Chapter 19 Chapter 19 "Paro" Ceremony

Genevieve burst into tears and said, "Oh, Mom, I love you so much. This is terrible." The daughter ran out of the camera and the father appeared.He looked to the right with concern until his granddaughter ran out of the room, and then, turning to the screen, he said to Nicole, "It's been a hard day for her, it's been tough, you know, she adores you. Some The foreign news media made random comments, saying that your surgery was done badly. This afternoon, American TV reporters even slandered that you were drunk during the surgery." After a break, his father also showed a tired look on his face, and he said again: "Of course, Gene Viève and I know that this is all nonsense. We both love you and support you firmly."

The screen went black.Prior to this, Nicole had had a pleasant conversation with her family; however, the second time she transmitted, when the father and daughter reappeared on the screen, Nicole saw immediately that, obviously, what happened in Newton The events on board also disturbed their peaceful life in Beauvais. Genevieve was particularly disturbed, and when Possov was mentioned, she burst into tears.She had met him several times and regarded him as a kind elder.Posov also liked her very much.Thinking of this, Genevieve's tears could not stop flowing, and she could not calm herself down.Just then, the call was cut off.

"Yes, I made you feel extremely embarrassed and unacceptable." Nicole thought silently, full of guilt.She sat down on the edge of the bed, wiping the welling tears.She is so tired.Slowly, unconsciously, she became sad and melancholy, full of melancholy.Lying on the bed with all her clothes on, she imagined her daughter being humiliated at school.Of course, her daughter's friends will ask her about the circumstances of Posov's death. How will her daughter answer?Thinking of this, Nicole couldn't help trembling in his heart. "My dear daughter," she thought, "you know how much I love you, how can I ease your pain?" Nicole wished she could touch her daughter, comfort her, hold her in her arms, and tell her mother The family affection and love, drive away the entanglement of those evil spirits.But she couldn't do that, Genevieve was billions of kilometers away.

Nicole lay on the bed, closed her eyes, but could not sleep.She felt strangely alone, a feeling of isolation and helplessness that she had never felt before.She longed for someone to comfort her, someone to tell her that none of this was quite true, that this would pass and that when she woke it would be sunny again.However, no one came.Her father and daughter are far away on Earth; her two closest friends on the spaceship, one is dead and the other is behaving suspiciously. "I failed," Nicole thought sadly. "In my most important moment, I failed." She couldn't help thinking of another failure of hers, when she was 16 years old.To commemorate the 750th anniversary of the death of Joan of Arc, a series of parades will be held over a period of two years.At that time, many girls from all over the country competed to play Joan of Arc, and the winner would be extremely honored.Nicole put her heart and soul into the competition.She has read a lot of books about Joan of Arc and watched a lot of video materials.The selection came to the end, and she got the highest marks in all the tests except for the item of "suitability".She won, but didn't make the cut in the end.Papa reassured her that it just showed that France wasn't ready for a dark girl to be their heroine.

"It wasn't a real failure," Nicole told herself, "and Dad was there to comfort her anyway." At this time, the picture of her mother's funeral came to her mind again.She was only 10 years old that year.My mother went to Africa alone to visit relatives, and she contracted the virus, Hogan's fever, which swept through the village, and died soon after. Five days later, she was cremated by the villagers in the ceremony of the tribal queen.When the grandfather recited prayers to bless her mother's soul to ascend to heaven and return to earth as soon as possible, Nicole burst into tears.The flame rose, slowly climbed up and licked the mother's gorgeous robes, and burned.Nicole felt a heart-wrenching emptiness and helplessness. "But at that time, Dad was standing next to me," she recalls. "He held my hand, and we watched Mom disappear together, and we shared the grief together."

"And that time, when I passed the 'Paro' ceremony in Africa, I was even more lonely and frightened." On that spring morning, when she was just seven years old, her father was standing at the Paris airport with her.Papa caressed her lovingly and said, "Darling, dear Nicole, I will miss you very much, come back and see me well." "But why do I have to go, Papa," she said reluctantly, "and why don't you come with us?" He bent down and said to her, "You will be one of your mother's tribe. At the age of seven, all Sirov children pass 'Paro.'"

