CHAPTER THREE

Waking up from the bed and observing the setting sun rays always appeared like a misfortune to Piranok. As a woman whose noble pride was culturally inclined, she immutably bolstered up her position as a reserved woman and never allowed it to be wiped by her husband's brusqueness towards the malevolent spiritual being that meditated between the temporal and transcendent realms in the antochthonous faction of her second husband. This was Daku, the once suspected trouble causer and now seen in the broad daylight with Piranok. For many times she refused that she wasn't in any outside relationship, but shortly after being given a chance to begin a street business, she couldn't wait to accept Daku's marriage proposal though she had been denying him chances for many times. Where was Owele and Okuti now? Were they aware of Piranok's new relationship?

With the stricken memories of her lineage, the village modes of life she underwent through, before divorcing with her first husband, and the incessantly rehearsed norms passed to her by her late parents, motivated her to live with her new husband whose prejudice uncovered his rascality. Daku considered Piranok to have possessed an impish look on him, so as time went by, he kept rebuking her without respite.

Amidst the discontention against one's belief, they gave birth to a baby girl and christened her Adol. She grew up under the intensive care of her mother throughout her childhood period. Regardless of Daku's insults, Piranok kept fostering her child to grow through the ways of the censorious moral attitude of the tradition. She made it known to Adol, the sacrifices offered to the ancient spirits and made it known to her daughter, the important oaths required by the deity of the land whose supernatural being was believed to be sacred as a sign of verity. In Daku's absence, Adol remained a biddable sweet nurtured child with a relentless acquiescent mood before her mother. She honestly obeyed her mother's arch beliefs and tested the lovely breath of the ancestral spirits which kept her thoughts and heart renewed as a young child. Adol forever confessed her hopes whenever worshipping the ghosts and with tenderness, she always felt herself revived.

The totems stretched from all the village corners and Adol would praise the ghosts until the sun set and rose no more. The realms of her tongue always declared its love in sweet traditional songs and with her lovely name like incense arose with daily sacrifices that represented her highest honor.

Due to the careening effects of the prolonged drought in Arac's community, Akumu and her brother, Kolumi decided to follow their mother to her new home. Their aunt could not manage to take care of them amidst this long dry spell of sunshine that struck the farmers into zero harvest and the only option she had, was to make sure Kolumi and the sister realocate to their new mother's home. After two weeks of thorough planning and arrangements, Kolumi led her sister through the long arduous journey as they got ousted from Arac's home to Doki's vineyard where their begging hands remained seasonally stretched for alms from the neighbors.

Adol's birth created an engulfment between her parents and Owele whose hope was that, Piranok might return to her house one day. And now that he had lost her, and missed to enjoy the presence of his only daughter, Akumu, his reactions, if not controlled would spit hotter flame. However, it was now late for him to react, and though Doki had two wives, including Piranok, he was able to take care of them equally than Owele whose weakness was known in all the neighboring villages.

As the only daughter of Doki, Adol denied herself all comforts of life and accepted to be nurtured in a close-knit family. Piranok's late parents too, believed in the iterated cultural values and didn't allow themselves to be confounded by the deceitful tongues of the modernists, but rather remained dedicated in living the recapitulated life of the traditionalists in contrast to her father's belief. Doki hated the ways of life of the indigenous people. When he had just snactced Piranok into the second marriage, they were not at ease with each other. They had varying beliefs about the traditional values and kept knocking heads until the time that they summoned the clan elders from both sides of the families to intervene.

Piranok believed that it was only through worshipping the ancestral spirits that one would live a happy and a prolonged life; something that had much pronouncement in the land of Aleda.

Doki on the other hand believed that, the master of life was the almighty God who created the heaven and earth, in whose favor they would find comfort and be able to cherish the life of their choices. So their vacillating beliefs suffered from a set of internal contradictions which became a strong militating factor towards the growth of both Adol, Akumu and Kolumi whose moral values would be influenced by the physical traits depicted by Doki and his two wives.

"Though your mother has refused to listen to me, I will not cease teaching you with the contemporary ways of life. Throughout the history of our remote past, the successful people always had a complete sync and wouldn't follow a unilateral path. Their coherent strategies were always witnessed in the Christian transmogrification. Listen carefully and brand yourself with this, a young woman must be unprejudiced, free from deceit, valiant, self-effacing and must be one with a complete rectitude," Achol's father solaced. Before him were Akumu, Kolumi and his daughter Adol who paired their legs frontwards, carefully hearing the calculated words passed to them. At the end of his speech, he requested any of them who had any burning question to speak it out, but none of them responded. Kolumi whose facial look seemed scary became the most humbled. Kolumi had been so talkative when he was still in the hands of Arac and those who ever listened to his words predicted a sharp mental maturity in him. Now that he had shifted to a new environment, he also decided to change his behaviors. With all the negative agitations that Piranok had been showing, Doki remained equable to her and never acted combative towards her detestation of Christianity.

Piranok had less faith in the unexamined life that Doki was exposed to, and sometimes she regretted why she left Owele whom they shared the same faith. Doki always paid little attention to the cultural practices and didn't give room for himself to be lured by the mythological men and women in his village. As the only individual in the land of Ladigo who had acquired the missionary education, he lived a morose and a taciturn life amidst his fellow members in the society.

"One's death is another man's opportunity," Adol mumbled. That was one morning when they had gone to the garden. Piranok had remained at home with Kolumi and Akumu, while Doki had gone with Adol, whom he called her his small drum. She was wise enough to challenge the fate of her father's behaviors that had made Owele's children wander with rascality. One thing that made Adol to win Doki's heart was how even-handed she was, in her traits. She never showed biased behaviors to her parents and always remained submissive to their needs. Even amidst her mother's nagging opinions, she never scolded her.

