Betrayed For Love

Chapter three

II

He was dropped like a dirtied white under pant in jail. He shouted and abused to let them return his child but who was there to listen to his dialect? He was a sheep in the wild. He spent most of the night awake till by the time the cock crowed, he slept as if it said sleep.

A day was in its light while he was still busy snoring. A call for him, to tea with strokes was then there for him to respond to. Jail was opened, a cane awoke him.

“Out Girit,” ordered the police.

Thon crawled out and lay helplessly like a child who is a victim of Malnutrition. He had spent the night without supper and there he was to resist rains of canes. Then, the second cane landed on his buttocks letting out a cry which cut through the air to land in the ears of the senior officer.

"One, one, one, one, one.......,” and there was an interruption.

“Stop please,” called the senior officer.

Only an apron, he could see like that he gave to Thon which indeed was.

“Bring him to me now,” he ordered.

He dashed into his office and sat comfortably waiting for the prisoner to be taken. Thon was somewhat relieved by orders from someone he did not know. On their arrival they hit their feet down harder and saluted.

“Here he is sir.”

He was frightened on seeing Thon carrying tears like a malnourished child.

“Thon,” he called.

He could not believe his ears. His hair was shaggy, bare feet and tears wetted his apron. He raised his head only to see his very uncle he was looking for. It was painful ladies and gentlemen.

“How did you get into that stinky jail?” asked the officer.

His head shook gently.

“So it’s you uncle who let me be beaten this much?" he asked in return.

The officer denied dead, he was not there. Indeed, he was away while he was taken and thrown into that stinky jail as the officer put it.

“Dogs have bitten me and took my son,” he added.

It was a language the policemen did not understand. The officer rose to his height shivering with anger. He made one full step to the policeman who was standing there inspecting. He held his collar trying to raise him to his feet.

“Did you do it?" He shouted. "Did you?”

The policeman had his mouth dry to speak out anything he could to let him be released.

“I say who did it?" said the officer. “Speak now."

"Hassan and Abdifatah,” he spoke.

He pushed him out of his office to graze on his knees.

“Call them: now,” ordered the officer. “Nonsense: ah! No, you can't oppress me with my nephew.”

The policeman looked for them outside and they were put in jail readily. Then, a report was taken to the officer.

“We have put them to jail.”

“What?” he questioned, “After what?"

“After beating them,” they said.

“He can't go back to jail,” said the officer.

He sent some men to get a Taxi to take them home. It was brought, they got in and he ordered that the two won't be released lest they told where they took the child whom they claimed was taken by another policemen not them.

Thon spent those days thinking about what his wife talked about before he left. He had realized his fault but had nothing to do to remedy the situation.

Two weeks later, the case was forwarded to court where judgment delayed. The judge was said having gone to the capital city-Khartoum because his wife was sick. The clerk who was there could not pass judgement nor investigate till the judge would come. That is how it was initiated.

A month later, Thon could not wait any longer. He asked officer Lual to follow it. When he would be called he would send some men to collect him in the village or he would go and get him.

He gave Thon some money who returned to the village only to find his wife missing at home. He spent night alone to go to her family the following day to apologize for the lost of the child and requested her to go with him to the diviner first.

He had heard that she had miscarried while she banged on hearing about the lost of her child. It was announced and the people left leaving only neighbours who rescued her after she had cried and cried lonely.

Those homes were homes where even if a lion invaded, neighbours would hear after you were all consumed. The neighbouring home could be at a distance after a garden which if you call your voice couldn't be heard lest echoed.

It was a talk to take Thon two weeks with no company. He got food from neighbours for he could not cook as required by their culture not allowing men to cook.

After all Achok’s parents let her go to return after the visit. The couple went to the home of the diviner. They found only his wife yet he could not be seen. They were given seats. A chair was brought yet the visitors were seated on logs.

“Where is he?” asked Achok, Thon's wife.

“He will come,” he resounded to his wife.

