Calgary, November 2021
This story took place in one of those forgotten countries in the African continent, during one of those civil wars which torment that continent with depressing regularity. It is a story about two people: Amari, a soldier in the army of Tribe A, and Izara, a wife a soldier in the army of Tribe B. Before the war both protagonists had a normal, ordinary life. Amari was a teacher, was married and loved his wife. Izara was also married and loved her husband. Neither of them was rich, but they managed to get by. The tension between Tribe A and Tribe B didn’t concern them, they had their own lives to worry about. However, for the leaders of both tribes the tension was a means of achieving their goal. Each one wanted to be the King of the Castle, a man with power and money. Under their leadership the tension between tribes increased to the point where the armed clashes changed into an all-out civil war. Amari and the husband of Izara were both called to their respective armies.
The civil war was long, bloody, and cruel. Both sides were of equal strength, and it took a long time before the Tribe B could claim the victory. When the war finally ended, the country was devastated and half of the young men on both sides were dead. Amari, who was on the losing side, became a prisoner of war. But prisoners of war were additional drain on the impoverished country and the new government wanted to get rid of them. The easiest way was to evacuate them back to their families, but it was not always possible. The war killed soldiers and civilians alike and lot of the prisoners lost their homes. Amari wrote a letter to his wife, but the letter came back saying that she was dead. There was a lot of killings and raping in the town where she lived. Amari, like others, had nowhere to go.
Izara also got a similar letter. Her husband was killed in one of the last battles of the war. Many women lost their husbands in the war. There were also many men who lost their families and had nowhere to go, and the new government got an idea: How about to pair them together? The government wanted more children to grow into more soldiers, and it couldn’t be done without men. Therefore, they organised exhibitions where the former enemies, naked, were displayed to let the women evaluate them and make a selection. However, there was a problem. The widows were supposed to be paired with men who might have been the killers of their husbands. Many women rejected such associations. Others decided to do it from the sense of duty and some, like Izara, saw it as an opportunity for vengeance. It gave them a chance to destroy the soul of the enemy. That was why Izara went to one of those exhibitions, and there she saw Amari. There was no particular reason why she selected him, but it enabled me to continue with the story.
When Izara selected Amani, a guard wrapped him into a blanket, drove them to Izara’s home, which was just a shack at the outskirts of the town, and escorted them into the room. There he took back the blanket, it was government property, and left.
“Aren’t you going to give me some clothing?” asked Amari.
“No. Here you will be naked and humiliated. This way you cannot leave the room, it will become your prison.”
“In that case, why did you select me?”
“To torture you. Maybe you are the one who killed my husband.”
“And he might be the one who raped and killed my wife.”
“My husband didn’t kill anybody’s wife. He died fighting like a man.”
“And I didn’t kill anybody, because I was just a driver in that goddamned war.”
There was a silence, and then Amari asked:
“What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to look after the household. To clean the place, prepare food, wash my clothes and similar. Then, in the evening, we will make babies. After all, that is what the government wants us to do.”
“And if I say ‘no’?”
“Then I send you to the penal colony where they clear the minefields left from the war. You wouldn’t last there very long.”
There was another silence, and after a while Izara said: “Come, I will show you what you will have to do. I leave in the morning for work and when I come back, I want to see the room clean and food ready for me. The water and electricity are available only for few hours a day, so you will have to plan ahead.” Then Izara showed him the kitchen and together they prepared the dinner.
They postponed the baby making activities for few days, until the situation settled down. But the first attempt wasn’t very successful. It was a long time since Amari made love to his wife, so now he had difficulties. “Were you so bad with your wife too?” asked Izara with a poisonous smile. Amari knew that it was her way to humiliate him, so he didn’t reply. But, with time, their sex improved and sometimes Izara found it almost pleasant. One evening, after doing it, she started to cry.
“What is it?”
“I wanted to have a child with the man I loved and now I am doing it with enemy soldier.”
“I wanted to have a child with a woman I loved and now I am doing it with a wife of enemy soldier.”
One day, after Izara left and Amari finished his chores, he sat down, wrote a story, and left it on the desk for Izara to read it.
“What is it?” she asked when she returned from work.
“It is a fairy tale for children. It was written long time ago by two brothers who lived in Europe. It is about a prince, princess, and a bad woman with a poisonous needle. If we have children, this will be the bedtime story I will be telling them.”
Izara looked at him. “What was your job before the war?”
“I was a teacher. I was teaching little kids from grade one to grade five.”
“And if we do have children, what will you teach them?”
“I will teach them not to hate people just because somebody tells them to do so.”
Next day, when Izara returned from work, she gave Amari a parcel. “Open it,” she said.
It was a set of man’s clothing. Underwear, pants, and a nice shirt.
“Put it on. Tomorrow I will take you to our school. They need teachers.”