from the beach to the rain forest and started gathering sticks. Jeanne followed Jack. It felt good to just run to run for fun, and not to escape some wild, charging animal.

"What's Nanpe?" She asked excitedly, keeping the exact pace with Jack, which impressed him.

Jack explained as he pointed, "Let's go this way and I will tell you."

He took her by the hand and led her further into the woods. Grabbing her hand gave them both an unexpected emotional rush. They blushed at each other, but weren't embarrassed and didn't let go. Instead, they held tighter, and their smiles got brighter and wider for each other.

With his heart beating fast as much for her as for their running, he said, picking up a stray branch that looked like it had been sawn and sanded into a perfect pole shape, "This is the best wood for Nanpe. Get four straight sticks like this."

They separated and he showed her his very straight stick about two feet long and about a half-inch across. She started looking immediately for the same kind of branches. He helped her pick.

Each player finished gathering their four sticks and coated one whole side with a chalk-colored mud paste from a nearby bog.

"Now what?" she asked, grasping his free hand in hers for a moment and squeezed affectionately. She really wasn't ready to let go.

'We start tossing them like this!" he explained. He didn't want to let go of her petite, soft hand either.

But they needed to join in the game, so she followed his and the others' lead and started tossing them four at a time in the air, and catching them together. For awhile the children just practiced tossing them in the air above their heads to get a feel for the heft and balance of the sticks and how all the sticks moved together. That was really hard and took a lot of coordination. It was a real challenged for Jeanne to toss all four in the air at once and have them all go the same distance and come back together, or remain close enough together to catch them all at once. But she had some experience in ballet with batons or gossamer scarves as props for her ballet numbers, so precise control of objects for her dancing routines was not too much different from this.

The game leader was watching, and could tell when everyone had practiced enough to make the game fair, "Ready?"

In chorus with the others, Jeanne said in Igbo, "Yes."

The children arranged themselves in a big circle in a clearing, giving considerable room for each to chase an errant stick. She bit her lip in concentration and assumed the same crouch all the others did in preparation for the first toss. This was going to be difficult, and the French had no equivalent of this game to draw from. Jack gave Jeanne an encouraging look, and it relieved her somewhat, since she wanted to do the games just as well as the other children. Jack was not the only child who sensed her anxiety.

"Don't worry Jeanne, this is fun and you'll get it fast," encouraged Ndidi in broken French and Igbo, accompanied by words of support from all the others. Jeanne understood Ndidi's intent and smiled.

At the command of the winner of the first game, they started tossing their four sticks in the air simultaneously, and in the first round, tried to catch all four on the end of the sticks closest to the ground before they touched the dirt. A few children missed them all together, but most caught from two to four. Jack and Ndidi caught all four easily, knowing how to fight with staves. Jeanne was happy to get three out of four, to the others' praise. They kept score by scratching the number of sticks they caught in the dirt in a personal tally. They did this several times until everyone was catching four sticks at a time. They progressed to the next level of the game.

The next round of tosses was to catch the four sticks right in the middle and with all the colored side facing the same way in their hand. That really got complicated, and took a soft touch to keep any of the sticks from turning. After a few false starts and even a drop or two, and a few times of mixing up the colors, Jeanne did it and was really proud of herself, as were the others. Several children had dropped too many or just couldn't get the colors of all four sticks to align, so they just stood and watched the half dozen still competing, including Jeanne, cheering their favorite competitor. Several chose to root for Jeanne, which really boosted her confidence.

The next set of tosses was to flip each stick one at a time into the air flat, and catch it on the back of their hands without it falling off their hand, calling whether they would catch the painted side or the uncolored side. Jeanne was really good on that turn, as it required real balance, and her dance lessons really aided her. She was keeping pace with several others' points scored.

The last round was to toss all the sticks up seven times in row in rapid succession, catching them in no particular way, but never letting any drop. Any drops and the child would have to withdraw. Those that lost placed bets on who would win. Jack dropped one on the next to last round. Jeanne giggled that she outlasted him, and he smiled and acknowledged her prowess with a gentlemanly bow. It was cute how gracious he was in losing to what her French peers would call a 'mere girl'.

Jeanne and Ndidi were the only two left at the end. At the end of the seven tosses, they were tied, and repeated the seven tosses twice more and were still tied. They were really out of breath as they got ready for the third tiebreaker. Ndidi and Jeanne gave each other a friendly, but very competitive, stare as they grasped their sticks and crouched to begin the next round of throws. The others were yelling and laughing and jumping up and down for their favored competitor. A large number of bets for food, or doing an errand, or for trading least favorite chores were made on this round.

