Page 65 of Beautifully Wild

Samuel recalls his initiation was more like torture, his mindset then the strongest of his life. Yet during the last forty-eight hours, he has portrayed weakness and jeopardized the health and safety of the people he has grown to love.

Part of him is ashamed of his selfishness.

Yet there is no fighting the adrenaline soaring through his body, knowing someone will be by his side for the first time in years.

His heart beats in a quick Samba rhythm and not from excitement alone. There’s an underlying fear in the chief rejecting his request. Asking permission is the biggest risk Samuel’s taken in years, and his shaky hands know it.

Hours pass, and he hasn’t prepared her. He leaves Asoo to navigate alone as he climbs over the wooden planks to sit beside Eden. She places her head on his shoulder, and a contented sigh escapes him.

“If you see a girl eating alone and keeping her distance, it’s not that she’s unwell. She is being ostracized as a way of social control.”

“What?” Her forehead creases with a frown.

“I’m telling you, so you don’t go and sit with her because I know how you think.”

There's a glimmer of defiance in her eyes. “You think you do…”

He smiles at her before continuing, “It’s only for a couple of days. I need you to follow their rules. Otherwise, you’ll be the one who’s excluded.”

Did she roll her eyes at him?

“I’ll do what I have to if it means I’m with you.” She pats his leg reassuringly.

He’ll be there beside her when tested to her limit. He goes on to tell her other things. “The village is divided into a series of huts. Families sleep in separate huts. The shaman has his own hut. The young men, the warriors, sleep together in another hut. Girls sleep with their families.”

“Where do you sleep?”

“I have my own hut. It’s connected to my treatment room. I’ll make sure you’re with me. New huts have been built as the village is preparing for the upcoming wet season and another for ceremonies.”

“Like weddings?”

He laughs at the twinkle in her eye. “It’s a similar celebration of two souls uniting.”

Her hand squeezes over his. “I’d love to witness one. I guess it’s all the same, only without the hefty wedding costs. Wait, does the bride wear a dress of some sort?”

Samuel shakes his head. “It isn’t a wedding celebration.”

His fear rises with her curiosity.

He’s said enough.

A jog turns into a sprint as Samuel takes the path, swiping at unruly vines and smacking low branches, his pack bouncing on his back.

He reaches the village perimeter and slows to a walk to catch his breath.

He emerges from his hut in a grass skirt and a beaded necklace strung over his shoulders. He inhales a long breath and then a slow exhale to calm his thoughts before finding the shaman, passing the women leaning over mud pots, smoke rising from the fire beneath. He nods to Kaikare. Years ago, he believed she was an outcast. Like him, she’d found no partner. In those early days, he’d find her sitting with the shaman listening intently to his words. The two were close, and initially he thought they were a couple, only she was many years younger. Then he discovered she was his daughter and an apprentice, like him, who understood sacrifice.

She nods in the way of the garden. Samuel snakes around more hut clusters until he reaches the village perimeter’s farthest point from the river.

A song leads him to the shaman, peaceful sounds of vows repeated in a tune sung to the trees in gratitude.

Dropping to his knees, eyes closed, Samuel concentrates on the words and allows the tune to fill his thoughts. The melody calms his heart, and he bows his head and simply absorbs the sounds like medicine healing the soul. He opens his eyes when a hand rests on his crown, and the singing stops.

Samuel speaks first, his head bowed. He tells him Eden waits near the river.

Nothing more.

No explanation.

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