FICTION/EROTICA/PEACE CORPS
The Maanumba
A supernatural thriller set in Cameroon— part 1 of 3
The Legend
A far cry from the Peace Corps recruitment ads.
The hiking boot flew toward the cockroach, splattering it on the paint-chipped wall, another design in the insect mosaic. Martin Knolls returned to his Newsweek, unconcerned with another routine killing. Not even four years ago, as a senior at Whitman High, when he helped lead his championship team as the premier starting pitcher, his arm was so quick, and his eye so accurate. After living five months in Hotel Satisfaction, his boot was feared by all cockroaches, rats, or anything else that might crawl, slither, or fly into his room.
When Martin joined the Peace Corps, he had expected two years of hardship, perhaps living in a mud hut without electricity or running water; but, after all, there was something romantic about living in a mud hut, and he could not imagine living in Africa in any other way. However, he did not come to Cameroon to live in a cheap, filthy hotel — he could do that at home in Boston. Even when he had discovered that Cameroon was far more developed than he had initially envisioned and that most volunteers received modern government housing, he had resigned himself to…
