Rose was made to see her son by Ken. The young boy Abel was laying on the hospital bed, eyes closed. He was looking like he was sleeping and Rose was standing beside him. She held the bed frame and spoke to him tenderly, "You are my son and I don't want to hear that anything happened to you. I really do not wish to see you dying my boy. You are my world. Please do not leave me" she wept. Ken could feel her pains and he sighed.
"You need to let him rest" said Ken.
"I can't leave him" said Rose.
"You have to give him the opportunity to rest. He is just a boy. Let's step outside a bit"
Lady Rose agreed finally and they both stepped outside. He held her and said comfortingly, "You need to stop crying. The child is but sick and not dead. You need to wipe your tears. He will be alright"
"I am scared" she confessed and he could understand perfectly alright.
"You need to know that there are many things going on now at the same time and the company needs those that will be willing to stand for what they believe in. You are the mother of that innocent boy in there and I have always told you of how much I desire to be her father no matter what happens and I believe if you trust me enough you will believe when I say he is going to be alright. You need not be troubled by his sickness and even if you must be troubled you must not allow it affect you. I hope you do understand this?" She nodded and held his hand.
"I am happy that I have you here with me. Thanks for being here with me, I so much appreciate it" She said and forced a smile.
"The smile is still being forced. If you want to smile to me you do" he said and she then smiled, this time she was not forcing it but it came from her heart. He held her hand and they went and occupied a seat and there they waited for the recovery of the little boy Abel.
*******
Having followed the wife of the Chief of the village where Jude and Shanty had found themselves they came to a point and Jude stopped and asked, "Where is she leading us to?"
"Maybe we should ask her" Just then and after Shanty had said this she ran forward and stood infront of the wife of the Chief and asked, "You stop right away and tell us where the hell you are leading us to"
"You want to be alive and safe then follow me and stop asking me silly questions" the woman said and continued to move. When Jude reached where Shanty was standing he wanted to know what her response was.
"She responded with, "If you want to be alive and safe then follow me and stop asking me silly questions" I think if she meant bad for us she would not have volunteered to help you out of your sickness the way that she did. You see I think we should follow her" Shanty suggested and so Jude and her followed the lady until they passed ten huts in the palace and headed towards the woods at the outskirts of the village forest. When they got there the woman pointed into the woods and said to the both of them, "Since I saved you my husband has become angry with me and he threatens to kill me. I want you and your man to be safe, afterall if you're not I will still die" When the woman said this Jude and Shanty looked at one another and Shanty wondered what the woman meant by that. It was Jude who was forced to ask, "What are you saying?"
"I am saying that since I helped you by dressing your wound my husband says I will pay with my life. His words are law here and so I must obey him" she said. Shanty wondered.
"So what you are saying is that you brought us here to be safe so that you can go back and die?" asked Shanty.
"Yes; I must obey my husband" she said and made to leave but Jude stopped her and forbade her to do such a thing.
"You don't have to go back to a man that wants you dead. Since you believe we don't deserve to die we also believe you don't deserve to die and not in the hands of a man like that. What kind of a man wants his wife dead because she helped a stranger?" At that moment the lady walked up to Jude and standing before him said, "You don't know what you are saying do you? It is not in me to keep talking the way that I do but I believe if you had a sense of understanding you must have already understood what I had been saying to you; I said that my husband is looking for me and he is waiting for me to come home and answer to my crimes. I can't fight for myself because I will be breaking the law that binds us"
"What law and who was it that created that law?" Jude wanted to know.
"You are becoming too pathetic and I am wondering what exactly you want for yourself apart from what your husband wants from of for you?" Jude said and Shanty wanted to come to his rescue. She walked up to the woman and held her hand.
'Listen, you may be the wife of the Chief of this land and you may be subject to their laws, laws created by humans but then you are kind and you cured him without even knowing him. You were too kind to him and you did not know me. It is who you are; a very kind person and I have so much regard for you. What then is motivating me to do the things that I am doing?" All I want you to do is to have your heart set towards gaining your freedom from this barbaric tradition that your heart and head have been lost to. You need to be liberated from such a thing, from such practices. You are meant to live and not meant to die. Why are you scared the way that you are and you want to go back to your death when you have us, you have people like us who are willing to walk with you to the end. We can't stay here if you are willing to come with us. Together we will escape and that is what matters the most. You know quite alright that there are things we need to do together but we won't be able to do those things if we are not together" Shanty was trying her best to convince the woman to go with them.
"Are you saying I should run away from home?" asked the woman and Shanty shook her head and corrected her, "No, I don't want you to run away from your home but then I want you to save your own life. It is only when you save yourself that you can be able to see the light I have been trying to communicate to you" When she had said this the woman stared at her for a while before she took few steps backwards and when she stopped for a second to stare at the both of them she asked, "And what if I had a kid?" Shanty and Jude stared at each other, they were surprised at themselves how they weren't able to think about such possibility.
"We are sorry that we did not ask but forgive us" said Jude.
"Why should I trust that you care about me when you don't care to know if it is best for me to want to run leaving those that I love?" said the woman and Shanty dropped her shoulders for she wondered why the woman was being too hard to convince.
"Okay, here is the thing and tell me, tell us" Jude was saying, "Do you have a child?"
"I don't, I'm the youngest wife and I hadn't started breeding" she said and the both of them smiled at that.
"Maybe you should also start to look forward to doing your best so that you won't get to regret your life. Follow us. If we stand here and keep wasting our time it will be to our own peril. Do you not know that the more we stay here the more your husband looks for you to kill and if he finds you with us again he will have us all killed. is that what you want?" At this point Jude was determined to force her out of the woods alongside Shanty if she continued to refuse to listen to them. But the woman needed time to think about it all. She stood there and kept staring at them, probably asking herself, "Can I trust them?" Just when she said this aloud without knowing Jude held Shanty's hand and said, "Let us take her with us by force then. Such a kind soul doesn't deserve to die like that" Shanty had already agreed but before they could make any move to take hold of her and probably carry her on their shoulders and run away but then they had already began to hear the footsteps of some of the people of the village. It wasn't actually the guards from the palace of the Chief that came for them but it was the people of that village. They wondered why they had come for them. Just then Jude wanted to know what was going on.
"What is happening here?" asked Jude and the Chief's wife looked at his face and said, "Now you have caused this. If you had allowed me to back these people would not have heard that I departed from my husband, they would have heard instead that I have answered my husband's call to death. Now that you have lured these people to this place I hope you are ready to pay for it?" When she said this she did not say another word. Shanty approached Jude and asked, "What is going on, what are these people doing here?"
"They have come to arrest us and take us to their Chief" said Jude. Just before he finished the people had already apprehended them and began to drag them to the palace even though the three of them were not struggling.
When they got to the palace the villagers had gathered in their great number. At that point Jude was wondering what this was going to turn out to be; death? he could not tell. Just then the Chief who was seated on his seat raised a staff he was holding in his left hand and there was silence. He then spoke to the three of them.
"You three have committed a great crime but it is not about you two strangers who are unaware of our customs and traditions but I'm concerned about my wife, a woman that is married to a Chief but has refused to see what it takes to be a wife of a Chief. Now she has brought disgrace and dishonor to this land and to the people of this land hence why they came for you three by themselves. This is a sacrilege and we are here to make sure that the three of you re put to death once and for all" The people began to rejoice when they heard their Chief say those words.
"Wait wait!!!" This was Jude shouting and then they stopped and there was silence in the crowd. Even the Chief waited to hear what Jude had to say and then Jude stepped forward and stood before the Chief, ready to defend the Chief's wife.