Now it was upon her to master her parents' inelectable facts of their land. What if she was to execrate her mother's superannuated ways and remain courteous on her father's route? Wouldn't it cause malignancy in the family? Of course it would. Adol was now confronted with the double tasks to perform in the subsided customs and she would make sure that she practiced them equally because by a mere deviation from one, then she would be disturbed by the perversion of the two cultures.

Then one evening, Kolumi started a bitter accost on Adol; ordering her not to ever eat on the same table with Doki. "I should be the one eating with your father on the same table. You and Akumu must eat together with your mother. You should try to offer respect to your father, else I will teach you a very painful lesson before I leave here," Kolumi warned. Adol stood estranged, sighing at him spasmodically. Adol liked the unsolicited advice of her father that sometimes appeared like jokes, so she wouldn't miss his company during meal time. Though Kolumi's reactions sometimes appeared tranquil, he merely didn't want Doki to know his blended and flappable feelings. Just as many visitors wouldn't wish to be wrongly characterized at the early stages of their lives in any particular family, Kolumi too didn't want to be misquoted as early as such with the fear that he might be chased to go back to his aunt's home.

That day, Piranok had been in the garden until evening and back home, she had left Kolumi and the two daughters whom she instructed them to prepare lunch for Doki and as well reserve her share. As a young girl, Adol didn't take her mother's plea as serious as she was supposed to, so she ignored all that she had been told. Had it not been because of Akumu and her brother, Doki would have experienced the bitterness of uncalled for fasting. Akumu, with the teachings offered to her by Arac, knew all kinds of domestic work and she never acted clumsy when it came to kitchen duties. She devoted herself with her brother in doing what they had not been told to do, and as children seeking a comfortable refuge, they didn't act jealous towards Adol who sat on the compound, just looking at them.

Kolumi, though in the foreign home, couldn't hold longer with his instinctual traits. He felt vexed with Adol and couldn't hide his frenzy.

"You clamorous young girl, why don't you join us to go and fetch water? I am well aware that this is your home but for your future's sake, you don't need to boast at things such as these. We are able to perform all these because we didn't deny our parents' co-sharing training. Besides, I am a boy and by virtue of moral understanding, you could be the one helping Akumu," Kolumi bitterly voiced out. "Look at your shapeless head. Disappear from my face else I will brace you against the kitchen pillar until your mother comes back from the garden," Kolumi continued. Akumu didn't bother joining them in the quarrel, she concentrated like a deaf person; vigorously cleaning the saucepans and the plates.

Kolumi was very impatient with Adol's clumsy art and every time he thought about his elder brother; Okuti, he felt like destroying everyone before him. After hearing and seeing how indifferent Kolumi had turned, Adol became wordless and instead, went and knelt before him while whimpering. She was such a fearful girl who didn't want to be mishandled.

"I am sorry my brother. I swear I will never repeat it again," Adol sounded a mild beg pardon. She was always apologetic whenever she found herself in a mistake. On seeing how humble she was, Kolumi instead begged to be forgiven in case he sounded rude to her.

For the few months that Kolumi had spent at Doki's home, he had started experiencing hardships that wouldn't permit him to grow up with a healthy mind. If Doki truly loved him, then they would be sharing the same table during meals and instead of parading with Adol beside him during the dark hours of the night, he would have been moving around with Kolumi. Then after Akumu had finished blending the sorghum flour which was the only task remaining, she sent Adol to go and prepare a table before her father so as to serve him food. Without nodding, Adol rushed and did as instructed, but as soon as she ended a long impure prayer, she immediately asked her father whether she could be allowed to share the same food with him. As a lovely father, he warmly welcome her. Adol rushed at a full tilt to wash her hands and briskly joined her father as Kolumi kept a close glance at her.

On clearing everything that had been served, she collected the empty plates and took them back to the kitchen. Kolumi instantly followed her, moving like a whirlwind. Doki immediately shouted with a positive intervention and said, "It's a sign of love between a parent and the child. If your father didn't give you such a care, please leave my daughter alone and if you dare touch her, I will chase you from my home." Nothing than tears that sprang out of Kolumi's eyes after hearing such a bitter accost. He remained in silence and went off Adol's vicinity. Akumu drew closer and started consoling him after acknowledging that her brother had been worn out by the implicit insults from Doki.

His wrath on Doki wracked him with guilt that he could not talk to anyone, but after hearing his sister's entreaty, he changed his mood and started smiling.

On seeing that Kolumi and Akumu had parted from their presence, lonely sitting on the sunshine, Doki got plagued and challenged on how he would dispel Kolumi's stress in order to maintain a good reputation and to be liked by them again. Perchance Piranok would not be happy if she heard about this and Doki's only chance was to seek for forgiveness from Kolumi and his sister before Piranok could return. He considered Kolumi's anger as a debt to be paid before he grew up into a mature man. His interest was always to make these three children happy and counter balance their needs, something that he considered would make him have a great favor from Kolumi.

Doki's Major worry was that Kolumi might easily betray him if he mishandled him. He was the only boy and the quality of words he spoke, clearly showed how intelligent he was.

Kolumi had just made eight years when he left his aunt's home to follow his mother at Doki's homestead. Unlike Akumu who had never dreamt about education, Kolumi's interest for joining the school impatiently started developing, but he feared to share with his mother because he knew she wouldn't support him. It was such a brilliant imagination that he conceived and he needed to channel it into eration.