In a small Senegalese village, a young woman was waking up for another beautiful day. As she greeted her father good morning, he made an announcement.
“Next month, you will get married,” he told his daughter. “My cousin just married a woman with a young adult son in search for a bride.”
The daughter was astonished that her father would choose who she was going to marry without so much as her having met the man beforehand. Upset, she went on with her tasks for the day with anger in her heart.
The young lady joined the other women by the river to do laundry. They washed the clothes with soap, scrubbing them clean in the water. Once the clothing was laid out to dry in the sun, the women go naked and removed their breasts. They washed them in the river as well, before rubbing the breasts with shea butter and laying them out to dry while they enjoyed a nice refreshing swim.
Once they were done, they exited the water, put their breasts back on and their clothes as well, and returned home with their clean laundry under their arm. However, the young woman could not find her breasts. It was as if they had vaporized!
The lady went home and asked her sister to help her find her breasts in urgency. Her sister told her she should ask their mom for assistance instead, as she didn’t know how to help her.
The young woman then asked her mother for help. Her mother told her she should ask her father for assistance instead, as she didn’t know how to help her.
The young woman then asked her father for help. Her father told her she should ask her uncle for assistance instead, as he didn’t know how to help her.
And one and on it went until she asked her father’s cousin’s wife’s son for help.
When she entered his house, she was impressed by its magnificience. She had never seen anything like it in her village. Everything looked perfectly polished and impressive artwork of very good taste hung on the walls and laid on the furniture. Then, she saw the young owner of the dwelling and her heart melted.
He was a tall and handsome gentleman with a smile that could warm up the coldest of character. The man was as gorgeous — no, even more — as the most beautiful piece of art he owned.
The young woman realized she may have been hasty to reject the engagement this morning. She thought she should have waited until she at least actually met the guy!
Then, the woman remembered the reason she had even showed up at his doorstep in the first place. She asked him if he could help her find her lost breasts.
The man’s face changed to a surprised look before he went to get something from another room. When he came back, the young woman saw him carrying her breasts in his hands!
When he saw the confusion on her face, he explained that a woman had showed up this morning with the breasts in hand, telling him he would need to give them to someone important later.
He gently put the breasts back on her chest.
“I understand now” said the young woman.
The serie Obscure Fairy Tales encompasses an array of tales, myths and legends from around the world. To read more, visit this page dedicated to fiction writing.
Kelly Asselin-Tousignant 
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