1– The people

The first thing I remember is laying on that bed with my arms flat against my sides and how difficult it felt trying to open my eyes. I felt as if I needed help opening my eyes. And when I did open them, it required energy to open them up again after each blink.

What I saw was blur. Silhouettes of people gathered around me. I didn't see their faces clearly, but I could sense that they were agitated, turning to their sides and looking at one another from time to time.

Someone bent towards me and put something cold on my forehead. After blinking this time when I opened my eyes, I could see clearly. I saw the face of the person that put that cold thing on my forehead. It was a woman. A grown woman. She was very dark in colour. She had long black hair that fell over me. I noticed that she had two bands around each one of her upper arms. The material looked like cheater skin.

The woman was looking down at me. She smiled warmly for a few seconds and then her face crumbled into tears. She wiped them quickly and then she touched my cheek. With her palm still resting on my cheek, she looked back at the other people. I lifted my head slightly to look at them too. They stared back curiously.

I heard her say something to them, but I didn't understand her words. They all rejoiced and began dancing around. I was frightened by their sudden excitement. What were they so happy about? But I was too weak to react physically, so I just lay there.

At that moment, a big built man from the group stepped closer. He had his hands crossed over his chest and didn't seem to be as happy as the rest of the group. He looked superior, compared to the others. He wore a thin band around his forehead with feathers poking out from it, almost looking like a crown. Mere attempt of a crown put together by pre-schoolers. The band that the 'crown' was made with looked like cheater skin too. The grumpy man looked at me for a while and then turned to address the mob in a very deep and firm voice. Silence, as he spoke. When he was done speaking, they all nodded and I followed them with my eyes as they disappeared behind an apricot looking curtain, one after the other. As they left, they each took one last look at me. An intense light glared at me behind that curtain each time the people drew away the curtain to leave. And each time it glared, I shut my eyes in an attempt to shield myself from its blinding brightness.

The woman who had been smiling at me didn't leave, the one with two cheater skin bands around her arms. She stayed by my side still smiling down at me. She began speaking. Her words, which I couldn't understand, were directed at me. I heard footsteps recede. I hadn't even noticed that there was still someone else here. The person had been standing by my bedside all along and I hadn't even noticed. I turned my head towards the footsteps to try and see who it was, but I only caught a glimpse of the person walking away and disappearing behind the curtain too. The person also had long black bushy hair falling down her back.

The man looked at the woman and said something that the woman didn't reply to.

The person whom the woman had sent away returned and I finally saw her face. It was a young lady. She looked profoundly serious and walked upright as she came toward us with a brown moulded bowl in her hands. She held it towards the woman and the woman put her hand in it and drew out a smaller bowl with a handle from it. The woman then put her hands under my head and lifted my head up. She put the bowl to my mouth. It was water. I gulped it all down thirsty. It felt so good, refreshing. I wished for some more, but she returned the water dish to the young lady.

I wanted to sit up but as soon as the woman noticed me struggling, she shook her head at me, refusing. She held me back down by my arms. I didn't try to sit up again. I wanted to speak to her, but I couldn't, I didn't have the strength. My tongue felt heavy and dry. When she noticed that I was trying to speak, she put her fingers on my lips and shook her head. Her warm smile didn't leave her face. I noticed wrinkles at the edges of her eyes as she smiled.

She started speaking to me: words I heard but didn't understand. She spoke for long and then turned to the young lady and started speaking to her. The lady nodded. The woman then got up from the bed and finally left the chamber with the man following behind her.

As soon as they left, the lady came to sit next to me on the bed and began staring at me, she didn't take her eyes off of me. I stared back, unsure why her stare was so deep. She wore a frown on her face and looked confused. When she drew out her hand, I flinched with the little strength that I had. She paused too, seeing me so frightened. She then touched my hair, and as she went for my hair, I realized that she was harmless. She touched my hair for a while. I jerked suddenly when I felt a pinch on my face. She got a fright too when I reacted. She then did it again, this time lightly. She pinched the skin on my face. I was confused as to why she was doing that. She then leaned towards me and sniffed at my skin. She then took my hand and played with the skin on my palm. She pushed back my nails. I couldn't do anything, I just felt weak. She said something to me. I opened my mouth to speak again but I couldn't. My throat still felt dry.

