It had been hot that day. Helen remembered it well. How could she ever forget that day? It had been a long time, sure, but it had cost a lot, and she remembered every detail about it. The day hadn’t started out as bad as the others. In fact, she had just started thinking that maybe her husband hadn’t been so wrong in getting her out so far here.
The last 3 weeks, she had spent mostly arguing with him, wishing to go back to their own country. After all an arid African terrain in the middle of nowhere with very little medical help available is not the best place to be with a 1 month old baby. But Michael had been adamant. Had said it would be a great time for the family to spend together. And he had been right. The boys had loved it there. Ken and Conner had been ecstatic about the wild terrain. And about having their parents close to them.
Helen couldn’t blame them. Working on a busy schedule, taking care of their multi-billon dollar company didn’t leave her and Michael with much time to spend with their sons. But Michael had said that their long wished for daughter had arrived, and that it had to be time for the family to spend together. So there they had landed, at a place where no phone call or business meeting could disturb them.
And after 3 weeks, Helen had started believing that it might just be the time off she needed. Little Julie had just turned one month old that day, and to celebrate, they had gone out to a local hotel. The stifling heat had been what had made them walk home, rather than suffer the long ride in the over-heated car they’d rented.
Helen had never imagined that bandits lying in wait in the bushes would strike then. But they had. And they had taken all their money, jewellery and cheques away. That hadn’t mattered much, but as they were about to leave, troopers had arrived, firing at them from all directions. The bandits had snatched away little Julie from her arms, used her as a shield.
The troopers had stopped firing at once, afraid they might shoot down the infant. And the bandits had escaped. Taking her precious bundle with them. They tried hard, Helen knew Michael had done everything he could do, pulled at all the threads, undone all tricks to search for her, but her Julie had been gone, taken away from her forever. And Helen’s arms had felt empty ever since.
The young woman didn’t think she’d ever find love again. She had lost it all that day when Kinona had died, falling prey to those poacher’s bullets. The villagers had tried to comfort her, had told her everything was going to be all right again, but she knew it was hopeless. Kinona had died, and he had passed on, taking a part of her with him.
Many other bachelors had tried to woo her again, hoping that the local beauty, so well-educated to top, would be theirs. But that part of her which wished to be loved and held close yearned only for Kinona, and no one else would ever be good enough.
He had died in her own arms, touching her dark hair with his shattered hands, maybe wishing to feel her curls between his fingers one last time. And then, just as he had been about to smile and say her name, the bullets had eaten him up, taken him away. And there had been not a thing she could do about it.
Preferring to be away from all those who tried to offer her sympathy, she would roam in the jungle, wading through streams to reach the trees. She wanted no sympathy. Kinona was worth much more than that, and she wished not to dishonor him by accepting the words of comfort offered to her.
It had been one such evening, her heart crying for him that she had avoided the jungle, gone away from its comforting shade, that she had stumbled upon a rocky part of the land she’d never been to before, on the banks of a lake formed by the river water getting collected. That was where she’d found the bundle, wrapped in beautiful silk cloths, a bonnet on her tiny head. She’d known at once that she’d been snatched from the mother.
For she was white, not a native, and the expensive clothes she was in did not make her appear to be from a family which would discard her just because the baby was a girl. Picking her up, she noted how soft and white the little thing was. And how her skin seemed to be shining against her own dark skin.
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