GRAVES of Innocence

chapter two

I found myself taking down the package of medicine and the sword, I wanted to go and witness for myself if it was true, but my father told me not to dare do so, especially due to the hostility that existed between us and that family. I continued to have a great desire to know if the old man was really dead.

My father had to hold my hand, and we went all the way home where my father entered his medicine room and started to analyze the medicines we brought from the forest. It's like he knew that I would run away from him and go back to the disaster to witness what happened because he told me to sit still and watch him analyze the medicine.

Well, I obeyed his instructions, I sat there but I was still very curious to know what happened. When I saw my father engrossed in his work, I got up and started walking towards the door. he approached me and asked me where I was going.

"I'm going to the toilet, Father," I lied to my father, he looked at my face and then continued with his work. I went out and went to the toilet where I went around the back, disappeared there and went to the other side, to old Mwankuga's house.

Since there were many people, no one looked at me properly, so I got a chance to mingle with the mourners, and as time went on, they were increasing.

"Why was he sick?"

"No, he was perfectly healthy and he was continuing his work, then he started to complain that his head hurt a lot, blood was coming out of his nose and mouth, he suddenly fell and turned his eyes, shortly after that his heart stopped," I heard one of Mwankuga's brothers explain to one of the mourners.

It was then that I believed that Mwankuga was dead. for fear of being seen by people, especially his brothers who, as I said from the beginning, we did not have a good relationship with them, I turned back, then quickly left to go home.

I found my father standing outside our house, looking at me. I think he was shocked that I escaped him when he saw me coming out, he pressed me with difficult questions.

"Where were you?"

I couldn't answer. I was hurting myself. my father told me that I am very lucky otherwise he would have taught me manners. we went inside and we went to the doctor's room, my father sat me down and started talking to me.

"You know that you are my favourite son and now that you have grown up, I have no reason to continue hiding my things from you, that's why today I have shown you some things.“

"The world has changed a lot, my son, we humans live very badly, no one wishes good for each other, people oppress others for no reason, innocent people die every day, and if you go to the cemeteries, they are full of innocent people's cemeteries! Everyone must protect themselves and when you can protect yourself, you can also protect your friends," said Father, words that entered me but I still did not understand what he meant.

I still wanted an explanation for the death of old Mwankuga because, in my mind, I saw that he had not done anything big to deserve the death penalty. It's like my father saw my thoughts, he told me that he knows I ask myself many unanswered questions about what happened in the forest.

"There is that friend of yours who died by falling into a well last year, do you remember him?"

"Alfred? Yes, I remember him," I answered my father, eager to hear what he had to say.

He told me that the circumstances of Alfred's death were highly ambiguous and that after a thorough investigation, he discovered that Alfred did not die a natural death, but was murdered.

He continued to tell me that even though he was killed, even though everyone knew that he was dead and buried, but the truth is that he was not dead but was taken to a prison.

"What is the difference between a dead person and a person taken to prison?" I asked my father, and he told me that when a person dies

by God's command, the body is separated from the soul, the body goes to be buried in the grave and that is the end of normal life on earth.

He also told me that normally, a person's soul or spirit does not leave until after separation from the body, it moves from the ordinary world to another world. When I wanted to ask him about that other world, he told me that he would explain it to me another day.

He went on to explain to me that a person who is taken to be Msukule, does not die but is magically changed to the extent that everyone believes that he is dead. what happens is that he is taken by witches and used magically in various jobs, until the day he dies by God's command but for that entire period, he always lives like a skunk.

"Now why, when Alfred died, we went to bury him in the cemetery and even on the day of leaving his body, we all passed by his coffin and I witnessed him lying in the coffin?"

"It is very difficult for you to understand what I am saying in words, but I want to assure you that your friend did not die and the person who did all that is this barbarian Mwankuga” said my father, showing that he was angry.

he continued to tell me that, despite Alfred, many other people were not killed really but superstitiously. if it is the oppression done by witches especially when they are about to offer their sacrifices, and some are taken to prison.

I still did not understand what he was saying, he told me that he wanted to prove to me that Alfred did not die. He stopped everything he was doing, and we went outside where people were more and more overflowing at the tragedy of Mwankuga and now the cries of women were increasing.

My father didn't care about anything, we went out and went to the cemetery which was a famous place known as the cross. I was very eager to see for myself what my father was saying, if it was true.

"Do you remember where he was buried?" Father asked me. I told him I remember well because during his life, Alfred was my best friend and his sudden death, it hurt me a lot. Since I was there even on the day of his funeral, I remembered his grave well.

I led my father to Alfred's grave on which there was a cross written with his full name, date of birth and date of death.

He told me to be careful with everything he was going to do, I shook my head with great fear in my heart because I was really afraid of graves and dead bodies.