°Three - ...Full of Woes

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Prison.

[Sniffs]

[Sobs]

Jola wiped her tears. She had wiped it the umpteenth time yet she was shedding more. She still hoped for a miracle. She had been put in a prison alongside two other women before, but she was taken away from the prison after they almost choked her. She was alone in the prison she was taken to and that gave her a bit of relief. However, the thought of night approaching was killing her. She could not sleep a bit the previous night due to the flies. She did not want to have such experience again but that to her, was next to inevitable. She started remembering all she had wronged. Starting from the guards at the prison, the maids bringing meals to the prison, the chamberlains, the men in charge of the maids and the prisoners. She discovered that she had sinned against all. She felt completely helpless. She ate with the fear of being poisoned. She had never envisioned such lifestyle. A tomorrow full of woes.

* * *

Day after day, and the sixth day was ready to give way to the seventh. She became more anxious while the inhabitants were all eager to see her in deep pain. She was ill; very ill. She was wide awake through the night. She knew when the first cock crowed. But just when sleep hit her with its calming claws, the prison doors were opened and the guards dragged her out. She could not walk and her vision was blurred.

The people had already gathered together. They were ready to scream in one voice. The youths had held a meeting. They had concluded to scream that they want her stoned to death. The elderly ones had held their own meeting too. They had concluded the same way. They all wanted her dead, just like her father killed their wives, their husbands and their children. The chiefs stepped out of the palace and silence prevailed. Following the greetings from the chiefs to the crowd, the head chief sighed.

“Here comes the day we chose,” he said and the crowd cheered. “If you want her killed, stand to the right. And if you want her alive but grievously punished, stand to the left.”

In a blink of an eye, the gathering split into two with more than two third of the crowd on the right. Those on the right wondered why others were going against their plans. They started eyeing one another and those on the left started joining those on the right. Within few minutes, only eight people remained on the left.

The chiefs mumbled words to one another. Then the head chief cleared his throat. “The conclusion is not our fault, but yours. We have discovered that most of the people on the right were forced and we want to be just, so…” A deafening noise arose.

“Silence!”

A dead silence followed.

“For this reason we have concluded that you should all go and chose a person to represent you. One for those on the right and one for those on the left. The chosen ones will come here tomorrow and tell us why they want her dead or why not. We chiefs will then decide what to do depending on whose reason is better. But we are assuring you that she will be judged tomorrow. I hope we are justified.”

Following the chiefs departure, was Jola returned into the prison. Then the crowd started departing one after the other, and in groups.

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