3. Reason
340 Words
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"Where do you think they've gone Muhluri?" Masingita asked inquisitively. She was a young and curious girl, much to the annoyance of her elder brother whose thoughts had been ceased by the instinct of survival.
"Where has whom gone?" He replied, without lifting his head from the dry bark of a tree trunk he had his head leaning against. Nor removing the hat he had perched on his face. A slight shift of his body, in order to get a more comfortable sitting position on the dusty ground, was the only thing that proved him to be alive.
"The rain gods, surely there must be something very important they are doing?"
A gust of hot wind blew in, yanking Muhluri's hat and throwing it to the ground as if it were garbage. Muhluri stared at it. Dust particles were now stinging at his eyes and drawing tears. Muhluri forced them to stay open and watched as the wind slowly buried his hat in sand. He watched as his little sister Masingita rushed to its rescue, pat off the dust, and placed it on his knee.
"So where are they?" She asked again. "You've always said that they'd never leave us. All those stories you and granny told around the fire... you said-"
"I don't know!" he screamed.There was silence.
The wind casually blew on, caring not about the squabbling siblings. Muhluri turned his gaze upwards. Leafless branches clawed at the wind in a futile attempt at vengeance. The wind whistled its mockeries and hardened its blows. Masingita now had her collar up and over her nose. Muhluri followed suit and they both moved away from the tree. Just in time to see the wind tear its frail branches which crackled and splintered in agony as they were brought to the ground. All that remained was a desolate trunk.
"Masingita..."
"Yeah..."
"The rain gods...they...they do not exist." The trunk, as if it saw no meaning in its existence, gave in and fell onto the ground to join its brethren.
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- Writer
