Escape from Zion

Chapter 6

Little Amani tottered over to the mossy rocks that led up hill towards the rubber forrest. "Look appa I'm gonna climb to the top." She shouted without turning around. "Amani, you will slip and fall, climb back right now!" Elsa yelled. She looked to her husband in panic. "She'll be fine. Plus children will hurt themselves thats normal" he chuckled lightly and went back to his newspaper. "Oh for goodness sakes" Elsa huffed and stalked towards the mossy rocks. She reached up and grabbed Amani's leg. "Amani right back down this instant."

Amani tried to twist away from her mother's grip and in doing so her left hand slipped along the moss underneath her, twisting her small body whilst the leg her mother had grabbed hold of worked as a pivot from which she hung for a breif moment causing her head to fall down and rock beneath her in a dull thud. "Aaaahwwwwaaaaaa" she screamed a blood curling scream. Elsa frantically reached out and grabbed a tiny hand, letting go of the foot to grab the other hand and pull her daughter up. Grabbing hold of both arms, Elsa quickly yanked the little girl towards her, picked her up, and then ran back towards the house. "Jon!" she screamed as she ran. Jon who had been reading his newspaper had looked up in a fierce panic when he heard the first scream and then looked on in panic while he watched his wife wrestle their child down from the rocks. He rushed after her as soon as Amani was down and followed her into the house. "Jon get the car ready!" This sentence at least broke through to his panic fuddled mind and he rushed around her to get the keys from his dressing table. "Endha, What is it, what happened?" Elsa's mother rushed out of the front door onto the patio. "Amma" sobbed Elsa "I told her not to play on those rocks and she fell. What should we do? I don't know what to do!" Amma looked at the child who during all this time had not stopped wailing.

"Well she's still crying, let me get something to clean up the blood and stop the bleeding. Press your chunni against the broken skin." Amma, rushed back inside to get the bandages and boiled rags and at the same time Jon emerged with the car keys in hand, "Why are you sitting down? Come on lets go!" he barked.

"Amma says its not that bad because she's still crying and shes getting bandages and something to clean her up with" rushed out Elsa.

"Well are you sure that we don't need to take her to the hospital because-"

"I don't know Jon" Elsa sobbed out, "Oh God Jesus christ I'll fast for the next year and give up all meat and sweets please look after my child".

She looked up at Jon through her tear- filled eyes as if he were the God she was pleading with. He looked back as if fiercely thinking of what he could do. He looked down at Amani who was still sobbing albeit a lot more quietly than before. He sat down on the floor of the patio with his legs over the edge, feet touching the paved yard below. "Does it hurt Ammu kutty?" He asked wiping the tears from her face and holding her small hand in his. Her sobbing slowed enough for her her to start whispering a 'yes' which halfway through grew into a louder scream than before, her crying multiplying in volume threefold. He half chuckled, his eyes crinkling at the corners "I guess if I hadn't asked then it wouldn't have started to hurt so much again huh?"

"Is this the time to make fun of her Jon honestly" Elsa fumed, her eyes full and her body trembling as she held Amani tight towards her. What had she done? She had told her daughter to stop playing on the rocks, she should have listened. "Amani do you see what happens when you don't listen?" Elsa was still shaking a little but continued, as composed as she could. "What if I hadn't been there? You think you're a big person but look what happened to you. You'd have been gone if I hadn't- no don't interrupt me. I know you think you know what you're doing but there are some things that are just beyond you Amani- you just don't know and thats why God made parents." Elsa paused, staring hard into the little girl's face. Amani had gone quiet. She nodded slowly "Yes M'ma."

"Good" Elsa huffed out, her shaking was gone. "Oh look, Amaamma's gotten your bandages and water to clean you up, come on lets get you all smart."

That evening after her uncle and older sister came back, Amani's mum told everyone what had happened. "It was like someone had set fire to my chest" she reported when they were all seated out on the patio after dinner. Moths flitted around the large round light fixture that lit everything up. The sound of crickets could be heard every time there was a lull in the conversation. "Oh it wasn't so bad after we had a good look at it, just a scrape right Ammus?" asked her dad. Ammu kutty nodded eagerly. Her head rested on her uncles lap as he stroked her hair and her feet were on her grandmothers lap who kept massaging them a little too hard but she didn't mind.

"Does that mean Ammukutty doesn't have to go to the hospital then?" A small voice asked. It would have been lost in the conversation but her little sister heard what Sara asked and answered promptly "We were going to go after they tidied me up and bandaged my head but then they saw that it was just a scrape and Amma checked for concusions and evryone saw that I wasn't bad enough to go to the hospital."

"Concussions Ammus" her dad chuckled. "And don't worry Sarus, Ammu is completely fine- so don't be scared okay?" Sara nodded and moved over to her dad so she could sit next to him. That night Ammukutty slept in her parents bed instead of with her sister.

The next night, as both sisters lay in the dark facing each other, Sara asked Ammu why she had climbed the rocks if she knew it was so slippery. "I didn't know." she responded, "I've climbed it a bunch of times before and I never fell. Ammama said its mossy and remember she said you should be careful on the mossy stairs if you're wearing shoes? Well I always climbed them barefoot and I was careful but I just didn't realise that I could fall until Amma grabbed my foot and saved me before I fell."

"What do you mean Amani, Amma can't save you before you fall. You must have fell first and then Amma grabbed your foot."

"Oh right, well yeah- whichever way it happened".

"What're you even thinking about all the time honestly. You're so lucky Amma was there to save you."

"I know."

And with that they each turned away and drifted off.