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After a Storm
The next thing I knew, this strong bright presence had come barging into my hut and practically flung me to my feet. Mama had heard I was sick, I suppose from the mother down at the river. He brushed me down and peered up into my eyes. I was still half asleep and grappling with what was going on as Mama made sweeping movements with his hands, a couple of inches away, all over my body as if scraping the air away. He stoked up the fire with some herbs and made me stand in the smoke and turn around, then he whipped me out the door into sunshine again. I felt awful. Mama was full of life and he was hopping around insisting that I copy his actions. He was literally hopping on one foot and then the other. I dutifully copied in between sporadic gasps of painful breath. Then he started to twirl around in a circle on the spot. My head spun right along with me, my nausea was mounting. Mama grabbed me by the shoulders mid-spin to face him and started to yell. I yelled too "Aaah-splutter, gasp, Aah" Next we danced around, bending over from side to side, up and down it was excruciating but I was feeling my lungs beginning to open up.
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