My Mother Died Three Years Ago—But Every Night She Appeared in My Dreams Begging Me to Find Her in a Forgotten Village Called Medanna… Then I Discovered the Truth

Chapter 4

“Yes, sir,” I said quickly, handing him the squeezed notes. “Please, just take me to Medanna. That is all I want.”

“Alright, enter the front seat,” he said, shaking his head. “But remember what I told you. The road is very bad.”

He was not lying. We traveled more than eight hours. The rusty commercial bus bumped up and down on gravel roads, dust flying through broken windows. We passed thick forests, empty lands, and broken bridges that looked ready to collapse. My whole body ached. My stomach turned upside down.

Then we eventually reached.

When the bus finally stopped and I stepped out, I gasped. The village was underdeveloped, surrounded by rivers, fishermen everywhere. No tarred roads. No electric poles. No modern houses. Just small mud huts with thatch roofs and huge wooden canoes tied along the muddy riverbanks. Men with fishing nets over their shoulders stared at me with suspicious eyes, because I looked like a stranger from the city.

As the evening sun began to go down, a new panic entered my mind. I checked my pocket and realized I had spent almost everything on transport.

There was no money to rent a house. So I begged an old man to allow me to squat with him.

He was sitting outside a small, weathered mud house, mending a torn fishing net under the shade of a palm tree. Deep wrinkles lined his face. A white beard hung from his chin.

“Good evening, Baba,” I said, bowing my head politely. “Please, sir, I am a stranger in this village. I don’t have any money left, and I don’t have anywhere to sleep tonight. Please, can you allow me to sleep on your veranda, or just squat inside your house for a few days?”

At first he refused. But I kept pleading, and eventually he allowed me.

“Please, Baba! I beg you in the name of God!” I cried, falling to my knees on the dirt floor. Tears formed in my eyes. “I don’t have any bad intentions. I am only here to search for someone. If I stay outside tonight, the wild animals or the cold will kill me. Please, pity me.”

The old man stopped mending his net. He looked at my tearful face for a long time, sighing heavily. “Hmm. Okay. Get up from the floor. You can sleep in the small visitor’s room at the back. But no trouble.”

That night, he asked me one question. “Young man, what brought you here?”