PART II Chapter 14 Madam Raby’s Pizza Hotel Tata in Labé is a cosy inn settled in a green, flower-filled enclave. We’re greeted by Madame Raby herself, the gardens quiet, fragrant steam from the kitchen carrying a blend of Guinean stews and, improbably, some of the best pizza I’ll find west of Naples. Our bungalow…
Tag: ChaosMagic
The Holographer’s Atlas
Three new portraits go live this weekend, one each morning at 11am. The Holographer’s Atlas is part of The Memory Cartographer — a series written in the author’s own voice, not Elena’s. No fiction here. Only memory. Real people, real places, real prices paid. Each piece is named after the person it maps. Friday —…
The COMC Files – Alkebulan
PART II Chapter13 Mountains dont Bow The plane lurches down onto the airstrip with a bounce that rattles my teeth, wheels clattering across tarmac patched more with willpower than concrete. When the cabin door opens, the smell of earth and woodsmoke sweeps in. Outside, Labé greets us in a riot of colour and dust. Motorbikes…
The COMC Files – Alkebulan
PART II Chapter 12 The Rattletrap The clerk — a young man, visibly nervous and more than a little dazzled — tries to collect himself. “Madame… monsieur… you are travelling to Labé? Domestic flight… yes… but, eh—” His gaze drops to my belly. “Madame, you are… how far along, please?” “Far enough to notice, young…
The COMC Files – Alkebulan
PART II Chapter 11 The Stallion and the Faucet The golden flow has stilled again. How strange, how ridiculous: once it arrived only when Asdar or Tarmo leaned near. Now, summoned from afar, I leak on command — like a wandering faucet connected to the pipelines of heaven. Trust the cosmos to make motherhood both…
The COMC Files – Alkebulan
Part II Chapter 10 The Golden Thread The morning air in San is soft and brittle, full of the promise of roads not yet taken. Karim and I pack up early, the sky outside still silver as he checks the route to Timbuktu one last time. I sit by the window, satellite phone in hand,…
The COMC files – Alkebulan
Part II Chapter 9 Ségou The road spreads out like a slow breath. The ancient capital clings to the right bank of the Niger, languid as a lizard in the sun’s trance — red-earth houses under kapok and mango trees, black marble boatmen slicing the surface, just as in Biton Coulibaly’s era, just as today….
The COMC files – Alkebulan
Part II Chapter 8 Bamako — The Griot’s Garden By dawn the familiar heaviness has faded. Karim greets me with a small breakfast. “Adama will meet us soon,” he says quietly. Centre Djoliba’s compound smells of earth and hibiscus. Light filters through mango leaves, dappling low tables where men and children laugh, where an old…
The COMC files – Alkebulan
Part II Chapter 7 Bamako, Mali River of Music The city is chaos—market cries, motorbike horns, spices sharp as jealousy. We duck into a courtyard where three men with koras pluck the dusk like strings of silk. One pauses mid-note, eyes twinkling. “You look lost, sister. Or maybe just looking for the right story to…
The COMC files Alkebulan
Part II Chapter 6 Agueda and Baran I open my eyes — and I am no longer by the water. Warmth. Leather. Incense and old papyrus. Asdar stands before me, arms open, gaze pitched somewhere between hope and awe. “You found the crossing,” he says. “Or it found me.” He gathers me close, the universe…
The C.O.M.C. Files 