When They Sell You

N'gwa was unknown among the seven villages. A young woman gained prestige by her size. She was very small. When the kids talked about who would marry whom or who would achieve what, they always made fun of her. They called her the ant keeper because her babies would be as small as ants. They told her that nobody from their village would marry her. Her father would sell her to the Ral'bagwa village. Everyone looked down on that village because they had nothing. Every other village had a pride. The pride of their village was the desert, for they lived at the edge of the desert.

Aside from her size, she was prettier than all the other young women her age. The features of her face were curved and delicate. Her eyes could look exotic when the light reflected in her brown iris. The priestess called the brown glow a touch of opal. The prophecy was that a woman thus blessed would in old age be able to see through the hills and forests to the four ends of the world. When one looked into her eyes up close, the kindness melted one's heart. Perhaps, that's why the other kids so mercilessly taunted her height because it was her only flaw.

The great flower hunt was the most prestigious challenge for the women to prove their prowess. Every seven years, the spring winds flowed from where the sun sets to where it rises. Rather than dry, hot air, the inverted winds brought heavy, cold rain clouds. The rain continued for days. The hills first drank up the water hungrily. Then the slopes turned slippery. On the final day, avalanches of brown water ran down everywhere. For seven days, the families stayed in their huts. The fathers would brave the rain to reinforce the walls running around their compounds against the streams that hungrily chewed on everything.

When the rain stopped, the fields were to wet to be worked yet. However, the desert had turned a faint green. As the sun returned, the green spread over the desert hills. The green was faint because the plants were working hard to grow fast. The scorching sun would soon devour them. By the second morning, the hills had turned yellow and red. Tiny flowers bloomed. Often a particular hillside was covered with the same flower and another with a different flower. That made the hills colored in pure color.

Legend said that the god of the sky had dropped the flowers for the goddess of the earth would come to the surface. In their encounter, they would make children gods that would go into all the plants on the field and the trees of the forest. Like every year, the whole village gathered in the ritual ground. The priestess cleared a circle in the center and called the young women. She drummed a two-tone beat. The first tone was a big boom on a heavy drum. That tone was the masculine calling. The second tone was a high-pitched snap from a tightly stretched deer leather drum. Bells on the second drum added a melodic twang. That was the response of the feminine. The young women gathered in the center of about two hundred people.

N'gwa's mother Rin'ta stood with her neighbor. They discussed the new fabric dye from the jungle village Tar'unga. The jungle village had the pride of a tar pit. The tar pit gave a sticky black substance that the village turned into a black dye. Black fabric gave better sun protection. For the people of Ral'bagwa, sun protection was critical. The hot desert sun was lethal. Even the men dressed in flowing robes. The robes flowed loosely over their bodies so that the air could touch the skin and evaporate the sweat. Every little bit of water against the skin provided a treasured cooling. The robe flared wide like a tent around the legs. The shade that it threw on the ground was enough to cool the ground a bit. If one stood for a while, the cold was comfortable to no longer burn the soles of the feet. If one was stalking a desert rabbit that sneakily stole cabbage patches, one had to stand quiet for a long time with the bow stretched at the ready.

The robe covered the head and face as well. Only the eyes were visible. Most people knew each other only by the eyes. To reveal the face to someone required to bond with them over the friendship ritual first. If two neighbors decided to like each other, one would bring a red hummingbird flower as a gift. If the other reciprocated, the other would bring a yellow spider flower. With a pestle, they would grind the two flowers into a thick paste, occasionally adding water. They would drink the paste. The paste was a poison that would kill them within a day.

Putting themselves in a compromised position tested their friendship. The green stinging nettle was the antidote. The plant is rare near Ral'bagwa because it grows next to big rivers, of which there was none near the desert. There was no shame in keeping the antidote for yourself and letting your neighbor die. In fact, the village rules said that the property of the dead would go to the living. Thus sharing the antidote was the true test of friendship.

