Walking barefooted, Jhuni felt exhausted and thirsty. The wound on his arm stung from the sweat. He became so tired that he fainted on the roadside.
Passersby surrounded him.
"Who is this man?" an old woman asked, bending beside him.
"He must have come from an African country. His clothes shows ," a man said.
"Let's take him to the hospital."
The men carried Jhuni and took him to the hospital in the city. When they reached, he was placed on a stretcher and rushed into the ward.
As the nurses checked his vitals, one of them opened Jhuni's palm and took the golden amulet. Her eyes widened with greed.
"That's beautiful," she muttered.
Her colleague caught sight of it too. "Let me see—"
"No, I saw it first!"
They began arguing over it, and in the process, the amulet slipped from the nurse' hand, rolled off the stretcher, and slid under the wooden partition separating the rooms. No one noticed where it went.
In the next room, I was sitting beside Ruth, holding her hand gently as she slept.
"Ruth," I whispered, "I'm begging you on behalf of my father. Please forgive me for not being able to help. You're—"
I stopped when I felt a sharp heat at my toe. I looked down and frowned. A small golden amulet was lying just under the edge of the bed.
I bent down and picked it up slowly. It looked strangely familiar. I reached into my pocket and pulled out Grandma Ama's silver amulet. They looked almost the same, but the one I just picked up was gold. And warm.
I slipped it into my pocket. I'll show it to Uncle James later.