Tika and the Dancing Waters
Tika sat very still, trying to be silent. It was hard because her arms, with hands folded into her lap, no longer felt like they were a part of her body and she had to fight the urge to throw them away, which, of course, would be impossible. So she sat still. Perhaps if she did not move, the dream would go on. And it must be a dream, surely, because there in front of her was more water than had ever been in the world. And it was dancing, and jumping and teasing her with its voice that sounded like a wind that never stopped. Tika had never seen such a sight in all her long life. (Which was not so long, afterall, but she did not know she was only 5. Actually, Tika could not count and did not know what years were, or even days for that matter.)
When she was about two, she was picked up in the arms of an adult with pale skin and carried away from her mother and father. She did not know why. How could she know that they owed some money and she was to pay the debt with her life. Her mother had not made a sound, until finally she sobbed very loudly and reached for Tika, who tried to reach back. But she was thrust into a basket and later found she was no longer in any place that she recognized. Soon, she was carrying small bits of wood and learning to build a fire and keep it going. And then, she was old enough to go with several other little girls to a well and bring water back in small little containers. She made many, many trips in a day and only a small amount of water ever made it into Tika's mouth. When she tried to drink some of what she carried, she had been beaten, so she learned to wait for her share like the other little girls.
And then not long ago, some new people with pale skin had come to the place where she slept and had lifted her up from the mat. They yelled at the people she had been living with, and they took her away with them. Tika did not cry this time, nor reach out her arms to anyone. Instead, she just became very, very quiet. She had learned that if she was quiet enough, she seemed to disappear and she could avoid being hurt.
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