Chapter 5

"What are we going to do when we get there?" Asanga asked.

They were at a police checkpoint that led into Eyangchang village. She and Otafion were sitting in a blue Toyota Avensis that they had hired to take them to the village. The driver, a bloated man in his forties and a sweaty T-shirt, had gone out of the car to present his car documents to the police and probably bribe them to allow him to pass even though his documents were not in order. Asanga had seen him conceal a thousand francs note between his fingers and the folder that contained the documents.

The air was dry and dusty and the earth road took the slightest opportunity to add more dust to the atmosphere whether it was after a passing car or just a slight breeze. Asanga looked out of the window at the dusty leaves of the nearby trees. She was calm but her mind was busy with thought.

Otafion seemed to be dozing away or maybe he was praying silently. He did not answer her question.

She had pleaded with the director to allow her to start next week because of the death of her grandmother. The director granted her permission and expressed his condolences. She then called Emily's school to inform Emily that she was going out of town and to tell her where to find the key to the house if she needed to come back home impromptu.

She had then informed Ebaneck that she had to travel for her grandmother's burial preparations but did not go into the details of seeking out the shrine. She did not even mention to him that the woman they had run over was her dead grandmother or that she had seen the dead woman twice after that.

Unattached men like Ebaneck were in your life only for the good times, that is Christmas, Valentine's Day, Women's day, and so on because of the food, drinks, and free sex that accompanied those days. Telling him about such details, which she herself was not too sure, would freak him out.

Ebaneck offered her a hundred thousand francs as his condolence gift and they had sex the night before she was to travel.

Otafion was also deep in thought. He had never gone on such a mission before. Deep within him, he knew he was afraid but he could never let the church members know. God forbid that the man of God shows even an iota of fear. So on the surface, he tried to play everything nicely and act like he was receiving divine instructions but he was looking out for the slightest sign to run for his life. He did not want to anger the deity of a village all in the name of 'papa'.

There had been a time when he had been eyeing Sister Priscilla to sleep with her but he changed his mind when he discovered that Ebaneck was involved with her. After all, he had many other girls he could use in the church so he had decided to simply milk Asanga of her money.

After he had suggested they had to go and demolish the shrine he regretted it. He wished he had simply said they would be praying against any attack from the devil from afar. Although he was quite happy with the money she had given him as a sacrifice, he wished he had not mentioned demolishing the shrine.

He had been to bible school in Nigeria and had understood most of the concepts about God but he lacked the will to be sincere. He had tried several times but found himself lusting after girls, some even as young as thirteen in his church, on the street, at the market…

He knew that Asanga was the type of Christian they would refer to as being spiritually dead in bible lessons. The type that never had time to pray or fast or read the bible and so were ninety-nine percent of his church members and even himself.

There had been times when he had considered shutting down the church and trying some other business but with the pass- degree in Sociology and Anthropology he had from the University of Yaounde, he knew that his odds were high. More so, he was addicted to the casual money he collected from his church members. He needed just to say something that sounded like a prophecy and money would start rolling in in the form of seeds to connect to the prophecy.

The populace was what they would refer to in their bible lessons as having itching ears. Otafion had noticed that anytime he took time to prepare a sermon from the bible, the comments from his boys in the congregation charged to get feedback would be that the message was boring.

He got comments that the message was powerful only on days he preached about how to get more and more money. He had therefore decided to stop giving sermons on any other thing except money.

This was the reason why he was now afraid. He was trying to remember any warfare scripture or some powerful words he would use when they get to the shrine but he could get none. He closed his eyes so that Asanga would not see his fear as he racked his brain for anything remotely similar to what he needed. Nothing.

The driver came back to the car and got in. His body odor instantly saturated the air in the car. Asanga rolled down the window.

The car sped into Eyangchang. Asanga's plan had been to go and see Nem Taseng and explain to him her predicament but Otafion wishing to avoid confrontation at all costs had advised that they should go to the shrine without alerting anyone.

Since Asanga did not quite remember the site of the shrine, she had called Amanda to meet them at the entrance of the village so Amanda could take them there. She could see Amanda standing in the dust ahead of them. She was wearing a Chelsea jersey and black shorts. Her well-oiled skin shone in the afternoon sun.

Amanda was twenty-two and her name was Takamanda but everyone called her Amanda for short because of Amanda in Melrose's Place which used to show on CRTV. She stopped education when she was in Form 3 because she got pregnant. She was fifteen then. Her father, Uncle Joe, never enrolled her again even after she had a stillbirth.

Her boyfriend had continued with his education. He had denied that he ever touched her and his parents had sent him off to a boarding school in Sasse.

The car pulled up beside her. Asanga got out first.

