Bread for one
Have you ever heard the sound of a tank crawling down the empty streets of your village late at night? It’s the most bone chilling sound you’ll ever hear, though you‘ll get used to it after awhile. My sister and I have been living on our own since the war started up again. Our father was sent to war and our mother was raped and killed by the other soldiers. My sister and I are one of the so called lucky children who managed to run away with out getting raped or killed.
The nights here are much colder and lonelier then you could image. The emotional damage and pain I see in my sisters eyes, makes it’s so hard to keep hope and keep trying. You would never ask for this pain to be brought upon such a small soul. I remember how it was before, sure life was never perfect but freedom was one thing you could have with no price. Everything now has a price, most of the time out here the price is a loved one or your life.
I look at my sister and all I see is the pain through her brown eyes. They no longer sparkle like they did, her hair is in dirty knots, hasn’t been clean for god knows how long now. Her hands are caked in dirt and dried brown crusty blood. One of her hands was badly cut up running away from the soldiers, it’s wrapped up in the bottom half of my old worn out shirt. It was the best I could do to stop the bleeding. She can barely move anymore, she’s so weak and starving. She’s like a living skeleton now, I’m afraid to touch her, she’s so fragile. I’m no better though, I still have some muscle on my bones. My foot was badly hurt when I tripped and fell the other night. I can feel the dirt caked onto my body and I can feel the hole in my stomach growing and slowly eating away at me.
I’ve never been so afraid in my life. We sit under a dried up dead tree in the middle of the valley. The only shelter we could find in this barren land. It’s not the safest but it will have to do until dawn. Kaisha fell asleep as soon as we reached the tree. I was scared she wasn’t going to make it this far. Looking at her sleeping brings tears to my eyes, her small body curled up, if I didn’t know better I would think she was dead. Her chest barely moves with each breath, makes me sick to my stomach to watch her anymore. I can barely keep my eyes open, I force myself to stay awake and keep watch for any predators. Being out here in the valley is the most dangerous place, Kaisha and I were never aloud out here on our own , our father always had to be with us. I understand why, it was for our safety. Being alone in wild Africa isn’t the place you want to be. The lions and hyenas pray on their victims at night, that’s why my body crawls with fear. I breath carefully, making as little noise as humanely possible. I move back towards Kaisha and rest my hand on her side. I stare up at the stars and think to myself when will this ever be over?
Dawn brings a new day, something I no longer look forward to anymore. I don’t know if I can make it another day. Though I keep fighting for Kaisha, she’s the only thing that keeps me going anymore. I look at her then sigh to myself and slowly rise to my feet. I leaned against the tree to support my weight. The air is cold and the valley is so calm and quite. It’s so beautiful, the trees in the remoteness, the swaying long grass and the hills in the distance. The rising sun casts a golden glow over the grass, I realize what it means to be free.
I know staying here for any longer is to dangerous. I have to get the strength to push forward to the next village. I wake Kaisha up and slip my arms under her tiny body and start to carry her in the direction of the village.
