Chapter 60

The priest looked sheepish and loss for words now. "How did you find out?" He asked feebly when he could finally find his voice.

"What?" Njideka snorted. "You think that I'd never find out that you were playing me all this time? Anyway, let's just say that you are paying for all your crimes! For example, do you remember Oluchi's death...the woman who you raped and got away with the crime? It's still murder, isn't it? Even though she committed suicide, you are the one who pushed her to it... let's see it this way- you killed the wife and I killed the husband because I didn't want to go through the public disgrace and forever ruin my chances of getting married again...so, I let you take the fall for it, whenever God decides that my turn has come, let him do what he deems fit, but first, I must enjoy my life, especially when Nduka left a lot of money for me... His son isn't interested in the house, so I get to keep the house or sell it if I wish."

"Why not let God be the judge, Njideka? What happened between me and Oluchi happened almost seven years ago; why punish me for something that I'm partially innocent of. Yes, I raped her, but I did not know that she would go to the extent of committing suicide."

"I don't care what you think, Thomas! You had this coming and I was not going to let you push me into doing the same thing as Oluchi after waiting for four years, only to end up being jilted! No way! I struck first and I get the last laugh!"

"Now because of you, not only have I been dismissed from priesthood, I've also lost everything I've ever worked hard for! Isn't that punishment enough, Njideka? Fine, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about Ebele, but she's the woman I'm in love with. I'm sorry that I lied to you but that was only because I liked you a lot and I wanted us to continue our relationship, but do you have to destroy my whole life just to prove a point of how mad at me you are?"

"You simply messed with the wrong girl, Thomas... You never saw this coming, did you?" Njideka smirked. "So instead of being such a cry-baby, just man-up and accept your fate. You'll not be the first person to be framed for murder and you'll definitely not be the last...as for that girl you love more than you do me, I hope she is willing to spend the rest of her life waiting for you to get out of prison...as for me, I've gotten rid of this pregnancy so that I can start my life afresh."

Father Thomas began to sob and plead as he slowly slipped from his chair to his knees, pressing his palms together in front of him. "Please Njideka, if I've wronged you in any way that I don't even know of, please forgive me. I don't want to die here... This place is really terrible... They hardly feed us well, we can even excrete properly or urinate; this is hell, Njideka! Helll!  I don't want to die for a crime that I did not commit. Please, Njideka, just go out there and tell the police that I'm innocent! Just tell them that I did not kill your husband, I'm sure that they'll believe you. I've been in here for four weeks now and never have I suffered like this before in my life. I beg you with the name of the living God, Njideka, please go and tell them the truth!"

"You must be out of your mind if you think that I'll put myself in the line to save you, Thomas!" Njideka spat. "You are not even worth it! You have cheated on me countless times and also infected me several times! You are also a pathological liar and I've had to live a fool's dream because of you! Nduka has been buried and no one else knows what happened on that fateful day besides you and I, and it will remain that way because it will always be my word against yours! 

In fact, I'm ready to testify against you in court. Well, if it had been the other way around, I might have framed someone else, but you were the only available scapegoat and I had no choice but to choose you at that moment!" She exhaled now as Father Thomas placed his head on the table and silently wept, his shoulders, shaking. "Anyway, I was told that you'll be charged to court for manslaughter; you'll need all the luck you need, father." She took her handbag from the floor, then rose to her feet. 

"The least I can do for you during these trying times is to bring you food whenever I can...If you like, don't eat it because you think it's poison, hunger will simply kill you here! And from the look of things, you'll be sentenced to... let's say thirty-five years or more. You'll have enough time to think about your life while you are in jail... Well, I've to go now. I'll see you in court next week." She said and left, apathetic to his plight.

                                                                               ★★★

A man in his early fifties, stealthily made his way to the desolate stream late in the evening, carefully carrying a black clay pot containing items of sacrifice which consisted of three boiled eggs, the raw head and feet of a chicken, two pieces of agidi (a caked gelatinous food made by boiling a paste of fermented maize or flour), several pieces of kola nuts with palm oil sprinkled all over them.

 When he got to the edge of the stream, he cast a wary look around him, lifted the plate closer to his face, whispered some incantations and also stated his wishes into it. When he was done, he gently placed the plate on the edge of the stream, turned around and started to walk back to the village. He had not walked far when he came to an abrupt halt- a few feet away sat the same clay plate of sacrifice in the middle of the open bush path. 

The man was surprised and perplexed at the same time. He wiped his hands over his eyes to be sure that he wasn't hallucinating, but when he looked again, the sacrifice was indeed there. Wondering how the plate had left the stream and gotten to the bush path ahead of him, he glanced back towards the stream where he had come from, then looked around him to be sure that no one was playing a prank on him. 

When he had confirmed that he was the only one in that environment, he tentatively approached the plate of sacrifice, carried it and went back to the stream, left it on the spot that he had left it before, then started his journey back home again.