Jeanne gave her new friend a final wry grin, and they had at it again. On the final round, one of Ndidi's sticks bounced against another and that stick carried out of her reach falling to the dust. Jack was first to shout a victory cry for Jeanne as she came out the winner. She clutched her hands together in delight and the other children were very happy for her. They all hugged her tightly. Jack hugged her closest and tightest. She loved the affection and the closeness with all the children, but especially Jack's attention, and longed to feel a single hug just from him. Ndidi was especially congratulatory. This was so different and so genuine than the children she played with in France. Any one of them would have held a grudge for her victory.

Ndidi chuckled before they scattered their sticks back into the wild, "I think Jack should show us his special Nanpe trick."

All the children cheered, "Yes! Do it, Jack."

Jeanne had no idea what this meant, but watched intently.

Jack cast his eyes to the ground and drew circles in the dirt with his foot, "Ndidi, you know I don't like showing off."

Ndidi beamed, "Oh c'mon, Jack. You're the only one who can do this. Show us. Show Jeanne. You're Mangani. You are 'of the jungle'."

Jeanne heard Ndidi say 'Mangani' and 'of the jungle' in reverent tones, and the others whooped.

"Oh… all right," Jack submitted to his friends' request.

His humbleness made Jeanne's feelings for him stronger. He looked up and Jeanne's hazel eyes caught his. It buoyed his own determination, "For Jeanne…" he thought.

He drew himself up and stretched and assumed a crouch like a gorilla. His transformation to an ape's stance was amazing to Jeanne, and his eyes got a feral look. It was much like their first meeting. He took his sticks in one hand, and tossed them high into the air, half way to the first tier of the jungle canopy, and started a series of running cart wheels and flips. When his hands hit the ground for the third time as the sticks descended, he caught all four sticks in one foot and immediately tossed them back into in the air. In the next turn over, he caught two sticks in one foot and two in the other, but instantly catapulted all four sticks even higher into the air, each separated by height and distance like stair steps.

It seemed impossible to Jeanne that he would catch them all. Everyone but Jeanne knew what was coming, screaming in delight in encouragement as he flipped and jumped along the ground. The sticks were on their way down. In his final move, he launched himself in the air to an inconceivable height. He was spread eagle, and as he soared, he caught one stick in each hand and foot as he wheeled head over heels far above the ground. He landed in a deep kneeling position. It was done. He stood, returning to his humanity, breathing hard, and bowed to his friends. His arms and legs were outstretched, and each hand and foot grasped a single stick firmly.

Jeanne had seen his prehensile abilities once before in their swing through the jungle on the vines. While that was impressive, this was truly remarkable.

They all cheered and clapped and hollered, "Man-ga-ni! Man-ga-ni! Man-ga-ni!"

Jeanne gasped, hardly believing her own eyes at this display of Jack's athleticism and coordination. She jumped up and down excitedly and clapped enthusiastically like the others.

But she knew what Jack would want to hear, and gave him a sly grin, "Not too bad for a 'jungle boy', Jack!"

She gave him a huge spontaneous hug.

No one missed it. The wonderful feelings they shared in the group hug earlier before were amplified exponentially with this real first hug between them. They were euphoric in each other's arms, and had a hard time parting.

The twinkle in his eyes and cocked grin said it all, "Thank you, Jeanne."

She just giggled and blushed but they didn't part, until one of the other children interrupted. It was only then that both realized there were amused snickers from the others for their lingering hug.

"So what's our next game, Jeanne?" asked one of the other girls in pretty clear French. It was one of the subchiefs' daughters.

Realizing that as the victor in Nanpe, she got to choose the next game. Her eyes went wide, "Oh! Well… I am honored, but I don't know any of your games. Do you have anything like basque pelote? I like doing that."

Ndidi and a couple of others who understood some French gave Jeanne a quizzical look. They were not familiar with this racquet game. But Jack was. In various English forms it was racquetball or even handball for those who couldn't afford a racquet.

"We've got just the thing," Jack smiled and explained in French to Jeanne, "We call it Cyc. It's more like 'shuttlecock and battledore'. Only without the net, and we don't need any walls like for basque pelote."

Shuttlecock and battledore was a game the English invented in their former colony of India. The Americans for some odd reason called it badminton. She smiled. She'd played that before too. At the mention of the Nigerian word Cyc everyone else got excited, though few understood the rest of Jack's French words with Jeanne.

