Cut for Life

by Lucinda E Clarke

  “I’m Felicity and this is Winnie, Maisie, Linda and Fazia. I’m told you have rooms to rent and you come highly recommended.”

  Twigga beamed with pleasure. “But of course, that is true, but ...” Twigga paused, “for so many?”

  “No, the children can share, that’s not a problem,” Amie added hastily, imagining the cost. She had the American dollars in her money belt, but those wouldn’t last forever. “Maybe two rooms?”

  “That is possible yes. Come, I show you.”

  They all trailed after Twigga as she led them to the back of the house and proudly opened the doors to show them two basic but clean bedrooms. “We eat in the dining room. I give you breakfast and a meal in the evening. And here is the bathroom we all use.”

  Amie thanked her and after agreeing the price, Twigga disappeared to the front of the house tucking the dollar notes Amie had given her into her bra. Amie ushered the children into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Giving Linda strict instructions to make sure the little ones were clean, she left the guest house with Fazia to go and buy new clothes.

  She’d noticed a group of shops a couple of streets away with at least two of the common low-cost clothing chain stores found in many African countries.

  “I’m not looking for high fashion, Fazia,” she said as they hurried up the road, “just a cheap change of clothes. There are five of us to buy for.”

  “I understand.” While Fazia was the eldest and physically more mature than the rest, she had a quieter personality. Amie felt she was more reliable than Linda who acted on impulse and put herself first.

  To Amie’s relief, the cotton trousers, tops, underwear and light jackets were cheaper than she’d expected. They could do without sleepwear for now, it was just the basic essentials. Before returning to the guesthouse, they popped into the supermarket next door and bought toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, energy bars and bottled water. These would have to keep them going until supper time.

  Just as they were coming out of the shop, bags in hand, Amie froze. There, across the street larger than life was the tall, handsome, dark-haired European who’d attacked her in the village. Amie stopped breathing. What the hell was he doing in Atari? Could it be him? She turned away, shielding her face with the bags and stepped back inside the shop, whispering to Fazia to follow her.

  “Look, see that man over there?” Fazia nodded. “Do you remember him from the village?”

  The child peered through the dirty plate glass window, then nodded her head. “Yes, I think so,” she whispered, although there was no way he could have heard them. “Yes, he was there. I’m sure he was in that place. He only arrived a day before you and he was so big and scary. What’s he doing here, Miss? I thought we would be safe here.” The tears rolled down her cheeks. “But we’re not are we? Miss, you will save us won’t you, help us get home?”

  “I will do my best. I can only promise you that, but it will be my very best. Look, he’s moving away down the street, I’m sure he didn’t see us. We’ll wait until he’s gone and get back to the guest house as quickly as we can. OK?”

  Fazia nodded. Amie watched the man stroll out of sight. They would have to be even more careful now.

  As soon as the coast was clear they scurried out of the supermarket, turned the corner and rushed back to Twigga’s place. As they hurried up the front path, clutching the shopping bags, Amie wondered if they were safe even here. If the big man and his cohorts were looking for them, a bed and breakfast would be one of the first places they’d look.

  The man smiled. She might not be a very good spy, but she was resourceful. She had no idea what she was getting herself into.

  Amie left the girls to sort out their new clothes while she closed the door on the second bedroom and sank down onto the bed. She needed time to think. Would it be a good idea to ask Twigga for help? If she did, what story could she spin? It might be that Twigga approved of mutilating young girls to take away any sexual pleasure and stop them straying from the husbands that were so often chosen for them. On the other hand, as an independent woman with her own business she might believe that such tribal practices were barbaric and outdated. She might even pretend to sympathize and then turn them in.

  It was difficult to think logically when she was so worried, and more than a little scared. Amie you have to learn to grow up and put your indecisiveness to one side. Now think logically, think the whole thing through. What are your options?

  The easiest route was to go to the American Embassy and ask for their help, after all they had lost one of their own in this. But what could she tell them about Kirsty? She realised with a start that she didn’t even know her surname – how would that sound? She glanced at her watch. Officially the embassy would be closed now and often the staff didn’t live on the premises, but what she could do was try and get hold of Maddy; the only life line she had.

  She went next door to find the girls all clean, neatly dressed but exhausted. All of them but Linda had fallen asleep curled up on the bed like a row of sausages. For a second, Amie wondered if Fazia had told them the big man was in town, but looking at their relaxed faces she thought the elder girl had had the sense to say nothing; it would only alarm the others.

  “Linda, I want you to stay here and keep everyone inside, or at least no further than the garden, it’s really important you do, right? I’m going to see if I can get help. You understand?”

  Linda nodded her head.

  After getting instructions from Twigga to the nearest internet cafe, Amie looked both ways before slipping out the back door and onto the street. She tried to behave normally as if she hadn’t a care in the world, even though her heart was beating like a base drum. She was relieved to see there were several other expats around so she wasn’t the only white face among the busy evening crowds of shoppers.

  She found the cafe easily, pushed open the door and asked if they would take American dollars. It was way past the time the banks closed, and she’d not been bothered in the shop earlier as large enterprises were more likely to accept foreign currency.

