THE REJECTED DAUGHTERS (An African Tale)

AN AFRICAN TALE The Rejected Daughters Once upon a time, there lived a couple name Daniel and Mary in the village called Paakoso. They had been married for twelve years with two daughters responding to the name Esther and Amanda. their first daughter Esther was eleven years old whiles Amanda was also six years old. Daniel's attitude towards his wife started changing because she gave birth to only girls. As an African man, he wished to have a male child who will replace him when he leaves the earth. when Mary got her third pregnancy, Daniel was very happy because he thought it would be a boy. But everything changed when his wife came back with the news that she is carrying another female child. Daniel complained bitterly about how she always ended up giving him only female children instead of male. Mary tried to tell him that she did not have control and ability to determine the gender of children but Daniel slapped her and warned her not to talk when he is talking, just because he was angry. Daniel's attitude towards his wife grew from bad to worse. Anything and everything she did was wrong in his sight. For that he will beat her at any slightest offence. Months later, Mary heard rumors that her husband had impregnated another lady and always went to visit her place often. Pregnant Mary felt so bad but she waited for her husband to return home so she could ask him. When Daniel came back home that evening, Mary calmly asked Daniel; MARY* darling, there's something bothering me. I have heard some rumors circulating about you expecting a child from another woman. Please is it true? But Daniel refused to answer his wife. Mary kept pressuring him and kept on asking him the question. Angry Daniel got angry and asked her, DANIEL* woman, I can see you are very curious to know if I'm expecting a child with another woman, now wait for me here. You will get the answer to your question. He turned around and left the house. An hour later, Daniel drove into his compound again with a lady. When they came down from the car, Daniel took the lady's bag and kept pampering her. Mary was heartbroken at the sight of her husband taking care of another lady in her presence. Tears trickle down her cheeks. The lady begun to make mocking faces at Mary. Mary was in so much rage that she slapped the lady. Daniel out of anger begun to beat Mary. He began to give her the beating of her life not minding the fact that she was heavily pregnant. Their daughters, Esther and Amanda kept trying to stop him, "daddy please stop, said the children", but he didn't. After he had beaten Mary to his satisfaction, he left her on the floor and walked into the house with his new wife. As Mary lay on the floor crying, Esther her daughter saw blood on the floor where her mother was lying down. She rushed to her father's room and kept knocking and calling on him to come and help their mother but a voice from inside warned her never to knock on that door again. Daniel warned, Esther runned back to her mother and helped her to stand up. Mary in the company of her two daughters walked slowly down the road to the hospital. MARY'S HOSPITALIZATION When they got to the hospital, Mary was taking home in and her Daughters were left in the waiting lounge. After a while, the documents came out and saw the two little girls crying. He couldn't bring himself to tell the girls that they had just lost their mother and the unborn baby girl. He asked the girls, what happened happened to their mother earlier on before their arrival at the hospital and they said that it was their father who had beaten up their mother. They asked him about their mother and he told them that they will come back for her after seeing their father, when they arrived at Daniel's house, the doctor got scared and decided against filing a case because Daniel was a wealthy man. He walked in with the girls and met Daniel in the sitting room with his new wife. BREAKING THE NEWS The doctor told Daniel that his wife was dead and he needs to come to the hospital and make the arrangements to take her to the mortuary. Then the doctor left. Esther, who was old enough to understand what death meant, covered her mouth and cried deeply. Amanda was trying so hard to console her elder sister. Daniel was touched, he never planned to kill his wife. He felt sorry for his daughters and tried to go and console them. His new wife Mirabel tried stopping him by faking pains around her stomach and falling on the seat. Daniel quit his daughters and came to help her up, she told Daniel to take her into the room because the pains was too much.Daniel took her inside, forgetting his girls. Esther and Amanda slept off in their own tears. MIRABEL'S MISSION In the next morning, Mirabel came out and met Esther and Amanda lying down on the floor. She poured a bucket of cold water on the girls. She asked Esther to get a mop and wipe it off. When Daniel was about to come out of the room, Mirabel quickly asked the girls to go and hide so that their father wouldn't see them or else he would beat them. When Daniel came out, he told asked about his girls, Mirabel told him that they were sleeping. Daniel called his friend to confirm if his wife's corpse was taken to the mortuary the night before and after confirming that he left home. After Daniel's exit Mirabel called the girls and asked them their names. She told them that she was not in charge. So She divided the house chores between the two girls. Esther