As if she could read my mind, she gave me some more water and splashed some on my face. It felt so refreshing.

She then continued to talk. I didn't understand anything.

"Uh..." I attempted to speak again. She jerked her attention at me suddenly when she heard my voice.

"Wh... Where... my?"

She frowned and said something which I didn't understand. She looked even more puzzled now.

"Where... mmy?" I struggled to repeat.

She suddenly ran out and came back with the older woman behind her. The woman seemed excited and said something to me.

"Whh... Wh... What's... go... going o... on?"

The woman and the lady looked at each other, confused and then they looked back at me simultaneously.

The woman told the lady... and the lady ran out.

She came back later with the man with the cheater skin crown. The man started complaining. I couldn't understand what he was going on about, but I could see he was upset by the rough gestures he was making.

When the woman spoke the man exhaled heavily, thought for a while, then replied.

The woman sent the lady out again. This time she took an exceedingly long time to return.

I was still trying to say things and the woman didn't stop me this time. She looked rather worried now.

After a while the lady returned with another person. A young man. He came in with a frown. He was topless. Only then I noticed that the forehead band man was also topless. But this young man did not have a band around his head or arm. He had a lot of hair on his head that wasn't falling to his shoulders or back like the women, it was standing straight up like an afro. He had eyebrows that touched, giving him a serious look.

He approached the bed I was laying on and the woman spoke to him. He nodded. Still with his frown, he asked for permission and the woman allowed him to sit on the side of the bed. He looked at me with concern. He said something to me that sounded way different from what I've been hearing from these people. I looked at him blankly. I didn't understand what was going on. None of them were answering my questions and none of them made any sense.

“Wh... What?” I asked him.

He closed his eyes and smiled with content. He then grinned and looked up at the woman. He said... and looked back at me. He no longer wore the frown.

“What is your name?” He asked me. He had a funny accent.

I looked at him for a while, feeling some sort of relief that someone was finally speaking my language. But then, I didn't know the answer to he's question.

“What?” I asked him.

“What is your name?” He repeated.

“My name?”

He turned back to the woman who looked eager now.

“My name is Yoké.” Yoké said turning back to me, he spoke with gestures. “What is your name?”

I tried to think. He was asking for my name, and I just couldn't get to the answer. This made me feel a little frustrated because I felt like I knew the answer to this question. He was patient and gave me some time to think. After trying as hard as I could, I finally gave up. “I... I don't know."

He urged them to give me some water.

“Where are you from?” He asked me after the young lady made me drink water from the bowl.

“From?”

“Yes, which country?”

“Uh... I don't know.” I replied feeling so hopeless.

“tell me something about you. Where is your family?”

He kept asking me questions and I didn't know the answers to the questions he was asking me.

“Family?”

“Yes. Mother, father, brother, sister?” He told me pinching the space between his eyes, I could see that his patience was wearing thin now. “Can you stop repeating everything I'm saying?”

“Where am I?” I asked him and tried to sit up. He looked at the woman once again, as if asking for permission. She nodded at him, so he helped me sit up on the bed. I sat with my back against the wall. The bed made loud creaking sounds as I sat up.

“You are in Toko village. This is our village. These...” Yoké gestured to the man and woman who were standing behind him watching. “These are my people. You see, look at our skin colour. Do you see the colour of my skin? Now, do you see the colour of yours?”

He placed the back of his hand before me and took my hand and placed it next to his. We were not the same colour. His hand was very dark in complexion and mine exceptionally light in complexion.

“Where is your people?” He continued to ask me.

“I... I don't know...”

“So you are here alone?” He looked surprised. “You people usually come in groups.”

I didn't know how to respond to that.

“Why did you come here?” He then asked me when I didn't respond.

“I really don't know...” I told him shaking my head slowly. “I don't remember anything.”

He turned to the man and women and started speaking to them that I couldn't understand. Only the woman was replying. After some time, he turned back to me again.

“Standing behind me is the chief and chieftess of our village. They are very good people. They will take care of you. They won't be able to understand you because they don't speak English. They only speak Loke and Kwali, our languages. Only I speak English in this whole village. That is why they came to look for me.”

I looked at the chief and chieftess. Now it was clear to me why they had on these cheater skin bands.

“By the way, I am a teacher here. The only teacher in this village. I am very popular.”

I nodded at this new information.

