The Unforbidden Bond

It was the day after the Festival of the Rising Toasts. It was a hot, humid day. The sun burned down on the village and yellowed the grass and dried the mud, baking it hard. A few young children played by the river, throwing stones into the water, laughing as they watched them sink, while others splashed in the shallows, cooling off.

Binya sat alone under a large tree at the edge of the village. He had just finished his morning chores. He was supposed to go fishing with some of his friends later that day but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to. His heart felt heavy and thoughts were slow and sluggish. He could only think about one thing: Mariya and Masika had betrayed him.

He remembered how angry he’d been when he heard them talking yesterday. He remembered how much it hurt when they told him that they were in love. He remembered angrily storming out of their house, running nearly all the way back to his own home, before he realized what he was doing and returned to his usual long-strides gait.

As Binya sat there, watching his friends play in the river, another thought occurred to him: Masika must have known all along. She didn’t tell Binya that she knew Mariya was her sister. She must have known for years! Why didn’t she tell him? Why didn’t she say anything? Why did she let him kiss her like that? Why did she let him touch her? Binya could barely stand thinking about it. His face reddened with shame and anger. *They fooled me.*

He noticed some of his friends leaving now, their work done for the day. He knew he should follow them soon or no one would want to fish with him since fishing is done best in pairs or small groups but somehow he couldn’t move from his spot under the tree today; something weighed him down too much to even think about moving his legs from underneath this ancient oak tree with its spreading branches that spread above him like sheltering arms or like God himself protecting him from everything else in this world… but right now Binya wished God would also protect him from himself because right now every single part of his body wanted nothing more than to stomp over to Mariya and Masika’s house and shout at them both until they admitted how wrong they were… but no matter how much he tried, Binya just couldn’t make himself do it… instead he stayed where he was, sitting underneath that ancient tree until finally dusk fell over the village and his friends came looking for him…