Yoké later on ignited the fire and warmed his food for us and we ate. I told him that the food was delicious and he was so happy to hear that. He started telling me that when we get married he would be the one cooking for us since I do not know how to cook yet. He said he would then start teaching me how to cook. When we finished eating he brought the water from the hut and he washed the bowls while I rinsed them. When we were done, he put the bowls back inside. We then sat by the fire side by side and I laid my head on his shoulder. "Where do you want us to build our hut once we get married? We can build it anywhere you'd like." "I like it up here. Just us two, so far from everyone else." I told him. "Just us two? What about our little ones?" I started to laugh. "Which little ones?" "The ones which you and I will have. I want our first child to be a girl by the way. A beautiful baby girl with your hair." I tried to imagine a baby girl with Yoké's smile, his eyes and my hair. "I

We didn’t wake up at the crow of the rooster. When we heard it Yoké drew me closer to him. “Don’t mind that rooster.” He continued his sleep with his arms wrapped across my chest. I smiled and snuggled into his arms. After a little while I was woken by someone’s looming image over us. I opened my eyes and it was Uma. He had his hands to his waist and he was shaking his head. I smiled and attempted to sit up, that’s when Yoké woke up. “Are you forgetting that we go farm every morning at the cry of the cock.” Uma was asking Yoké. “Or was the cock not loud enough this morning?” Yoké laughed. “Rena ignore him.” He laid back down on the sleeping mat with his arm covering his eyes. “So today you are not going?” I asked him. “He can’t not go. The last time he didn’t go too. We don’t want the elders to start keeping their eyes on him.”“Rena come here.” Yoké drew out his hands. “And the last time you didn’t go because of Rena too. That day that Furah asked you to take care of her.”“I

We sat around the wooden table eating the delicious vegetables that Gamu had made. As we ate in awkward silence I was only thinking of one thing: Furah’s last words. Each time I looked across the table toward her I was sure that maybe I had misunderstood her. She didn’t look like the person I was with in that chamber. She didn’t look like the person that told me what she had just said to me.The chief on the other hand wore an unshakable frown that I knew oh-so-well. I would always wonder how one person could hate me so much that he refused to speak whenever I was around but today I finally understood his hate. He hated me for trying to take his daughter’s place in their life. He hated me for sleeping in his daughter’s chamber and wearing her clothes. Perhaps I brought back the memories of his beloved daughter each day. Being called by her name each day… I understood his anger, it was pain. I suddenly remembered that Yoké had asked me to come back to him. He had to know what Furah had

Shortly after we got to the well, Uma showed up with two buckets. When I saw him with two buckets I already knew that Yoké wouldn't be coming to the well and I knew the reason very well. "How are you, Rena?" Uma asked me as he got close to us. Gamu was busy filling up our first bucket. Uma only greeted me and I really didn't want to upset Gamu in any way before it made matters worse than they already were. I had to find a way to make them two speak to each other. "I'm good Uma. How are you?""I'm well, just a little tired. They assigned me to uproot the weeds today. That's the worst task at the farm.""Gamu, let Uma fetch water for us." Gamu looked at Uma but Uma looked away. "Will you?" Gamu asked him. "Or are you too tired?" Uma didn't reply, just looked back at me. "Won't you ask me about your Yoké?" It was such an awkward moment and I had to answer Uma back to cut that moment short. "Where's Yoké anyway?" I asked him after a gulp I'm sure they all heard."I don't know what

Even though I couldn’t sleep, I resisted the temptation to run to Yoké and tell him everything. I kept thinking about what happened. I couldn’t believe that Abu was finally getting his way. Why did I keep provoking him knowing very well that he actually had the ability to do this to me? Maybe if I had made him believe that I liked him too, I could have asked him to not talk to his father. I wished I had listened to Yoké when he told me that I should act like there was nothing going on between the two of us so that we do not upset Abu. Why didn’t I just listen? This was all my fault.I don’t know how long it took but after much more regretful thoughts I finally fell asleep. After a short while I was woken up again by Gamu’s rattling and moving around in the house. I laid awake for a little while longer and then got up when I heard Gamu coming towards my chamber. It was now time to go to the river.When we got to the river Gamu didn’t wait for me to finish bathing like she normally did,