  The young man behind the counter who looked barely older than fifteen, hesitated for a moment then nodded. Amie suspected he would charge her an extortionate rate and pocket the difference. Amie chose the computer in the furthest corner and logged on to her emails. She wouldn’t be able to encode her messages, Animal Farm had been taken from the trucks with all the other possessions including her Francistown cell phone, but she hoped that Maddy would read between the lines and draw the right conclusions.

  It took forever for the connection to go through; the internet speed was the slowest she had ever encountered. She fretted as the cursor blinked, taking its time and she was just about to go and complain to the pimply youth in charge when she heard a murmur of voices by the door. She glanced round and froze. The tall dark-haired man was leaning against the counter chatting. Had he followed her in here? Was this just a coincidence or was he here simply to use the internet? She turned away from the counter and made herself as inconspicuous as possible. She was sure he could hear her heart thumping loudly in her chest. Just then there was a ping on the computer and her inbox opened showing her several messages in bold; all from Maddy, not one from Simon. She glanced back over her shoulder, checked the far corners of the room and exhaled. The big man had left.

  Would he be waiting for her outside?

  She searched through the list of emails. There was no way she could make sense of any of them. But it looked as though the last message was not in code. Maddy was complaining that Felicity had not been in touch, hadn’t answered any of her emails or told her how her holiday was going. She was getting fed up with her friend, what was her problem?

  I’ve got plenty of problems all right, Amie thought. Just a bloody few! Shit! She typed and prayed at the same time, muttering under her breath. She only hoped the clever people in London would be able to tell where she was from the internet cafe IP address. She asked that Maddy get back to her immediate
ly as she needed her help. Her holiday had not turned out as expected, the rest of the party had left and now she was travelling on her own. Well, not on her own, she now had four more companions who were much, much younger than herself and they were not as much fun. She felt responsible for them, but they had all lost their documents. Would the cousins help? Maddy would know she meant the Americans, wouldn’t she? She added that she had no phone and no laptop either.

  She pressed send and immediately typed in a long one to Simon telling him as much as she could without being too specific, but asking why she hadn’t heard from him. What had happened at his end?

  Then she sat back to wait, constantly glancing behind to see if the big man had returned. There was another ping and Maddy’s answer dropped into the box. Then the computer screen went black. Amie swore and went to the desk to pay for more time, but the pimply youth refused to take any more dollars. He’d obviously had second thoughts and Amie had no local currency and no way of getting any. She asked if there was another internet cafe nearby, but no, there were only two in Atari and the other one was on the other side of the city. There was nothing she could do but walk away. She hovered in the doorway glancing in both directions. The big man was nowhere to be seen but she kept a sharp eye open for him as she strolled nonchalantly along the street. She stooped to examine some of the pavement wares on sale, moving so she could glance in every direction. She didn’t return to the guest house by the quickest route but wandered around several suburban blocks until she was quite sure she was not being followed.

  Once safely inside the walled garden, she loitered for a while considering her options regarding Twigga. Should she confide in her? Appearances could be deceptive but she’d been taught, exhaustively, to put your trust in as few people as possible. No, she wouldn’t say a thing, it was better to be safe.

  At supper, the children wolfed down their food at an alarming rate. Amie was not even tempted to correct their appalling table manners. It was a joy to see their faces and healthy appetites. Twigga beamed and offered second helpings all round.

  As soon as the table had been cleared away, Amie ushered them all into the larger bedroom. “I think it’s time we had a little chat, girls. If I’m going to be able to help you, I need to know what happened before I found you, well you found me ... you know what I mean! Every little bit of information might be important. Does everyone understand?”

  They all nodded their heads.

  “Right, who wants to start?” For a long moment, no one said a word. Amie noticed that Winnie was twisting the corner of the sheet round and round her fingers. She was biting her lip and trying very hard not to cry.

  As usual Linda spoke up. “Like we said before, we’s from different towns, like we’d never met before, not before we wus at the same party. Then we all went back home, and then maybe two weeks later, me mam took me on a train to London and then another train to Dover and we wus taken to a boat. There wus several African ladies there, I mean real African ladies, not like us who’s English even though we have black skin.”

  “They didn’t speak a lot of English...” Fazia added.

  “They talked real funny,” Winnie chipped in.

  “Then they took us on a boat,” Linda continued.

  “I’ve never been on a big boat like that before,” Maisie said. “It was scary. We were a long way up and the waves came so high, right up to here.” She held her arms above her head.

  Amie only just managed to keep a straight face as she asked, “Wait, how many girls were there?”

  After a brief silence Fazia spoke up. “I think there were maybe fifty or sixty, maybe more?”

  Amie was shocked. “As many as that, are you sure?”

  “Yes, there were lots and lots of us,” Fazia replied softly. “When we got off the boat they made us walk to a large car park and there was a large bus waiting for us.”

  “But they gave us gross stuff to eat.” Winnie pulled a face at the memory.

