Chapter 19: Acacia

Bucky lay face down on the ground, carefully analyzing the delicate leaves of a plant just beginning to sprout out of the ground. Bucky's hair now flowed down his shoulders and his skin showed the tan of long hours working the earth with his spade in the equatorial sun.

"What are you doing?" Bella asked.

"Here, here, look at this," he said enthusiastically and pointed out the little plant. She knelt on the warm, red soil, soaking her khaki pants red.

"It's a plant?" she said, failing to see his excitement.

"It's a plant! My first maize sprout," he said, turning his face, half streaked in dirt, to face her, joy exuding like a kid on Christmas. "Isn't it the most beautiful little sprout you've ever seen? Look at these leaves, the way they reach out to the sun. I could barely see it yesterday and today, here it is. It's a small miracle!"

"Ummm, Bucky, we are surrounded by plants," Bella said, waving her hand at the dense foliage fighting to overgrow their compound on all edges around them.

"True, but I didn't plant those ones. I planted this one," he said, fondly caressing the tiny leaf as if it were his firstborn son. "I could never grow corn in Brooklyn. We didn't have space for a garden. In Siberia, I could only kill or be frozen and even if I could have tried, nothing would grow in the tundra. Here, I'm making something come alive. Creating and protecting life instead of taking it. Earlier an ant and a beetle both walked by my plant. I think they liked it too." He grinned.

"You're right," Bella said. She put her arm around his dusty shoulder and kissed his cheek. "This is the most beautiful plant I have ever seen."

"I'm going to have a full field soon," he said, waving at the rows of earth, pregnant with little seeds that would burst into the sunshine at any moment. "W'Kabi said he will bring me a goat kid once it's weaned. I think I'm going to be a farmer when I grow up!"

"Farmer Barnes? Has a nice ring to it."

"Better than Sergeant."

"You're going to need some overalls and a straw hat," she said.

"Nah. Won't work with the whole one shoulder thing. Besides, I like the shuka. I think I look rugged and exotic. Though my mother would have beat me with her belt if she ever caught me with long hair and a beard like this. We can call it my teenage rebellion in my old age."

"Well, you may look rugged and exotic wearing your man-dress, but I'd rather not have you smelling rugged and exotic. You had better go bathe before Shuri and Chuck Norris get here. We've got movie night tonight at my place. I think it's Shuri's turn to pick-be prepared for classic Nollywood."

"Killer diller, toots. I don't care what country makes the movie or what language they are speaking, as long as I get hot, buttered popcorn and a pretty dame next to me," he said with a wink.

"In that order, right?"

"Of course. I know my priorities."

"Enda kuosha, bwana. Wewe ni mchafi sana."

"Naenda!"

oooooooooooooooooo

T'Challa paced the rooftop gardens of the palace, now bathed in moonlight. His mother often scolded him and told him he would wear out a path on the roof with his night time walks, but he could not sleep. Again.

The lights of the city blinked and dazzled, hiding the canopy of stars. He could see the rivers of cars and trains and street lights weaving to and fro with their currents of night life. He could hear the distant base of a night club resonating intermixed with traffic sounds.

Still he walked.

He soon found he was not alone. Bucky emerged from a stairwell and also began to pace.

"You are unsettled, my friend," T'Challa said as he placed a hand on Bucky's shoulder to still his pacing.

"I'm fine," he responded with a shrug.

"Yes. I have seen that kind of fine before. I have worn that same expression whenever I am waiting for Nakia to return home."

"Not the same," Bucky said. "I mean, wait….what?"

T'Challa raised both eyebrows and responded with a knowing, "mmmmmm."

"Bucky, are you content to remain in Wakanda? Do you plan to leave?" T'Challa asked.

"As long as I am welcome to stay and I'm not causing any problems, I plan to stay," Bucky responded.

"Then what are you fearing? Your spirit is still unsettled within you and there is something that is keeping you from planting your heart here."

Bucky sighed. "I am afraid of going back to how I was. I'm afraid that something will happen and I'll hurt everyone and everything I care about and then I'll come back to my senses and it will be worse than it's ever been before."

"You do not believe you have been cured?"

"I am afraid to hope."

"I see."