“The chieftess' name is Furah. She just told me that I should come here again tomorrow too before the sun sets to help the healer understand you.”

“Why am I here?” I asked him.

“That's what the chief wants to know. But the people of Toko village found you near the river. You were left to die. We don't know how you got there but you were very hurt. They carried you and brought you to the chief's hut and since then you've been taken care of.”

“Really?” I asked him.

“A lot of the villagers claim that they saw you being thrown out of the water by your God, some say that you fell from the sky from one of those 'big birds' that fly by and others say that you just appeared there suddenly.”

“Where do you think I came from?”

“I believe that you fell from, what my people call the big bird, or from what me and you both know as an aeroplane.”

“Aeroplane?”

“Your skin is very pale; I can't tell if it's just your colour or you might be sick.”

“Yours is very dark...” I told him.

He looked at me for a while and then spoke. “I'm sure that you won't be able to recall anything right now, your falling was really bad. You need some time. At the moment, don't worry. You are safe here. I must go now. My time is up.”

Yoké stood up and began talking to the man and woman. My stomach suddenly growled with hunger. He then turned back to me. I thought it was the sound of my stomach that had caught his attention but no.

“The chieftess said that I should tell you that she is very happy that you have regained consciousness.”

“I feel very hungry.” I told him placing my hands over my stomach.

“Of course you should be hungry. Furah told me that you had been unconscious for about 6 nights now. You usually just open your eyes and sleep again. If you had not woken up on the 10th day, they were going to ease your pain and kill you.”

I gasped. “Oh my God!”

He laughed shortly. “You should see your face.” I didn't find it funny.

“Besides, the correct way of speaking is 'oh my Gods'... Anyway, I hope you will heal fast. Your wounds look very deep. I should go now, Furah is only paying me 80 corns." He said getting up from the bed. I realized that whenever he was not smiling, he looked so serious.

“Where are you going?”

“Where else? To my hut.” He responded.

“Where is that?” I asked him.

“I don't stay down here. My hut is far, by the mountains.”

“I don't understand these people, please take me with you to your hut.”

His face turned into a frown as quick as lightning. He looked at me as if I had just said something that he did not like.

“What you are saying is very wrong. That is not permitted here. Until I do not marry you, we cannot even be under the same roof alone.”

“Then marry me.”

He was awestruck. But only for a moment because he then laughed. He laughed for a long time and then shook his head. Furah urged him to interpret what I had said that was so funny, but he just shook his head at her as if to say it was nothing.

“If they heard you say that they would kill you.” He told me, his smile fading away as quickly as the frown had appeared on his face.

“What is it with you people and killing?” I asked him, rolling my eyes and crossing my hands over my chest.

“In our village a woman does not pursue a man. If she does, she is considered shameless, and her head is cut off. But I understand that since you don't even remember your own name, you obviously do not remember what it means to marry someone either. I'm going now.”

“I know what it means to marry someone.” I defended myself.

“Yeah, but you don't know much about it, I can see.”

I frowned because he was being rude.

He spoke to Furah, and she went away and disappeared behind a curtain which was in the hut.

“So you are coming again tomorrow?” I asked him.

“Yes.” He replied standing with his hands behind his back.

“What is the time now?” I asked him.

“A little before sunset.”

I looked at him blankly.

“What?” He asked frowning at me.

Furah came back with a handful of corn. She gestured to him to take the corn. He had a tiny sack hanging from the waistline of his skirt. He removed the sack and opened it up to Furah. She then put the corn into his little sack.

They exchanged short phrases and he left without even saying goodbye to me. When he got to the exit, I wanted to call out his name, but I didn't have the strength.

The woman Furah came to touch my face and smiled warmly. She sent the lady away and the lady came back with a flat plate with several types of coloured things on it. Along with the things on the plate, there was also boiled corn. They put it on my lap and urged me on, but I didn't know what I was supposed to do with those funny looking things. Furah took some water from the bowl and washed her hands and then took some of the stuff on my lap and put it in her mouth and began to chew. I then understand that I had to eat them, they were all food.

I followed the same pattern, took some water, and washed my hands and started to eat. The food tasted blunt and a bit sour. I went from one food to the other, but they all tasted horrible. I ate for a while and then I just felt everything that I had just consumed come right back up. I suddenly threw up all over the sheet that was covering me.