May 28, 2081

Noise outside our hut woke me up. I sat up slowly to listen. Mrs. Abimbola was not laying beside me and with the way the sheets looked ruffled, I could tell she had gotten up in a haste. When she woke up, she always straightened her side of the bed even though it was obvious I'll still have to make the whole bed. The noise outside increased so I jumped up to see what was going on. I bumped into Wunmi as I stepped out of the hut.

"What have you been doing?"

I didn't have time to respond because she grabbed my wrist and pulled me with her. I looked around to see people moving towards the direction we were also going to. "What's going on?"

"Maggie came back."

I froze for a moment and stumbled when Wunmi continued pulling me. I quickly pulled myself together and followed after her. Realizing it was risky to ask questions while Wunmi was rushing, I decided to wait till we got to wherever we were going. Wunmi's words rang in my head. Maggie came back. I didn't know what to think or feel. How was she back? What caused her disappearance? Was she with the other children? What had actually happened? We finally got to the village square where people were gathered. People murmured amongst themselves. I looked at their faces and noticed several emotions including anger, anxiety, worry, hope and fear.

Wunmi pulled me through the crowd. I kept on apologizing as we elbowed a few people causing them to glare at us. When we finally got to a place where we could see what was going on, Wunmi released my wrist. I rubbed the tension in it. She had been so focused on getting to where the attraction was that she hadn't realized how tightly she was holding my wrist. Still rubbing my wrist, I looked up at what was going on in front. Maggie was laying on the ground with the village doctor attending to her. Her adopted mother had her head in her lap and was fussing over her. She looked pale and her cloth was bloodied. I guessed it was from a wound the village doctor was putting the herbs on. I couldn't see the wound as the doctor's back was to us. She winced as the doctor applied another herb.

A man rushed through the crowd but was held back by a few men as he got close to Maggie. "Tell me where my son is! Tell me!"

Our Chief raised a hand trying to tell the man to calm down. "I know you are angry right now and worried about your child but she's in no position to answer our question now, Ogundele. Let the doctor finish with her."

The man, Ogundele, didn't seem to care about that but he waited. It was one thing I liked about our Chief. He was a good chief so people respected him. He was a white haired, pot bellied man with a kind face and he knew the names of every one in the village and was always worried about the villagers. Even though we lived in an inky world, he was a strong source of strength for the villagers.

"What happened?" I whispered to Wunmi. "How did they find Maggie?" I asked.

"She appeared at the village border injured so people took her to the square and called the doctor," she whispered back.

The doctor stood up just then. He was an old man but with a strong mind. He was quite knowledgeable about herbal plants and their healing powers and he always remembered his patients and whatever illness they had though he usually didn't remember when they were healed. I remembered when I had chicken pox, Mrs. Abimbola had taken me to him and two weeks after it went away, he was still asking me, "How's the pox?"

"You should ask her whatever you want to ask her now. She's in pain and the medicine I'll be giving her will make her sleep for a while."

Even though the doctor had directed his statement to Chief, several people in the crowd started asking questions, raising their voice to be heard above others.

"What happened?"

"Where is my child?"

"How come you survived?"

"Was it RICCO CORP?"

"Silence!" Chief said, raising his hand. "Maggie." He squatted in front of her so he could look at us. "Can you tell us what happened?"

She coughed and tears started streaming down her face, joining the ones already on her cheeks. "They followed me. I was so angry. I didn't think anything bad will happen if I stepped out of the village boundary."

Several people gasped and several others silenced them with a 'Shoo'.

"It happened all of a sudden. Men appeared out of nowhere and attacked us. They carried the children away. I ran as fast as I could."

"You could have saved them," a woman screamed, trying to push through the crowd. "You could have saved my baby."

Maggie burst into tears. I had never seen her this way. She obviously felt guilty about it. "There was nothing I could do. The men were everywhere. As I was running, I got caught in a bush with pointy sticks but I didn't stop. It was when I had gotten far away that I realized I was injured. A stick was wedged in my side and I was bleeding. I wanted to come to the village but I didn't want them to trace my blood and follow me here so I had to wait until they were gone before I came out. I'm sorry I couldn't help the children. I'm sorry I put them in trouble."

My eyes watered as I watched the men and women around me whose children were affected, burst into tears. Some started shouting on Maggie. I looked at her as she buried her face in her adopted mum's chest and they both cried. Somehow, I felt for her. She was a spoilt brat and badly behaved but she had gone through a lot. She must have been scared and in so much pain but she still was careful not to lead those men to the village. Though she hadn't said it, I was sure the men were from RICCO CORP and with the way the villagers were cursing RICCO CORP with all the gods they believed in, I was sure they thought so too.

The doctor gave Maggie the herb and she fell asleep immediately. Chief ordered her to be taken to his home. I thought that was a wise decision. Who knew what the villagers would do out of anger and grief?

Slowly, the crowd dispersed as people walked to their houses crying, fuming or shaking their heads in pity. I saw Mrs. Abimbola comforting one of the women and Tobi was standing beside her with a baby in his hand. The baby too was crying, quite loudly, and Tobi looked lost as he tried to pacify her. I remembered her as the baby I had carried the day before, the one who had soiled my clothes. Despite the situation, I couldn't help smiling at Tobi's predicament. He saw me and glared. I rolled my eyes and walked away.

"I pity for Maggie," Wunmi said as we got close to my hut.

"Me too. She must have been so afraid and now the villagers would hate her. Even more than before."

Wunmi nodded. "But I also pity for those who lost their children. I'm just thinking of what they must be going through at this moment."

"No one knows, which makes it more scary."

We walked the remaining journey in silence. That night we heard Maggie died. She had woken up screaming and asking for forgiveness and then a fever had taken over her. I wasn't sure what had killed her. Was it the wound or her guilt?

©Jesutofunmi Fekoya

AUTHOR'S NOTE
So what do you think killed Maggie -the wound or her guilt?

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