Uncloaked, the figure was a woman. She was dressed in shimmering robes, and long strands of colored jewels hung from her ears. She had a look about her that suggested she was unfamiliar with the word no.
Rage rustled up from Laki’s chest and flared in her throat. She glared at the woman, then dragged Se-se away.
“Who is this woman?”
“She’s going to tell you if you give her a chance.”
“I’m asking you to tell me.”
“She’s someone who can change your life.”
Laki shook her head. “You never give up. Tomorrow I’m going into a mother-unit. I’m not running away and hiding out in the Velvet Stretch, I’m not marrying one of my male friends, and I’m not digging around for my hidden inheritance. It’s over Se-se.”
“This is not another fantasy, Laki. I swear. At least talk with her.”
“May I see the belt?” the woman said cutting into Se-se and Laki’s conversation.
Laki looked at the woman then shot Se-se an icy glare.
“Show her,” mouthed Se-se.
Laki lifted the hem of the robe and stuffed it into the space between her waist and the belt. She pulled the hem down so that the belt now rested in plain view. She crossed her arms and waited for the woman to approach. The woman walked over to Laki and lifted the belt. She tilted it forward as if to inspect the quality of the beads. Then she twisted the belt so that she could read the markings inside. A smile spread over her face. She hugged Laki.
“You may call me Strabaha,” she said to Laki.
“Wife Strabaha, what is the meaning of this? Why all the mystery? What do you want from me, and how do you know my sister?”
“Excellent questions.” The woman grinned at Laki as if Laki were her star student. “I met your extraordinarily persistent sister only yesterday. She told me this improbable story of a young woman wearing my son’s marriage belt. This young woman, she said, would soon be joining a mother-unit. She advised me to meet the young woman before her maturation, otherwise I would never get the chance.”
“So this is some type of weird fetish?”
“No, this is a wonderful offer.”
“I need to sit,” Laki said. She turned to Se-se suddenly. “Do the mothers know where you are?”
“Of course they do!”
Se-se and Laki sat on the floor. The woman quickly braided her cloak and rolled it into an impromptu seat.
“I can see that you are tired,” the woman said after she had seated herself. “I’ll try to make this quick, although I do have some questions.”
“Such as?”
“You are intelligent, beautiful, strong…”
“…and an orphan,” Laki said.
“Well, I’m sure if you had a wife mother, she would never allow you to toil in a mother-unit. But no father, no father’s sisters, no mother’s father?”
“My father and my wife mother died when I was a baby. I don’t remember them, and I assume their families don’t remember me. The wife mothers of my brothers and sisters allowed me to stay in the birth group. The mothers raised us all the same. They were able to provide me with cloths and food, but when it came to my school fees, there was nothing that could be done.”
“So they trained you to be in a mother-unit.”
Laki nodded.
“Even though she’s not fit for mothering,” Se-se piped in.
“The mothers say no one is fit for mothering. They say I will fit to it; it will make me what it needs me to be.” Laki’s tone was firm as if she were disciplining Se-se.
“And you believe that?” Se-se asked, sounding more like a bitter Laki than her usual chipper self.
“You have not thought of marriage?” Wife Strabaha cut in.
“She’s had plenty of offers, but she would rather go into a mother-unit than take a marriage belt dishonestly,” Se-se said before Laki could speak.
“Dishonestly!?” Wife Strabaha laughed. She put her hand on Laki’s. “No one marries for love. It was a romantic idea of past civilizations. It didn’t work. Unfortunately, your wife mother was not around to teach you this.”
“There’s nothing you can say to her about it, Wife Strabaha. She can’t help herself, it’s just the way she was made.”
“Wife Strabaha,” Laki interjected, “you said you had an offer?”
Wife Strabaha cleared her throat.
“Yes, I invite you to come and live in my home as my son’s wife.”
There was silence as Laki tried to make sense of what Wife Strabaha had said. Then she turned to her sister, suddenly understanding Se-se’s plan.
“He knows nothing of this?” Laki asked, turning back to Wife Strabaha.
“He barely remembered that he had given away the belt.”
“You are asking me to help you force your son into marriage?”
“He chose to put his marriage belt on you, I did not force him to do it.”
“That is true, but…”
“There is no other interpretation of what it means when someone places their marriage belt on another.”
“Do you know how many marriage belts I’ve tried on for fun?” Laki asked.
“Well who decides when it’s fun and when it’s serious?” Se-se snapped.
Wife Strabaha took Laki’s hands in hers. “Let’s focus on the facts. Your maturation is tomorrow. You have to leave home. Are you ready to enter a mother-unit?”
Images of Mahini flashed through her mind. She saw her own mothers, felt them beaming at her with pride, remembered the hole she opened in the cloak, and smiled.
“Maybe I’m not ready but that doesn’t mean it’s not time for me to enter. I can wear the veil, I can be a good mother.”
Se-se looked at Laki like she had grown spotted skin. Laki refused to look at Se-se. Instead she sat regally, radiating a powerful calm.
“I am offering you a different future. A future in which you will be able to see your sister, even your mother-unit again.”
Laki paused. Exhaustion was pulling at her. She closed her eyes for a moment. “I understand your offer Wife Strabaha. I will have a way out of the mother-unit. You will have a wife for your son. But what will Fogo get?”
“His inheritance,” Wife Strabaha snapped. “He will never marry if it is up to him. I refuse to pass the family money on to…” Wife Strabaha stopped speaking. She took a deep breath. “I see you are every bit as honorable as your sister promised. Will you accept my offer if Fogo accepts?”
“I have been trained to wear the veil of motherhood. I know nothing of being a wife,” Laki said.
“I will teach you everything you need to know.”
Laki’s eyes slid closed again. It was becoming painful to stay awake. Her thoughts kept slipping away, and her body begged for rest. For the first time in months, the impending mother-unit was not a buzzing pain in her head or a throbbing fear jolting her with insomnia. Tomorrow was simply her future, and she had ceased to resist it.
“I’m afraid there is no time for me to change tomorrow, Wife Strabaha,” Laki said, her eyes still closed.
“I will be your wife mother,” Wife Strabaha burst out. “I will pay your school fees, I will help you start a business. Please allow us to visit your home tomorrow.”
Laki’s eyes popped open. Wife Strabaha’s face was stricken with desperation. Se-se’s face was twisted in tortured pleading. Was this what being in a mother-unit would be like—watching the excitable passions of her children from a calm, peaceful distance?
“I have to sleep,” Laki said. She stood and stumbled to her pod. She sat on the floor and paused. Wife Strabaha’s offer lay in front of her, dazzling with portent and promise. She eyed it warily. It was a magical stroke of luck that could manipulate the contours of her destiny. Yet she did not feel the desire to collapse in gratitude, instead she saw the offer for what it was—a departure from one mysterious path to another.