Puberty

Chapter 2

MORE TROUBLE

“No fire came,” spoke Mwayiseni to herself as she walked home, and that bucket of water now felt heavy on her, her mind was lost in thought. “I wish the fire came down to burn the forest, for that forest is evil!” She muttered to herself.

Mwayiseni had no idea what was happening to her. What she had asked Chota to do, was very embarrassing and her mind was now bloated with fear that what if Chota told his friends and the friends told the mother, they would beat her up. Mwayiseni was not understanding what all this was. She felt sad and was trembling all throughout the evening, she did not want anyone to find out about this. The shame she felt, she wished she could turn into a rat and crawl away for she felt so embarrassed and did not know what to tell Chota the next time she was going to see him.

The next morning, with the hot sun slowly rising, her best friend Mwaba came to visit her. “Mwayiseni quick follow me, let us go to Chitulika!” “No Mwaba that is far!” Spoke Mwayiseni with a quiver. “Will go running, remember we are naughty girls, and will never stop being naughty,” added Mwaba. The two girls chuckled, as the two run off. Poor Mwayiseni she had even forgotten what she had done yesterday in the forest. They arrived at Chitulika, after thirty minutes of running and walking.

The two girls were tired and exhausted. They walked into the forest as Mwaba whispered dangerously, “We are almost there.” “Where are we going?” Asked Mwayiseni, with a silly curiosity.

Mwaba lowered her voice, as she said, “Quiet lower your voice, let us not make noise, the boys are going through an initiation ceremony at that smoky mushroom hut so we are going to pip on them, as they get circumcised one at a time.” “Oh no! Mwaba, those are bad manners, do you remember last time we were beaten up by the matchmaker. Because of pipping private marriage teachings of that lady about to get married.” Recalled Mwayiseni, with a sulky face.

Mwaba nagged, as she said, “Do not be foolish, we were caught, because we started laughing. This time we will not laugh, moreover this is a boys’ ceremony, we will see what we have never seen before.” “But Mwaba, this is wrong, we do not need to see what others consider private, I will disrespect the entire male folks if I pip on the boys, we are not supposed to see anything naked from a boy it’s a taboo, curses will flood on us.” “Since when did you become a poet? Look at how you articulate issues as if you are a fool. We are best friends and we do things together, let us go and pip!”

Yelled Mwaba, while dragging Mwayiseni. The two girls now crept slowly at the smoky hut.
The two girls, began to pip, and they made a terrible damage to the hut because they created holes from which they would pip from only fit for an eye to see. The two girls, saw a bunch of boys of age 12 to 15 sited in one corner. The boys were waiting for Filamba, the older man who was to carry out the circumcision ceremony.

All the boys, were dressed in skirts with nothing beneath those skirts. When Filamba entered, he had come with a masquerade, that had dressed in a hyena costume. The masked man looked like a ghost with his dirty toes. Filamba greeted the boys, and asked them to line up, in his hand was a very sharp knife.

“If your inch is 2 to 3, line up from this angle, then if yours is bigger than 5, 6 inches and beyond line up from this angle, because the smaller ones are easy to cut so I will start with the small ones first,” spoke, Filamba calmly at the boys, as the boys made lines. And then there was a boy who was so scared of the knife, that he urinated on himself.

The two girls from outside the hut, laughed at this. Filamba put down the knife, and he did not allow any boy to take off their skirts so that they proceed with the ceremony, he gazed to and from and asked. “I smell a scent of fresh blood! Two ladies, before I proceed with what I want to do, has any of you boys disobeyed us by eating what is between a woman’s leg in this very month that you have been staying here, on your way to wash your bodies at the river?”

“No!” they all shouted, fearing for their lives. “You boys, can be very canny, you just cannot hold it together for just one month, until you dance in the drum! Moreover, why must you do it before marriage? Confess yourself, the one who came into contact with a woman! During your stay here!” Emphasized Filamba, at the scared boys. And then he sniffed in the air, and saw by the boys looks on their faces they were all innocent, many of them had never even had encounters with women.

“Mitesa! Go and check outside if there is anything that is causing that smell!” He yelled.
Mitesa the oldest boy, hurriedly run outside the hut. The two girls also run away, but Mitesa had seen them run quickly to the nearby forest. Mitesa walked back to the hut and reported to Filamba, that two girls had created two holes in the hut and were pipping at them, but they had now run away, and those girls were Mwaba and Mwayiseni, what a small village it was for him to have known them. Filamba was very annoyed, for it was very sacred for girls to come to the circumcision ceremony, never had this happened before in the village. The girls who had run off tired and exhausted, found a river and dipped themselves in it, thinking they were too clever, that no one would catch or notice it was them.

Mitesa later during the week, had told the two girls’ parents of what the girls had done, and that Filamba was very upset with them. It was very strange that Mwayiseni’s father only slapped her that night, for she thought her father would severely beat her. The one slap that she had received, felt like a big mass of fire on her cheek, that had swelled. Mwayiseni was even afraid of finding out what her best friend’s father did to her, all she knew now was that her best friend rarely visited. And whenever the two meet, no one spoke about what punishment they had got after that embarrassing moment.

Mwayiseni’s mother, was a very clever woman, therefore she spoke in close contact with her older daughters. What followed next, was that the older daughters stopped talking weird conversations while Mwayiseni was pretending to play near them. At night, even when Mwayiseni had drifted off into real sleep, her older sisters only talked other things such as how to cook this and that. Oh it became a breath of fresh air, for now life in the village became much better for everyone.

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