Rin'ta had formed three friendship bonds with neighbors. When they visited each other in their huts, they would remove the face portion of the dress. When N'gwa grew up, she saw the faces of three families with all the marvels of nose, mouth, lips, cheeks, and ears. The most wondrous part of these family visits was to see emotions on people's faces. The laughter that erupted when one person laughed and the laugh spread to the two big families was wondrous. N'gwa also saw the sadness on the mother's faces when the lost another child to famine, a disease, or a wicked spirit.

The tribe believed that seeing someone's emotions allows one to control the other person. That's why outside of close friendship bonds, the village people never revealed their faces. It was too vulnerable. They hid their emotions. When Rin'ta was called ant keeper, she didn't respond. She didn't let the other kids see how much she was hurt, shamed, and felt ostracized.

Thus gathered, the whole tribe stood on the ceremonial grounds. They were figures that looked like ghosts with their robes. The priestess stopped drumming. She raised her stuff with the feathers of the vulture high for everyone to quiet. She approached the young women at the center.

"Have you bled?" she called across the ritual ground.

Half the young women raised their arms and walked to their mothers.

"Have you had your eighteen's birthday?" she called in a challenge.

Only eleven young women remained at the center.

"Have you been promised to a groom?" she called in a challenge.

One of the young women strode with big steps away from the group. Her shoulders were pushing back with pride.

The crowd drew closer to see who the ten remaining women were. Whispers were made. With the robes, the only things that told the women apart were their height and eyes. N'gwa was the tallest. People snickered at her, "Look at that one! She'll only bear tiny children." N'gwa faced the humiliation with quiet.

The priestess approached each young woman and offered a belly bead band. The women carefully stepped into it and slipped the bead bend over their hips. Breaking a beaded band required painstakingly re-threading a hundred little beads. Now they were marked as ready for marriage. Considerable murmuring filled the crowd. Fathers and mothers decided which woman they might be able to afford. They all looked for a deal. They looked for a woman with positive qualities, which others would have missed. Thus she would be underpriced. Assessing a woman's future development was a difficult business. In their next three years, many would change their personality. Some would become lazy. Late bloomers could become leaders.

The tallest young woman was Gr'zella. Everyone agreed that only a man on the village council could afford her. She was expected to win the flower hunt as well. Everyone knew the rules. The woman available for marriage would be sent into the desert. They had to bring back flowers. The priestess would propagate the flowers for the temple garden. The village prided itself in having the most unique flowers. Every flower that didn't already grow in the temple garden would win one additional beaded waistband. More waistbands would mean that the young woman would fetch a higher price.

The temple garden was filled with a rich assortment of desert flowers. Generations of women had gathered all the nearby flowers. To find a new flower, a contestant had to venture deep into the desert and far away from the village. Because the sun was burning off the water in the ground, the flowers would soon wilt. The hunt tested how fast and long the contestants could run.

Drummers moved into the center of the ritual ground. They tested the drums at first with playful rhythms. They loosened up their fingers and wrists because they would drum until the second sunrise. The loud drumbeat carrying over the land would help the young women find their way home. The desert made getting lost easy because the barren landscape looked the same everywhere. The priestess blew yellow dust on the women. The sticky and stinky dust was going to protect them from evil spirits and dangerous animals. The drummers found their rhythm as a group. The women ran off into the desert hills behind the village.

The chances for N'gwa were bad. Gr'zella was two heads taller. Gr'zella took the lead. By the time, Gr'zella crested out of view over the first hill, she had a lead of the length of an entire field. When N'gwa crested out of view, nobody was looking anymore. But N'gwa had a secret: Br'nanak.

While the other young women followed the trail to the honey oasis, she veered towards sunset as soon as she was out of view. The other women made fast progress on the smooth trail. She struggled across the open desert. Her toes kicked against rocks painfully. Hard-baked dust crumbled under her weight. She slipped back down the steep hillside. "Soon," she told herself and squeeze the short flute in her hand.

