Amadea's fate.

Chapter 12 - A day too late

Mhilia was a small town surrounded by five other towns.

One of these towns was Mymli. It was the hub of  commercial activities and also the biggest and most populated among the six towns. One could even go as far as saying Mymli was a city.

Duri,a doctor from Mymli had visited Mhilia with a friend who came to see his aged mother.

Coincidentally, they visited around the time of the Ayaya festival that year. ( Not the year that Amadea was chosen).

Duri was appalled. He couldn't understand why girls that could barely care for themselves were forced into marriage.
He couldn't understand why mothers basically sold their little girls for money.
He refused to comprehend it.

During his stay he learned that when the girls had VVF they were blamed for it and if they died,they wouldn't even be buried,they'd be thrown into a forest for wild animals to eat.

When he got back home,he decided to setup  a team of doctors that would raise awareness of the ills of child marriage. One of which was VVF.
The girls with VVF would be treated. They would undergo corrective surgery and if they wanted to, they'd be taken to Mymli to start a new life.

Duri and his team arrived the day  after Amadea's death.
They went from house to house evacuating VVF victims and taking them to Mymli for surgery.
Seri, Amadea's co-wife that had VVF was one of those taken to Mymli. Amadea would have been one of them, except her body was found in the late hours of the afternoon by one of the doctors who had gone on a stroll.

By evening, the news had spread that a body had been found. No one could tell who it was yet and the doctors appealed to parents whose children were missing to come identify the body.

It wasn't until the parents of a twelve year old girl who had run away to avoid being married, came to identify the body thinking it was their daughter, recognised Amadea.

The news spread that the body was Amadea's and she had killed herself.

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Back in Mallam Riku's compound, Hume sat on a chair just getting some fresh air when Mimi, teary eyed and breathless from running, informed her of Amadea's death.

Hume couldn't help but feel guilty.
She had introduced Dea to Malli after all, causing the gods to punish her and then she abandoned her.

Covering her face and crying, Hume vowed to herself to make sure Amadea got a proper burial.

In the Olilo household, Amadea's mother couldn't stop crying. She'd killed her baby girl. She couldn't help but regret her actions. She was a horrible mother and perhaps this was why the gods hadn't given her more children.
She kept crying, refusing to be consoled by her friends.

Amadea's father couldn't care less about her death. She'd always been useless to him anyway. His only pain was that he hadn't even become one of the richest men in Mymli courtesy Mallam Riku, before the stupid girl messed everything up.

He resolved in his mind to marry a second wife and have more children. His present wife was probably cursed anyway.

Mallam Riku also couldn't care less. He hadn't liked Amadea from the start. He'd only tried to accept her for Hume's sake. For him, Amadea's death was good riddance to bad rubbish.

Mr Nelby felt guilty but tried to assuage his guilt by thinking
She was a whore anyway,she'd secretly wanted it.

However his conscience would not let him be.

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Duri and his team had their work cut out for them. The people of Mhilia refused to accept that their custom of child marriage caused VVF. They ignorantly continued to believe it was a curse from the gods.

Hume kept her vow. She made sure Amadea was buried by convincing Mallam Riku to influence the people.

People hardly told Mallam Riku no. Money had a way of convincing people but since  the people were scared of incurring their gods' wrath, Amadea was buried around the outskirts of the town.