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• Prologue
• Chapter 1 & 2

Chapter 3

My mother was a charming woman. For all she went through in life, she persevered for love. She was ridiculed and made to suffer for her choices.  

I can still clearly recall two incidents in my childhood that caused my mother an enormous amount of pain and ridicule. The first happened in my wee years; it is one of my earliest memories.Mother walked through Oride's main market; with me in tow on a busy market day. Back then, she was still quite new in town. 

Some hoodlums in the market happened to know who she was; they came seemingly out of nowhere and started grabbing her, throwing rotten food and spitting on her.  

While this was going on she screamed and shouted for help; but everyone kept going on with their personal business; paying no heed to her desperate calls. They were about to start stripping and beating her when she was delivered by some kind foreign traders who didn’t understand what was going on. 

I can still clearly remember that throughout this ordeal, her gaze never left m. She was more concerned for my safety than hers. But I just stood powerless, crying a river of tears from a distance while my mother was harassed. After that day, my mother never set her foot in an Oride market till the day she died.

The second incident occurred when I was much older. I lay sick on her mat in her room. Mother hadn’t slept a wink throughout my lengthy bout of malaria.  She was spent; all the while trying to ease the discomfort that came with my high fever. For once her face had turned cheerful as my fever was finally abating.  

That was one of the last few times I ever saw her smile as that very evening; the limp and pale body of my little sister Imime was brought home from the river that day, she had drowned.   

It is a belief among the Ijus that no true daughter of Iju could drown in the great river. Apparently my mother had birthed a bastard. Mother was ridiculed and called a cheating whore and my little sister was a bastard.  

Local legend stated that the goddess Alamda’s handmaidens were half fish, half human. This river spirits were more beautiful than any mortal woman.  It is said that there was no man born of a woman who would set his eyes on these fair maidens and not fall deeply in love. 

These spirits were however deceitful; they used their beauty to draw the unfortunate men to the bottom of the river where they would in turn feast on their souls.  

Whenever an Iju man drowned in the great river the elders would always say that he had been deceived by these spirits; this courtesy was not extended to the females who drowned in the river. 

As punishment for adultery; Mother was publicly whipped. The corpse of my sister was dumped in deep inside Krima’s creek to be feasted on by crabs and alligators.   After this, mother became mute and sullen. The world had worn her out. They had stolen the light behind her eyes.   

• Prologue
• Chapter 1 & 2

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