Prologue

“Maliki! I think the baby is here!” screamed Ovina Shaniah from her bedside. “Come quick Maliki!”

“What? What is the matter?” Maliki Shaniah screamed running into the bedroom. There he found his dear wife sweating and clinging to the beat up straw mat.

“Is Mama ok?” asked nine year old Obediah coming into the room.

“Go get the witch doctor, Obi!” he cried. Obi raced out the door with five year old Micaiah on his heels.

“Where is Obi and Caiah going?” asked seven year old Maisha coming in with her three year old sister Saran. “Oh!” she gasped when she saw what was before her eyes. Her mother had just given birth to twins. “Twins,” she thought. “That is not good.”

“Wahh!!” they cried as Obi rushed in, pulling the doctor behind him. Their mother was now breathing very slowly and her eyes were heavy.

“Maisha,” said the witch doctor, “go take Micaiah and Saran outside.” Maisha was hesitant. She knew what was going to happen. She started to cry as she ushered the little ones outside. She could hear as her brother and father cried inside...her mother was gone.

A few minutes later the witch doctor, her father, and Obi walked outside carrying the twins, a little girl and a fat boy. He laid them by the road and called the village together. Maisha raced to the nearby creek. She didn’t want to be apart of what was going to happen next.

As soon as the witch doctor called everyone together he started to build a fire.

“Just because it is tradition doesn’t make it right,” Maisha cried, tears streaming down her face.

She could now hear the chanting as the fire grew. Then the smoke began to turn black and she could hear her new sister screaming.

“This is NOT fair!” Maisha yelled. She knew because they were twins it was a “curse” on their family and the only way to lift the “curse” was to burn the weakest baby. She turned her head away, she could not bear the screaming anymore.