He lays in the bed smiling up at her, and she smiles back. Though she wants to cry and scream, she can't let him see that. He has enough issues as it is. The sickness was sapping everything out of him in that bed, and the last thing he needed to do was worry about grown folks' business.
She looks back at the door as the plump woman comes in. She fills up the small shack room, walking in with a limp. Her skin is a deep brown and smooth as butter. A wrap with bright village patterns hides her hair and her beautiful lips spread up in a smile.
"Auntie," she says to the woman.
"Ewa. You pay no mind to that old man. He's just drunk."
Ewa nods at her Aunt. "I know the money's thin, but I promise to send my pay here as soon as I get it. I appreciate you taking care of Morayo."
Auntie waves her away and reaches for Morayo's hand that lay still on the top of the covers.
Her brother looks like a small shrivelled boy, even though he is sixteen. A young man who should stand up tall because of puberty looks like a young child's skeleton. The small thin mattress still looks like a bed for a king compared to his body. His skin looks like tissue paper on his bones, except for the vein in his arm where the witch doctor's medicine flows through.
"You are family. We'd never turn you away. Even if that meant living in the gutter. We're lucky that you're giving us the money to live on even after what happened," Auntie says.
Ewa knew better. It wasn't a "what happened" but a "who happened". Her recently passed father took all the money they had, all the money her uncle had, and blew it away before his debtors beat him to death.
As the oldest of his children, she inherited his debt, which included the money stolen from Auntie and Uncle. They weren't lucky that she gave them money; she owed them it, like her Uncle yelled at them not too long ago.
The room is quiet as they watch Morayo drift to sleep in his bed. Auntie lets go of his hand and gets up, beckoning Ewa to follow her out of the room.
"He doesn't look like he's getting better," Auntie says, once they're in the kitchen.
Ewa looks around at the small room, where the stove takes up the most space, and some cabinets barely stay on their hinges.
"I can see that," Ewa says, "I don't think that witch doctor knows what he's doing. He needs a proper doctor."
"The South Village doesn't have any Doctors, and this was all we could afford."
Ewa lowers her face, trying to hide the anger, but on the inside she is only one spark away from exploding.
She had given them enough to take Morayo to the Doctors in the Market Village, but they had to use some of that money to cover their own debt that her father left in his wake. But even after that, they had enough money to take him to Bearing Village. It wasn't as good as Market Village, but it was ten times better than the poor Southern Village. Instead, Uncle wasted all the money on alcohol and cards. Uncle and her father were just alike, but Ewa and Morayo had nowhere to go, and so now they needed more money to take care of her sickly brother.
"I report tomorrow and my enlistment bonus should be here a few days after that. Auntie⌠please. Use it to move to Bearing Village and live a better life."
"Don't you worry about us. You're about to work a job that's been killing all the young men from the Southern Village. You're the first woman to join up⌠you don't have to do this. Haven't you been through enough?"
Ewa understood what Auntie was saying. Their country of Idanre was at war, and the boys of the Southern Village were flocking to fight on the front lines. Not because of their love for their country, but the promise of a better life. And for a rare few, it was a better life. They had a larger paycheck than anyone in the entire village, and with that, they could take their family and move to a better place. However, most young men were never that lucky. They'd enlist because they would receive an enormous bonus, and then not long after, their wives or mothers would receive another bonus with a letter explaining their death. Empty funerals were held, because bodies never came back. Like Auntie's only son.
"How else am I going to take care of Morayo?" Ewa asks.
It wasn't a hypothetical question to her. She'd been waiting for an answer to that since she first tried to make quick cash.
Auntie stays quiet.
"I have to go pack up the last bit of things before I go. Can you watch over the house for me until I get back or keep it for Morayo if IâŚ"
"If I die," She doesn't finish.
Auntie puts her arms around her and kisses her on the cheek. Ewa pries herself out of her Aunt's powerful grip and leaves without another word.
She walks away to her house, letting the darkness wrap around her. The seediest of men watch her, but they move away at the sight of her. They either know that she'll kick their asses... or because she is spoiled-goods, and even she wasn't good enough to prey on.
Her house is small. The gate broken, the jagged rock path is narrow, and the door is just a drape hanging from the mantle. She pushes it aside and walks into quietness. Sheets cover the few pieces of furniture they have left , and it has been that way since Morayo went to stay with their Aunt, the day her father died.
Right inside the doorway is a small duffle bag and a tall titanium staffâall she had and ready for her to take it and leave. She doesn't need to do anything else there; she has said goodbye to that place long before then. She looks at the small picture on her father's memorial.
"Ba⌠I hope the ancestors don't let you be in charge of another family."
She grabs her bag and closes the door behind her. She has nothing to stay for. Her only job is to earn enough money to give Morayo a better life and that couldn't wait another second. She'll go to the sentry tower and sleep there until the morning.
She walks back out of the miserable home and looks to the hills that tower of Idanre that block out the moon, towards her new fate.
"All I have to do," She whispers to herself, "is survive long enough to make money for Morayo, so he can get healthy. After that, my death should be enough for him to live a better life. As good as it can get in Idanre."