7– Silent treatment

That night I couldn't sleep. I kept asking myself why Abu did that? Why? Why did he do that? And why did he tell me that he would meet me at the well? I've never even seen him at the well before.

I thought long and hard but couldn't get any answers.

We were speaking nicely at the show, so where did I go wrong with him? I kept replaying what happened in my head. I replayed it a thousand times and then started replaying what could have happened. I replayed those scenes over and over again until I fell asleep.

And as usual, I had the same dream again and I woke up covered in sweat. It didn't make any sense. What did this dream mean? Why did I keep having this dream? The worst part was that whenever I was suffocating in the dream, I was struggling to breathe in real life. I guess that’s why I always woke up with screams.

***

As soon as I heard Gamu enter the hut that morning I jumped to my feet and ran into the main chamber. She just looked at me, frowned and continued working. I greeted her and she greeted back with a smirk.

"And then?" She asked me.

I grinned, I couldn't control my emotions. "Yoké told me to meet him at the well today."

"So?" she rolled her eyes and started dusting things around the hut. I followed her.

"We see him almost every day at the well." She added.

"Didn't you see us yesterday?" I beamed shyly. "I feel like things are going to be really different now."

"Shh..." she shushed me. "Don't forget where you are."

I grimaced.

"Come, take these dishes outside for me."

We spoke in Kwali. I wanted to keep talking about Yoké. I just felt very happy inside when I thought about him. I even forgot about what Abu did. I just wanted to meet Yoké and see his smile and hear his sweet words.

I helped Gamu around the house and with the dishes before Furah woke up. The last time Furah caught me helping Gamu she scolded Gamu for letting me work. But I enjoyed keeping myself as busy as Gamu. It didn't feel right sitting down and watching her work as hard as she did all by herself. And she never ate the same time or place with the chief, Furah and me. After we finished eating, she would clean up our table and then she would go to her little chamber outside and go eat quickly and then return to us again.

After she finished hanging our clothes on the line we started towards the river with our buckets in hand.

"Gamu."

"Yes."

"I want to ask you something."

"What is it?"

I hesitated.

"Speak." She stopped walking and faced me.

I smiled and shook my head. "I couldn't ask you this in the past because we couldn't understand each other. But now I speak and understand Kwali."

"What is it?" She urged me on.

"Why is it, that whenever we go about our daily routines, if we meet Yoké and Uma at the well that day, as soon as we start to return, you just change? You don't laugh, sing or talk to me anymore."

She looked at me for a while, smiled and then rolled her eyes and continued walking, swinging her buckets back and forth.

"Don't worry, you won't see it happen ever again."

I frowned. "What changed all of a sudden? Because you did it the last time we met them at the well..."

She just looked at me and smiled shyly and then gave me a knowing look. I looked around and realized we were at that particular spot of the forest where we always stopped to listen to the most beautiful sounds: the part where the trees where the tallest.

After we finished listening, this time she didn't start singing and dancing. She came to walk close to me.

"I will tell you."

"Tell me now."

"I am telling you now. I need to start teaching you Kwali again. You are starting to forget."

I laughed at her. "How can I ever forget the only language I use to understand the people around me?"

She nodded. "Anyway, the thing is... I..."

"What?" I was now even more anxious to know the answer.

"I... Well... I actually have feelings for... for the guy that keeps coming close to you."

"Uma." I said.

"How do you know?"

"I could understand when you would sing about him. You sang about him as your love."

"Yes..."

"But Uma never got close to me..."

"I saw everything he would do. How he would look at you and admire you. How he would always touch and play with your hair. And I got angry at you because you allowed it. Right in front of me."

"I didn't see it like that."

"I know. You are so ignorant. You let all the men touch your hair and come close to you. I just didn't like it when you allowed Uma to get close to you like that."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"No one knows about my feelings for Uma."

"Well, I think he has feelings for you too."

"Maybe..." She looked down and blushed. "He told me yesterday that he wants to be my close friend. He spent time telling me about himself and asking me questions about myself."

"Okay." I smiled and looked at the ground as we strolled down to the river.

"You and Yoké though!" She exclaimed and then slapped her hand over her mouth and lowered her voice. "What were you guys doing? Why were you so close together. I saw you two. Even holding hands."

I smiled. "I think I have feelings for him too."

"But why were you guys so close? Do you know if someone else saw you two... Only married people can be that close."

"I know... But things just happened like that. And I felt so much better being so close to him like that. It felt so good, like he was a part of me."

She looked at me without saying anything and just started to giggle.

"I'm too scared to ever attempt something like that. Plus, Uma will never allow it. I understand you are a lost course but Yoké!"

