Daddy, find my twin sister!
As I sat near the waterhole I retraced again Rumbi's eventful little life. My wife, Nina and I had picked Rumbi up on the shores of a lake just outside the little town of where we lived. She was newly born but wrapped in dirty and torn linen; stuffed under the overhang of a boulder on the shore. We rushed Rumbi to hospital but with little hope for her survival. Miraculously she survived and was eventually sent to a local children's home. About two years after this incident strange happenings started occurring in and around the house.
We would hear the cries of a child in the house late in the night. On such nights our two-year old son, Shadi, would be very shifty in his bed beside ours.
Many times I would wake up to watch him. The motion of his hands and feet seemed to be that of one pushing someone off the bed. The little struggle was always short and then a serene and contented look would settle on his little face and he would sleep quietly for the rest of the night. Sometimes we would hear a female voice singing a lullaby outside the front door.
Every time I searched I found nothing. We invited all kinds of religious and spiritual mediums to exorcise these strange spirits but to no avail. The disturbances went on for a year.
One day we woke up to the cry of a child outside the front door. With trepidation, I peeped through the window and was shocked to see a little girl, of about three, sitting on the veranda.
She was wearing bedclothes and was clutching a bed sheet about her shoulders. The bed sheet was heavily soiled showing that it had been dragged on bare ground for a long distance. I opened the door and the child stood up and said,
"My name is Rumbi. I have come home."
I was too shocked to say anything and as I stood, dumbfounded, the child quietly brushed past me and came inside. She sat cross-legged on the floor. I phoned the police who arrived a while later with the matron of the local children's home. . The matron confirmed that Rumbi was from her home. She said that Rumbi had been given a separate secure room because was a constant sleepwalker. None could say how a three-year old child could explain from a locked room with barred windows. And again none could explain why the child chose to come to my house and why she called it home. The child could not have known that I had been the one who had picked her up on the shore as an infant. The girl stated again her claim that she had come home and said that she would not be going back to the orphanage.
Nina and I eventually agreed to take the girl into the family and look after her.
So it was that, that afternoon we became a family of four after a brief ceremony attended by the matron, the police chief and the local priest.
The mysterious happenings ceased and for nine memorable years we were a happy family.
An incredible bond developed between the family and this child from the unknown. Rumbi fell ill just after she turned eleven. At that age she had begun to show signs of becoming a young girl of much beauty. She was struck down by
a severe fever at the beginning of summer and was admitted at the local hospital for observation and treatment.
No effective remedy could be found and she steadily worsened. Soon she slid into a delirium. Her little face was flushed and her once-lively eyes were teary and sunken. Nina and I spent many hours each day at our adopted daughter's bedside.
In her delirium Rumbi would say many strange things. At first we thought these were mere blubberings of a sick child.
But soon we began to get worried because the words were always the same. She would say;
"Go and find my twin sister. If you do not find her I will die."
Rumbi worsened and as she did her plea became more frequent and desperate. No modern medicine seemed to help. Nina and I began to consider our daughter's words.
What baffled us was what twin-sister she was talking about. Late at night she
would wake up from violent nightmares, her body drenched in perspiration. Her small body would tremble and she would utter the mysterious words again.
One late night Rumbi's fever intensified and her delirium deepened. Strong spasms rippled up her body in waves. Her forehead was now deeply wrinkled and rivulets of perspiration ran freely down her tired little face. The fans, which were whirring above her, seemed to have no effect.
Quite suddenly, Rumbi lifted her arms, her body tense and made as if to leap out of bed.
Nina pushed her gently back against the pillows. Rumbi yawned and then groaned. For a brief moment her eyes were clear, the pupils became pencil sharp as she seemed focus on something in her mind.
"Listen," Nina whispered to me suddenly.
We strained to catch Rumbi's words.
"Please find my twin sister, please" She pleaded.
"Where is she?" Nina asked softly.
"There is a way,"Rumbi said haltingly, as if battling to maintain a mental grip on an elusive image.
"Yes there is a way," she continued, "a bush trail used by the leopard when he comes to the waterhole. Start off at the waterhole, at dawn, and strike east. You must face the raising sun and make speed. Follow the trail, for it leads to the leopard's cave, but do not enter.
Instead climb to the summit of the mountain at whose feet you find the cave. As the sun rides down the sky to the west stand at the summit and survey the land. Before the sun sets you will find my twin-sister. The moment you touch her hand I shall get well."
I looked at Nina and all I saw on her face was wonder. I stood confused.
"Daddy please go now, my twin-sister is waiting for you, " Rumbi whispered with difficulty.
"I have to go," I said to Nina, "it is our only chance."
"Yes Tendai, go!" Nina replied.
I walked out of the hospital into the night, headed out of town and into the surrounding forest. I blundered my way through the bush headed for the waterhole not too far from the outskirts of the little town.
So that was how I came to be huddled by the waterhole in the early hours of the morning - retracing my strange circumstances while waiting for dawn and what promised to be a trip of immense surrealistic discovery.