Kadian

The Great Regret

Kadian sat in Elder Zee's tent (she was out borrowing kola nuts), trying to analyze what had happened moments ago.  She had acted like such nuisance back in the woods.  When she was home, Kadian avoided conflict at all costs, but here she had just intentionally pushed someone to their breaking point-and wasn't sure why.  It almost felt as though it wasn't her in the woods, but someone else.  Some other girl.  A stupid girl, at that.

Kadian was not only surprised by her own behavior, but Mohassen's as well.  Of course she wasn't completely justified in what she had done, but she was only playing - did it really warrant a near slap?  If given a second chance, would he actually follow through with it?  Her mind drifted off to Mimosa and Alaba, and she wondered if he had ever beaten them.  Shuddering at the thought, she decided that Mohassen was not forgiven, but she wouldn't act that way again with anyone else in the future.  

Mohassen wasn't at ease with the incident, either.   He sat down on a tree stump, the same one previously occupied by Kadian, and began to think.  He remembered the way his father would almost strike Omose, his beautiful mother, before throwing things (in his mind that was better) at her when he lost his temper.  She usually either fought back, or went off to visit her garden for a few hours.  After one particularly heated argument, Mohassen had followed his mother to the garden to see how she was doing.   When Omose saw him, she immediately wasted no time telling her son, "Mohassen, don't you ever hit a woman.  EVER, do you hear me?!  I don't care how mad you get at some little girl, or your future wife, real men don't do that!" He had gotten so lost in these memories that he almost forgot about the current problem at hand-Kadian.

Why had he allowed himself to get so riled up moments ago?  Mohassen had struggled with his anger for years, but no individual had ever made him snap as quickly as she did.  Yes, she should've just told him what he needed to know, but then again he didn't ask properly.  Kadian probably would've told him sooner or later if he had just waited a little longer- the girl was only fifteen, after all.  She was bound to be a little silly, especially considering the fact that she was American.

The strange thing was, Mohassen was married to one of the most obnoxious, passive aggressive people he had ever known, and never once had the desire to hit her.  Not even when she accidentally burned all of the zebra meat he had brought home (serious wildlife could only be found miles and miles into the forest, close to Mali's half of the country, so the zebra was no small feat.)  The most Mohassen had ever done to Alaba was raise his voice at her, and even that was seldom.  So why did he want to hurt Kadian so badly a while ago?  Maybe he would never know why he didn't like her, but that didn't mean she deserved what had almost happened back there.  He decided that he would apologize to Kadian the next day- assuming that he could swallow pride by then.

As Kadian replayed the incident over and over in her mind, a small girl raced into the tent.

"Hey Sister!" Kadian's eyes lit up.

Sister had completely ignored Kadian the day before, turning her head and hiding anytime Kadian was around.  Kadian wasn't sure why that was, but nevertheless it hurt her feelings.

"I'm gonna miss you!" Sister whispered, and threw her arms around Kadian.

Kadian hugged her back. "I'm really going to miss you, too.  Maybe we can be pen pals or something?"

Sister dashed back to the tent entrance, poked her head out, and ran back in. "No.  But here, I made this, it's yours."  Sister snatched Kadian's hand, and in it placed one of the most dazzling necklaces Kadian had ever seen.  Unlike most of the necklaces in the markets, this one used knotted black hemp as the string.  Spaced out, round, glittering black beads clung to the hemp.  The necklace could've been beautiful alone, but it had a charm.  Kadian stared at the glistening, curvy, peacock blue crystal shard in her palm.  It didn't look like any of the necklaces Kadian had been contemplating on buying, but it had character-making it better.

"I don't know what to say...thank you so much Sister, it's beautiful!"

"You're welcome, but don't tell anyone who you got it from."  A small gasp escaped her lips as she looked out of the tent again. 

"I'm not talking to you again after this, but I'm not mad though.  Bye Kadian!" Sister scurried out of the tent like a bat out of hell.

Kadian fiddled with her new necklace and wondered aloud, "What was that all about? "

*Author's Note*

Hey readers :)  This was another short chapter, but the next few will definitely be longer.  Probably because weird things will begin to happen.....hint hint ;D.   Thanks for reading, and feel free to vote/comment if you like what you see!