Nicole began to cry: "But, Daddy, I don't want to go, I'm a Frenchman, not an African. I don't like Africa where it's hot and buggy..." Her father stroked her cheek with his hand and said, "You must go, Nicole. Your mother and I have agreed." Mom and Dad did discuss it many times.Nicole has been living in France since she was born, and all she knows about Africa is what her mother told her; what’s more, she visited Ivory Coast with her family for two months. For Pierre, it was not an easy decision to let his beloved daughter go through "Paro".He knew that this was the traditional primitive religious ceremony of Sirov.When he married Allawi, he had promised his grandpa that their children would go back for at least one round of the Paro ceremony.

What made Pierre most helpless was that his wife Alavi told him that because he was an outsider, he could not accompany his daughter to participate in this ceremony.He won't understand this.His presence would also distract the little girls and disturb them.As Parry kissed his daughter and wife goodbye and put them on the plane to Abidjan, he felt a dull ache in his heart. Aravi was also worried, because after all, this was her only child, a girl who was only seven years old.She prepared as best she could for Nicole.The child had a gift for learning languages, and she quickly mastered some basic Sirov sentences.But it is clear that, compared with other children, there are serious deficiencies.The other children were natives, and they knew the place well.In order for Nicole to adapt to the environment, the mother and daughter deliberately came here a week in advance.

The basic meaning of the ritual known as "Paro" is to regard human life as a series of stages.Each stage has seven years, and each stage must be clearly stamped.Every Sirover has to go through three changes before becoming an adult. Although the customs of many tribes have disappeared with the influx of various communication devices in the 21st century, the "Paro" ceremony has been handed down intact here.In the 22nd century, there has been a revival of tribal culture, especially after the "Great Turmoil". Many African leaders realized that it is dangerous to rely too much on the outside world.

At noon that day, when the wizard of the tribe came to pick up Nicole, Alaviqiang smiled. She didn't want her fear and worry to infect her daughter.Even so, Nicole was aware of her mother's emotions, and she said: "Your hands are cold and sweaty, Mom." When we parted, she said to her mother with pretended ease in French, "Don't worry, I'll be fine." Nicole was the only one of the twelve black girls who climbed into the cart with a brown face.Looking at her appearance, it really looks like she is going to a park or a zoo. There were four carriages in total, two of which carried little girls; the other two were covered with cloth, and I don't know what they contained.Rutois, who was Nicole's cousin, explained to the little girls that in those four-wheeled carts sat wizards and some instruments for their torture, so that the little girls were silenced for a while, which was enough. For an hour, no one spoke.

They walked a long way east before sunset.They passed an abandoned microwave station and entered an area known only to the wizards of the Horde.The six wizards threw down the yurt from the cart and built a bonfire.It was getting dark, food and water were given to the little girls, and they all sat cross-legged around the fire and finished their dinner.The wizards performed a godly dance.The grandpa explained to the little girls the meaning of the four dances, each imitating a local animal. The music sounded in the wilderness. The sound of the tambourine "dongdong", accompanied by the long chant and the sound of the xylophone, seemed monotonous and dull, making people breathless.The singing is sometimes high and sometimes low, sometimes slow and sometimes urgent, with profound meaning.From time to time, along with the melody, there is also the whistling of hunting ivory horns like the wind. Before going to bed, the grandfather, wearing the chief's headdress, solemnly handed each little girl a set of tools in an antelope leather bag, and told them to carefully study how to use them.In the bag were a small bottle of water, some dried fruit, some hard fruit, two loaves of local bread, a cutting tool, some lengths of rope, two ointments, and a root of an unknown plant. "Tomorrow morning, every child will be taken from this camp," said Grandfather, "to a special place not far from here. You will learn to use these tools to survive, and spend a night in the wild. After the sun peaks the next day, come back here. "In this bag, I put everything necessary, but I don't have wisdom, courage, and the heart to pursue the truth of things. This plant root is a very special thing. Eating it will make you fear, and you will also be afraid." Let you gain a special power, make your eyes brighter."