  “It was funny tasting meat.” Maisie poked her in the side. “I think they were supposed to be hot dogs but not like the ones we get at home, not like the proper ones.”

  Linda piped up she could never keep quiet for long. “We were in a different country silly. Didn’t you know England is an island so once we crossed the sea we wus in a different country. That’s why it tasted funny. See?”

  Winnie shrank back against the pillows, suitably chastised.

  “Linda, that wasn’t kind. I’m not sure you knew that when you were seven did you?” Amie leaned over and picked Winnie up and sat her on her knee.

  “Bet I did.” Linda pouted.

  “Go on, tell me what happened next.”

  Linda couldn’t resist the spotlight. “We drove in the big bus ‘til it was dark, and then we had to get out again and they put us on an aeroplane.”

  “Don’t forget they gave us that drink and most of us went to sleep, remember that Linda?”

  “Yeah, like Fazia said, it tasted yeuk but they got so angry with us if we didn’t finish all of it.”

  “One of the ladies smacked me ‘cos I didn’t like it,” Winnie snuggled against Amie, clinging on to her shirt, “but she made me.”

  This is a much bigger operation than I imagined, thought Amie. Drugging kids with sleeping pills, smuggling them onto boats, buses and planes. This is huge. Not the watch, look and listen mission Maddy was asking for. “They took you all on a plane, but how did they ... were you at an airport? Did you see the name of it?”

  “No, it wasn’t a big place, but there was just one enormous building,” said Fazia.

  “How do you know that?” Linda exploded. “None of us remember anything before we woke up in those stinky huts.

  “I managed to spit out most of the drink, so I’d know what was going on. I thought maybe I could escape. It wasn’t right taking us like that. No one had a passport or anything. If my mum knew how mean these people were she’d never have let our friend take me to the train.”

  Amie thought Fazia was being optimistic about that. If the families were convinced their daughters were being circumcised in preparation for a good marriage, that mutilating their little bodies was part of an agreement or made them a better catch, then they would do whatever it took. And that was part of Amie’s problem. It wasn’t just a question of getting these children home, back to their families, but given enough time they would probably pack them off again as soon as all the fuss had died down. If the press got to hear about this, then prosecutions would follow. How would these little girls feel about testifying against their own mothers; even sending them to jail? It was an impossible situation.

  Somehow, Amie had to return them to England, but right now she didn’t have a clue where to begin.

  15 AMIE'S FIRST KILL

  “So, most of you went to sleep, and then flew in a plane, and when you woke up ...?”

  Linda jumped in as usual. “We wus in the village and I heard two men arguing. One said s’funny we wus in real Africa like where we come from. And then another old geezer said it’s where we should stay as we never should have been living in England at all. And then the other man laughed and said that weren’t no problem no more.”

  “Do you know what they had planned for you?” Amie asked.

  “They was gonna cut us Miss and hurt us,” Maisie piped up.

  “Yes, you told us that earlier, but then did they say you would be going home to your families again?”

  “I don’t know and I don’t know where Linda heard all that shit either.” Fazia was angry. “I reckon she’s making it up.”

  “No, I ain’t. I heard them I tell you. I really did.”

  “Whoa girls, we need to stick together, so no fighting. OK? Understand?”

  They nodded, but Linda still looked furious. It was worrying. Amie was not sure if she could rely on her to cooperate; only time would tell.

  “Tell me again, you say that maybe fifty or sixty of you left England together. Were you all taken to the v
illage?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “And then the others were driven away in the vans, right?”

  “Only the ones that were left.”

  “What do you mean, left?”

  “They came and took away about six at a time. We were there for days and days and every time they came back, they would make us all stand up, then they poked and prodded us and then chose a few and took them away.”

  “Do you know where they were taking them?”

  They all shook their heads.

  “We dunno,” Linda answered. “There were more ladies ...”

  “African ladies?”

  “... yeah.”

  “And you have no idea where the vans were going?” Amie probed.

  Linda shrugged her shoulders and the others shook their heads.

  “We never seen them again.”

  “But,” Fazia added, “they kept giving us that nasty drink so we slept a lot.”

  “That would make sense,” Amie muttered. She was beginning to suspect that there was a lot more to the story than just sending girls to be circumcised. Why would these mothers sacrifice their own children? What would it take for a mother to hand a baby like Winnie to strange women to have an illegal operation? Threats? Fathers demanding it? Payment of debts? Personal beliefs in old cultural practices? Were they expecting their children back? Amie couldn’t answer any of these questions, and neither apparently could the kids. All she could do was to hand them over to the authorities and hope for the best.

  “Then, that big man we saw at the supermarket, helped carry the last children into the van. Then everyone left the village and we met ...”

  Linda sat bolt upright and grabbed Fazia’s arm. “You seen him, the big white man with the dark hair from the village? Here?”

  “Yes, but he didn’t see us. Felicity saw him and we waited till he’d gone away.”

  Linda wasn’t reassured by Fazia’s words. “Yeah, well it wus a good thing it weren’t me that saw him, I’d ‘a given him a good hard whack, made sure he never pushed us around again.”