Nothing is as painful as that moment when the people you love despise you.
The atmosphere was tense. Nobody dares to speak or look at the other. The situation on the ground calls for immediate attention. Yet nobody knew what to say or do.
Adam, Deborah's father, looked at his daughter and the fact that she was carrying a bastard irked him. He still can't believe that his only daughter was pregnant out of wedlock. Where is it heard in Nakara culture that a girl births a bastard in her father's house?
Deborah stood there with tears and stains on her face. She dare not look at anyone, not even her love, Dave.
" They will reject you, " her conscience told her.
" No, they won't" Deborah reassured herself
Deborah continued the debate within herself. She knew her father was a strict believer in the custom, but there was this slight hope in her heart that they won't leave her to her fate. Moreover, if Dave could claim responsibility then it will be a closed case.
" Do you think Dave would want to father a child that he does not know who the father is?" Her consciousness asked her.
Deborah pondered over it for a while then she smiled. Of course, she believes that Dave would help her out of this. He loved her beyond doubt. And, it's not like she intentionally got pregnant. She can't even remember what happened that night. So they should be merciful and lessen her punishment.
Dave was confused about everything that happened. He kept asking himself what if Deborah knew all along that she was pregnant but went ahead to date him so that he can take responsibility for her pregnancy? Even if that was not her plan but the fact that she didn't tell him anything until the pregnancy was noticed, could mean that she had a motive. He thanked his God that he has not touched her.
Though her story of rape could be true who knows. It is easy to cast blame on someone who is not present. Even if he decides to help her, will his family agree? It will be him and her against their family and society. He sighed. To him, that was too much to sacrifice for a girl he just met for a month. And the fact that she kept something as big as that from him meant there could be other things she didn't tell him. He was even thinking she was a virgin. He raised his head to look at her. As if she heard his thought, their gaze met. She looks so pitiful and innocent yet every criminal looks that way too. Who cares if she was raped, the least she could have done was to tell him. Maybe they could have sought it out some other way without involving the public. But the fact that she kept it a secret made him believe she might have hidden agenda for doing it.
Adam cleared his throat. This called everybody to order.
" It is painful that you send a girl child to school and she is brought back to shame. Now I see why our fathers did not support female education. Education is power, I know. But what does a woman need power for? It only makes them lose and is disrespectful.
My daughter Deborah is a good girl, no doubt. But this issue is beyond my capacity. I am her father but I am still under the rule. The kinsmen will decide her fate as for now, I have nothing else to say.
Deborah's heart sank as they all stood up and left one after the other. Only Dave and her mother were left. It was hard to tell what Dave was thinking but her mother was like an open book. The tears kept flowing from her eyes but she was a woman too. What can she do?
Emily looked at her daughter and she was pained. But what can she do? Like her daughter, she was also a woman and her loyalty belong to her husband and her tribe. Who would listen to her voice? She had lost a sister like this. She never knew her daughter will face such a predicament. This was one of the traditions that civilizations have failed to wash out. And it was because bastard children always overshadowed the sons of the soil. There was a time in Nakara when the war between illegitimate children and legitimate children was the dread of every household.
According to tradition, illegitimate children have no share of their family inheritance. But it came to a time when illegitimate children fought the sons of the soil ( as they would call it) for their inheritance. When the chief of the community saw that it won't be long before Nakara will be in the hands of bastards, he made a law that solved the problem and help prevent a war of that such happening again. The law was that no Bastard will be born inside Nakara again. If a woman becomes pregnant out of wedlock, she either aborts the child or is banished from Nakara.