BEAUTY IN EXILE

||CHAPTER 12

She and Njeri sat cross-legged around the fire. They their hands and murmured a few chants as the lads kept watch.

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They woke up in a cornfield. A few metres beyond was a grassy field. Empty. Silent. Lonely. The ladies stared at each other in confusion.

"My child, what is it that you seek in the spirit world?" an old woman asked behind them. They were startled before they turned to look behind. She was beautiful even in her old age.

"Grandmother?" Wangui called. The old woman smiled. "I seek answers. How will I and my friends be able to return to a chiefdom we were cast out?" she continued.

"Wangui, you and your friends were never an outcast. It was your destiny to live in exile. You had to go through what you did so that you could have the life that awaits you," she said shocking Wangui.

"We can enter even when the curse is still there?" she asked in a little confusion. The old woman nodded. The ladies smiled. It was good news to know that they were free to enter and leave as they wished.

"Which is that life that you speak of though?" she asked clocking her head towards the old woman.

"Just look at the field beyond," she instructed them. They did as they were asked.

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"Mother, mother, Waithera wants to take my head," a young boy ran towards his mother who was arranging firewood behind her hut.

Wangui recognised the woman. It was her. Gitahi emerged from the front of the hut and walked towards the boy she couldn't see his face.

"Greetings, father," the little boy greeted in a hurry. As he was bowing, he fell face-first on the grass making his father laugh. A girl frailing her hands up and about came running behind the boy.

"My head, my head. I want my head. Give it back to me," she demanded in her soft voice. When the little boy heard her screaming, he rose and bypassed his father. He ran straight to his mother and hid behind her.

Wangui looked at him with a puzzled look. She didn't know which head they were talking about. The little girl, Waithera kept running towards them.

"Which head do you think she wants?" she asked the little boy.

"The one with big," he demonstrated with his little hands, "eyes and teeth that keep falling at night."

Wangui laughed as she figured what he was talking about. They were fighting for the skull of the old chief. The little girl bypassed Gitahi without much acknowledgement. He chuckled watching her in amazement.

"Auntie, auntie. My head," she demanded.

"Njeru, where is the head?" Wangui asked him.

"But mother," he pouted. He knew that she was going to give it to her. She had always done that and he didn't like it.

"Njeru," she prompted.

"In the granary," he spilt. Wangui laughed.

"Why should you hide it so far away?"

"She will take it," he protested. The little girl caught up and stood before her aunt. Looking up at her with puppy eyes she couldn't resist.

"Waithera!" Njeri approached calling.

When the little girl saw her mother, she joined Njeru behind her mother. She hid behind him as if he could shield her whole body. When her mother neared them, she squirmed before pulling Njeru with her.