Authors Note: The story The Leap of Ka Likai by Mrs. K.
U. Rafy, is about a woman who has recently had a new baby girl and is happily married. Unfortunately, her husband died when the baby was
young. Ka Likai wanted the best for her baby, so she soon got remarried. The
husband found out that Ka Likai only married him to get the financial support
she needed for her child, which caused him to get very jealous and mistreat the
baby when he was left alone with her. One day he loses it and decides to kill
the innocent child. When Ka Likai comes home and discovers that her child has
been murdered she is so distraught that she runs off of a cliff and dies. I
thought it would be fun to have the story take place in a courtroom, since her
husband would definitely have to go to court after committing a murder. I also
wanted to tell his side of the story, since that wasn’t really shared in the
original.
***
Now we have heard the tragic story of Ka Likai’s leap of
death after finding that her child has been murdered, but we have yet to hear
her husband’s side of the story. Did the man have reason to kill Ka Likai’s
child? Or did he simply go mad? Let’s take a closer look at the court hearing…
(Photograph of courtroom gavel. Source: Flickr)
“Order in the court! Order in the court I say! Would Ka
Likai’s husband please come to the stand” said the judge. A thunderous sound
of boo’s filled the courtroom immediately after the judge called him to the
center of the room. Ka Likai was well known by everyone in town as a sweet and
loving mother. When they found out that her first husband died the towns people
did everything they could to help her out by providing her meals and even
babysitting her child when she had work! So when they heard the disturbing news
that John, her second husband, had murdered her child causing her to leap to
her death, they were enraged.
John walked to the center of the room, stated the oath, and
took his seat. The prosecutor walked up to him and asked, “John, may I ask what
led you to think that killing your stepchild was a good idea? Surely, you were
just having a bad day and something caused you to lose it… Am I right?” John
smiled and replied, “Finally someone is asking me, the only one who was there,
what truly happened!” So John began his explanation…
I was at the market when I first saw Ka Likai. She was the
most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on! I noticed that she was a few
cents short when she was trying to pay for her groceries, so I stepped up and gave
her the money she needed. From that day on it was history! We got married soon
after and I moved into the house with Ka Likai and her child.
The first few weeks were great! We were so in love with our
little family. One day Ka Likai had me stay home with the kid while she went to
town to run some errands. Immediately after she left, the child looked at me
with a terrible look in her eye and said, “You will never be my real dad. I’m
going to make sure you hate it here so much that you have to leave!” Then she just
started screaming and crying for no reason! She ran around the house knocking
things off of the shelves and causing a huge mess. I tried my best to calm her
down but there was nothing I could do to stop her.
When my wife came back from town, she was so confused seeing
the house in complete disarray and her child sitting there pink in the face
from crying so much. She immediately asked what happened and I explained everything to her! She looked at me like I was completely crazy and asked her daughter
if it was true. The conniving child with tears still in her eyes simply shook
her head no. Ka Likai was so mad and disgusted by me that we went to bed
without talking. I woke up the next morning feeling like it was all a dream.
A few weeks passed and the child would do little things here
and there to make me look bad. She would randomly start crying or scream and
accuse me of pinching her or pulling her hair! My relationship with Ka Likai
was getting very strained because of these false accusations from her daughter.
A day came where Ka Likai needed to get a few special
ingredients for dinner that could only be found in a town 3 hours away, so she
reluctantly left me with her precious child. Again once she left the antics
immediately began. The child wouldn’t stop screaming and crying and I was
starting to get very angry. I just needed her to stop crying for a little
because I was getting a headache, so I simply grabbed the nearest pan from the
kitchen and whacked her over the head! As soon as I did she fell to the floor
dead silent. She wouldn’t wake up no matter how much I shook her. So as you can
see, I didn’t mean to kill her I just wanted a few minutes of silence! Once I
realized she was dead I felt terrible, but now looking back I don’t regret
anything that child was a menace!
As soon as he finished the story John started laughing, he
smiled looking at the prosecutor and asked, “Anymore questions?” And the
courtroom exploded in chaos.
Bibliography: “The Leap of Ka Likai” by Mrs. K. U. Rafey.
Website: UnTextbook.
This is a really interesting take on the original story--by telling John's story you've managed to make him seem more human, but also more insane, I think! I also really liked how you played off the "stepfather" dynamic, where you kind of reversed the evil stepfather trope and made the child much more difficult to deal with, which actually makes the family seem that much more realistic, because a lot of the time children DO have difficulty adjusting to stepparents, and are awful to them at first...
ReplyDeleteWow, what an incredible way to tell your story. I like how you used a court room as the start of the story and it worked really well within the story itself. I also really enjoyed how your Author's Note was so informative. This is very important for a reader who did not know the original story before reading your story. I would have been so confused and didn't know what was happening unless it wasn't for your Author's Note. I also really liked it how you put it in the beginning before the story even happened because it set up the scene very nicely. You also described your view on where you wanted this story to go and from what perspective you wanted it to be in. You stated your opinions and did it in a way that made the readers want to read more. I just wanted to find out what happened next after reading your note. I really enjoyed it and don't think I have many corrections or recommendations for you for improvement. I recommend that you continue to do what you have been doing and just go for it! I am really excited to read more of your stories and to see what you come up with next! Great job!
ReplyDeleteYour story is great! It's so interesting to read it as if it were happening in the courtroom, and hearing John's side of the story. It was interesting to read how the child kind of drove him crazy, and how his wife didn't believe him. It was a very interesting twist to the story. You gave him more emotions and you kind of see him as more than just a murderer, even though his actions weren't right. Great job!
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