©
Moses made the journey to the clinic just on the outskirts of his village, he was so deep in thought that he ignored the greetings of people as he passed them by on his journey, he avoided the main entrance to the clinic and went through the side gate hidden from the eyes of prying strangers, this was where they kept the Patients with mental illness, tying his wrapper tighter he ignored the nurse ‘s smile at the front desk and went straight to room 13, just as he expected his sister sat motionless staring at an empty television screen. ,”Sister we need to talk, your son has found the gold.” He whispered ,
“but the thing is
he keeps behaving as if the gold is not his, he needs to bring that treasure
to me let us sell, I have spent a lot of money taking care of you for this past
years, its time you paid me back. You need to go back in to his life he will
listen to you.” As expected she said nothing.
He looked at her disheveled hair
and almost strangled her to death with disgust ,
“you know you could have
married anybody else but you chose to marry that cursed womanizer, now I need
return on my money so get better and get hold of your son…” hissing Moses
turned to walk away, when he felt strong arms grip him, immobile with shock he
watched his sister ‘s lips move for the first time in twelve years
“ if you try to stop his path ,they will
destroy you.” and with that she let him go and continued staring at the empty television screen.
Odibo was still in shock thirty minutes later after Nnamdi narrated his so called part to play in this mystery to him. This past month had been extremely
mind blowing for him, for one thing he had not been with a woman for two weeks
,for another he had seen and heard things that he didn’t believe were possible in the real world,
it was as if he had been transported to another universe, if not for the gold they
found in Nnamdi’s great grandfather’s house he would have been convinced that
his best friend was losing his mind.
Nnamdi had always been the deep thinker,
he was the one who lived life like there was no tomorrow what was it Chudi Nnamdi’s late brother had told him way back in college,
“you know you and my
brother could be twins, you are so different yet so alike.”
The more he thought of it, it became unsurprising that they would share a common crazy creepy history, because things
like this just didn’t happen in the real world.
After several discussions and deliberations, it was decided that they would head back to Lagos and
confront Odibo's aunty about his ancestors, if anyone would know anything about Odibo’s history it would be his late father's eldest sister, her brain was like an encyclopedia of native knowledge.
Driving into his compound at Ikeja after the series of events that happened in Nnamdi's hometown, it seemed as if he had been away for years, so much
had changed since he drove out of this gates two weeks ago, tomorrow they would
continue on their quest for now all he wanted to do was sleep.
Odibo’s aunty had known much more than they expected,
immediately they informed her that they had already discovered that there was a
mysterious story in Odibo's family’s past she wouldn’t shut up , after several hours of non stop narration, Odibo and Nnamdi sat down sipping locally sourced palm wine and tried to
digest all they had heard,
“somehow I prefer your ancestor to mine.” Nnamdi whispered after some minutes ,
"Nah" Odibo retorted ,‘they were both thieves but mine was also a sissy”
Nnamdi burst out laughing,
leave it to his best friend to find some humor in their current predicament. Apparently Odibo’s ancestor had fallen in love with a strange woman and had became
obsessed with her, it was said that after the huge fight between the two former best friend's
over the rape of his wife by his best friend, he had moved to their village and didn’t get married until the
age of forty, Odibo's ancestor had built a shrine for his run way wife and performed regular
sacrifices in it, begging for the woman to come
back, it was said that his second wife was miserable as it was obvious her
husband did not love her and after giving birth to his second son, the woman had
killed herself right inside the shrine
he built for his runaway wife.
Just like Nnamdi’s ancestor his own ancestor had
become suddenly rich and never revealed the source of his wealth. ,They both knew the source of that wealth, now that half of it was tucked safely away in Nnamdi's safe in Lagos but chose not to reveal this part to Odibo's aunty.
Remembering Uncle Moses reaction when they told him about the gold, it was safer for everyone to keep the part of the golden egg to themselves.
Nnamdi seemed to be back in the forest in his village, he creeped quietly in the bushes, following an antelope ,his body was tense as he anticipated the animal's every move. He stretched out his arrow concentrating deeply on his prey, he was
just about to strike when he saw her. Tall, lean and beautiful ,she seemed to be
preparing to take a bath.
Nnamdi was
speechless, his hunting was forgotten , he could feel the blood rush to his
head, she had her back to him but he could almost see her face, her long
dark hair swept downwards to her shoulders ,
The antelope chose that time to
run away and the movement made her turn suddenly . a pillow hit him on his head, waking him up abruptly, three of
his friends stood by his sofa laughing at him.
”guy who permitted you to disappear like
that, where have you been hiding for two weeks? and do something about that erection, you are up like the statue of
liberty.”
Comments
Post a Comment