"Auntie!" she beamed and hugged Asanga. Asanga smiled back and hugged her back but stifled her breath so she would not inhale Amanda's body odour.

"How are you?"Asanga asked after she finally pulled herself back to look at Amanda. The girl was pretty. She was Asanga's favorite member of their family.

"Am fine auntie."

"How is everything?"

"Everything is fine…" she blushed and looked at her hands "…except poverty"

"It is everywhere. I mean the poverty" Asanga replied, "You just need to push harder"

"Auntie, you fit help me with 20,000 let me buy hoe and cutlass for work farm this coming season?"

"Okay. I will give you. But why is it so expensive?"

"I get to buy corn and beans for planting too"

"Oh, okay. I see. I will give you the cash before I go back"

Otafion got out of the car. This is your last chance to pull out, Jerry. Pull out now. He heard his reasoning telling him, but how could he do that? The woman had already sown a huge seed. So what? Give her back if necessary, the main point is that you should get out of here. You have no business meddling with a woman and her shrine issues.

"You know the way to the Mukenge shrine right?" Asanga asked

Amanda nodded. She pointed to a small track that led into the secondary forest.

"Is it far?" Otafion asked

"Not too much far" Amanda replied. Otafion turned to the driver:

"Driver, wait for us here. We will take about an hour." Otafion said

"I think he should not stand here. He could go into the village, spin, and then come back later" Asanga said, "or we will call you when we are done"

"Open the boot so I can get the machetes," Otafion said but when the boot opened, he motioned Amanda to pick up the machetes.

The three of them headed into the forest as the driver sped away into the village.

*

Amanda led the way into the forest. Otafion cautioned Amanda to tell them when they were close to the shrine. Amanda was the only one Asanga could trust to take her to the shrine without asking any questions.

They walked single file. Otafion was last while Asanga was in the middle. Amanda tried to make chit-chat with Asanga but stopped when she realized Asanga was not responding to her questions.

Otafion was deep in meditation and he mumbled some words from time to time. Sometimes his eyes were slits sometimes they were fully open. Asanga pretended to pray as well but her mind was deep in thought. She was not thinking about anything in particular but a chain of several different things passed through. She thought about Emily, her new job, and the possibility of abandoning it and becoming the priestess, the possibility of becoming the national director of Super Water. This particular thought actually made her smile faintly.

They had walked for about forty-five minutes when Amanda signaled that the shrine was up ahead.

Otafion started singing 'God of Elijah send down fire'. Asanga joined in. Amanda tried joining in but finally settled in just humming the tune.

They came to a clearing that indicated the perimeter of the shrine. There were red and white pieces of cloth attached to several branches and stems. The ground was clear of any grass or leaf but there were endless mud tracks of ants.

A path led to the center of the clearing marked by an anthill out of which was growing a tree. The tree had very few leaves and its bole, which was no more than a few centimeters, was covered with mud tracks of ants.

"I stay here auntie," Amanda said when they reached the edge of the circle that marked the territory of the shrine.

Asanga and Otafion proceeded into the circle. Asanga felt like she was entering a Roman arena to fight for her life.

"We will pray together for a while and sprinkle anointing oil everywhere and then when I give the command you will cut down the tree," Otafion said. Asanga nodded.

Otafion started praying and moving in circles around the tree. Asanga followed him closely trying as hard as possible to pray along with him but it seemed there were no words to say or no god to listen. She finally decided to echo 'Fire' anytime Otafion said it.

The prayers went on for about an hour before Otafion said she should get ready to cut down the tree. Asanga picked up one of the machetes and walked to where the tree was.

"When I shout Jesus, you begin to cut, okay?" Otafion said. He was now feeling more confident. All the fears he had had when he was still in the car had gone. He would ask Asanga to make a thanksgiving when they got back to Yaounde, he thought.

"Jesus!" he shouted

Asanga struck the part of the tree that was above the anthill with the machete. Amanda turned on her heels and fled.

"Jesus!"

Asanga gave another blow to the tree with the machete. A large chunk of tree flesh flew out and fell nearby.

"Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!"

Asanga kept cutting.

The stem became thinner as Asanga cut it so that it could no longer bear the weight of the tree and it came crashing.

When the tree hit the ground, it raised a cloud of dust. The dust rose so high and thick that Asanga could no longer see Otafion. She coughed and waved her free hand several times in front of her face to clear away the dust.

Otafion coughed and tried to continue praying but stopped because the dust was too thick. He waved his hands before his face to clear away the dust.

"Papa" Asanga said in between coughs as she saw a form moving in the dust. She moved towards the person thinking it was Otafion. It was not Otafion she saw; it was Nem Taseng.

"Asanga Priscilla Nwata."

Asanga froze. No one ever called her by her last name. Very few people even knew the name, not even Emily.

