The Bean Trees, Taylor
Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo
Okonkwo's Village
It was a normal day for Okonkwo, it started off as any other day would have. He was in his field working on the harvest to support his family. Beads of sweat roll down his face as he works tirelessly for hours on end. While working he hears the feint cry of a baby. Okonkwo tries to ignore it but soon the noise becomes louder and wont stop. Eventually he follows the noise to see a girl walking on the rocky dirt path with a baby in her arms her head down focused on trying to comfort the child. Okonkwo looks at the women a bit befuddled and ask hers “Why are you not at your home talking care of the child and preparing the meal for your family?”
The women looks up at him with a tired and sincere face “I am not married nor do I live anywhere, I’ve been traveling for the past month” she takes a step back from the strange man just to insure her safety and that of the Childs.
Okonkwo approaches her slowly and wraps his arm around her shoulder and begins walking “Well don’t worry you can come live with my tribe, you may not be from here but we cannot let a lone women be struggling by herself with a child” He leads her back to the village and puts her in an extra hut he had been using for storage. He cleared it out for her so she may have a decent place to live “You will reside here from now on and as far as the villagers know you are another one of my wives” He leaves her with some rations and extra clothing some of his other wives have offered and strides out of the house to begin work again.
While Okonkwo is out working on the field Taylor explores the house getting used to it and knowing where everything lies, she then decides to go around the village to know the people a little more. She put the baby to sleep and began her adventure in the village. Few people even gave her a second glance because they believed her to be an outsider and did not want to even acknowledge her existance. Once done with walking around the village, discouraged by the reactions of the villages, she heads back home to rest. To her surprise when she arrived home Okonkwo was waiting for her, patiently.
“Where have you been?” he bellows. Taylor cowers a little but manages to relax and calm down and looks at him studying him for a moment, noticing the ferocity in his eyes that mask the caring side of him that was worried.
“I was in the town getting to know the area, I figured if I was going to be residing here that I should at least get to know the village” she responds softly trying to ease his mind so he wouldn’t be so worried about her. She walks over to the baby to check on it noticing it was still asleep and she picks it up to cradle it in her arms.
“You are a women in this village now, you are to stay home and take care of the children and to have the food prepared upon my arrival back home” still slightly frustrated with her ignorance for the villages ways he spends the next week to teach her how a women should behave. She was a quick learner and soon became just like the other women of the tribe, the village came to know her as one of their own and began to treat her as such instead of shunning her like they had previously been doing. Okonkwo and Taylor soon began living their lives normally as husband and wife as if they have been married for a long time.
Years later when Taylors daughter grew up she was allowed to leave the house and mingle with the other children of the tribe. She was allowed to roam freely and enjoy her life lucky that Taylor and Okonkwo had met so that she may have residence to live in and a man who could support her and her mother. Their lives presumed normally as if they have been there their entire lives. Okonkwo kept working in his fields striving to be the best he could and Taylor lived happily in the village taking care of her child and becoming one of the villagers.