By Baba Galleh Jallow

Momat was my best friend among the children. He lived in his father's compound across the street from our compound. Momat was not a strong boy like the rest of us. Even Laji and Batch were stronger than him. We called him chung lacatch and bidwell because his legs were wobbly and when he stood up, they looked like bananas.

Momat had a very big head, a flat chest and a very big stomach as if there was a baby inside. His hands were always spread by his sides when he walked and he was very easy to fall. His gums were always bloody and the lightest touch to his face brought blood in his mouth. He was also so easy to cry. When he joined our races and could not hobble more than two steps, Momat would angrily sit on the ground and loudly cry. And I would come over and ask him not to cry. When some of the boys called him chung lacatch and bidwell and would not stop when he asked them, Momat would insult them and they would come over and push him on the chest and he would fall down and start crying. I only called Momat chung lacatch and bidwell when he did something to me. But I always felt sorry for him when he cried and gave him mangoes and sweets so he would stop crying. That was because I knew Momat liked me and always came to our compound to play with me. And my mother said I should not make him cry because he liked me. So Momat became my best friend. He was the only boy who did not go to school. I never asked him why.

Though Momat was not strong like the rest of us, he had a lot of knowledge about things. He was the first one to tell us about the one-legged horse that ran in the streets in the middle of the night. One day, Momat came to me after school and asked me if I heard what happened last night.

'Last night, the one-legged horse chased Oley and Oumie,’ he said. ‘They were coming from the cinema and the one-legged horse chased them. They ran into our compound shouting and crying and my father came out. All of us were awake and we heard the one-legged horse running away.'

'Did they see the one-legged horse?' I asked, my hair standing on end.

'Yes, they saw it and there was fire in its mouth. They were close to our compound and before it caught them, they ran inside and closed the gate. And the one-legged horse continued running into the dark.'

From that day, we always talked about the one-legged horse. Some of the boys claimed that they heard it galloping on its single leg as it ran past their compounds in the middle of the night. They said the one-legged horse came out only when there was no moon in the sky and the nights were very dark. When Pa Gai stopped walking the streets at dawn and shouting to everybody to wake up and pray, people said he had seen the one-legged horse and was now afraid to come out at dawn. Before then, every dawn, when the cocks were crowing, I would wake up and hear Pa Gai shouting at the top of his voice as he walked up and down the streets, wake up and pray! wake up and pray! it's time to wake up! You have heard me! wake up and pray! But suddenly he had stopped, and people said he had seen the one-legged horse.

It was Momat who also told us about the fire that burnt on and off under the big Soto tree behind our compound. It was under that tree that Rasihona and the other butchers killed the cows and sheep and goats in the morning and skinned them before taking them to the market to sell. After the butchers left, hundreds of dogs and vultures spent the rest of the day feeding on the blood and bones left lying on the ground. Momat said one night, he had gone out to pee when he saw a fire burning on and off under the tree. He said he knew it was a jinn and ran quickly back into their house. His elder brother Haji also said he saw the fire one day. Haji said he wanted to go and look but when he walked toward the fire, it went off, only to start burning again. So he was afraid and ran into their compound. Once in a while when the moon was bright and we were wrestling in the sand or playing hide and seek with the girls, one of the children would claim that he had seen the fire burning on and off under the big Soto tree and we would all run away.

It was during our hide and seek that we played su ah with the girls. We would hide in the old cars or in dark corners and play su ah for a long time, then we would come out and say nan jo without being caught. So that we can go and hide again and play more su ah. And when we got tired of playing, we would sit on the sand and talk about the one-legged horse or the fire under the Soto tree and many other things. We did not talk about snakes at night or when we did, we would call them ground ropes because if you called a snake by its name at night, it would hear you and come and bite you. And if we mentioned a monkey by its name at night, we would all say, 'ear your family' and hold our ears for some time because otherwise, something bad would happen to us. At such times, Momat would tell us many stories. He particularly liked to talk about Maam, the big monster that came for little boys and swallowed them when they go to the bush for circumcision.

It was Momat who also told us about the ninki nanka, the big dragon that lived in the river and in the forest. He said the ninki nanka had a very long tail and scales that looked like mirrors under the sun on its body. It had horns like a cow and long ears and long teeth, and when it breathed, fire came out of its mouth. Momat said if you saw the ninki nanka first, you died and if it sees you first, you died anyway. So we were all so afraid of the ninki nanka and did not want to see it when we went bird- hunting in the bush. Or when we went to find fruits like kaba numbo and sidem. Momat also told us about Kondorong the dwarf. He said Kondorong was very short and had a very long beard. It lived in the middle of the forest and when the sun was very hot, it would come out to look after its cows and you could hear it saying hu, hu, hu. Momat said if you met Kondorong in the forest, it would challenge you to a wrestling match. If it throws you down, you would die. But if you threw it down, you just hold tight onto its beard and it would ask you to make any wish that it would grant, so that you can forgive it. We all said when we met Kondorong the dwarf, we would throw it down and ask it to give us lots of money so we can build a big house and live in it.

One day, Momat was so sick he could not come out to play. I went to see him everyday after school. I would sit by his side and talk to him. But Momat did not want to talk a lot because he was so sick. So he would just lie on his bed and I would sit there for some time before going away. Momat remained sick for a very long time. Then one day in the middle of the night, I woke up and heard some people loudly crying. In the morning I asked my mother who was crying during the night.

'Your friend Momat died,' she told me. After school that day, all of us children sat under Pa Lami's mango tree near Laji's compound and talked about Momat. He had been taken to the graveyard during the night and buried. I never saw Momat again. People said the night Momat died, he kept crying and asking Ya Muna to leave him alone. People said Ya Muna was a doma and it was she who had eaten Momat. Ya Muna was Momat's step mother. I wondered if Momat would see Grandpa Bira and Yasi in Paradise. I miss Momat so much.