"Long night?" Bucky asked, gesturing towards T'Challa's footpath through the flowering vines and potted trees.

"Yes."

"When did you hear from Nakia last?"

"A month ago she called from N'Djamena to say she was well and send her greetings. She has been away from Wakanda for nearly a year this time."

"This time?"

"She is our most passionate and diligent humanitarian worker. She has been going on missions as often as she can receive them, trying to do good and bring justice to those without."

They ambled together now, slowly by slowly.

"Bucky, you are in love with Bella," T'Challa said. "What is stopping you from pursuing her?"

Bucky sighed but did not answer.

"I will speak not as your king but as her brother. She loves you. I can see it but she will never speak it. She loves quietly but deeply. She will be loyal to her last breath to those she loves. You cannot half plant a seed and expect it to bear fruit. If you love the girl, marry her.

"If you do not love the girl enough or you wish a different path in life, you need to remove yourself and spare her more scars. You can farm closer to the river and give her peace. I would charge you as one who loves her and is charged to protect her, search your heart and determine your course and stay on it."

"I am not worthy of her."

"Nobody is. That is why she came as a gift."

"I am afraid. I have hurt everyone I have ever cared about."

"Did you know that Nakia dreamed of Bella's arrival in Wakanda before we found her?" T'Challa asked, jarring Bucky with his sudden change of subject.

"Yes. Shuri told me that is Bella secretly a giant lizard and I need to take off her clothes to see the real Bella."

"That sounds like something Shuri would say, but I don't think she was faithful in her retelling of the story," T'Challa said with a laugh.

"Don't worry, Mama W'Kabi told me the real story of the Kenge and Opondo's children over the last New Year's celebration."

"Ah! That is very good. Nakia's dream, it was why we spared her life when she arrived. We knew she would be a gift to our people, and a gift she has been.

"Soldier, she was not the only one prophesied about beforehand. Do you know our legend of the acacia tree?"

"No," Bucky said.

"Have you seen an acacia tree?"

"Often. They are the yellowish trees that grow thorns around them that the giraffes like?"

"Yes. Our legend says one day Rabbit decided he wanted to rest. He came upon Acacia and he asked Acacia for its shade. Acacia was happy to give Rabbit its shade. When Rabbit finished resting, he thanked Acacia and his thankfulness pleased Acacia even more.

"Acacia was so pleased that it invited the Rabbit to come inside its trunk.

"'Would you like to see my heart?' Acacia asked. Rabbit entered and found a beautiful garden full of treasures. Rabbit admired the garden of Acacia greatly and Acacia offered Rabbit a gift. Rabbit chose a beautiful necklace.

"On the journey home, Hyena came and found Rabbit.

"'Where did you find this necklace?' Hyena asked and stole it. Rabbit refused to answer until the Hyena tried to kill Rabbit. Rabbit relented and told his secret.

"Now the Acacia tree was surrounded by animals who pounded on its trunk and wanted to enter into its heart. These animals did not stop to admire Acacia's shade or Acacia's garden. Instead, they stole all the precious gifts from inside the garden as quickly as they could, leaving the garden bare and trampled.

"When the animals left, Acacia closed its trunk and all the jewels turned to dust in the hands of the hooligans who stole them. Ever since that time, Acacia has refused to show its heart to anyone."

"I get it, I get it," Bucky said, kicking the floor with his black boot toe.

"You do?" T'Challa asked, surprised.

"Yeah. Bella's been messed up in the past and she's hesitant to let anyone else into her heart. I know that. That's why I know I'm all wrong."

T'Challa stopped and looked at Bucky. "You think Bella is the Acacia?"

"Of course."

"Bucky, Nakia dreamed of an acacia tree frozen in ice. It only thawed when its roots were planted in by a lake in Wakanda."

oooooooooooooooo

Translations:

Shuka: plaid blanket worn as blanket or body covering, most famously by the Maasai, a pastoralist people in Kenya and Tanzania.

Enda kuosha, bwana: go wash, sir.

Wewe ni mchafi sana: You are very dirty.

Acacia's Secret Heart (A Southern African Legend) can be found on Uexpress. I roughly paraphrased it here.

Naenda: I'm going.