They divided into two groups of six, with Jack intentionally on one team and Jeanne on the other wanting to 'have a go at each other' as Jack put it so well. The playmates went back into the jungle and gathered some long strands of piassava grass, a flexible, stringy plant. Following one of the older boy's directions, each grasped the thin tops of their piassava strands and tied the tops back to the middle of the stems to form sort of a hoop. It was like a lacrosse racket frame with no net. Another boy then cut a palm frond, removed the leaves from the spine, bundled them, and tied them together so that it resembled a conical shuttlecock in a badminton game, with a rounded head of tightly compressed leaves tied off with sinew, and a spread of palm leaves fanning out. He trimmed the fan of leaves with his knife. It was only a little bigger than a badminton shuttlecock. A girl on Jack's team flipped a rock that was mossy on one side and smooth on the other to see which team would start the game. It was just like calling heads or tails in a coin flip. Jack's team won the flip and could 'serve' the other team. The opposing teams assembled in two flanking lines about five meters apart. Another girl drew a straight line right between the teams with her foot to denote the sides and a foul line between them. The kids started taunting the opposing teams and it was immense fun for Jack and Jeanne to 'cat call' each other on who would win.

The 'Cyc' shuttlecock, the game's namesake, was tossed high by Jack's team across the line and Jeanne's team tried to noose it. Everyone missed and it fell to the dirt. Most everyone fell to the ground reaching for it. There was a lot of collective laughter over that. The Cyc was out of play when it touched the ground. So Jeanne's team had to toss it back to Jack's team, and they snared it, scoring a point, to the cheers of their teammates and the boo's and jeers of Jeanne's team. Jeanne thought this was a great game, and enjoyed taunting Jack. Jack learned quickly she could give back in double measure any teasing he could give her, and was quite amused.

After that first miss, the teams were very evenly matched, so leads went back and forth as each team got its share of noosings and points scored against the other. There were still plenty of drops on each team, and one time Jack got completely tangled up with Ndidi and several other teammates in a huge leaping dive for a wobbling Cyc that ended in a huge collective crash. It took a few minutes to get extricated and to stop laughing.

The netless grass racquets were very challenging to use. It got very noisy and competitive and the score went to nearly twenty points for each side, until Jeanne herself caught the Cyc for the winning score of 21 points on the first game. Some of the adults who played this game on their own free time stopped their work and watched how intense this Cyc game had become, and chuckled. The kids were taking no prisoners. They played a set of five games, and Jack's team finally won the best 3 out of 5. But as focused as they were during their competition, there were no hard feelings afterwards.

Jack feigned great pride at Jeanne in a very overconfident cross-armed pose, and she just laughed and gave him a dismissive gesture, "You were just lucky this was my first time at Cyc. I am the Army base girls' champion in basque pelote."

In a snappy comeback by Jack, "When you visit me in England someday, we'll just see about who's the real champion. There's a handball court in our Castle just right for playing against you."

"You're on, jungle boy!" she retorted, and giggled. The thought of visiting Jack in England made her pulse race. It was his first indication to her of wanting a friendship between them with a long future.

After that, they gave into their exhaustion and hunger, and with the others, took a water break and got some food. Jeanne sat very close to Jack in the shade against a palm tree among their playmates eating some very refreshing fruits.

With a very pleased expression, she said, "This is fun, Jack. Your friends are really nice. Sacre bleu, do they compete! Boys and girls don't play together that much where I live. There are boys' games and girls' games. They never play together. And the girl games are pretty boring."

Jack shrugged, "Here we all play together. We only have each other. There aren't as many 'rules' here. It's that way in England too. I like it better here. Boys and girls play together all the time. That's the way it should be."

To Jeanne, Jack couldn't be more right. She scooted a little closer to him, close enough that their sides and legs touched, despite the fact he was covered in sweat from all the games and her clothes were drenched in her own sweat. Touching felt really nice to both.

"Do you do this all the time?" she asked, with no special acknowledgement they were now side-by-side.

Jack explained with their faces very close together, close enough to kiss if either had been brave enough to do so, "Any time I am here in the village. The Mangani have much easier games. They are different, but still fun."

They were all finally fully recovered from the intense game of Cyc, but it was getting late, and everyone's parents were calling for the children to assist with the late afternoon and evening chores, so the playmates said goodbye and headed back to their own dwellings for the evening. On the way home, in a place blocked from view, Jack and Jeanne stopped and turned, smiled tenderly at each other, and closely hugged again without saying a word. They parted only a little, interlaced fingers and started to lean toward each other. But they heard their names being called, so they quickly parted and went together to Abassi's longhouse and played with Lily and helped Queen Femi, Josephine, and Ndidi with chores until their fathers returned.

Neither could wait for another day of fun together and the stolen moments when they could be close.

…

Authors Notes: Thanks for waiting nearly two weeks. Your reward for patience is a double chapter published early. Yes the games they played were Nigerian children's games, some simplified a bit for the flow of the story. My absence? My wife and I had fun together on a trip at a place we've never been before. And a side note to 'Mom' Sueanoi's review comment: Hee hee! The last chapter was written specifically with you in mind to tease you! It was a dedication to you in honor of the Festival of Lights there and hope you had a great time celebrating!