The Mbuji Juju
Novel: WGA 971343 (88430 Words)
In this fast paced 1960 era metamorphosis love story, the sometimes naive feminist Harlow is a reporter for her daddy's newspaper, but her amateurish delving into sensitive African issues has gotten her in Dutch with the very authorities she has dished. She merges from timid mis-placed trust in a man, to having to accept a reluctant salvation from another. After several misadventures she discovers that she has become a far stronger woman than when she started, and she is dumbfounded as she develops admiration and deep devotion for what she originally thought was an enigma of a man. As she desperately attempts to leave town to avoid persecution, she accidentally disrupts a diamond cutter, ruining his illegal work. His two cohorts go after her with fire in their eyes and from their blazing guns. Repulsive looking Johnny Walker intervenes. Afterward he says he'll help Harlow escape her predicament and he gives her a juju bag telling her it's for protection--but it smells like rotten fish. Later, as Walker goes through the now dead diamond cutter's things looking for the source of the diamond shards sprinkled on the ground near the body, he is hastily accused of murder. Rather than argue, he dives out the window, taking the struggling Harlow with him. "Men!" She exclaims.
As the two get to know each other, Harlow tells of an eerie find Botswana natives call the "Glass God," a story she overheard at the bar Walker and her first met. Walker says her story is so ludicrous he can't stop laughing. Still, he says he does have business in Botswana where he seeks the whereabouts of a missing friend, Estabin, who works in a diamond mine there. He says Harlow can accompany him if she doesn't continue to rub him the wrong way. Once inside the mine, the two discover a WWII vintage airplane and indications that Hitler may have left a double to take his place in Germany at the end of the war. Maybe he didn't die there, but he lived long after the war elsewhere. Subsequently, Hitler's diary, found among the luggage in the plane, leads the two to confront the living "Glass God" Harlow spoke of, and the two reel as they find the charred bodies of not only Estabin, but Hitler and Eva Brown too.
Walker topples the "God" in an effort to kill it, but the floor suddenly turns to lava, and the two narrowly escape with their lives as the mountain mine blows to smithereens. They are captured and taken to a nearby Nazi sympathizer's home where a furious scuffle erupts after the host orders Walker and Harlow killed. It is here Walker reveals who he really is. It is also here where Walker shows how inept he can be. Later, he surprises Harlow by showing her what is really inside the Juju bag she thought was protecting her. In the end, Harlow realizes she has deep feelings for Walker, and maybe men aren't so bad after all.
