Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: EERIE (07/28/16)
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TITLE: Home Alone | Previous Challenge Entry
By Robyn Harbour
08/01/16 -
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‘Liliana, you fella be one good girl, work in food garden and lock house when sun him go down.’
‘Yes Mumma,’ Liliana replied.
The next morning her mother left at first light and Liliana walked the two kilometers to the family food garden near the river. There was only her mother and herself to work the garden as her father had gone on top long heaven two years previously.
Liliana worked hard, the bush knife her only tool, she dug out the weeds between rows of island cabbage and tomatoes. She tilled the rich volcanic soil preparing it for the next crop of peanuts, her mother would plant them when she returned. As the sun climbed higher in the sky and the heat intensified, she lay down under the shade of a large tree for a small sleep.
Late afternoon, as the air cooled, Liliana walked back to her village and drew a bucket of water from the village pump for her swim. She was too tired to cook a meal so she used the back of a spoon to spread peanut butter on a thick slice of fresh bread that had been baked that morning by the village baker. She boiled water and made herself a cup of refreshing tea using leaves from the lemon tree near her hut. She closed the bolt on the door and lay down fully clothed on her sleeping mat.
In the distance families were singing during their nightly devotions, songs she knew well from the little village church she attended with her mother. She could hear the low murmuring of voices and children crying as they settled for the night, the odd couple arguing were arguing, then all was silent.
The one room hut had walls of woven bamboo, the roof was thatch made from the leaves of the natangora palm. As the full moon rose in the sky, the moonlight shone through cracks in the bamboo and eerily danced across the room. Liliana had never been alone at night before and her imagination got the better of her. She imagined that the dancing shadows were spirits and started to fear. In her village Christianity was mixed with custom and often custom came out on top.
She heard footsteps stealthily approach the hut and the bolt on the door rattle. Bamboo walls on a hut could easily be cut through with a sharp bush knife, bolts was only a temporary measure of protection. She feared the youth and men when they had been drinking shells of kava, or Tusker, the local beer
Her fear intensified. Recently there had been multiple rapes, as a result the chief had set a curfew in his village and the youth were not allowed out after eight pm. The older men were rostered to police the village lanes.
Liliana trembled with fear as she listened to the night sounds; pigs nosing through the undergrowth around her hut, possums scampering through the village looking for food scraps, dogs barking at the full moon and calling to each other. There were soft footsteps as people walked outside to use the drop toilets. She curled up tighter under the sheet as if to make herself more invisible. She found it hard to stop shaking, expecting to hear the bolt rattle again. She needed to go outside to the toilet but was too afraid, she would just have to hang on till first light.
Liliana whispered, ‘Why mumma belong me, you leave me and go long way. Me only ten year, me small girl, me bigfella fright.’
An owl hooted, it sounded as if it was in the tree close up to her hut. Immediately a smile spread over Liliana’s face, joy entered her heart and she relaxed.
‘Grandfather belong me!’ she cried.
Her Grandfather lived on a small island some ten kilometers from hers. When she was little he used to morph himself into an owl, fly across the water and spend the night in the tree outside her hut to watch over her. He must have known she was alone and come to protect her.
‘Grandfather’ she whispered again. She shut her eyes and fell fast asleep.
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