Hello, everyone, I'm reposting below, my part of the short story which Rene Badjan started, and I volunteered to finish.  He mentioned that he didn't see the mail he sent come through on the lists, so I said I'd resend it, he said he tried to send it and got some message back, about the mail not being ble to be delivered because of attachments.  Anyway, find below a repost of the story, or at least my first part of it.  If you've already seen it, and had no trouble viewing it, please accept my apologies for the repost.  Take care.

Ginny

Message follows:

Hello, Rene, below find my continuation of the short story you started!  This is a continuation, and is not the final part.  Let me know what you think...
 Also, if you wish, you can post it on to the Gambia-l and Gambia Post.  It's up to you.  Take care.
Ginny
     Musukuta walked toward the main office of the train station to fill out the incident report regarding her stolen luggage.  She was quite upset that
she'd been so foolish as to leave her luggage unattended, but given the circumstances, and the fact that she was still in shock from what transpired at
the apartment, her oversight was understandable.  Most likely, she would never see her luggage again, but she would fill out the incident report anyway,
in hopes that maybe her missing bag would be recovered.
     After doing that, and also after purchasing a ticket back to New York, she grabbed her one remaining bag, took her son by the hand, and boarded the
train.  She tried to select a seat by herself, near a window, so she could look outside, watch the scenery go by, and not talk to anyone.
     She, in fact, didn't want to talk to anyone.  As she sat down in her seat, and other people began boarding, every so often, a passer-by would stop
an coo over her son, how handsome he was, what a good boy he was, how well he traveled.  Or, they would comment on her clothes, her hair, how beautiful
she was, and ask her where she was from, and on finding out she was from The Gambia, would then start asking incessant questions about The Gambia, why
she was here in America, how she liked America, and how long she was staying.  Although she did her best to be nice, she really didn't feel like talking
to anyone.  She just wanted to sit and think.  And finally, much to her relief, everyone settled down into their seats, began either reading their newspapers
or magazines, listening to their headphones, or just sleeping.  And much to Musukuta's relief, left her alone with her thoughts.
     As the train sped away from the station, Musukuta gazed absent-mindedly out the window, as the buildings, roads, cars, and people and other things
wizzed by her.  Her thoughts again turned back to the scene in the apartment.  She felt angry at Pa Ali for not telling her what was going on.  Here, she
had thwarted the advances of all the men, who had tried to get her attention and win her affection, and here he was, with a lover here in the US!  This
must have been why he was so slow to bring her to America, she thought to herself.
     She wasn't mad at the woman she saw, it wasn't her fault, she seemed honestly shocked and angered herself, to find out that the man she thought she
knew had a whole other life and family that she never knew about.
     Musukuta was at a loss as to what to do next.  She knew, at least for now, that she had no desire to see or talk to Pa Ali, at least not until she
had some time to think clearly, and get the advice of her cousin and other friends and family members, as to what she should do.  At the very least, she
needed to sleep and eat some decent food, and regain some of her energy, lost from travel.  Then, after that, maybe she could think more clearly, and make
a decision then, as to what she should do.
     Meanwhile, back at the apartment, quite the fight was going on.  After Briana pushed Pa Ali back inside the apartment, and so rudely slammed the door
in Musukuta's face, she screamed, "You mean to tell me that that woman is your wife!  And that little boy is your son!?  Why didn't you ever tell me!"
     Pa Ali was in complete and utter shock, he didn't know what to do or say or think.  He'd thought that eventually he'd break it to Briana and tell her
the whole truth, and not continue to lie about Musukuta being his sister.  He never expected that the truth would show up on his doorstep, when he least
expected it.
     Pa Ali's silence, at first, and his attempt to explain to Briana the truth, only made Briana angrier.  As his attempt at an explanation only resulted
in him stuttering and stammering, Briana started throwing whatever she could get her hands on at Pa Ali.  Clothes, dishes, CD's, anything!
     All the while, she was screaming at him, telling him what a liar he was, how she should have known not to trust him, how all her friends tried to tell
her what "those kind of men" were like, but that she'd never would listen, and how now all of her friends were proven right about him.
     At the same time, Pa Ali was trying to calm Briana down, trying to explain that he had never meant to hurt her, that he'd planned on telling her, but
he never knew how, that he was sorry this had to happen.
     Indeed, Pa Ali was, in essence, a good person.  He never meant to hurt Musukuta or Briana.  It was never his intention to get involved with another
woman here in the States.  But what started out as a simple chat, going to the movies or dinner, quickly turned into something much more than that, and
now here Pa Ali was, with both an angry wife and also an angry lover, and a catastrophe of an apartment.
     Finally, Briana calmed down, and started calmly walking around the apartment, gathering up her things, and packing them into whatever luggage she could
find.
     "I'm sorry, Briana.  I never meant to hurt you," Pa Ali said, as he sheepishly followed Briana around the apartment, as she gathered upher things.
     "Don't talk to me!"  Briana said.  "The best thing you can do for me right now is just leave me alone."
     Pa Ali went and sat down in the recliner in the living room, and watched as Briana continued packing her things.  He wished there was something he
could say or do.  He'd thought about helping her with the packing, but as he stood up and picked up some clothes of Briana's which were lying on the couch,
she glared at him, came over and snatched them from his hands, and turned away from him, without giving him so much as a second look.
     Finally, as Briana finished packing her things, Pa Ali asked in a low voice, in almost a whisper, "Do you have some place you can go?"
     Briana remarked back, "Now why would you care about that?  You obviously didn't care about me enough to tell me you had a wife!"
     "I just want to know you are going to be OK," Pa Ali said.
     "I'll be fine, no need to worry about me," Briana retorted.  "I'm going to stay with a friend, or if I can't do that, I'll stay at a hotel temporarily,
until I can find a permanent place to stay, but I'm pretty sure Kim will let me stay with her."
     With that, Briana started carrying her things out to her car.  Pa Ali got up to help her, and Briana didn't do anything to stop him.  By this time,
she was too tired and upset to be angry.
     After the last of her things were loaded into her car, Pa Ali and Briana said their final good-byes.  Pa Ali had wanted to give Briana a hug or something,
but he decided against it.
     Briana then got into her car, started it up, and drove off.  Pa Ali waved at her as she drove away.  Briana didn't acknowledge his wave, and drove
off as if he wasn't even standing there.  Pa Ali stood and watched as the headlights of Briana's car faded off into the distance.
     Pa Ali then turned and walked slowly back into his disaster of an apartment.  As he walked in and closed and locked the door behind him, he looked
around him.  There were broken dishes and things strewn everywhere!  It was a complete mess!  Pa Ali sat to work cleaning up the mess.  His thoughts then
turned to Musukuta and where she might have gone.  In all this time that he was in America, working, living his life, and carrying on the relationship
with Briana, he'd forgotten how beautiful Musukuta was, and he'd realized, on seeing her so suddenly at his door, how much he actually missed her.
     After Pa Ali had finished cleaning up the mess left in his apartment, he then sat tiredly down in a chair and tried to figure out where Musukuta could
possibly have gone.  He then remembered that she had a cousin living in New York.  He thought maybe that was where she had gone, and picked up the phone
and nervously dialled the number.  Musukuta's cousin most certainly would know by now what had transpired, and most surely would not be too happy to hear
Pa Ali's voice on the other end of the line, but Pa Ali had to find Musukuta and do his best to set things right with his wife.  As he dialled the number,
and sat with the phone shaking in his nervous hand, he heard the first tones of the phone on the other end ringing in his ear.
To be continued...

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