Maria’s mother lived in town solely for Maria’s sake. After the incident with her husband, she thought of going to the village, but when she thought of her daughter, she stopped. Those days, going to the village was like risking with your life. There are some cultural practices that were very harmful to the futures of girls. For instance, fisi. It was a practice that was conducted specifically by people who were called fisi, meaning hyena.

After the initiation ceremony, a girl child was put into a specific hut, and fisi would be told to go in the hut and sleep with the girl. Although the practice is not perceived very badly, there are some things like early pregnancies, and since fisi was one specific person, it meant he had had sex with many girls, hence he could easily pass on sexual transmitted diseases if he had them. For that reason alone, Maria’s mother never wanted to settle in the village with her, mainly for the sake of her daughter’s future.

The trip to her mother’s house was 5 hours, but Maria travelled it in a few seconds, and she figured that maybe being a ghost was very handy after all. She reached where her mother was staying, and it was at her father’s old hut. There was no one outside the house, but what did she expect? It had been two years already, although Maria thought it had only been two days.

She entered the house, and her mother was sitting down right in there. She had buried her face on her laps, and she was very sad.

For two years, Maria’s mother could not get over her daughter’s death. First it was her husband, and then it was her daughter. It was indeed very heavy for her, and it was as if she had lost the purpose to fight for life; like she was only waiting for a bus to carry her to the grave. It was clear to Maria that she had not been eating enough. She was turning very thin, her cheeks were caving in, and her skin had become even more wrinkled. It was all because of the decisions that her daughter had made.

There was a paper on the chair. When Maria saw it, she started dropping tears, and the tears flowed out of her eyes like a tap. She then remembered something, and it was a question that her mother kept asking her.

‘If you find a portal connecting heaven and earth, who would be the first three people you would tell?’

When her mother asked her the question, Maria had no idea how to answer it. She eventually had the perfect answer, and her mother would always say, ‘that’s right, don’t forget that’.

The story of her husband leaving had made her realise something. She later understood that, there was always something or someone that you should cherish the most. After her husband left, she had Maria. She also realised that some people were and would always be there, even if you do not want them to be there. Just like Maria’s friends. That was why she always asked Maria to figure out who the people who were the most important to her were for herself.

“… the rule for the game was simple: say the first three pictures of the people that pop in your head. Just like that.”

Ghosts do not cry because they do not have emotions and sweat grands, but Maria cried, and she had nothing to say to her mother because nothing would be heard.

“Maria?” her mother wondered. It was as though she could sense the presence of her daughter’s spirit. “Maria why? Why?” she cried.

Maria just stood by the door without uttering any word. Her mother kept calling her name while looking at the door. Maria was very depressed, and she realised that if she continued being there, her mother would not stop crying. She hated seeing her mother cry to begin with, so she sadly left the hut.

When Maria got out of the hut, her mother went out too. Her mother was sadly looking where Maria was standing. Maria glared at her mother in the eyes, and Tears subconsciously fell from all of their eyes. After a while, she disappeared.

***

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