sun, had set and darkness had Then she realized that the in the hut with
fallen. She must have spent the whole day Helm.
She felt a mild lift of relief that the burns on her eyelids had not
done more damage. At least she was still
form able to see. She peered out through the windscreen, and found
that in the headlights the road was unfamiliar.
"Where are you taking me?" she mumbled. "This is not the way back to the
village."
Lieutenant Hammed sat slumped beside her in the seat and would not
answer. She relapsed into a daze of pain and exhaustion.
She was jerked awake when the truck braked abruptly and the driver
switched off the ignition. Rude hands dragged her out of the cab and
into the glare of the headlights. Her hands were jerked behind her back
and her wrists were bound together with a raw-hide thong.
"You are hurting me," she whimpered. "You are cutting my wrists." She
had used up the last of her strength and courage. She felt beaten and
pathetic, with no fight left in her.
One of the soldiers yanked on her bound wrists and shoved her off the
road. Two others followed, each carrying trenching tools. There was
enough of a moon for her to see a grove of eucalyptus trees about a
hundred metres from the side of the road, and they led her there. They
pushed her down at the base of one of the trees and the man who had tied
her wrists stood over her, holding his rifle casually aimed down at her
and smoking a cigarette with his free hand. The others stacked their
rifles and began digging.
They seemed to take no interest in her at all, but were discussing the
All Africa Soccer Championships that were being held in Lusaka, and the
Ethiopian team's chances of reachin the finals.
It was only after a while that it began to sink into Tessay's befuddled
mind that they were digging a grave for her. The saliva in her injured
mouth dried up and she looked around desperately for Lieutenant Hammed.
But he had stayed with the truck.
"Please," she whispered to her guard, but before she could say more he
kicked her painfully in the belly. -iftu vvurta 3 ivium i- utar vyo
"Keep quied' he used the derogatory term of address only applied to an
animal or a person of the lowest order, and as she lay doubled up on the
ground she realized the futility of appealing to them. A feeling of
weakness anded her and she found herself weeping resignation overwhelm
softly and hopelessly in the darkness.
er swollen lids, \&Then she looked up again through oonlight for her to
see that the grave there was sufficient was now so deep that the two
men still digging in it were out of her line of sight. Spadefuls of dirt
flew over the lip of the hole and splattered on to the growing pile. Her
and sauntered over to the guard left her side for a momen edge of the
hole. He looked down in it and then grunted.
"Good. That is deep enough, Call the lieutenant." The two soldiers
scrambled up out of the grave, then off into gathered up their tools and
weapons and traipsed the darkness of the grove. Chatting amicably
amongst wards where the truck was themselves they headed back to parked,
leaving Tessay and her guard.
the cold and with terror, She lay there shivering with puffed while her
guard squatted at the lip of her grave and her on his cigarette. She
thought that if she could get ton for feet she could kick him into the
hole and make a ru ut when she tried to sit up her it, back through the
trees. movements were stiff and slow, and she he no feeling in her
hands or feet. She tried to force herself to move, but at that moment
she heard Lieutenant Hammed coming from the truck and she slumped back
in despair, rch. He flashed it Hammed was carrying an electric to down
into the grave.
ugh."
"Good," he said loudly. "That is deep eno He switched off the torch and
said to the man guarding Go back and wait at the truck. When her, "No
witnesses.
come back with the others to help me you hear the shots, fill the hole."
over his shoulder and disap The guard slung his rifle JI peared amongst
the trees. Hammed waited until the man was well out of earshot, then he
came to Tessay and hoisted her to her feet. He pushed her to the edge of
the grave, and then she felt him fumbling with her clothing. She tried
to lash out at him, but her arms were still bound behind her.
"I want your shanitna." He pulled the white woollen cloak off over her
shoulders, and then went with it to the edge of the grave, He jumped
down into the hole and she heard him scuffling about in the bottom.
His voice came back to her, speaking softly. "They must see something
here. A body-'
He climbed back beside her, puffing with the exertion, and stepped
behind her. She felt the touch of cold metal on the inside of her
wrists, and then he was sawing at the leather thong. She felt her bonds
fall away, and she gasped at the pain as the blood poured back into her
numb hands.
"What are you doing?" she whispered in confusion. She looked down into
the grave and saw the pale shamnia arranged to look like a human body.
"Are you going-'
"Please don't talk," he instructed her softly, as he took her by the
shoulder and led her back amongst the trees.
"Lie here." He pushed her down and made her lie flat, with her face to
the ground. He began piling dead leaves and fallen branches over her.
"Stay here! Do not try to run. Don't. move or speak until we are gone."
He flashed the torch briefly over the mound of dead branches to make
certain she was covered, then he left her and hurried back to the
graveside, unbuckling the flap of his pistol holster as he went. Two
spaced pistol shots cracked out in the night, so loud and unexpectedly
that she jumped and her heart raced wildly.
Then she heard Hammed shout, "Come, you men.
Let's get this thing finished."
They trooped back into the grove, and she heard the sound of their
spades and the thump of earth clods falling into the grave.
nant," a voice
"I cannot see what I am doing, lieute complained. "Where is your
torchlight?"
"You dorA need a light to fill a hole," Hammed snarled.
"Get on with your work. Tramp that loose soil down. I don't want anybody
stumbling on this place."
She lay quietly, trying to stop the wild tremors that shook her body. At
last the sound of the shovels let up, and she heard Hammed's voice
again.
"That will do. Make certain you leave nothing here.
Back to the truck!'
Their footsteps and their voices died away. At a distance she heard the
truck engine whirl and fire. The headlights shone through the trees as
the truck backed and filled, turning in the direction from which they
had come.
sound of the engine had died away Long after thee pile of dead
completely, she continued to lie under the tree shaking with the cold
and weeping branches. She was St. elief.
silently with exhaustion and pain and softly and off herself and Then
slowly she pushed he branched it to pull crawled to the trunk of the
nearest tree. She, used and then stood there, swaying weakly herself up
to her feet, in the darkness. elmed her. "I have it was only then that