Chapter 4
In my last year of high school father got sick with something even the small health center in our village could not diagnose. It would get really serious at times that he could not leave his bed for days on end. But he would always resurface, albeit weaker than before, still I went on with schooling as per his orders. In the end I sat for my final paper which I performed quite well and was admitted into the University, which was even further away, in the big city. By this time my father hardly left his bed, and that is when things changed in our home. My step mother now ran our home like a boot camp. Elkanah and I had to make do without the luxuries that we had gotten used to. We would toil from Dawn to dusk while she and her children sat around all day, in short we were reduced to servants in our father's house. Many are the days we went to bed hungry and we're beaten mercilessly even for the slightest of mistakes.
It was on one cold July morning that I was woken up by commotion in our compound. I left my bed quietly and tiptoed to the door. There was a small crack on the weak door that secured my room which I peeped through to see what was going on outside, albeit to quench my curiosity. I could make out the silhouettes of about five men, all roughly dressed, talking in loud whispers. Suddenly the door to my step mother's hut opened and she walked towards them. After whispering for a while I saw her point to my Hut. My heart literally jumped to my throat, what could possibly be the meaning of all this. They all then started towards my Hut and I ran back into my blankets and pretended to be heavily asleep. A cold breeze hit me hard as the flimsy door was kicked open and a rough hand pulled me from my bed. I let out a blood chilling scream as a sack was put over my head and I was thrown over a shoulder. No, this can not be happening! I kept thinking as I let out one scream after the other. I could hear my father calling out in panic from his Hut, but I knew he couldn't come to my rescue because of the illness that had rendered him immobile. Yet I kept screaming. The men had by now started walking away with me.
Aaaaargh!! One of the men shouted.
Let my sister go you monsters, or I will slash all of you to death! Elkanah shouted. I could clearly hear the menace in his voice. I heard the sound of a panga fall down even as he shouted to be put down. There was then a loud thud and I figured they had thrown him down. I waited for him to rise up and chase after them again, but there was silence, total silence. Then the drums started beating as the smelly men started walking away again. With each step taking me farther away from the only home I've ever known. I was afraid of what lay before me, scared for my ailing father and my little brother who had suddenly gone quiet. So scared that I barely made a sound...
