Benjanu had lived in the city his entire life. As a child he had taken class trips out into the country, and once, at the age of twenty-two, he took a trip to Africa. There was another trip to the beach at age 28, but that was it as far as leaving the city was concerned in the fifty-eight year long life of Benjanu.

 

Benjanu remembered the childhood trips to the country fondly, but they weren't that strong of an impression in the overall scheme of his life. It was the trip to Africa that was the pinnacle of his life. Benjanu had won a contest in a national radio show, having been chosen among those who had answered an obscure geography question relating to Africa. Benjanu had loved geography in school, especially when the study centered on Africa. Many hours of solitary study concerning that continent had led him to a mastery of the subject, although the rewards of that mastery was just the satisfaction of his own curiosity--that is until the day he was laying on the green grass of the city park listening to his radio. When he heard the trivia question, he raced home to phone in the answer. Among a mere seventeen people with correct answers to the contest in the entire country, Benjanu was picked for the grand prize of a three-week trip to Africa.

 

Having never traveled far from the city in which he lived, going to Africa to Benjanu was much like going to a distant planet. He was incredibly alert the whole time and in a state of complete awe. Not only was the trip to Africa itself an incredible journey, but once he got there, his senses were deluged with constant stimuli the entire time he was there.

 

Benjanu's trip started in Nairobi, and from there, he traveled to the coast. Although he had just flown over a great ocean, he had never walked on a beach, nor put his feet into the water of an ocean. From there, he traveled to the Serengeti Plains and went on a nature-watching safari. He watched giraffes munch the leaves off trees. He saw large herds of gazelle, and he watched water buffalo taking baths. He saw monkeys and elephants. He saw zebras making large clouds of dust. And he watched three lions hunt and take down an impala. He watched the lions fight over the meat, and he noticed the hyenas trying to snatch some of it. As the lions had their fill and the hyenas fought the buzzards for the remains, Benjanu felt he was closer to life than he ever had been. It was both exciting and terrifying.

 

The trip concluded with a foray into the tropical rainforest of nearby Rwanda. Benjanu was lucky enough to see some rare Mountain Gorillas. Being within about thirty yards of a gorilla, and staring at that gorilla for half an hour, was the closest Benjanu ever came to having a truly religious experience. He connected with that gorilla in a very deep and profound way, although he failed to understand the experience. On many a dusty Sunday afternoon in the city, he pondered what that experience meant to him. He could not shake it, and it seemed the memory would not leave him alone until he understood it.

 

Since coming back from Africa, Benjanu left the city only one other time, and that was when he went to the beach. It was much different from his experience on the beach in Africa, though. It was a very crowded beach on the East Coast. There were many many people. The human cacophony overshadowed the sound of the beach itself. After walking down the beach a considerable distance, he finally came to a place where there were few people and he could commune with the ocean. Still, it just wasn't the same. He could not quite recreate the feeling he had gotten on the beach in Africa. Something was different, but Benjanu could not figure out what it was.

 

As he walked a familiar street in the city one day, Benjanu began thinking about the fact that all but less than a month of his fifty-eight years were spent within the same city. For fifty-eight years, Benjanu's world existed within the city limits of his city. He figured that if he were blind, he would still be able to navigate the city just fine; he knew it that well. The city was like a garment that fit perfectly and was extremely comfortable. You just did not want to take it off.

 

As he walked past them, Benjanu looked up at buildings that he had been looking at all his life--at least most of them. There were some newer buildings, but most of them had been there since his childhood. He not only knew them intimately, but knew their shadows as well. He walked those parts of the park that he knew were safe and he walked by certain restaurants just for the smell. As he looked down at the pavement under his feet, he wondered how many times he had walked over that particular sidewalk before.

 

As pigeons took off in flight upon his approach, Benjanu suddenly took notice of them as if for the first time. Suddenly, he felt like he was an impala, and the vultures were being scattered by hyenas. The feeling came over him very suddenly. It suddenly seemed like the rest of the herd had deserted him. He had always felt alone even within the herd, but more so now. He remembered the impala he had seen being taken down by lions in Africa. It had been an older impala; one that had grown weaker. Is that what he was? An older weaker member of the herd that was primed to be culled? Why did he feel like this?

 

Abruptly, Benjanu was clubbed upside the head with a hard object. He saw himself fall down onto that sidewalk that he had walked so many times before. Along with the distant flapping of wings caused by the retreating pigeons, he also heard the cursing of the hyenas. It was all background noise, though.

 

The clubbing was so hard, Benjanu began leaving his body as soon as he hit the concrete. He was around long enough to feel the hyenas going through his pockets. Twenty-seven dollars and forty-five cents is all the hyenas got. That is what Benjanu counted before he left his apartment, and he had not spent any of it, so he knew exactly how much they got.

 

And this was his last thought as he left his body.

 

The city--the same scene of almost his entire life's drama--faded from view as Benjanu floated up into the atmosphere. He began flying through the air rapidly, and soon he was above the ocean. He flew in an easterly direction over endless miles of water. He finally came to another continent, which he recognized as Africa. He flew right over the continent until he came to the very edge of the other side of it. To his surprise, he came to the very beach in Africa that he had visited when he was young. He found himself standing on that beach and slowly walking towards the water. There were no other humans on the beach. It was just him and the soft sand under his feet and the waves of the Indian Ocean plowing towards him.

 

Benjanu walked down the beach into the water. He continued until he could walk no further and the water took over control of his body. As his body was washed clean of his life's experiences, so was his body washed away. Benjanu became a part of the ocean, just as he had once been part of the city.