It seems like a life time away before me in the distance. I start to see something out of the corner of my eye. It’s the village, we made it. The last few steps to the village were the longest and hardest. We stopped at the first hut we saw. I could barely breath my body ached so much I would have done anything to die at that moment. I was so weak and I didn’t want to go on like this anymore. Kaisha was looking sicker now, her skin was turning a pale yellow and she made whimpering sounds when she breathed. I managed to get to my feet again to look inside the hut for anything. The hut had been torn apart by something. Everything was over -turned and broken on the floor. As I went though the piles in the corner I found a half broken bowl with some water and piece of bread. I rushed back to Kaisha’s side to show her what I had found. I opened her mouth and poured the few drops of water into her mouth. I cried as the drops just seemed to run down her cheeks. I held the bread to my chest as I watched Kaisha painfully swallow the few drops of water that managed to stay in her mouth. I stared at the bread, it’s just a piece of bread to you but to me it’s the difference between life and death. I haven’t eaten for more than five days now and Kaisha is slowly dying. I ask myself whether or not I should give all the bread to Kaisha and try to save her, share the bread fairly so we both have something. Or worse should I be selfish and eat it all because there is no saving Kaisha now, she’s too far gone for me to help her anymore..…
Before I could think about what to do with my piece of bread I was knocked off my feet by a huge blast. I was sent into the side of the hut and hit my head really hard against a stone. As I opened my eyes everything was covered in a cloud of dust, I felt as if I was dreaming. I could see my sisters lips move, she had mouthed something like my name or something. I couldn’t make it out. Just in that moment I blinked she was gone, the last thing I saw was her feet being dragged into the cloud of dust. I was still in shock, I still hadn’t gotten my hearing back from the blast. The pounding in my head was so strong now it was hard to keep my eyes open. I touched my hand to my forehead to stop the bleeding from the gash on the side of my head, just as I touched my head my hearing came back. At first it took awhile to get used to hearing again when I realized what was going on. I was in the middle of another raid on a village. I was so tired and so caught up in finding that stupid piece of bread that I didn’t realize what was going on or even tired looking around to make sure we were safe. Kaisha is now gone, just like everything else in my life.
Time seemed to stop after I regained the strength to run to the hills. I never made it, I passed out half way. I was so sick and weak. I could barely see. Everything was blurry from my tears. I hadn’t stopped crying once I started running. I wasn’t even very far from the village when I noticed I was just a hundred feet away. I rolled onto my back and looked at the village. Black smoke hung above and the sounds of guns roared over the valley. Quietly I heard my name being called…Naricko….Naricko. Was I going crazy, was it just the wind. I swung my head furiously in the direction of where my name was being called from. I got onto my knees and carefully started to make my way around the grass. I was breathing so hard, it was hard to concentrate. I could barely move, every time I put my hand out I fell straight onto my face. I kept coughing up dirt and grass I just thought to myself it’s not long before they find me to and kill me.
Before I knew it I tripped over a body. I fell right onto it, I froze. I was too afraid to move, afraid to see what I had tripped over. My stomach was in my throat. I bent my head down and looked at the body, the chest slowly moved. Shocked, I fell backwards. In a bubbled gargle the body called my name “Naricko”. I leaned towards the voice, at first I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was Kaisha. Blood dripped from her mouth, she had been shot in the right lung. Her small hand touched my cheek and then a long bubbling breath spewed out. Blood foamed from her mouth and ran onto the ground as she croaked out my name one last time. “Na.. Nar ..Narickoo….”,“Kaisha……KAISHA” I shoved my face into her lifeless body and cried.
I clenched my teeth together to stop myself from screaming, when I felt a chilly hand on the my back. The touch sent the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. Time froze, my mind went blank and the world around me all at once went blank to. Before I knew it I felt the cold metal pierce my flesh. Into my back I felt the knife. Surprisingly I didn’t feel any pain, with an automatic reflex I grabbed the knife as it made it’s way through my flesh. Blood dripped down my wrists as I tightly held on. I felt my heart beating in my hands. My stomach lurched and squeezed tighter waiting for the nausea to pass.
I felt as if my life was just placed in my hands and I was in control of what would become of myself. The longer I held on the more guilt I felt and the more I wanted to die. The only thing that raced through my head was Kaisha’s face. It was my fault that she was dead. If I wasn’t so caught up in that stupid piece of bread. That bread meant life, like I said before everything out here has a cost. A loved one or your own life, this time it was both our lives.
As the cold metal persisted my pain, a chilly hand turned me around. Only to my poignant eyes did I see the face of my killer. Just at that moment, in one glance I saw him. My executer was not only a face I could recall but that of my own father. There I lay in my father’s bloody hands, the blood of his own son. I found my own death relatively humorous in my last moments, this all happened because of a silly piece of bread which I had found. If only I would have taken the bread and kept going. As I felt the last of my life ebb away I looked up to see my father pull the very same piece of bread from his pocket. He raised it to his mouth. Bit off a piece, turned and slowly walked away.
