Days became months and months became years. I was still on that bed, but this time I couldn’t do anything, not even stretch a muscle. It had been two years now, the pity days where over, now everyone was just asking God when was He going to end my suffering. The only person who had a pinch of hope was my father. Maybe it was because he would only see me when he returned home at late hours after work. By then I would be sleeping so he wouldn’t see the pain or the tears I would shed just for seeking a better sleeping position.

My parents kept praying though and forced my siblings to pray too, but I am sure they had stopped believing. I mean who wouldn’t? I had stopped too. Even church mates stopped visiting as much. Now only the pastor and his wife would visit some Sundays, mostly because it was on their way home from church and just driving past would not look good for their reputation.

“Tendai, Tendai!” I heard a voice in my sleep. This voice sounded familiar. No way it can’t be — aunt Rutendo is in America, it can’t be her voice. I opened my eyes slowly focusing on the direction the voice had come from.

“Aunt Rutendo!”

“Tendai, how are you my child?”

“I am alive,” I responded, before I started coughing out blood.

“Here drink some water,” she said as she dipped a table spoon in a cup and gave it to me.

“I arrived yesterday and came straight here. Your mother told me everything. I want to help you in my own way, but I just need you to trust me, okay?”

I strained nerves and forced a smile.

“Let me get some warm water and give you a bath. Then you can wear the clothes I brought you, so we can go somewhere.”

What does she mean by somewhere? I don’t want to go to the hospital again, mom must be the mastermind of this dubious plan to send me to the hospital again.

“Aunt, I don’t want to go to the hospital. They have failed to help me already.”

“Don’t lose hope so soon sweetheart, and no one is taking you to the hospital.”

Feeling good in my new clothes, mom and aunt carried me into the car. We drove for quite some time and I was taken to an odd round hut. They laid me on a mat and they sat on the other end. There was a woman there dressed in black and white who had a lot of beading on her neck, wrist and ankles. She was different. Natural and beautiful — I guess I was so used to seeing enhanced beauty. Her hut had things I thought I could only see in museums.

***

Tell us: Do you think the beautiful woman will be able to cure Tendai after all this time?