Author's Note:
The two tales this story is based on are from the Congo Unit. I noticed that there were two stories in Part A with the same characters and wanted to tie them together. I seem to do that a lot for my story telling. In the first story, two sister wives get into an argument after one (Gunga) takes some beans from the other's farm (Kengi) without asking, despite the fact that it all feeds into the same house. Kengi forces Gunga to agree that, going forward, anything "born" on one's plantation wouldn't be taken by the other. This works fine until Kengi gives birth to her baby on Gunga's land. Since the agreement was Kengi's idea in the first place, a judge agrees that Gunga can keep the baby.
The second story says that each woman has a beautiful daughter. Once they are older, their father decides to not accept gifts in exchange for permission to marry his daughters. Instead, a suitor must guess their names. A prince shows up to ask for their hands in marriage and is told he can only have them if he knows their names. He does not know their names and goes home to plan, but in his rush he left his dog behind. The dog hears the father calling his daughter's names and reports back to his master. The prince returns with the names and marries the girls.
I decided that Gunga's beautiful daughter in the second story should be the one she stole from Kengi in the first one. This retelling is based on the idea that Gunga tried to have her own biological child, but the girl didn't measure up to her stolen child and was abandoned. The events of the second story are told from this third daughter's point of view. It's supposed to sound like she is writing in her diary, or possible telling the story to a friend.
Hi there! My name is Njiba. I'm the only daughter of Gunga (the only true one at least) and this is my story:
For as long as I can remember, mom has done nothing but brag about how beautiful my older sister is. Now I know that I'm not exactly drop dead gorgeous, but c'mon! She's my mother for Nzambi's sake! She could at least acknowledge my existence every once in a while for something other than comparing me to my (half) sister. She's so proud of how she
stole her from aunt Kengi. Yeah, okay, technically it was Auntie's fault for freaking out over the beans in the first place and insisting on that ridiculous contract, but how can you keep a baby from its mother like that???
It's not all bad though. On the bright side, I can do pretty much whatever I want. My own father doesn't even know who I am, so there's not much adult supervision. Apparently even as a baby I couldn't live up to the astronomically high bar set by Lunga, so mom hid me in a pottery jar or something and told my dad she lost the baby. As far as Nenpetro's concerned, I'm just another servant girl and that's just fine by me! All I have to do is get my chores done each day, then I'm free to go play by the stream. That's how I met him you know. Well, when I say 'met' I mean 'hid behind a bush and stared like a creeper at the most beautiful man I had ever seen'. That's how love works, right?
Anyways, Nsassi... sculpted, toned, shimmering fur, the most glorious hunk of man-meat anyone ha- okay, okay, you get it. I was drooling. As his group stopped to drink, I eaves dropped on their conversations for a bit. Only to find out that he was coming to marry my half sisters! How rude! They'd be too stupid to appreciate him the way I would. I mean, come on, at almost 20 years old Lunga still hasn't questioned why her "cousin" looks like she could be her mini me. She and Lenga must've gotten their mother's brains as well as her looks (no offense Aunt Kengi).
Fortunately for me, Nenpetro (I REFUSE to call him dad) decided he was going to go all Rumplestiltskin on the Taffy Twins' suitors (Get it? Because they're air heads? And Airheads are a type of- oh never mind). I really don't understand what the thought process was behind this decision, but it seems pretty redundant to me since Nenpetro goes stomping all over the grounds yelling their names everyday.
So I sulk back home on the backroads through the bush so Hottie McHotness won't see me following behind him all the way down the main stretch. I manage to slip in the back door just in time to see Nsassi beginning to leave the reception room. Man what a view that is... did those two half-wits really just
sigh? Please. Can you
be any more desperate? Ugh.
So Nsassi went home. I was honestly really sad about it until I saw that his dog was still here. What kind of monster forgets their pet? I don't care how devastatingly handsome you are, that's not okay.
I'd like to honestly say that once I realized he had abondoned his fur baby I fell right out of love with Nsassi, but Nzambi has other plans I guess. It doesn't help that I found out later that the dog had been left behind as a spy to figure out Lunga and Lenga's names. I just feel so betrayed... On the upside, I still get to see him when the family gets together for holidays.
Bibliography:
How Kengi Lost Her Child, Richard Edward Dennett
How Gazelle Got Married, Richard Edward Dennett
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