Radiance of Tomorrow Read Online Free PDF

children but their mannerisms were those of adults, and they seemed to have been with one another for a while. The elders didn’t ask Colonel for his real name, which they knew, on that first encounter. Would they do so? This was to be determined by circumstances.
    “They are my brothers and sister. Our parents are from here so we have come home, like you,” Colonel said to the elders. The young people shook the right hand of each elder and sat on the ground facing them. Colonel remained standing, his hands now in the pockets of his trousers, removing them only to gesture when he spoke.
    “We will take one of the burnt houses and rebuild it. We know which one used to belong to Amadu’s father. We can be security for the town if there is a need for that,” Colonel said, not really asking or waiting for the elders to respond. He was tall for his age and had an air of forcefulness about him. Even when he asked politely for something, it sounded as though he was demanding it, and you couldn’t say no to him.
    “You are all welcome back in peace,” Pa Moiwa responded. Colonel said no more but nodded to the elders and walked to the house he had spoken of, which was at the edge of town. Amadu, Salimatu, and Victor followed him.
    “Well, at least those alive are coming back, even if some are in the clothing of the strangers they have become. That boy in charge of the others. I knew him before all that madness happened,” Pa Kainesi said, scratching his head as if to think some more.
    “We must let him be Colonel as long as he chooses to be. The others with him are clearly now his responsibility, so we must let him take care of them as he has been doing. We can observe and steer him on the right path gently if necessary,” Mama Kadie told the others in a whisper.
    The elders refreshed their faces for other arrivals, and indeed there were more who needed to be welcomed without the burden of those who had come before them. Not long after Colonel and his group arrived, there came a man named Sila and his two children. Sila carried a small sack that used to be a rice bag, balancing the luggage effortlessly on his flat head, which seemed bigger than the rest of his body. He had a smile so wide, so brimming with happiness that the sun hid behind the clouds for a while to give permission to the display of unrestrained delight within him. His expressions conjured smiles on the faces of the elders even as he neared and they saw that his right hand was missing, his arm cut off above the elbow. Hawa, his nine-year-old daughter, was missing her left arm; Maada, his son, eight, was missing both, one cut above the elbow and the other below. The children, too, were smiling, walking on either side of their father. They had learned by watching him how to manage the awkwardness that came about when people saw their condition.
    Sila and his children had been in the area around Imperi for two years before the war ended. He had been able to escape the attack on the town with only his two children, carrying the younger one and pulling the other along. Sila had kept them together since, hiding in the forest, moving to other towns until they were attacked, and then back to the forest. Then one day he had decided to take his children to the capital city to register them for school. The war wasn’t coming to an end as quickly as he had thought. That evening, after walking all day, he and his children stopped to pass the night in the ruins of a town about eight miles from Imperi. Unfortunately, a squad of armed men and boys had also been passing through and decided to spend the night in the same burnt village, which had two houses whose roofs were somewhat intact. The men captured Sila and his children and tied them to a tree until morning. The children were seven and six at that time. Their father’s eyes told them not to cry. He couldn’t speak, as he had been beaten on his head earlier when he tried to plead for his children not to be tied so