I laughed. "I'm not a lost course."

"You are. You don't have the same attitude as us. You are so free-spirited. You do what you want and say what you want."

"I try not to."

Gamu smiled and shook her head. "Go bath now so that we can go see Yoké and Uma."

"Oh, look who is acting like a lost course now."

She just shook her head and sat down on the riverbank.

I removed my clothes and went into the river.

"Come join me." I told her.

"I can't. You know that."

"But no one is here."

"The Gods watch. This water was reserved for royalty. I'm just a servant."

I rolled my eyes. "You are Gamu."

She smiled at me, a warm beautiful smile.

***

As we were going up the hill to the well, I could see Yoké and Uma at the tip drawing out water. When we reached them, they greeted us, but Yoké was not smiling. He wore his frown again. Gamu handed them our buckets and stood and watched Yoké draw out water for us too.

Uma went to stand next to Gamu and started talking to her.

I noticed Yoké's attitude was different than it was last night. He didn't even look at me: just continued drawing out water.

"Yoké."

He looked at me.

"Are you okay?"

He nodded and continued.

I didn't know what the matter was now. I looked at Uma and he looked at me too and then turned back to Gamu. I shrugged it off and leaned with my elbows on the walls of the well.

"You won't believe what happened yesterday after we got back to the arena."

I waited for him to ask me what happened, but he didn't even look at me.

I heard Gamu and Uma laugh together about something. I started to tell Yoké everything about what Abu did in front of the chief yesterday. He didn't even react. He didn't say anything.

"Yoké what is wrong now?" I asked him coming closer to him.

He just shook his head.

"No, there is something wrong."

He ignored me and tried to pull the bucket back up, I wanted to help him so I held the bucket too and pulled it up.

"Can't you just leave me alone?" He asked me loudly.

Gamu and Uma turned to us.

"What's wrong Yoké?" Uma asked him, approaching us.

"Friend, please tell her to leave me alone. I'm giving out all the signs but she's not picking them up."

I was shocked at the words that came out of his mouth. I was at loss for words. Why was Yoké being like this? What did I do wrong this time?

"Take it easy. Talk to her nicely. Look how confused she looks." Uma told him. "What happened?"

He didn't reply. He just put the bucket down and put his hands on his waist and gave us his back.

"Rena, what happened?"

"I don't know Uma... I really don't know what's wrong. I didn't do anything wrong to him. I tried talking to him, but he wouldn't pay any attention or even react, and then he just shouted at me."

"Uma let's go." Yoké said still with his back towards us.

"No, Yoké talk to me." I said taking his arm and trying to turn him towards us, he was too strong, so I came in front of him rather. He didn't even look at me, just looked over my head.

"Hey, you two can't be so close. It's broad daylight." Gamu told us.

"Yes." Uma said.

"No, I want him to talk to me." I told them and then turned back towards Yoké. "What is wrong Yoké? Yesterday we were fine. I didn't do anything wrong so what happened? Why don't you want to talk to me?"

"Uma let's go." Yoké repeated and turned to pick up his bucket.

I came in front of him again. "No Yoké, stop doing this to me. What did I do wrong again. Tell me."

"Yoké, we'll get in trouble." Uma told him.

"Okay you want to know what you did wrong?" He finally spoke.

I nodded slowly.

"You came into our land. That's what you did wrong. You came into our village and started disobeying all our principals. As if that was not enough, you started making others disobey them too. You started making us sin towards our Gods. Look how you make all the guys touch you, look how you got so close to me yesterday. That's wrong!"

"But you held my hand..." I said feeling so helpless and near to tears. Why was Yoké acting like this now?

"Yes! I did hold your hand. But you know why? Because you were there, you tempted me to. You tempted me to commit a sin. Not just once but many times with you close to me. I want that to stop. You are sin. You came to our village to mislead us. Stay away from me." He carried his bucket and turned to leave but turned around again. "And do me a favour please, don't ever stop me or talk to me, or touch me ever again."

We all just stood there shocked. Those words hurt me. They were like a cut to my flesh.

"Uma take your bucket and let's go." Yoké told him and then turned to Gamu. "Gamu your buckets are full, sorry for the shouting. You can't chase away mosquitos unless you kill them."

Yoké then went on his way leaving Uma behind.

Uma looked at me still shocked. "Rena, I really don't know why he went on like this, but I will try to talk to him. Don't worry."

I didn't reply, the tears that were trapped under my eyelids finally escaped. Uma took his bucket and followed Yoké.

Gamu frowned. "What just happened?"

I took one bucket. "Let's go home Gamu."

I didn't wait for her or help her put one of the other buckets on her head, she used to do it herself, didn't she?