I wore my traditional headscarf, pinning its side to my hair and applied my eyeliner using Mother’s black slate of volcanic rock as a mirror. I put on my heavy silver earrings and golden necklace. My long thick black hair was combed neatly and two big strands were draped along the front of my body. I wore my leather soles, and brought along my Jarra. The large clay container was cold at touch. As I walked out of the tent, I greeted Mother with a kiss on her forehead, and nodded to Father as he sharpened his dagger.

Being the only daughter of the clan chief, I was well known amongst the young maidens. At fourteen, I was ready for marriage, and promised to Rashid. A perfectly handsome young man who had coincidentally no girls born in his year of birth, he was ten years my senior. Seeing the rest of the men a little older than him marry or were promised a wife, he felt left out. Then Mother gave birth to me, her one and only child. Rashid formally declared I was to be his wife since my birth, and that he will wait until I am old enough to bear children to take me as his.

I pondered on why Father had not brought it up with Rashid that I was now a woman, nonetheless I trusted him enough declare it when he thinks the time is right. As I walked out on the golden sand early that morning, I paid attention to the sounds around me. The sound of an annoyed horse’s hooves, the animals of the night returning to their burrows quietly, a few clattering pots further down the line of tents. Other than that, it was quiet. Dangerously quiet, that is, but I loved it.

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 22.11.2009
ISBN: 978-3-86479-786-6

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