The Blood-stained Belt Read Online Free Page A

Sharma pulled me aside and hissed, 'You told your brother
what happened, didn't you?' My face gave me away; Sharma cursed and
said, 'Man, we agreed to keep this thing to ourselves and now, the
first person you meet --' He broke off and cursed again.
    I said
heatedly, 'He's my brother. He won't tell anybody.'
    'Oh, is that
so? We’ll have to see, won’t we?'
    I faced Sharma
squarely and said, 'I’m telling you, we can trust Abozi.'
    Sharma glared
at me and said between gritted teeth, 'I hope so!'
    I said, 'He's
my brother! I trust him and you can damn well trust him, too.'
    Sure enough,
Abozi kept my confidence as I knew he would. He didn't even say
anything when our escapade had unfortunate consequences not long
after that.
    Abozi scurried
off to let our parents know that we were safe while Sharma and I
drove the flocks down to the pens. I was leaning over the rail
watching the sheep file into the corral when someone said, 'Hello,
Jina. Where have you been?'
    It was Roda.
She was standing right by my elbow, so close that I could smell the
mingled aroma of freshly baked bread and rose-petal scent that
lingered about her. I gestured eastwards and said, 'We've just
brought the sheep back from the hills.' I tried to sound casual
even while I was aware that my pulse had picked up its pace so much
that my whole body was stirring and tingling.
    Roda wrinkled
her nose and whispered with what sounded like a mixture between a
warning and satisfaction, 'Everyone is looking for you, you
know!'
    I replied, 'I
know. I heard.'
    Roda’s violet
eyes widened as she moved a little closer. She was always doing
that, standing so close that, with one small dip of my head, I
could have laid my cheek against the top of her head. Sometimes the
instinct to do so was so overpowering that I had to move away
feeling foolish and wondering why, in the light of reason, I wanted
to do that. This time, when I shifted away, Roda's eyes glinted as
if she had gained a small victory. Now she put a hand on my wrist,
on the bare skin just where the sleeve of my coat ended, and asked
in a concerned voice, 'Did you have any trouble?'
    For a moment I
was tempted to tell the whole story to Roda. Her liquid eyes and
close presence had that effect on me. In those days I always wanted
to impress her, if only to hear her suck in her breath and say
huskily, 'Oh, Jina, fancy you doing that!' I was still wondering
how much to tell her, if anything at all, when Sharma called,
'Roda! Hey, Roda, come over here!' She turned away from me, giving
me a knowing look as if saying, You understand why I'm going, don't
you, but we will meet again, won’t we? She squeezed my hand,
pressing her fingers into the flesh, and then moved away, calling,
'Oh, Sharma, I've been so worried. You shouldn't stay away so
long.'
    Sharma grinned
and called out, 'I can take care of myself, Roda. You don't have to
worry.'
    They walked
away together, heads inclined towards each other, conversing in low
voices. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched them resentfully,
wondering what Sharma had that I didn't have. I continued watching
them while, at the corner of the corral, they talked together in
low voices, Sharma standing with his hands on Roda's shoulders.
Then Roda stretched up, kissed Sharma lightly, and ran off
laughing. Sharma shouted something after her and she looked around
as she ran, laughed again – it was so merry that it cut into my
soul because it wasn’t for me -- and waved lightly.
    Sure enough,
there was a fuss when we arrived home. Our fathers were furious and
our mothers were both tearful and indignant. However, in spite of
being closely interrogated, we stuck to our story about a lost
animal. After a lot of huffing and puffing, the fuss subsided and
life returned to normal by the next day.
    Unfortunately
normality didn’t last long. A Dornite search party found one or
more of the bodies, put two and two together, and did manage to
follow our tracks to Osicedi. No one knew anything