WEEK 39: THE ERRANT MID-WIFE, Part 2 of 3


Stumbling and falling, she ushers to the yard
Filled once more with his family and friends
The Lesser Wives there in the center kneeling
Circled by their girls unabashedly weeping

The Errant Mid-Wife is amazed to behold
The sight of these girls, so beautiful besides!
She forgets momentarily her own peril
Gazing wondrously the objects of her mission

A mission she knows now has utterly failed
She would n'er again look upon her mates
Mates who surely now have guessed her fate
It is not likely she'll return home today

"You try my patience!" Obi slaps her face
"Which of my wives put you up to this!
Speak up and mayhap I'll spare your life!"
The Errant Mid-Wife spits blood to the side

Anger and iron dance in her eyes
She determines at once to say nothing more
The man means death, so she accepts her fate
Obi to his shed and returns with his knife

Places the blade at the mid-wife's throat
Ose intervenes, to the side with Obi
"What means you, friend?" he asks, startled
"This game's gone long, do not you think?"

"There's no game here!" Obi hisses
"Let go of my hand or I'll slice you too!"
"'Tis madness, Obi, sheath your anger!
Yon babe is fine, asleep with his mother.

"He'll not be the last to be dropped at birth.
And tis most unseemly kneeling there,
Your girls and wives as if miscreants.
Think what you do, you Father of Your House!"

Obi sees the anger in all the village eyes
Though his girls busy weeping beside their moms
As for the Errant Wife, she sheds tears too
Much moved she appears by the plight of his girls

"Ose," Obi whispers, "I feel in my heart
My wives did this, they'll likely try again."
"'Tis not what I see, Obi, no wife would attempt
A deed if it fails, she'd be it prime suspect!

"And did you yourself not say, this woman is unknown?
Your wives are not traveled much to pay evil from far off.
But since I am traveled such, I can tell you this, my friend –
This woman has the look of those from the Northern Lands!"

At mention of the "north", the village – scatters
Including the wives who up with their crying girls
Run into separate huts to peek from shrouded doors
The men – carefully – approach the Errant Wife

(to be continued)