Risking All for Love (Wattpadprize14)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Margaux and Gary emerged from their hut refreshed, in khaki shorts and tops with their packs on their backs. There not far from the hut stood several Kisi children in loose-fitting clothes and plastic footwear. Some had picked flowers for Margaux. Thankful, she gathered them up, took a whiff of their sweet ordor, and then bent over and hugged the children.

The older boys wanted to shake hands with Gary. "Are you a soldier?" they asked. Gary pulled out an old army photo of him in Kevlar helmet, holding a weapon, and a rucksack on his back. "Oh! Paw! Paw! Paw! Paw!" Then they held sticks on their shoulders to simulate rifles, and they all saluted. Gary returned their salutes. Satisfied, they marched off.

Teen children laid back from the younger ones. They waited until Gary and Margaux had bade thanks and good-by to the townchief and had begun their trek toward Vahun. Then they all began to moan loud. "Ahhhh, Ohhhhh! Ahhhhh!" Then they mimicked their heavy breathing over and over.

Magraux looked over to Gary. With a grin, she said, "We can count on kids listening in on our love making every night, whether we do anything or not."

They looked back at the kids. With lustful smiles they held each other and kissed. Satisfied that Gary and Margaux understood and took their jeers in good nature, the kids cheered and returned to the village. Gary and Margaux continued to laugh about it half way to Vahun.

Everyone along the trail--young or old, man or woman--wanted to greet them by shaking hands. Local Muslims shook hands and placed hands to their hearts. That meant that they took them into their hearts, Margaux explained to Gary.

But what startled them was that many greeting them on the road said, "God bless the man with his country wife."

"Country wife, Margaux?"

"They think that a chief was already married to me, but he has loaned me to you to live with. If we have children, they belong to him and not to you."

"How would a man make the woman his wife after she has belonged to another man?"

"The man who wants to be the new husband must pay the full Bride Wealth to the original husband plus an official penalty: Alienation of Affections. That is even more."

"Wouldn't that be a way to make money, invest in a young girl, do not live with her, but collect a fee instead?"

"It works for the old men. They get rich that way."

"Plenty how do, Fathers!" one man with a Fez on his head said.

"Margaux, how?"

"Think about it, Gary. If the only people that look like us around here are priests, would it not be logical that they mean me too?"

"But you mean that he really called you a priest too?"

"That should not surprise you either, Gary. They don't distinguish between a monk or a nun, do they?"

Within a few days they had a lovely time in Vahun. Kids were anxious to see if their skin would rub off revealing a hue much like theirs. So Gary and Margaux stood with their arms extended to allow them to rub as hard as they wanted. Satisfied that their skin would not turn out like Gary's or Margaux's, the kids gave up.

"Margaux, isn't easy for someone to live life here thinking that all of humanity look like them?"

"Yes, when you say you saw a man, they and even you will think of a black African. Accept that you will have to tell people if you are talking of someone else of a different race."

Their journey back to Bolahun led through Mbalatahun Leper Colony.

"Don't be afraid of contact with anyone here," Margaux said, as they strode into the colony. There men and women missing fingers and toes nevertheless offered their hands in greeting. They offered food, which Margaux and Gary accepted.