All of a sudden he emerged in the chair and laughed loudly. Achok was afraid to hold her husband firm. That chair was dedicated to him alone.

“Is it him?” she muffled her voices.

The diviner laughed with a roaring sound.

“How are you with your wife Thon?” he greeted.

Never did he know them before. It was to their surprise.

“Just like you have seen uncle,” he responded.

She was pregnant with fear sweating profusely next to her husband.

“You come from your farthest village of Param, is anything wrong?" the diviner continued asking.

The couple threw cold gazes at each other. Nobody had told him where they came from even. As a matter of fact, he knew their problems but wanted to let them explain on their own. Thon growled then to explain, Achok was dead quiet.

“We live in desolation,” Thon began. “Firstly, my son raped a girl, he later broke a boy and while I took him to school he got lost. My wife had been undergoing miscarriages as well. We therefore don't bring out clearly what brings these. Rape cost thirty cows, breaking of the boy took the remaining cow. I am now absolutely poor.”

He paused.

In no hesitation the diviner called his wife to bring him clay. It was done so soon. He slaughtered a chicken and waved it over the couple while the blood poured. Not even a drop of blood fell on them.

“You are safe my children,” he spoke, voice like thunder laughing.

He moulded dolls each representing the couple, dug holes and inserted them in but didn't appear inside.

“My children, you are free,” he said. “Curse was imposed on your offspring. Now, your offspring is flowing like that river.”

The couple did not see anything around while they gazed roughly. The diviner laughed again.

“In this calabash,” he instructed.

There was a calabash in which a river was flowing with rapid tides and waves of greater magnitudes. Thon was astonished, his wife aghast. The performance continued when he pointed and everything was quiet.

“You can go now,” he spoke.

The couple paid the sum he required and went back trekking.

“Let no thorns fierce you,” he said and indeed none did.

 It was night even though the woman thought she would cook for her man, it wasn't necessary. They retired to bed in that faith.

 Sleep was becoming sweet enough when the snake hissed awaking the husband. He stood with his sleepy eyes only to see a coiled snake immediately at the door. It would have been a shock if she was the one who saw it first.

It was even clearer to be seen by every eye awoke at night. He shook and sweated in that cold night of the month.

“Don't be afraid,” spoke the snake. “I was sent by the same old man who was with you to deliver a message."

Achok woke up to hear those words and saw the snake too. She was dumb on the bed holding her husband that much.

“Mister, your problems are: Your father's wrath of not naming children after him. The solution is you should have to name him in the third or fourth position, the fifth is strictly your wife's father's name. If they are all girls wrath will be no more,” he explained. “Secondly, the unmarried men your father killed during inter-clan wars pose danger on your offspring avenging. Offer sacrifice, a month of your wife's pregnancy.”

He continued that rape and fracture which took all cattle were wicked tricks. That was done by boys' fathers to share cattle.

“Lastly your son is not dead, you can't do any funeral,” he concluded. “Buy a goat and take it to the old man and everything will be alright.”

There was a sudden silence in the house. Thon had a question which he feared asking. As the snake began hissing to leave, it rushed out.

“Why can't we organize funeral?” he asked.

The snake said he couldn't be questioned when he had explained everything fully.

“The child is a live,” he added.

“Where? Where?” He asked.

Nothing was there to be given: the snake was not instructed to tell anything. He bid them farewell as he squeezed himself through the window. Thon felt cold then. His wife was still covered with the blanket.

“Achok are you awake?” he asked.

She muffled her voices, “Didn't you hear the warning?”

 She arose while told the snake was gone. Tears gushed out of her eyes in that cold night.

“You were right my husband,” she said. “God, why did you create the selfish?”

She forgave her husband and promised to go to her parents the following day to tell them more about the happening. A goat was to be borrowed and taken to the diviner or sacks exchanged for a goat. They talked guts that night till they later fell asleep to make their way to the next day in its light.