A PAIR OF DOVES

"Please Naomi stop crying. If you keep on crying you would make me
cry too."
Anne said to her five year old sister. Anne the elder sister was seven
years
old.Both kids were huddled in a corner naked with frightened looks
shivering
from the cold spell of one Winter night.Naomi was snivelling and Anne
was trying

to be sister enough and comfort her.Their parents who indulged in
alcohol and
drugs would come late in the night from severe drinking, wake the kids
up and
start fighting.If anything George and Eve's marriage was a fiasco and
it had
turned dangerously into World War Three.

Sometimes it would be the kids who would be thrashed quite severely for
no crime

at all. This nightmarish drama only helped to increase the bondage and
love
between the two sisters who felt had a common enemy to deal with- their
parents.

After the fighting the parents would retreat to their bedroom dividing
all the
blankets between themselves leaving the kids with nothing. The kids
would remain

huddled in a corner awake all night.
"Come into my arms Naomi and feel warm." Naomi would gladly crawl into
her
sister's arms and warmed by her body.
What about you? Are you feeling warm?" Naomi would ask her sister
concern
in her voice.
"Shi-i-i. Don't talk,they would hear and come after us.Worry not about
me,I

am okay.Just go to sleep. I love you Naomi. Goodnight."
"I love you too Anne. Goodnight."

But they wouldn't sleep. They would lay awake like owls all night long
untill
daylight.

"Whats the matter with you Naomi?" Mr Gilbert a primary school teacher
at
Kundai Primary School would quiz after seeing her look ill and
listless.Instead
of replying Naomi would break into sobs. Anne who was at the same
school in
grade three would be summoned and accompany her sister home.
"Don't we have relatives Anne? Where we could go and be freed from
this
unjust treatment.?"
"Naomi as a matter of fact I have thought otherwise but I have
discovered we have none.Our parents are aliens in this country and come
frome
Malawi where their past is buried.I often hear this talk when mummy and
daddy
exchange blows.

The kids lifestyle was affected severely. They had no adequate food
and
clothing.Even their schooling was affected as sometimes school fees
were nowhere

to be found after the Rodger's meagre earnings were spent on alcohol
and drugs.

Sister Theresa had to intervene. She was a nun with the Roman
Catholic
Church.Sister Theresa's efforts to help the kids were sometimes
thwarted by the
unco-operating parents particularly Eve.
One day sister Theresa came to the house to conduct some prayer
sessions and she

met with the shock of her life.
"Get away from my kids you harlot. Don't dare touch them. If you come
here
again I will kill you." Eve fumed. She was drunk.
"It's alright Mrs. Ronald, I have come only to do some prayers with
you. I
mean the whole family. I had no company and I decided to have you as my
hosts.
You know God...." Before she could finish the sentence she was struck
by a metal

wrench and collapsed.Sister Theresa was rushed to hospital and later
treated and

discharged.Anne and Naomi watched in horror as the sordid incident
unfolded
before them.Both Anne and Naomi where each served with ten thrashes for
taking
sides with Sister Theresa.

In February 1996 when Anne was now 19 years old,Eve died. The
postmortem
revealed that she had died of drug abuse.
The two sisters now devoted catholics put family differences aside and
assisted
by the church they accorded their mother a decent burial.

"Goodbye mummy, I love you." Anne said at the grave side. She looked
around

for her sister and saw her alone away from the grieving crowd. She was
crying.
Anne went and joined her.
"Please Naomi my beautiful sister don't cry. Don't worry too much. God
has
given mummy a resting place." She wiped tears off her sister's
eyes.
"Anne, I love you. What would I do without you. You give me
hope.."
"Naomi don't worry I will be with you always. We are inseperable. We
owe
each other a lot. What with the difficult times we have been through
together. I

give more credit to Sister Theresa. She is our guardian angel.."
"But Anne, I wish we would keep on together foever. I am afraid about
the

future. It would seperate us." She suddenly was crying again.
"Please Naomi calm down. I know what you talking about but I will
always

be there for you. We are more or less like a pair of doves,
inseperable."
"You don't get me, do you Anne? Its Cuthbert, he wants to marry me.
Now

I am afraid of the responsibility of a family. It would seperate me
from you.
Besides, anything to do with family totally haunts me. It reminds me of
our own
butchered past. It's like I am going through the same ordeal that mummy
and
daddy went through."
"Never mind about that. Marriage is a God given gift and you
souldn't
shun it. I find Cuthbert to be quite a caring person. Besides we go to
the same
church as him."

Six months after Eve was buried, David finally succumbed to the effects
of drug
abuse and died. In January 1998 Anne joined Sister Theresa and became a
nun. The

same year in August, she came to witness the wedding ceremony of her
sister
Naomi.

Sister Theresa was there too and many people from the Roman Catholic
Church.The
time finally came for the couple to make marriage vows.When Naomi was
asked to
make swearing in statements of "I do I do" she broke in the middle of
the
statement and she suddenly was looking intently at her sister Anne
standing with

Sister Theresa in the crowd. The two sisters communicated silently and
bad
memories of their sad past churned on.They couldn't hide their
tears.Suddenly
Naomi downstepped from the platform leaving the bridegroom astounded.
She broke
into a run as she was reaching her sister. They embraced.Even Sister
Theresa
could not help crying.

"I have now made my decision Anne. I don't want to get married. I want
to
be a nun like you. I want to help people who were abused like me.I love
you Anne

and I can't part ways with you."
"But Naomi...." Anne sobbed.
"Don't talk. it's not the right time to talk. Can't you see all
these
baffled eyes. Let's get out of here. I want to remove this wedding
gown. It's
damn heavy and it stinks. Then we will talk later."

Right now as I type this story Naomi and Anne are nuns serving
alongside Sister
Theresa in the Roman Catholic Church in Zimbabwe.
Their work is quite inspiring. They have helped a lot of victims of
child abuse
and continue to do so and they are quite inseperable. They are like a
pair of
doves, fascinating in their ways and larger than life.

THE END