CHAPTER FOUR

The captivating sound of a cock's crow echoed into Kolumi's ears and he couldn't continue enjoying the bed's warmth. It was a chilly morning but he didn't fear. Throughout the night, he had been thinking of nothing except how he would join the gangs of his age-mates who had started elementary schools before him. The fear of how he would accomplish this journey in case he began from his co-father's home didn't strike him into a freaky imbalance. As the only boy, he couldn't leave home in the morning before cleaning the spacious compound and other related domestic works like tying the goats in the grazing field. As time passed by, he made it to be a culture that he always woke up whenever he heard the raucous sound of the ravens .

Now after a one day trial of his academic dream, he caught the burning flame and didn't want to quit the move. It was such a strange day when he first appeared at the school's gate and saw no one whom he knew. As talkative and inquisitive as he had been, he didn't fear asking whoever appeared before him for a directive. For one week, Kolumi devoted himself in going to school and because he had been having auspicious performances in the class exercises, he didn't wish to go absent for any single day.

Woefully, his mother died when he had just been at school for less than a month. It sounded like a joke when he first heard his sister, Akumu telling him about their mother's death, but when he continued and got heads of different people gathered at Doki's home, he immediately lost his sensation. This was the biggest blow in his general being and there wasn't any hope for him to continue with school since Piranok was the only source of both financial and moral support he had. Doki, though he was a teacher didn't wish well for Kolumi and his sister, and according to his reactions after Piranok's death, it seemed he perfectly knew the cause of her death. According to elders who were valued as overseers in the land of Ladigo, they claimed that Piranok died of poisson and further revealed that it was Doki's first wife who poisioned her.

She had always promised Kolumi a greater academic support but this had been derailed by her expiration.

Kolumi could not imagine his mother dying at this early stage and leaving him just like the way he had followed her from Arac to Doki's home. Soon after his mother's burrial, Kolumi's face began appearing like one plunged in a dish of ashes which caught his life in a long depression. Shortly, Kolumi and his sister, Akumu started living in solitude after Piranok's demission. Their aunt who would have been encouraging them had also been shocked and admitted in the hospital, so for a while they tested the disgruntlement of orphans' experience.

As life started levitating above Kolumi's strength, he never stopped thinking. A year later after his mother's death, he declared his repugnancy towards education to his sister, Akumu with a contrivance that didn't inflame Akumu's anger though he kept his reasons in concealment. As a sister whose total hope dwelt on her brother, she candidly agreed with her brother's adjurations. Even when Doki consigned to pay for him school dues, he refused his offers. Akumu saw this as a quintessential chance for her brother to continue with studies but Kolumi couldn't agree to listen to anyone's advice at this sorrowful moment. She had seen a bright future in his brother's studies and didn't want him to waste such a wisdom in staying at home and living the allegorical life of Owele, their father.

With a continuous advice offered by many people within his neighborhood, Kolumi never faltered in his decision and still insisted to disagree with everyone.

"My future cannot only be guaranteed by education. I was vividly ready to study but when my mother died, my hope dwindled and I decided to surrender every good thing of this earth. She was the most virtuous person in my life," Kolumi vociferated. He always presented principled notions that he couldn't deviate from them. His aunt and late mother too, had presaged how conscientious he would become if he got matured.

Soon after looming the age that a child would be considered matured, according to the ways of the tribal setting, Kolumi traced for his father's home so as to be offered a piece of land where he could build his hut. His major interest of installing his new house was to allow him be able to maintain his privacy. Once rejected and again welcome for the second time in an old homestead. Owele had no idea on whether to chase him or let him stay with Okuti. Since Akumu had decided to remain at Arac's home, Okuti would now only face the burden of shaping his brother into a good child whose moral values could spur the members of Aleda village. No one guessed he would return home after years of disgust from his father and after undergoing through several critical moments of trials from his parents, especially Owele at his childhood. When he came back home, he pretended that he had forgotten with all that had been happening before and tried to fix all that had set them apart. As an old man, Owele still recognized how faint Kolumi was, in his heart and the only way he could cool him was to show him impartiality, otherwise he would become the greatest enemy of his son.

After realizing that Kolumi had come back with changed attitude, Owele began treating him with respect and didn't resent Kolumi from meeting his interest. After two months had passed, he woke up one early morning and showed Kolumi the hut where he could shift. The house was of a grass thatched type and its wall was made of mud blocks with numerous cracks and inside roof corrupted with cobwebs. It had no door and had a shapeless floor. Kolumi was now to be faced with the task of restructuring the hut to the fashion of his choice. The hut was once constructed to keep the freshly harvested crops from the garden, so as to avoid them from being damaged by the rain. After being shown the house, he tirelessly worked on it and decorated the wall with a mixture of both sand and ashes. The only task that defeated him was fixing the door, but Okuti could not leave his brother alone. He struggled and locally fixed the door for him. No more worries, Kolumi was now well set to begin his daily nap and slumber in a new house. Okuti didn't just end there, he didn't wish to see his brother sleep on a shapeless floor, so he constructed for him a local bed made of compressed mud blocks.

With Akumu, she had also been battling with her aunt to separate her bed from the main house where she had been sleeping with aunt before shifting to Doki's home. It was as if they had arranged this before parting from Doki's home.

As a good listener, Arac did not delay in granting her a positive welcome of her request. Behind Arac's main house was a visitor's building that had been empty for over six months. After a night of restless thought, she resolved that Akumu should occupy that room instead of craving to construct a new house for her. Akumu had just made twelve years but her quest to shift in the privacy of her own room seemed to be untimely. If Akumu and Kolumi had phones to ease their communication, then one would think that they had a common goal whose major aim was to destroy both Arac and Owele.