Sound carries far in the open desert because there is no obstacle to block it and no soft surface to absorb it. She knew that. Behind a hill, she entered a ravine that sloped down the mountain. The ravine turned into a deep crack in the earth. The deep crack in the earth turned into a canyon with sheer walls on either side. Now, she knew that the canyon would contain her sound. She put the flute to her mouth and let the melody - up, down, down, up-up-up, down - float her calling out into the canyon.

She played the same call for a while. Was he close enough to hear her? Then the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. The electricity buzzed her. There was no sound but hers. There was no sight of anything. However, her body could feel the close presence. Laughter erupted way closer than she thought it possible for someone to sneak up on her. Her heart started beating faster. The yellow body with black spots of a hyena gently danced towards her. The thick neck that blended the body and head like it had no neck at all clearly identified the hyena. When the hyena was close enough, she petted the head.

Br'nanak had been orphaned as a baby. The people of N'gwa considered hyenas unclean because they eat the rotten antelopes left behind by lions. A group of hyenas sometimes also circles a human child. That's why all the compounds have walls around them to allow the children to run around safely. If they knew that she was nursing the hyena baby with food stolen from the pantry, they would have taken her to the priestess to get the evil exorcised out of her. N'gwa had always had a deviant streak. Breaking the taboo and caressing the soft fur enthralled her.

Now that Br'nanak was fully grown and she was still a short woman, she could ride him. She dug her fingers into Br'nanak's mane and pulled her leg over its back. She was light enough to ride on the hyena. Br'nanak softly treaded into the direction he was led. N'gwa couldn't be caught because the punishment would surely be a beating with a heavy stick in front of everyone. She stayed in the canyon to be invisible to any observer on a high hill. The poison water oasis was her destination. A fast human would take two days to get there. Br'nanak bouncing lightly on his soles was three times faster. Her movement blended to his. As his shoulders moved, her whole body shifted with them. The soft laughter of the hyena accompanied the occasional scraping sound of her shoulder brushing against a dried-out bush with bright green new growth from the rain.

By sunrise, they arrived at the oasis. The canyon opened up to a pond that sat in the landscape like a crater. Hills were on all sides. The land around the pond was a marsh where one sunk in deeply. White crust from the excess salt in the water covered the marshland. A sole willow tree was in the middle of the dead zone. The leaves hung down like wet hair. The bark was pitch-black. White crust covered the willow because it tried to expel the excess salt. An outer ring of green surrounded the marshland. At that point, the plants could still sip water but weren't overwhelmed by the salt. The side of the hill facing away from the sun had the most colorful flowers.

She spent the day investigating the flowers and comparing them to the memory of the temple garden. She picked the big orange flower. The shape and shininess were like that of a parrot. At the bottom of the flower were bright white and red patches. Carefully, she dug up as much of the root crown as possible so that the flower would survive the transplanting. The next flower that she picked was velvet. A thousand tiny little flowers covered a stick-like stalk. When she touched the flowers, white sap oozed out of it. The third flower looked like a familiar flower with white petals and a yellow center. She had almost dismissed it, but a heavy scent hit her nose. The scent was spice-like and unique beyond description in tone. When she touched the flower with her tongue, it tasted like honey chicken. She decided that the flower appeared familiar but was entirely unique.

When the return trip got her close to the village, she had to be very careful. Concerned parents often roamed the hills nearby the village to guide their dehydrated and slightly delirious daughters home. N'gwa sent Br'nanak away with a lot of ground to be covered. She hadn't needed to be concerned because nobody was waiting at the exit of the ravine. In fact, her mother Rin'ta sat on a rock at the village entrance. Her mother wasn't concerned about N'gwa but her other daughter Tr'nilly. Tr'nilly wasn't special. An extra beaded band around her belly would make a big difference in the price that she fetched. Tr'nilly hadn't returned yet. Knowing that Tr'nilly needed to bring at least one new flower, she knew that she had to keep searching. Rin'ta was satisfied that Tr'nilly hadn't returned yet.

N'gwa showed the three flowers to her mother and how carefully she had preserved the root crown. The mother quickly hid the flowers and told N'gwa to return to the priestess without them. When N'gwa arrived empty-handed, the crowd smacked their tongues to display that they had anticipated her to perform that badly. N'gwa hid her shame and fury. The face cover provided her welcome cover from having her emotions read.

