Free Yefon: The Red Necklace by Sahndra Dufe Page B

whole of Shisong.
    Excited women pointed at them from groups of twos or threes, and I could see Ma eyeing them suspiciously. Every woman wanted to be married to either Pa or Uncle Lavran, and so the women had all braided their hair and put on perfume. Kadoh and I pointed at them while making fun of what was on their mind.
    “We all know that the sun will shine on those who stand, before it shines on those who kneel under them,” Fai said, breaking for a pause as the family members nodded dutifully. “And today, the Labam brothers have shown us that they are standing under the sun!”
    A round of applause echoed from every part of the compound then Fai raised his horn of palm wine to the gods and then poured some libations in front of him for the ancestors before he drank from its contents. Then, he poured the rest on the car, and we all screamed
“wilililili!”
    “You have brought pride to this family,” Fai said, as hetapped Pa on the shoulders with his walking stick.
    I remember studying the faces of the adults—some looked happy and some looked like they would rather be elsewhere.
    Well-wishers came from neighboring villages to see the big lorry they had heard about, and we had fun with it. Pa’s lorry really brought us all together. All my siblings, including Ndze, Sola, and yes, even Yenla, would jump in the back of the lorry against Ma’s orders and scream at the top of our lungs as Uncle Lavran drove around the dusty paths of the village. It was the one time where no one was ugly, beautiful, old, or young. We were all just siblings singing boasting songs at the back of the truck.
    “
Wiro a dze fo lah lai lai’n a
,
    wiro a dze for lah ker kah
,
    wo wor a dze for lav, a lailain a
,
    boh wa youn ji ma’ wi a”
.
    This pride song boasted to the onlookers that they had nothing, and the children of our family had it all.
    We were simply the best! Pa would watch proudly as we rode up and down shouting “
Ba ley ver
!” each time we saw him, and he would laugh and wave at us.
    Other children looked at us and waved happily. “
Muttu! Muttu
!” they screamed as we passed, and we stood up and waved back. Standing on top of that lorry, looking into the sun, I felt on top of the world. Even Yenla would giggle when we were on the lorry. Sometimes she held my hand. Sola seemed to prefer these rides to her beauty treatments, and one day she smiled at me. Something inside of me melted at the sincerity of it.
    Regrettably, our joy was short-lived because Uncle Lavran was involved in a deadly accident driving the truck on Sabga hill only four weeks after the car had arrived at our compound. Pa was gravely affected by the loss and so was I.
    Pa was silent for a long time and he aged quickly during that period. I would often make him some tea and bring it to his hut, and once, I saw him cry. I stayed with him and cried too. I had never seen a man cry before, and my heart was broken. Our tears filled the silence and we bonded in the agonizing silence.
    Uncle Lavran’s widow moved from Mbiame to our compound after the funeral and Pa took care of her as if she was his wife. She later got pregnant by him but lost the child. I overhead Ya Buri and Ma rejoice over the poor widow’smisfortune.
    “What did she want to show us? Sleeping with our husband,” Ya Buri asked coldly.
    I looked at these people. It was no wonder that Pa liked her. She was fun and simple. She wasn’t always screaming at the top of her voice or beating down somebody. She was soon married off to an Aladji in the Tobin area. During the wedding ceremony, I snuck out to find some children playing with an old
hikotoh
by a small cliff. Ma forbade us from owning or making the Flintstone-like, plank transportation toys, and since the festivities distracted everyone, I thought it was a good chance to see what the fuss was all about. I asked the boy who owned it, Anste, if I could try it. He looked at me dubiously, especially when his friend asked if he was