Mystery man

Ogar opened the door with a smile of relief on his face. Ramses nodded in reply to his greeting as he walked in.

"Is it me, or has something changed about this place since my last visit here?" Ramses began as he observed the parlor with his hands at akimbo. He had the usual smile on his face. Ogar noticed as he watched him.

"Nothing" Ogar teased.

"The rocking chair used to be that way but now it is in this position"

"Hmmmmn... How precise"

"You thought I would have forgotten, didn't you?"

"Well"

"You cannot fool me, you know"

"I could at least try" he shrugged his shoulders as Ramses gave him a serious look and to they both laughed.

"It appears uncle Travis is asleep"

"Not at all. He went out"

"He told me he was going on a trip with you but since I came to see someone here in the neighborhood and I saw the truck in the driveway I thought I should check on you"

Ogar nodded and smiled to show gratitude.

"I am through with this book" Ramses said as he reached out to hand over a book with the tittle "the hunt" to Ogar. Thank you so much.

"You are welcome"

"Sir Ekom Oriri Ekom did a great job. People like us who have lost touch with our roots can be educated accordingly.

"Sure"

"Our culture is beautiful. We should preserve the stories, language and all the positive sides of it for our next generation. What would they be greeted with, if we do not do this? Enlightenment is beautiful. Learning English, the white man's culture and history is alright but we should not neglect ours"

Ogar nodded in agreement.

"Oh how embarrassed I feel right now. I don't know much of my language. I am one of the aliens" he burst out laughing. Ogar joined in.

"You can learn. I will teach you"

"You will?"

"Why not?"

"I will really appreciate that"

Ogar smiled. It felt good talking to his future brother-in-law. Teaching him their language was nothing to him. He would gladly do anything to foster the relationship between them.

"I love so many parts of our story" Ramses said.

"Me too"

"Ekparabong Bossork. The war of elephants and rams"

"Precisely"

"And to think we got our name from the war"

Ogar smiled as he listened.

"I can't wait to share this story with my colleagues. They will be so thrilled"

"They like adventure"

"Of course but not as much as they enjoy calling me an alien for not knowing much about my culture. Now I can brag and tell them about how Ojong the powerful hunter shot an elephant and lost his consciousness after it attacked him. He found himself in the kingdom of the ancestors where he was given the power to shape-shift into a lion. As he left the kingdom of ancestors, his guise whom his dead friend,Enya, told him about led him. It was a lion"

Ogar maintained the smile on his lips. He watched Ramses who kept speaking and he, Ogar kept nodding.

"He found himself in the village called Nkum. He explained his ordeal to the king

They welcomed him. He was served his first meal, he got interested in the ingredient, salt which made the meal tasty. They derived from the pond near them. He was given some which he took back home. The king decided he should go back there and propose trade to them. The men picked up leaves to mean that they come in peace but were attacked on their way home. By this time, they had been taught how to process the salt.

All men except Ojong died, thanks to his ability to shape-shift into a lion. He went back to Ererep with the news, this was where his people had been residing. The people of Ererep asked Eso-beneghe Nd Beneghe Afi people to help them fight. First, beautiful maidens danced about the village announcing that That was when they attacked the farms of the Nkum dwellers. All their produce were destroyed"

Ogar was clapping and nodding his head impressively.

Ramses smiled and paused for a moment. "It's such a beautiful story"

"It sure is"Ogar agreed.

"The part of it I loved the most was the the scene where the Nkum people went to hide in the bush for fear of being killed after their village had been taken over. Their warriors were killed. As the legend had it, the gods now decided to have mercy on them and send slugs.

Our warriors argued among

themselves, pointing to the ground as they retreated. According to the oracle,the ancestors had mercy on them and sent slugs. Nkum people were saved from death, as many of them could not run far due to hunger. The Nkum people abandoned the settlement. That is where those warriors and all other people settled. They named it Ekparabong Bossork. It means the war of the elephants and rams. Ererep became their farmland.

Unfortunately the water from the stream dried but they could not return back to their former abode.

To show gratitude they sent a bar of salt to the king of Eso-beneghe. The people of Beneghe Afi were close by hence they had access to the salt pond where they processed the salt jointly. Tu Tu Tu tuub"

"Brum, Brum, Brum" Ogar responded laughing out loud while Ramses smiled with pride.

"Okay Ogar, I have to be on my way now. I want to pickup a few items from the market.

I will check in on you both another time. Thank you so much for your book."

"You are welcome."

"Okay, see you" he said as he rose to leave.

"Wait. Please will it be okay if I accompany you to the market? I have been indoors all day. I am bored"

"It's okay. I will be grateful to have you tag along"

"Thank you"

The two males commence their journey. Ramses occasionally turned from side to side to give an affirmative nod to passers by who called out his name.

"You are so popular. There is hardly anyone you do not know" Ogar observed.

Ramses smiled and said nothing. They passed by one of the bars, one of the most prominent bars. It's chairs are for hire in the daytime and at nighttime they are used at oh bar.

Ogar lifted his eyes to see uncle Travis and the man he had seen him with when he went to the isolation center. Who was he? He remembered his uncle still concealed the truth from him. What might it be? Who was this man always clad in black?