One young woman after the next arrived. They all had one unique flower, which the priestess upraised and then planted into the garden, except for Gr'zella. Gr'zella had two. The crowd murmured that they expected her long legs to give her more range to search farther than anybody else. They agreed that she would fetch a record price. Tr'nilly was the last to arrive because she had spent her time in vain to look for a unique flower. Yet her mother Rin'ta had given her N'gwa's three unique flowers. When Tr'nilly revealed the flowers, the crowd stomped their feet in admiration. They blew their noses like they were full of snot to show their displeasure at Gr'zella having lost despite all her advantages. The crowd agreed that she would turn lazy in three years and no council family would want her. Gr'zella started sobbing under her robe. Her mother quickly took her away to hide the unusual display of emotions.

Tr'nilly received three additional beaded belly bands. The family walked home proudly that day. The next day, the preparations started. The other children were sent to sweep the floor and clean everything. Mother Rin'ta started preparing a feast. Father Kr'bm built a big crate and placed a chair on top. That was were Tr'nilly was going to be displayed. In front of it, he placed cushions on the floor. That's where the suitor families would be able to sit and make their offers. The power dynamic was clearly visible. Kr'bm believed that Tr'nilly was the most prized daughter that year. He already imagined all the land that he could by with the bride money.

When the sunset, every family with a daughter available for marriage lit a bonfire in their compound. Families seeking to buy a daughter would move from house to house to inspect the daughters. Upon being seated, the buying family would receive food and drink. The custom was to receive food and drink. Yet, the buying families also knew that getting full meant that they couldn't visit any other families. Thus the received meals and drinks were the size of a token. The selling families tried to get the buying families to eat and drink as much as possible. Thus the night was fully of gay laughing and charming. All the while, the bride on offer would sit in the place of honor to be inspected and upraised.

When a buying family was ready to make an offer, the selling family would cover the windows. Only in that secrecy would the selling family take down the veil of the bride on offer. The buying family could inspect her beauty. The potential groom could ask her questions. The buying family might ask for demonstrations like her ability to grind sorghum with a pestle or start a fire.

Father Kr'bm was proud to show off Tr'nilly. Yet when fathers wanted to extend offers for her, he waived them off. Kr'bm knew that only two fathers had the wealth that he was looking for. Both had seats on the council. Kr'bm arranged that both of these families visited them late in the night. The visiting families were full of food and half drunk from the drinks. The hour of the night was so late that everyone was resigned to making a deal. He played the two buying fathers against each other to increase their offers. He made Tr'nilly show her sewing skills. He even went as far as to take her gloves off and have the two would-be grooms feel the soft skin of her hand. The two buying fathers were chagrined with pain on their faces as they admitted to offering another goat or chicken.

N'gwa saw how her sister was sold off according to the practices of the tribe. She knew that her sister would have a good life and influence many tribe decisions. She also knew that any marriageable women after the first night were leftovers. The nobodies from other villages who couldn't afford to buy a woman from their own tribe would come. Some fathers knowing the cost of providing for an extra mouth would go as far as paying to have their daughters taken away. While all the women growing up always imagined a destiny like Tr'nilly's, few thoughts were spent on what would happen to leftover women like N'gwa.

In the afternoon, Rin'ta took N'gwa to the bathing pond. Rin'ta scrubbed her daughter well to make her clean and good smelling. Then she gathered a blue-spined scorpion from the bank of the pond. Rint'a pinched the tail at the stinger carefully and pierced N'gwas lips with short little pokes. The lips swelled up to make full lips. Then Rin'ta grabbed a fresh scorpion. Rin'ta drove the stinger deeply into N'gwa's breast from the side so that the poison would pump in deeply and inflate the whole breast instead of merely making a bump on the breast. N'gwa's breasts plumbed. Then Rin'ta slapped N'gwa's cheeks until they were rouged. Thus N'gwa was beautified and prepared to be sold.