She knew it was Nem Taseng although she had never met him in her life. Something in her just told her it was he.

"What have you done, Nwata?" Nem Tasang said moving closer to where she was.

"I…I…" the words seemed blocked in her throat by a lump.

"You have destroyed the shrine of the Great Mukenge, the guardian of our village. You have rendered the Mukenge homeless"

"I could not become the priestess…I could not move to the village" Asanga found her voice and said. Her voice sounded strange in her own ears. It was as if she was listening to herself through an old radio.

"Your grandmother named you," Nem Taseng said

"I could not come and remain in the village. I could not" Asanga burst into tears "I could not…"

"But you should not have destroyed the shrine. The priestess can be renamed but we can never find another shrine. Mukenge chose this place, not us." Nem Taseng said

"What was I to do?" Asanga said

"You should not have destroyed the shrine. Now the Mukenge will use your body as its shrine. As from today, you will no longer be alone but the Mukenge will be with you, its priestess" Nem Taseng replied.

"No," Asanga cried and turned away from Nem Taseng to run away. The dust was still surrounding her and she could not see. Her foot cut on something and she fell.

What happened next took only about sixty seconds.

Asanga saw several trails of black soldier ants emerge from the ground and from the anthill and advance toward her. She got to her feet and fled but she could not see where she was going because of the dust.

She ran blindly into the dust screaming.

"Papa, Papa, help me!"

Nem Taseng stood unperturbed looking at her. Otafion did not show. The number of ants increased as more came out of every nook in the ground. Some came out even where Asanga was standing. They entered under the cuffs of her jeans. Some climbed on her body. They were so fast that they soon reached her mouth and her ears and they went in.

Asanga beat them off with her hands and her tongue, running away from the anthill and Nem Taseng. However, she did not get far; the ants that were entering through the cuff of her jeans had made their way into her womanhood. Some bit her, and some made their way in. The pain caused her to stumble. She stopped calling for Otafion and just screamed. She grabbed her crotch with both hands in a bid to lessen the pain. More ants climbed on her and most entered her ears. She wriggled her body and her head and used one hand to brush off the ants while the other hand held onto her painful crotch. More ants came out from the tiny holes in the ground.

The ants covered her, entering her eyes, nostrils, ears, anus, womanhood…

She kept screaming. She thought she would never stop screaming. The ants continued entering.

*

"Sister Priscilla! Sister Priscilla!"

Asanga heard Otafion's voice. A hand was shaking her shoulder gently. She opened her eyes. She was lying on her back and Otafion was standing over her. There was no dust, no ants, and no Nem Taseng. Everything was back as it was before they started cutting the tree.

She sat up, looking around. The shrine tree was still cut and a few ants scurried on it into and out of the anthill.

"My God has given you the victory," Otafion said, "It is well; stand up let us go."

He held out a hand to help Asanga up. Asanga took it and stood up. Dusting herself and looking around.

"Where is Amanda?" her voice was husky.

"She fled about the time you started cutting the tree" Otafion replied

"We need to get out of here. She could have gone to call the villagers," Asanga said, a wave of danger rising in her.

"Let's go," Otafion said and picked up the machetes. "We need to hurry back else they might meet us on the path"

Asanga led the way as they ran through the forest. She selected the driver's number from her phonebook app and dialed. After two rings, he picked.

"Please can you meet us where you left us?" Asanga said. She listened to the driver speak for a few moments and then said, "Please drop everything and come. We are in a hurry"

Otafion's heart was pounding in his chest. He could not explain what he had witnessed. He wished he had never involved himself with this. Now he was running for his life. What if the villagers found them and butchered them?

When the tree fell, Asanga's body became stiff and she dropped the machete. Then he saw her back away from the tree slowly. Her eyes had a terrified look and she never blinked once. As she backed away, her foot cut on something and she fell. Then she started wriggling on the ground as if she was an earthworm dropped in salt, her hands brushing over her body as she did so. He stood still, looking at her not understanding what was going on.

After several seconds that felt like hours, she finally stopped moving and her eyes closed. He stood watching her for several minutes more before he went over to where she was and woke her.

He knew for sure that they had meddled with something and he begged God in his heart that he should save him from whatever it was.

They reached the dusty road. The car was there waiting. They got in and it sped away towards Mamfe, away from the village.

Otafion wanted to tell Asanga what he had seen but he did not. He just sat with a faraway look in his eyes thinking about what else he could do if he had to close the church house.

Asanga was not much different. She was even quieter during the return journey. She wondered if she should tell Otafion about Nem Taseng and the ants and after several hours of thinking about it, she decided against it.

When the car passed the bridge that separated Manyu from Meme, Otafion heaved a sigh of relief.