My broken pot
514 Words
As she reached the water's edge, she could see her friends Ann and Nancy who had arrived earlier. Zuri went and joined them and they were busy trying to look at the tadpoles which swam with agility in the clear water.
Zuri kept mum with her heavy heart pounding on her chest like big drums she had heard in the local church. The tears that she had cried earlier had dried up leaving two white lines on her face.
A sad expression was spread across her face and she could not even matter a word to the curious Nancy and Ann.
“Did your mother beat you again?” they kept on asking her in unison. All she could manage to utter was a simple no while shrugging her shoulders.
She instead chose to follow a routine that she had where she would go and observe the ethereal, silver mist hovering above the river so that she would calm her mind which was now racing with several ideas on the steps that she could take next .
Her parents insistence on following the traditional ways when it came to her and not her brother Jabali was something that she had tried to understand in the whole of her life but she had never gotten the gist of it. She wished her problems would melt like the rising mist as tears clouded her eyes.
She tiptoed through the grassy meadow, her anxiety mounting with each step as she shouted her friends’ names trying to catch up with them by fetching the water and finally joining them on the way towards home. They chose to give her time since the jovial Zuri that they knew was never like this.
Hesitantly, she ventured closer and hesitantly dipped the pot into the shimmering water. Her mother’s word rang in her mind where she required Zuri to go home early to save her face on the suitors who were waiting for her.
As she reached the riverbank, a shimmering dragonfly flew past, distracting Zuri momentarily. In her haste to catch a glimpse of the iridescent creature, she had accidentally dropped the pot into the water.
Time seemed to slow down as the pot sank beneath the surface, leaving Zuri gasping in dismay. This had never happened in the whole of her life.
The moment the water touched the surface of the dropped pot, a magical force swept the pot towards the bank which had majestic stones on it.
“My pot is broken,” screamed Zuri as she rushed and threw her body in the ice-cold water. Her mother would skin her alive if she went back without the pot. She quickly retrieved the broken pieces of the pot, her heart sinking alongside them.
Ann and Nancy were shocked and helped to lower the pots which they had carried on their heads to help their friend who was now in a lot of trouble. Her mother was known for her harshness when instilling discipline on her children which led to even the errant children in the village fearing her.
- Writer
