I had not even seen this other girl, who was walking with us. I recognized her; she also lived in my village. She was young and pretty, but that’s about all I could say. I couldn’t figure out why they had taken us away. I would have talked to her, but the men walking with us were keeping us faraway from each other. And I wasn’t sure she was understanding anything more than me.
The only thing I knew was that the strangers talked to my dad outside our hut. The noise they had made had woken me up, but I could not figure out what was going on. At first I thought an evil spirit of the night was approaching so I hid my face in my pillow and tried clear my mind in order to fall asleep again. It was only afterwards that I recognized my father’s voice.
And then the next thing I knew, these two strangers were just holding me, taking me out of my bed, and made me walk for a long long time in the middle of this dark forest…
b) I have been living here with Okonkwo for almost three years now. The time when Okonkwo and these two other men I don’t remember properly came to my hut in my native village is far away. I haven’t heard from my family, nor been allowed to visit them.
But I guess I have got used to a new life here, and I now have a new family. Okonkwo has always treated me like his own son, and I consider his biological son and daughter like my brother and sister.
When Okonkwo started to teach his son hunting, he just naturally asked me to come along with them, and taught me in the exact same way. All those details made me become each time closer to my new family. My sister was learning how to be a good wife with our mother, while my brother and I spent most days with our father.
I thought family times were very pleasant, for example when we were all in the fields, cultivating the yams, and riding the horses. But my favorite was the festivals. My mother used to spend the entire week beforehand in the kitchen in order to prepare everything, with my sister. My father took care of all the organization part, and my brother and I helped me hunting the animals. Then we had three full days of celebrations, with the entire village, including dances, religious songs, meals, activities with the camels and so on.
I have got very used to this new life, and am very happy. Okonkwo has treated me like one of his own children.
c)
This morning I woke up, like every single morning, and had a little bowl of potatoes prepared by my mother before I got ready to go to the fields work with Okonkwo. But my father was surprisingly not working in the fields; so I went back to the hut to ask for him.
In front of our compound were standing five men. They were all very tall and strong, the kind of men you wouldn’t want to be fighting with. As soon as I entered the compound, three of them grabbed my arms, and the other two grabbed my legs.
My mind was blank; I didn’t know what to think: what were these men doing? Was it a mistake? Did Okonkwo know about this? Where were they taking me? This situation reminded me of the day Okonkwo came to take me away from my native village. Again, I was scared because I didn’t know what was going to happen. The men carried me to the entrance of a forest. Again, a forest. I could feel the fear increasing in me.
As I was trying to calm myself down, I caught sight of a silhouette walking towards us. What was going to happen to me now? I cannot describe the state of relief I felt when I recognized Okonkwo. He was next to me, I knew he was going to take care of me.
How could I have ever thought of what was going to happen to me?
