Chapter 52

"No, auntie, I don't like it!" Vincent vehemently said. "If you don't stop, I might as well add this harassment to the list of things that I've to tell my father when he arrives tomorrow."

Njideka's smile wavered now. "What's even doing you sef? Someone cannot even play with you again? Why are you so uptight for a teenager?"

"Auntie, I'm not uptight, I just want you to set some boundaries, please!"

"Forget about boundaries!" Njideka remained adamant. "And concerning boundaries, I'm tired of that auntie-auntie thing that you are always calling me. Call me Njideka. If you want to make it sweeter, call me Nji-love. I'm not the old woman that you are making me feel like I'm, I'm only older than you by seven years. You can only call me aunty whenever your father or a visitor is around but whenever it's just you and I, Njideka will do just fine."

"Thanks, but I'd rather not do that..." Vincent said and started to go into the house when she spoke again,

"I hope that you are still not moving around with that little slut, what's her name again, Chinasa right?"

"For the umpteenth time, auntie, She's just a friend!" Vincent rolled his eyes.

"Well, I don't like the way she looks at you. A friend doesn't look at another friend that way!" Njideka complained. "That little girl is just looking for some dick!"

Vincent pursed his lips in anger, as he stared down at his step mum in disbelief. "Could you stop using such vulgar words around the house? What if someone hears it?"

"Who will?" Njideka shrugged a shoulder, glancing around. "We are the only one in this compound, remember?"

"All the same, please stop!" Vincent insisted.

"Alright, alright... Don't use this as an excuse to get rude to me... Anyway, I prepared some yam pottage just the way you taught me to... I'm sure you'll like it."

"I've to read in preparation for my test next week. After reading for at least three hours then I'll eat." He answered.

"No problem..." Njideka shrugged a shoulder as she applied some colorless nail polish on her toenails. "As long as you eat it, I can wait."

Vincent frowned now in puzzlement. "What do you mean by you can wait?"

She looked up at him and smiled then her eyes slowly ran down his body. "Don't worry, you'll have a need for me today...and your life might just depend on it." She winked at it, biting the corner of her lower lip.

Ignoring her, Vincent simply walked into the house and went to his room.

                                                                               ★★★

Later that evening in the rural West...

Oyediran walked towards the secluded part of the forest where Ewatomi always sat upstream, and like he had presumed, he found her playing with the water by magically turning them into watery transparent leaping fishes and whenever they leaped out of the water and dove back into it, they splattered into the water, formed again and leaped out.

"You seem to spend more time alone these days... What bothers you, child?" Oyediran asked as he sat down on a rock beside her.

"I don't know..." Ewatomi said forlornly. "I feel lonely... I guess I'm only missing home..." She dismally stared downstream.

"Is that all?" Oyediran asked.

"I'm almost thirteen and my grandmother has never for once come to check on me. Do you think she's still upset with me?" She asked.

Oyediran sighed now. "No, I don’t think that she's still upset with you, child. Osun's anger can never last for this long."

"Then why hasn't she summoned me home yet? Why have I never seen a mermaid after she exiled me to land? I'm even beginning to doubt the existence of my own kind." She finished with a sad pout.

"It's easy to doubt it, because unlike humans, you don't get to see them almost at all. But I'm sure that wherever Osun is, she still loves and watches over you...you are her granddaughter, she can never desert you."

"I don't think she loves me." Ewatomi said, tears forming in her eyes. "No mother casts her daughter out for this long."

Oyediran swallowed hard, understanding how she was feeling. "Ever wonder why I age slowly?" He asked now. "I saw you more than thirteen years ago and yet, it only looks like I've only aged two years."

Ewatomi turned to look at him, examining his hair and beard. "But you have a few grey hairs here and there."

Oyediran chuckled. "I dye it. It's just a trick to make the villagers less suspicious. As a matter of fact, I'm not from this village. I only came here to dwell when I was only looking twenty-five, and the last village I left was beginning to suspect that I was not aging the right way after dwelling with them for over thirty years."

Ewatomi narrowed her eyes now at him. "How many villages have you moved from?"

"This is my nineteenth village and to avoid familiarizing myself with the people, I always choose to dwell in the forest, but I only go into the village when I need some supplies."

"So, how exactly old are you?" Ewatomi curiously asked.

"I'm four hundred and sixty-six years."

Ewatomi's eyes widened in surprise. "You don't say!" She whispered. "You are human, right?" She asked for clarification.

"Not really..." He exhaled now and added, "I guess it's high time that I told you who I really am. I'm Orunmila, the first prophet of Ifa Divination, that's why I'm a seer, and your grandmother, Osun, was my Lover. Your late mother, Enitan, was my daughter."

Ewatomi stared at him in awe that her magical watery fishes suddenly burst into the water and dropped into the flowing stream. "You are my grandfather?!" She uttered in astonishment.

Oyediran nodded. "I found Osun several centuries ago basking in the sun in an isolated part of a river in another village. At first, she was going to flee but I don't know what changed her mind; she came back. It was love at first sight, Ewatomi." He said with a nostalgic smile as he stared at the branches of the trees across the stream. 

"We were deeply in love. Anyway, our bond grew stronger and we made love. Immediately Osun discovered that she was pregnant, she vanished. I didn't see her until after fourteen months when she came to show me the baby. Together, we made your mother a necklace and wore it around her neck to seal the bond of water and land, but after then, I never saw Osun nor my daughter again, although I realized that I began to age very slowly after our encounter. 

I began to search for Osun because I'm still very much in love with her, but I never found her. Not even my ability to see visions could reveal her whereabouts to me; I realized that she had hidden herself and had forever shut me out. However, I came to this village several years ago when I heard that Osun had flooded this village with water after she found her daughter, our daughter, dead. But before I could get here, she was long gone but until today, as you have also experienced yourself, a storm still occurs on that fateful date your mother died, every year."

"But you look like you are in your late thirties. You still look very much young and handsome." Ewatomi said. "I'm sure that Osun still loves you. That woman is awfully proud!"

"Just like you..." Oyediran blankly stared at the stream as he soberly said. "I always doubted her love for me... I wondered what I did wrong that would make her sever all communications with me. I've searched for her for years that I've almost given up on finding her, I'll give almost anything just to see her beautiful face once again, even though it's from afar." The man finished with a sad exhale.

Ewatomi sighed now. "I guess we are both dying to see the same woman, but I promise you that when I finally return to my kingdom, I shall trick Osun to come up to the surface, I promise you, grandfather."

Oyediran only laughed. "Osun is too smart for that. I don't think she'll fall for it. It's one of the reasons that I fell in love with her and I also adore her reverence for Olodumare... She's indeed one of a kind!" Oyediran stood up now. "Come, child! I've just prepared snail soup... Come eat some!" He stretched a hand down towards Ewatomi who took it and allowed him to pull her up, and together, hand in hand, they walked towards the house in the bush.

Osun turned away from her magical mirror where she had just finished watching Oyediran and Ewatomi. A tear started to slip down her face but she caught it with the back of her finger as she turned away from the mirror without a word and her personal maids, Labake and Adunni exchanged looks but said nothing.