04/11/2025
Under the Baobab🌳 The House of Whispers
🌾 Day 25 – The Weight of Tongues
The morning was sharp, the kind that cuts truth from silence.
The dust rose early — and so did the whispers.
“They say her daughter’s smile has wilted.”
“They say pride runs in their blood like old fire.”
“They say the woman who once stood so tall now hides behind her own shadow.”
But Abreti did not hide.
She tied her wrapper firm, her duku low, her eyes steady.
She walked through their words like someone wading through smoke —
slow, unbothered, letting it sting but not consume.
Adwoa sat beneath the verandah, beads loosened, her gele drooping, her eyes wet.
“They are laughing, Ma,” she said quietly.
“They call me my mother’s shadow.”
Abreti stopped beside her, her voice calm, her gaze far away.
“Then let them learn,” she said,
“how shadows hold the sun in place.”
But Adwoa turned her face from her mother.
“I am no longer interested in the marriage,” she whispered.
“I will not go where I am mocked before I arrive.”
Abreti’s breath caught.
“Child, pain passes — pride lingers. Don’t bury your tomorrow in today’s noise.”
Yet Adwoa shook her head.
Some choices, once spoken, hang heavier than drums.
By noon the gossips were louder.
Near the well, women laughed behind their hands.
“She raised her daughter too high — now see how pride eats both mother and child.”
“Two queens in one house, and no king strong enough to stand between.”
Abreti passed them without a word.
Her gold-and-blue kente shimmered in the sunlight like quiet fire,
and one by one, their voices dimmed as her footsteps echoed away.
At the gate — that same gate where truth had first unwrapped her peace —
Kwaku Osei appeared, carrying gifts wrapped in white cloth.
“I came to make peace,” he said, his voice low.
Abreti turned toward him, her shadow long in the dying sun.
“Peace?” she asked softly.
“You broke a house that had no door.
Now tell me — where will you enter?”
The wind carried no answer.
Only the drums began again —
not in joy, but in remembrance.
For some songs, even silence cannot kill.