We Fight! (On Hold)

Chapter 4

Uyai

Oct 11 1962

I woke up, feeling very hot all over my body, with a dry burning pain at the base of my throat. The bed I had been sleeping on for the past four days was suddenly very uncomfortable and I just wanted to get off it, especially to find water.

Making my way around the small dark room, I was finally able to open the large wooden door. I easily placed my shoeless feet on the cold floor outside my room, already used to its feel on my exposed toes. I walked around the passageway, searching for aunt Ekaete and Uncle Etim's room.

I knew I was close to their room because I saw the soft glow of a lamp on in their room from the little cracks on the sides of the doors. I wondered what they were doing up, even though I didn't particularly know the time, I knew it was too late or too early to be up. But I felt too sick to even pay attention to that so I continued to proceed to their room, feeling like a roasted potato all over.

"What do you want us to do to her then Ekaete? We can't just keep her"

Hearing uncle Etim's quiet but ironically loud whisper, I stopped dead in my tracks. Was it a norm to overhear them talking about me or was I just always the subject of their conversations?

"What else do you want us to do...why can't we keep her?" Aunt Ekaete said weakly.

"This has gone too far enough. First, it was to help her, now, you are actually suggesting we take her in?! What has gotten into you?" Uncle Etim asked, raising his voice a little even though he was obviously trying to keep his anger in check.

I wanted to cry. I had known I wasn't welcome here but I thought I would be going back to my uncle. When I found out my uncle had left me, I had just thought they would welcome me, even if it was just a little. A foolish thought. I sat down on the cold hard floor and listened to my case deliberation and soon to be verdict.

"You want her too don't you?...I know you my love and I can see you are having a soft spot for her but it worries you" Aunt Ekaete said.

Silence. There was no confirmation from Uncle Etim nor was there any denial. The silence was enough confirmation for Aunt Ekaete though.

"There is nothing wrong with a white, Etim. In just a little span of four days, she has proven to you that she can be just like a child of our color too..." She said.

"It doesn't matter if I, or if we have a soft spot for her Mma mmi. We just cannot keep her. How do you think the neighbours would take it?" Uncle Etim finally said.

"How many times would I repeat in your ears that I do not care what the neighbours think about me?" Aunt Ekaete responded rather sharply, her voice increasing in tempo.

"I have heard enough Ekaete! This case is closed, mbok. We cannot keep her so I would take her with me to the government office first thing tomorrow morning and I would explain to them what happened, you found her on your way home and when I wanted to return her back to her uncle, I found out her uncle was dead from people in the neighbourhood who had witnessed the killing with their own eyes. She is the white's child so they would know the best thing to do to her" Uncle Etim concluded.

I held my little palm over my mouth to muffle any sounds that were threatening to escape from it and I rocked myself on the ground as the startling realization that the remaining two people I had come to trust didn't want me.

"Listen to yourself Etim. Our people killed her uncle, what foolishness makes you think they would not kill her too? Or what did you think? That they would just hand her to her people and then she would be thrown into an orphanage system or something? Even that in itself is grave and we both know they would not even do that"

All of this was too much for my almost six year old brain and the headache I was having earlier was seriously getting worse.

"Think about this well. But of course, what is there to think about...you already wanted her dead like our people did her uncle from the very beginning...this is just an easy way to that, isn't it?"

I could see Aunt Ekaete shaking her head in my mind, but it didn't matter. I had come to learn that no matter what Aunt Ekaete wanted, if uncle Etim was hell bent on something, he would get his way. And obviously, Uncle Etim wanted nothing to do with me.

"I refuse to talk to you about this anymore. I just beg of you to find some humanity in your heart if there is still some there and do the right thing. Goodnight"

The light in their room died immediately and I was left there in silence and with my own thoughts.

I made up my mind.

No more waiting around and crying like a baby. When life gives you a bigger card, you grow up faster. Well, it was time to grow up.

Picking myself up from the ground, I quietly walked back to my room and looked around it. I wouldn't sit still, keep quiet and let them drop me off at the doorstep of danger, knowing fully well they were leaving me to an undecided fate. I wanted to try my best, and going anywhere near a blasted foster home again was not an option. In fact, I would rather sit down in the forest with the mosquitoes again than step a foot closer to a foster home.

I waited.

Nothing in the room was mine so I wouldn't take anything. Well, I wouldn't take anything apart from the cloth that has served as my blanket...in case of emergencies. I tried not to fall asleep again as I left the windows to my room open and sat on the bed in front of them, staring at the dark still night, waiting for the first break of dawn.

I wouldn't let him carry me directly to danger. If I was such a burden to him and he just had to get rid of me, he needn't worry, I would rid himself of me and just leave. He would have no little white girl on his hands to ever worry about again.

I waited and waited. Partly certain I had dozed off for a while though, my body not relenting from its unnecessary heat and my throat burning wildly.

The first break of dawn came and I heard a rooster announce its arrival in the distance, snapping me out of my sleep.

I slowly rubbed at my eyes to remove any traces of sleep from them and then...I jumped out the windows, landing softly on the tiny grasses surrounding the outsides the house. Clutching the cloth to my chest, I slowly and quietly as I could closed the windows, turned and started on my journey...in which I had no particular destination.

A/n
Votes and comments are very appreciated. Xoxo:) Thanks for reading this chapter.

Mma mmi~My Queen
Mbok~please