Abduction/Induction
by Jenny Williams

They came at night, dogs barking and mother said Go. She pushed me from the hut and I ran, I ran fast and faster, away from the village with the other children, naked like me and we fell in the river and it didn't matter. I heard screaming guns dogs barking and then, quiet. We hid in bushes, too small, shivering. Stars were big and blinking and boys don't cry but I did.

They came with knives and we didn't move and they found us anyway. Machete swinging I saw the boy they hit, little like me but then he was dead. Don't try to run away they said and we didn't move. We had white eyes and they had guns. They took the girls, the girls went one way and I don't know where they went.

They made us walk, blisters feet and hungry cold. We grabbed a rope and crossed a river, one boy went under and we didn't see him anymore. Morning came and we lay down. Simon was there, my friend, scared like me with a red shirt and he whispered, Don't ask me about your mother, I  won't tell you what I saw.

They got us up and we kept walking, walked long into days and death, bodies in the way with birds hopping pecking, I closed my eyes. Then there was a village, food and water and other little girls and boys.

At the camp a big man came his name was Uncle. Uncle said we should be happy now, we would be men and fight for our land Acholi.

They gave us guns and something up our noses, the girls they stayed inside the huts. We learned the rules and how to load a bullet. Sometimes we heard planes and we would run and hide, dirt came apart and trees and people.

One day I forgot my mother's name and Simon wasn't there and Uncle said it was time.

We went at night, red eyes everyone and full of powder. Crouched and waited at the edge and dark was all around, everything quiet. Then I heard a rustling and Uncle sneaking forward, dogs barking and Uncle said Go. And we ran and ran and don't ask me about what happened then, I won't tell you what I did.

Jenny Williams is a writer, editor, traveler, and all-around curious person. During a two-and-a-half-year journey around the world, she spent six months volunteering with refugees in northern Uganda and South Sudan; "Abduction/Induction" stems from that experience. In October she heads to New York City as the 2008-2009 Communications Fellow for Teachers & Writers Collaborative. Look for her at www.jennydwilliams.com.

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