orphan-sunday_t

PROLOGUE

Gods fought as they are prone to do. Their clashes, thunder within the skies. Their brilliance, lightning striking the earth. Tears from the heavens fell as rain hitting a lonely thatched roof; probing for weakness. Each drip found its new home in wisps of curly white hair. His eyes flickered open, lids weighed down by age. With Legs crossed beneath him, he looked into the water filled calabash; wishing, willing to see something different. Transparent liquid stared back at him mockingly.

“You will know my name!”

He shouted at the bowl, gnarled fingers gripping the bone handle of a knife. Gently he ran the business edge of the blade against his tongue, the taste of steel giving him strength. With a quick stroke he tore a line into his left palm and held it over the calabash. White hot pain coursed through his veins, the poison slow acting. Without haste, the blood worked its way down his palm following a well worn path. Red, vibrant, it pulsed with life seeking beyond its natural domain within the body. A single drop fell disappearing into the vastness of the bowl. Nothing happened. He picked up a cowry shell among the many scattered, drenching it in his freely bleeding palm. Bringing it to his lips he uttered a single word into the divide.

“Fire”

Whispered, the word floated around the room of mud, gaining strength. Opening his palm, the bloody shell fell into the waiting calabash. He tracked the progress with bated breath as the shell hit the water bursting into flames.

CHAPTER 1

Screams, peals of abject terror tore through his throat. Hands thrashed searching for release. Suddenly, just like it started, the pain left him. Breath coming out in gasps as his heart slowed from the jack hammer speed it had previously beat. Fear still clung to him, his body cowering at the corner of the thin, sweat soaked mattress. 

“Asa, it’s alright, I’m here”

Shivers still racking his body, Asa opened his eyes. There she was, Zainab, arms outstretched with a thin smile on her lips. The smile was perfect on her small frame. Asa’s eyes left her, working its way slowly round the room, taking in the empty beds, until it settled on the orphans cowering together at the farthest corner from him. Despair once again began to take.

“Come back to me Asa!”

She cooed, the faint steel in her voice dragging him from the darkness that beckoned. As demanding as ever Asa thought. With no where else to turn, he reached out letting her pull him into her waiting arms. Face buried in her hair, he let the tears flow freely, sobs racking his chest reverberating through her slender frame. The dream had come again.