tried to tell Mirabel that Amanda was still little for the work she had given her but she slapped and warned her never to talk back at her command. The next day, Mirabel made sure that the girls kept working without food. It was noon already and yet she hadn't given them what to eat. Amanda was so hungry and Esther decided to get her some food from the kitchen. They were still eating when Mirabel walked in, she poured the food on Esther and shouted at her for not taking permission from her before eating. Esther and Amanda started crying while their father's mistress left them hungry all through the day. Towards evening when Daniel came back, Mirabel prepared food for herself and Daniel alone leaving Esther and Amanda to starve. Little Amanda was so hungry that she couldn't endure the hunger anymore. She rushed to the dining table where her father was eating and said to her father. "daddy, my sister and I have had nothing to eat since morning. Please can we have some food?" Daniel on hearing this from his daughter was surprised because he never thought Mirabel would leave his children hungry. He was not aware that his children were being mistreated in his absence and left the dining table in anger. Mirabel on noticing that Daniel was angry followed him, begging for forgiveness. The next morning, Daniel left very early without checking on his daughters. As soon as he left, Mirabel flogged both Esther and Amanda mercilessly for making Daniel shout at her the previous night. After that she assigned chores to them and made them worked without food. A STRANGE MAN AND HIS MISSION That same morning, a strange man named Stephen came Knocking on their door, Mirabel came to the door and allowed the man into the house. She sent Esther on errands to stop her from eavesdropping into their discussion. As Esther was about to deliver the message to Mirabel, she overhead the man who came to pay them a visit, mentioned the name of her father. Esther then decided to pay attention to their conversation to hear what they were discussing. Esther heard the strange man and Mirabel planning on how to kill their father and take over his properties. STEPHEN* "what are you waiting for Mirabel, we are taking too long poisoning him and let's take over the properties immediately. There is no time anymore." MIRABEL* no! we can't do that now. If we kill him now, how then, do we claim his properties, wait until I give birth and convince him to will all his properties to our son. After that, killing him will be a piece of cake." STEPHEN* "For Esther and Amanda, I know how to kill them for no one to find out." when Esther heard this, her heart started beating fast and she runned into into the kitchen. Later that evening after Stephen had left, Mirabel came calling out to the girls but no one answered. She thought they were sleeping and went into their room but they were not there. She searched everywhere around the house but to no avail. Mirabel asked the gateman about the kids but he reply of not seeing them either. Few minutes later, a car horned outside and it was Daniel. Mirabel's heart began to beat faster, Daniel came to the house and asked Mirabel why she look so restless and where were the kids. I'm fine it's just the pregnancy. The girls are in their room sleeping. says Mirabel. She took Daniel into their room immediately so he won't go around asking for his girls. Mirabel was confused on what lies to tell Daniel if he should find out his daughters were missing. she needed to call Stephen for a solution but she can only do that the next morning to prevent Daniel from hearing her conversation with Stephen. After dinner, Daniel was so tired that he lay down and slept off.In the morning, Daniel left the house and entered his car to leave for work. He remembered he had not seen his children since the house and straight to his daughter's bedroom and on getting there, his girls weren't in their room. He asks Mirabel about his kids but she had no answer, out of anger Daniel slapped Mirabel. She fainted. Daniel became confused and he didn't know if he was to go after his kids or take his wife to the hospital. ESTHER AND AMANDA LEAVING HOME It happened that in the previous day after Esther overhead the conversation between Mirabel and Stephen in killing them and their father, the girl was confused and didn't know what to do. She was not even sure whether her father would believe her, so she decided it was best for her and her sister to leave since Mirabel and Stephen were plotting to kill them. when Stephen had left and Mirabel was sleeping in her room, Esther took some of her clothes and that of her sister, packed them into their school bags. Each of them carrying their bag and ran out of the building. They were stranded and scared with nowhere to go. She wanted to go to her mother's friend but then, she feared they might take them back to their father's house. So she came up with a very good plan. She saw a man standing on the roadside like he was waiting for a bus. Esther touched him and said,"good afternoon sir, please could you take me and my sister to the nearest orphanage. Our mother has just passed away and we have no one to care for us. Please sir, help my sister and I." The man was touched when Esther told him that their mother was dead. He wiped their tears and began to ask people around for the nearest orphanage, it was about two hours drive. The man was so touched that he took them and waved goodbye and left. will be continue...