Mother Village Chapter 1 -

Now, at the edge of the Cassava Field, he held the leaking gourd—his mother’s favorite water gourd, the one with the gourd-bird carved into its side. It wasn’t leaking water. It was leaking a thin, silvery sap that smelled of milk and thunder. He had never seen sap like that. Neither had Tebo, who had crossed himself with ash when Koffi showed him.

But Koffi wasn’t thinking about the Grove. He was thinking about his mother’s hands. mother village chapter 1

The Old Wall was higher than he remembered. Or maybe he was smaller. He climbed it anyway, scraping his knees on stones that felt warm, almost feverish. At the top, he paused. Now, at the edge of the Cassava Field,

And at the start of that path, tied to a thornbush with a strip of faded cloth, was a small wooden doll. It had no face. But around its neck hung a pendant carved from the same wood as the baobab’s eastern root. He had never seen sap like that

Koffi pulled back. The crack was gone.

Behind him, in the village, his mother stopped humming.