Fortunately, Akumu's inception into a new house didn't change her bahaviour. She still remained submissive to her aunt and continued doing what was expected of her at home. As young as she was, she always lured many boys from the neighboring villages of Aleda and the eastern outskirt of Ladigo with her cute look, enchanting dressing designs and her endearing protuberant breast. One after the other, they continually wooed her with sweet traditional quotes but her response always remained incompatible to their wishes.

Then on one of the red-letter days when no one was supposed to attend any garden work, or even participate in any commercial activity, Arac went with Akumu to the garden. For the past two weeks, They had been busy, harvesting sorghum. Many still remained unplucked and so there was an urgent need for Arac to utilize that special day and have them plucked off. Unwillingly, she followed her as she kept regretting what kind of life she had began in her mother's absence. Big celebration like such always found when she was well organized and with new clothes, thinking of nothing else than enjoying meat and jolliness just as the commonest children's drink by then. This was her first time to be asked to go to the garden on a big day and as an orphan, she could not resist. In her mind, she thought that her aunt would pardon her as a child to be allowed to return home earlier. Arac always left the garden after the yellowish sun rays of the twilight had set off and that was still the same repeated story.

After reaping the sorghum for a while, she began feeling the intensified sun rays wracking her body like a wild fire. As a young girl, she couldn't keep quiet;

"Oh please, sun's heat is too much. Release me and I go home," Akumu shouted.

"I understand that I am abusing your right for having overworked you on this honored day, but please I beg that you help me and we finish this remaining small portion before we may depart," Arac adjured.

Akumu silently continued after hearing her aunt's benevolent request. She forgot of everything after hearing the winsome and a begging voice from her aunt who looked too polite before her. Though the sun's heat increased the more, she didn't complain anymore. They became too tired at the end of the load, but they still lurched with the sacks of husked sorghum on their heads as they moved back home. Immediately after reaching home, Akumu went and sat on the slanted granary's verandah as she tried to protect herself from the over-heating sun. In a fraction of a second, Arac joined her and sat at a stone's throw. With a calm face she said, "My daughter, this is not an easy world for you to love and enjoy its fruits. Your lovely mother is dead, and it's not only you who is touched and affected by her death, i am deeply wounded too. You should thus kindly utilize this chance when my eyes are still opened to learn all forms of domestic activities, especially the traditionally based ones as you can see me slowly aging up. All these series of works need commitment and endurance, and you must know that your retarded father can't impart these values to you except me, so you should always remain close and adhering to my words."

Akumu's eyes remained inexpugnable as Arac spoke, hardly breathing and duly shaking her head. She didn't interrupt her aunt's speech until she concluded. That was the time she realized that her aunty was merely playing her role and the hardest tasks were now left on her to accomplish. Arac never wished that Akumu should suffer again for the second time, though in her absence and that's why in her free moments, she always devoted herself in training Akumu with craft works that would enable her to become self reliant in the near future whose fate worried her the more whenever she began thinking about her late mother. Akumu's behaviors gradually started changing from prematurity to maturity as she kept proving her worth in different aspects of life.

As she continued staying with Arac, the agitations of her suitors to ingratiate themselves never ceased, but as a well trained girl, she insisted on her reply of rehearsed negation.

It was one early morning when a boy from Aleda visited Arac's home in a bid of presenting his courtship proposal to Akumu. His name was Odinga. He was backwardly dressed, and with his legs stretched forward, he confidently sat on q white polythene bag laid on the compound. Arac still had her bruises of the past night and she couldn't wake up as early as she always did. Odinga kept seeing lofty shadows on the compound but he insisted until she came out. The fate of his long awaited ratification was now to be decided on such a chilly morning.

"Please, wake up my daughter. You have overslept. Don't you see that the morning sun rays have flourished the congenial wetland where we have to go and tilt before we proceed to collect the remaining husked sorghum in the moorland," Arac informed. Little did she know that someone had sat near the old ramada that was long built by her late father. Akumu had a scarce response towards her aunt's call and though it was too cold, she had no option to object her instruction. After a long pandiculation, she hurriedly woke up and went outside while rinsing the stench from her mouth. As soon as she stepped on the compound, she saw a motor assembled with its pistol in an open space beside the fold pen. She shuddered wearily and momentarily walked back to Arac. Her body continuously trembled as she entered inside her aunt's bedroom. By the the time Arac went to wake Akumu from the deep sleep, she did not bother to patrol around the compound, so her glance didn't catch the scarlet motor.

"This is someone's incantation against your progress," Akumu whispered.

"Why?" Arac asked.

"I almost stepped on a charm and there it is," Akumu responded with a brief practical statement.

"Let's go and see," Arac continued. On seeing how desperate Akumu was, she quickly reacted and went outside alone, leaving Akumu inside the house. She stood by the door side, spread her eyes around the compound, but never saw anything.

"Akumu," she sharply called.

"Yes aunt," Akumu calmly replied.

"Come and show me," Arac ordered.

Akumu quickly paced out and found her aunt in a totally perplexed state. She closely drew near the point where she first saw the motor and the pistol but found nothing. As she opened her mouth to begin proving her statement, a strange unusual voice sounded from the direction of the ramada.

" Don't be afraid. It's your son." The voice suddenly paused. There was a total silence and behind them, appeared a short muscular boy dressed on an old half jacket with a black tight trouser but barefooted. The face looked familiar to both Akumu and her aunt, so they were not in a quandary after seeing him. Instead, they gave him a wooden chair and begged him to sit and explain what had caused his early and magical visitation.