Why is Sarah silent. . . (Part 3)

By Kirsten Nour Namskau

I felt I needed a talk with my supervisor, so I went to her.
I told her the progress with Sarah and what I had discovered.
I told her that I thought it was time to involve the police.
Officially, the murderer of Sarah’s parents had never been found.
I knew who the murderer was and I knew that Sarah was in danger.
I showed her the drawing of “the bad man” and asked my supervisor if she could recognize this man?
“Oh, Yes” she said right away “That’s her uncle.” Happy to be able to recognize the person after a child’s simple drawing.
“This is the murderer” I said. “Are you aware of that Sarah is living with the murderer of her parents?”
I continue: “ How do you think Sarah feels, knowing that he at any time can kill her too?”
“It is him who has threatened Sarah with, that if she says a word, he will kill her too.” I said “That’s why Sarah doesn’t talk.”
My supervisor laugh and said: “ NO Nour, you exaggerate. He loves Sarah. He can’t have children and I know he several times had asked Sarah’s mother if he could buy Sarah from them?”
“Yes” I said “And when Sarah’s mother didn’t want to sell her daughter to him, he killed both her parents. Then he could have her.”
I continued: “ The most appropriate to do now, is to call the authorities. Don’t you understand that Sarah is in danger?”
My supervisor asked if she could see the file of Sarah. She wanted to look over it . . . .
At the end of the day, I went to her office to pick up the file again.
My supervisor refused. Suddenly she said: “ Ohh, here comes Sarah’s uncle to pick her up.”
I stiffened in the door.
My supervisor called on Sarah’s uncle to introduce him to me.
I recognized him right away, after Sarah’s drawing.
I had difficult to take his hand.
Then my supervisor did something which literally took my breath.
She gave the file to Sarah’s uncle.
He looked at the drawings and I could see his face stiffened.
I heard him whisper to Sarah : “ Sarah, I understand what you have tried to do here. I can not take any chances. Do you understand that? We have to talk when we come home.”
He continued: “ It is to hope no one have understood the meaning of your drawings.”
I was close to faint.
Sarah looked at me with big, scared eyes and her face was holding a scream which said: “ You betrayed me…. You betrayed me. You promised not to tell . . . ”
I could feel the color faded from my face. I felt dizzy and nausea.
Sarah and her uncle left.
I went into my supervisor’s office. I was out of my mind of fear for Sarah.
I shouted to my supervisor: “ What have you done? How could you do something like that? The file belonged to me, it was confidential, highly confidential. Don’t you have The Authority of Silent?”
I continued, now more controlled: “ Today Wafaa, did you sign the death-certificate of Sarah. When Sarah dies by an “accident” you shall know that you have the responsibility for her death.”
I continued: “ When you do things like that, then I can not continue my work with Sarah. I have lost her trust.”
I didn’t see Sarah the rest of the semester.
The summer came and went and I had started at another school.
One day, I was called into my supervisor’s office at my new school.
“ Kirsten” he said “ I have got a phone-call from your previous school. Your previous supervisor, Wafaa told me that a student of yours is dead by an accident.”
He continued: “ She told me that you had told her a ½ year ago, that she is the one responsible of the girls death. Now she can’t get a piece of mind.”
“How did the girl die?” I asked.
I was told; That Sarah and her uncle had gone with a boat on The River Nile. Her uncle had told that Sarah had fell over board and that he had not noticed it right away. When he noticed she was not there, he had turned to look for her, but had not found her. She had drowned.
But some people who lived at the river-side had seen that he had thrown her over board like a bag of rubbish. They had very fast, tried to get hold on a small boat, to come Sarah to rescue. Sarah herself had tried to hold on to life and fought for her life by trying to swim, but unfortunately, she drowned before anyone reached up to her.
The people had reported the case to the police and it had been a hearing. But Sarah’s uncle was a rich man and the other people were among the poor.
Sarah’s uncle had paid the judge one month salary in bribe…… and after that the case got dropped.
I looked at my supervisor and said: “ I can not help Wafaa. What she did was unforgivable. She deserves to live with a restless mind. “

By my self . . . every morning when I wake up, I “see” Sarah, with big, scared eyes and her face holding a silent scream:
“ You betrayed me . . . . You betrayed me.”