Lily was just 15 years old when she lost her father to a brief illness. He was the only person that had got her back. She never knew her mom as she was told that her mom had abandoned her at the traditional birth attendance house, where she gave birth and ran to a faraway city. She had been living with her father, step mother and two of her step siblings, Efo and Muni. Now it was just herself, step mother and step siblings.
She cried bitterly upon the demise of her father and thought of who will protect her from her step mother who was always picking on her. After her father had been laid to rest, life had begun again in the small village of Raffia, people were seen going about their normal business.
Raffia village was a small village located in the middle east. They were blessed with large farmlands, animals, palm trees and coconut trees. They also had one big river and one stream in their village. The river flows from another village and passes through their village. Local fishermen always went there to fish, but the catch was not always much. The fishermen sold the fishes at the local market, it was not enough for nearby villagers to buy.
The people of Raffia village also sold coconuts and palm fruits to people from other villages who came to buy. They were also great farmers and they made lots of raffia products with their hands too and sold them. They always assisted each other especially in times of grief and celebrated each other when it was time for celebrating. The stream and the river was their only source of water.
POV
Lily just came back from the stream with a pot of water on her head. She called for her step sister to help her bring the pot of water down, because her step mother had told her to carry the larger pot instead of the normal size of pot which she had always carried. When her step sister came out, she helped remove the pot and smashed it on the grown. Lily opened her mouth wide in shock. Her step sister, Efo, started screaming and her mom came out from the kitchen where she was only to see the broken calabash pot littered on the grown. She accused Lily of breaking the pot immediately and told her that she would be starved of food for two days and in these two days, she will work at the farm alone and ensure she clears out all the weeds. Lily tried to explain herself but she was chased out of the compound with a long cane.
Lily was very hungry and begged that at least she be given food to eat, but she was sent out like a plague. Her step mother came out and threw a matchet and a how for her and asked her to leave the vicinity and move to the farm and never to return until it gets dark.
When Lily arrived at the farm, she was already too weak to do anything. She went and sat under a mango tree to rest a little. She closed her eyes to sleep and woke up to the sound of falling mangoes. She saw that five ripe mangoes had fallen. She got up and picked them up, cleaned them with her clothes and began munching them, while she was munching the mangoes,
To be continued….
Photo is mine and was taken with my Infinix smart 5 phone camera.