“What?” she asked shyly.
“Nothing,” he said softly. “I was just thinking… your face changes when you laugh.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No,” he said, and his voice dropped. “It is a beautiful thing.”
From then on, the river was no longer just a place where Amara fetched water. It became the one place in her life where she could breathe.
But the village had eyes.
One woman, Nkem, saw them talking and carried the story back to Auntie Ugochi with more spice than truth. By the time the story reached that house, a few quiet smiles at the river had become, in Auntie Ugochi’s imagination, a shameless affair.
When Amara returned home that afternoon, Auntie Ugochi was waiting with fury boiling in her chest. Before Amara could explain anything, the woman lifted the basin from her head and poured the water all over her.
“So this is what you have become?” she shouted. “A shameless girl chasing rich men at the river?”
Amara stood there soaked and trembling. “We were only talking.”
“That is enough!”
Then Auntie Ugochi picked up two canes and raised one.
“Today I will teach you a lesson you will never forget.”
Before the cane could fall, another voice cut sharply across the compound.
“That is enough.”
Everyone turned.
Obina stood just inside the gate.
He had followed from a distance after seeing fear on Amara’s face when she left the river. Now he stepped between her and Auntie Ugochi with a calm anger that frightened even the woman holding the cane.
“This is a family matter,” Auntie Ugochi said quickly.
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