THE UNWRITTEN NAME

On the day they corrected her great - uncle, it did not rain. The past few days had heavy rains that had not stopped . But on this fateful day, the weather seemed  to change. As they prepared to do it, conversing amongst themselves,the wind thrashed the trees North and South. Yellow leaves fell, then red. Now and then a green one cut in out of rhythm. Birds bust from the branches, spooked by the violence. Nimbus clouds rolled in smothering the azure sky and snuffing out the crimson sun. All people were in shock some claiming that the ancestors were angry and the correction process had to proceed as fast as possible. His name, like all the others before him was erased. 

The elders continued to say,"there was never an Amin. The laughter you remember was wind in the leaves. The flute was always a toy, not an instrument."

   Amin was not the first storyteller to be erased,and he was surely not meant to be the last.Story tellers that had always told the truth - the truth that was spoken of by the elderly only  in whispers - were always erased. The elders claimed it as to prevent them from distorting history set by the forefathers.

         The three elders , since  they began leading the village, had always done this. They did not kill the storytellers. They did something worse. They held a "correction day" every year. They repainted the family tree mural in the square. Each year, one name  faded. That year,it was Amin,the brother to Dalila's grandmother, the man who made children laugh by making flute sound like birds. He would ,after gathering them all round him,  tell them stories.

The elders were highly respected , seen as the messengers of the gods. The fame of the village's tradition had spread all over to the neighbouring villages. They had once helped the village through a drought that had left many people dead with their animals. At the time, the elders , commander by the gods ,had slaughtered fifty fat goats and given to the people for free for them to celebrate. This had elevated their position and how the people saw them.

      Amin , however, and all...