Chattering, laughing and squealing, they flocked along the red-dusted road, each with empty water-pots, clad in nothing but tie-dye clothing around breasts and waists. The leaves crunched beneath their bare feet. Far above, squirrels and birds were hopping from tree to tree, bush to bush, singing and whistling. The sun was sinking into the orange-blue clouds, beyond the furthest forest, blanketing the atmosphere in twilight, as though the earth was tinted in lemon yellow. “Have you heard the latest news?” asked one of the maidens after a fit of laughter. “You and your news, parrot mouth, we’re all ears,” someone mocked eyeing the four others, as if to say ‘let’s hear another lie’ “I can’t just imagine this,” she clapped twice, “eh, eh, Akanbi proposed to Abeni of all people, when the princess is still struggling to have him.”