CHAPTER 8
'Please, God let him still be alive' I whispered lightly as I shook his now cold body. Dejectedly ,he opened his eyes and slowly focused on me. "Kira my child," he whispered weakly, a lone tear dropping down his rapidly wrinkling cheek. He took in my disheveled look in one slow look and broke into sobs. "Am sorry I couldn't protect you and your brother, and I wasn't there when you needed me the most. This woman has finished me my child. I curse the day that I agreed to marry her. "
We were now both crying bitterly as he held me in his arms.
"It's not your fault father, but that woman's. How is Elkanah? "
"Elkanah is no more, she says that he fell off of a tree and died on the spot. They killed my boy and now they are after you." "What? Elkanah is dead? But why father? Why us? Why me? Why Elkanah? What did we ever do to her?" Sob after sob broke through me, I was heart broken. Everything I'd ever known was coming to an abrupt end. Suddenly he hardened up, with a strength I didn't know he still possessed and held me tighter against himself, until my sobs had subsided.
"They will be here soon to check whether am dead yet. You see that pot right there? Yes that one. Go lift it up and bring to me what is under it."
I brought back a piece of skin that was folded together to conceal its contents. He opened it weakly to reveal more money than I had ever seen in my life.
"Take this and run away from here, go to the big city and join university, make someone out of yourself, and make me proud." He broke into a fit of coughing ,as his chest wheezed too loudly. Exhausted he slumped back into his pillow.
"My Kira, I am at my end too. (pauses for a moment ) That wicked woman is up, can you hear her laughter, child? Leave now before she finds you here. Be a brave girl and know that I'll always be with you."
I threw myself at him and last time, knowing too well that he wouldn't last too long. He was weak and struggling to even breathe. We could hear her approaching footsteps, and I felt torn and so helpless. I didn't want to leave my father, he was the only other person to ever love me truly, besides my brother.
"Kira don't let them catch you, it will be like a thousand deaths to me. Go! Now!"
With that I ran, ran as fast as my feeble legs could carry me. I only stopped when I reached the stream where I knelt down and splashed cold water over my face, to try and calm my racing heart. And there it was, it's like I had anticipated it, the wailing that served to alert everyone that someone had passed on. And coincidentally it came from the direction of my home. I screamed in pain ,my heart felt like it had been wrenched out of my chest, it hurt too much. I sat on a rock by the river and cried till I could cry no more, then I rose up and started walking away to start a new life elsewhere. There was nothing left to keep me back in the village anyway. I had lost everyone that mattered to me. I kept thinking as my feet took me farther and farther away from the only home I've ever known, and to an unknown future. I was totally scared to say the very least.
