Storytelling Week 7: The Mother Who Rocked Back and Forth

            “You can’t just sleep all day little one,” the mother said soothingly. She rocked back and forth, her toddler cradled in her arms. Back and forth, back and forth. A cool breeze blew through the leaves of the peaceful jungle. What a beautiful day it was. “You don’t want to miss out on this lovely day, little one,” the mother cooed. Back and forth she rocked.

            Her mind began to wander to the night before. “No,” she told herself sternly. “Last night was just a dream.”

            She rocked her baby back and forth.

            “Last night was just a nightmare.”

            The mother waved to her husband’s second wife as the latter left the hut to fish. Their husband would be returning soon, and they would have a lovely meal waiting for him.

            Their two young children played happily together in front of the hut. The mother watched them, smiling. What fine boys they both were. Why was it that her husband seemed to prefer the son of his second wife? What was wrong the mother’s own darling boy. Surely he would grow to be a strong man, just like his father. Surely he was actually better than the other son, the son of his second wife. Second families are meant to be lesser. She was the first wife. Her son should be favored…

            That night, she crept to the spot where the two children were sleeping. She could just barely see their little forms through the darkness. She spotted the son of the second wife, and quickly ended his young life. Her child awoke and shrieked with fright at the sight of the mother with a weapon in her hands. The little boy ran from the hut.

            “He will be just fine,” the mother said to herself. “I did this for him.”

            As dawn was breaking, the mother went to clean up her evil deed.

            “A lion came into the hut,” she said, shaking her head sadly. “I could not save the poor child.”

            She picked up the little body and left the hut with the intention of burying him in the jungle. But as she stepped into the growing light, she went cold.

            She held the body of her own child. Entirely numb, she continued to the jungle.

            “You must wake up soon, little one,” the mother said, rocking back and forth. Back and forth. “Your father will be home soon.” Back and forth, back and forth.

            “There she is!” the voice of a villager rang out through the jungle. Back and forth. “She has the child! He’s dead! The other boy was right.”

            “Murderer!” shouted another. Back and forth.

            “Kill her!” boomed a third. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth.

(African jungle)

Author's Note. This story is based off of The Jealous Wife from the Congo Unit. In the original, a husband has two wives who each have a child. He leaves home for six months to trade and asks his wives to take good care of the children while he is away. When he is about to return, the wives decide to each go fishing for a few days so that they can give their husband a nice meal when he returns. One wife stays with the children while the other goes to fish. When it is the older wife's turn to watch the children, she decides to kill the child of the second wife because that child is preferred by the husband. She kills a child in the night and the other runs of to the neighbor's. In the morning, she realizes that she killed her own child and runs off into the woods. The husband returns and the living child tells him that his first wife killed her child. The husband and some villagers find the wife in the woods nursing the dead child and shaking it, asking why it won't wake up. They kill the wife for her crime.

            My version focused on the murderer wife and her skewed perspective. She had to have been mentally unstable to murder a child, and then she completely unraveled when she found out she killed her own child. I began the story ambiguously so readers may just think that the mother is rocking her child like a normal mother. But at the end, the truth of the horrible situation is revealed and the rocking takes on a new significance. 

Bibliography: The Jealous Wife from Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennet (1898).