Gone Too Soon
It was a cold Thursday night when Kaai’s mother walked into their smoke-field hut that served as the kitchen and Kaai’s bedroom as well. This time, her mother bought her smoked lamb tail which was a delicacy that was served to the older women on important cultural celebrations. Her mother told her that they would be paying a visit to the medicine woman where she would be made into a proper woman. Kaai jumped in excitement at the thought that this was her opportunity to become like her mother whom she looked up to. Kaai bade her mother goodnight and retired for the night only to be woken by a soft knock on her door in the middle of the night.
Kaai’s mother had a bag in one hand and a Leso on the other which she used to wrap Kaai who by now was dozing-off on their donkey’s back. The journey to the medicine woman was long but they arrived just before sunrise. Her mother left her under the care of women they found there under the pretext that she would return to pick her up the following day. This was the first time Kaai had been far from home and the thought of her father and brothers kept her awake that night. Two women stormed into the room, grabbed her, and tied up her arms and legs to four posts and undressed her. Kaai tried to fight them off but her frail body was no match for the women. Suddenly she felt excruciating pain between her legs and something trickled down to the cow skin she lay on. She felt her body weaken and could hardly speak. The women were now helter skelter trying to cover her up but nothing seemed to stop the bleeding. Kaai lay still and for a moment wished her mother was around to protect her. When she arrived the next day, it was far too late. Her daughter’s lifeless body was placed by the entrance, neatly wrapped in cow skin and in a moment the gravity of what she had done sunk in. She broke down weeping profusely but there was no one else to blame but herself.