Goodbye My Friend Part 2

As they walked quietly back to the village, Cecilia couldn't help but be overwhelmed with fear of what lay ahead for Salifyanji. She tried to convince her not to go back, but her mind was made up for Nkasha's sake. They were now only a few meters away from the village. Salifyanji asked Cecilia to go first in order to avoid getting her into trouble too. She hugged her tight with a teary smile on her face.

"Be strong," She said.

Later, Salifyanji walked into the village heading in the direction of her father's hut. Everyone in the village knew about her now so they whispered among each other as she passed by. One of the villagers ran off to inform the Headman. When she arrived at home, her mother, who was grinding maize in a big traditionally made mortar with an equally big pestle - singing to herself, immediately stopped what she was doing and hugged her daughter.

"What have you done?" she said with deep concern.

At this time, people were starting to gather outside their hut. Her father came out of the hut to see what the commotion was about. When he saw his wife hugging Salifyanji, he quickly pulled her away and pushed her behind him.

"Are trying to offend the elder and bring him down on us?!" He whispered in anger.

With that, he struck Salifyanji hard causing her to fall to the ground and then proceeded to shout at her. He seemed hell-bent on insuring that everyone knew that he had nothing to do with her actions. By now nearly half the village had gathered to watch. The village Headman had also just arrived and instructed ba Kapaso to take Salifyanji and her parents to his private building away from the villagers. It was also where Nkasha was being held in one of the rooms.

No one was allowed to enter that building. The villagers were still gathered outside - Cecilia was there too. She wanted to know what would happen to her friend. But no could see or hear what was happening inside so they could only wait to hear from the people who were inside especially since ba Kapaso created a rather big gap between the people and the building.

About half an hour later, the Village elder who wanted to have Salifyanji as his wife arrived at the place and entered the building. Cecilia's eyes were fixed on him - he was quite an old man. She couldn't understand why he would be so obsessed with a very young girl when there were widows his own age in the village who would gladly get married to him. And from what the women in the crowd were whispering, he already had 3 wives and at least 11 children. This only filled Cecilia with disgust toward him.

Roughly a couple of hours later, Nkasha came out. The villagers surrounded him trying to get information from him but he wasn't talking and he left. Cecilia followed him.

"Nkasha what's happening?" She asked.

"I told them I'm not involved in this," he replied coldly. "Leave me alone."

Cecilia realized that he had obviously abandoned Salifyanji in order to get himself out of trouble. She then returned to wait outside with everyone else. They were in there for hours more. Some villagers even decided to return to their huts. Then finally they came out. Salifyanji had her head bowed with tears running down her face. Her mother was walking beside her. Her father walked out behind them shaking hands with the elder and Headman. He appeared happy and relieved. Everyone stood by and watched. Cecilia ran after Salifyanji.

"Sali! Sali!" She called out.

But she was ignored. Regardless, she persisted and tried to talk to her. However, she was still ignored. She followed the village gossip and overheard that Salifyanji had finally yielded to being to the village elder's fourth wife.

"She probably thought she could run away," the women gossiped while laughing. "If you've been chosen by the Elders, then you've been chosen. I'm glad it's not me or any of my daughters."

The next day, her coming-of-age ceremony was held and after that she was handed over to Bana Chimbusa. For the following days, Cecilia never saw Salifyanji. She would only hear rumors about how badly things were going for her. Cecilia was filled with sadness.

"I heard that she is a very stubborn girl so she is being treated brutally," the women gossiped at the river.

In the middle of the night, everyone was sleeping in their huts and the village was quiet. Suddenly, they heard noises outside and multiple footsteps. A number of villagers came out of their huts to find out what was happening. Cecilia was a heavy sleeper at the time and didn't hear anything.

The next morning at the river, she heard all about it from the other women.

"She ran away again last night," the women chuckled, "That girl really wants to die."

Cecilia wasn't really paying much attention to them until they mentioned that the girl didn't want to marry the village elder. At that moment, she knew it was Salifyanji they were talking about. She rushed over to the women and inquired about what had happened during the night. She wanted to know if her friend was alright.

They explained that during the training with Bana Chimbusa, she couldn't take it anymore and ran off into the bush. They tried to chase after her but they lost her since it was dark so they engaged the help of ba Kapaso to catch her. They searched the village and the bush noisily which woke up a bunch of people in village who also joined in to help. When they eventually caught her, they brought her back to bana Chimbusa who begun beating her until she passed out.

Upon hearing this, Cecilia's heart sank. "Is she..... alright?"

"We heard that she has been taken to the witch doctor because she still hasn't woken up," the women said. They then picked up their water pots and walked back to the village.

That evening, Cecilia was sitting by the fire having dinner with her family when the entire village heard the news that Salifyanji had died. Cecilia threw her food to the ground, ran off into the hut and cried herself to sleep. It turned out that She had poisoned herself by eating poison plants while she was in the bush. Her body was not burried in the village cemetery were everyone else was burried because she was considered a disgrace to the village. No proper funeral was held for her either. She died in anguish alone and abandoned by everyone, and Cecilia never forgot her.