By the time he reached the same spot again in the bush path, he almost had a heart attack when he saw the sacrifice there again. "Hanhan!" He said in confusion. "Kilele bayi? (what kind of thing is this?)" He began to silently replay how he had taken the sacrifice and returned it to the stream the first time, but he still couldn't figure how the sacrifice had gotten ahead of him a second time, so he figured out that whoever was doing this must really be a fast runner. "Come!" He raised his finger in warning as he shook it at the bush surrounding him, thinking the child or children who must be pranking him was hiding in it. "If this a joke, stop it! Whoever you are, I'm old enough to be your father, so stop this nonsense! If I get you, you shall rue the day you were born because I shall deal ruthlessly with you!" He threatened. "Am I your mate?!"

Angrily approaching the sacrifice this time, he carried it and stalked back to the stream, left it there and started his journey back home a third time, but immediately he reached the same spot, the sacrifice was suddenly dashed out of nowhere against his head as if someone had stoned him with it, and he froze in disbelief as the items slipped down his head, to his clothes and down his body to the ground.

 He was too shocked for words that he could only gape down at his ruined clothes which were stained with palm oil and some of it was now dribbling from his head down to his ears and chin.

"WHO DID THIS?!" He roared now in fury, looking around with arms, wide open. "WHO DARED TO DO THIS TO AN ELDER LIKE ME! AN OLOYE! WHO IS THAT FOOL THAT KNOCKS ON THE DOOR OF DEATH?!"

"I did!" Ewatomi said and when the man turned to find where the voice had come from, she said, "Up here."

He looked up and fixed his eyes up at her. She was comfortably sitting on one of the branches of a tree. "YOU?!" He couldn't believe his eyes. "A twelve-year-old?!"

"I'm almost thirteen." She corrected.

"I don't care! You are still a child and a girl for that matter who should be busy helping her mother prepare the family's dinner in the kitchen like normal girls should, not roaming about like a cursed child!" He barked. "How dare you humiliate me by bathing me with my own sacrifice, Ige?! Do you know what you have done?! Have you no fear?!"

"Silence, you old fool! I speak on behalf of the stream and it has rejected that rubbish you left at her edge!" Ewatomi answered in disgust. "It does not need your evil dirty sacrifice!" She stated.

"What do you mean by that?! Of what business of yours it is if I place a sacrifice at the stream?!" He angrily asked. "Besides, you are just a child, what could you possibly know about sacrifices?!"

"I know all there's to know about it, Afolayan!"

"What!!! You dare address me by my name?! A whole Oloye (chief) in this kingdom?!"

"Wo, gbenu e dake! (See, shut that mouth of yours!)" Ewatomi retorted and the man drew his head back in surprise. "Agbaya ni ye n! (You are a shameless person) Eyan buruku ni yen! (You are a very wicked person!) What has your brother's widow done to you? Is it a must that she marries you?! After burying a charm in her husband's farm which killed him because you have always coveted his beautiful wife, now you want to cast a spell on her so that she can be begging for your affection and also beg you to marry her in order to massage your useless ego! 

Is it a crime that she's a beautiful woman? Or is it a crime that she loved her husband so much that she chose him over you?! Her husband's body has not yet gone cold in the grave neither is she done mourning him so that she can shed her black attire, yet you have crept into her house twice, trying to forcefully lay with her, but because she has blatantly turned down your advances, you threatened to deal with her which has made you resort to trying to charm her to fall head over heels in love with you! Kini gan? (What is it sef?) Ika ni yen! Ika buruku! (You are wicked!)"

The man could only gape up at her in shock. "Ige, how did you know all these? How? Have you been following me around?" He asked, frightened now. "How did you know?" He was astounded.

She suddenly vanished from the tree and appeared behind him. Startled by her sudden appearance, he spun around and almost fell on his buttocks as he staggered away from her, eyes wide in shock. "I have got better things to do with my time than to follow you around, Afolayan! I'm Ewatomi!" She declared as she slapped a hand on her chest in a bragging manner. "And nothing in this village escapes me! Except I choose to ignore it!"

The man dropped to one knee and then the other, stretching open hands towards Ewatomi in plea. "Ige, dakun, have mercy on me! Please don't tell anyone about this. We can keep this secret between us. I am ready to give you anything you want, just don't let anyone know that I killed my youngest brother because I was jealous of him!"

Ewatomi let out a quiet wicked chuckle. "I won't tell anyone." She told him, arms folded under her chest.

"Hrrrr!" He sighed out loud in relief, briefly closing his eyes as he placed his hands on his chest to calm his racing heart. "I have always known that you are a reasonable child! May the gods bless you!"

"Keep your blessings, Oloye!" Ewatomi said, raising a palm towards him. "I didn't agree to keep your secret!"

He stared at her in confusion and his heart began to beat again. "What do you mean? But you just said that you won't tell anyone." He said in a trembling voice.

"I know what I said, Oloye. I indeed will not tell a soul what you did, but you'll tell everyone yourself what you have done!" Ewatomi declared. "Afolayan!" She said aloud, placing a finger on the center of his forehead now. "You shall merrily dance like a new bride to the Kabiyesi's palace. On your way, you shall sing of all your atrocities to whoever you meet until you reach the palace where Judgement will be passed on you, and only then will you be released from this spell!"

Immediately the spell took effect, the man smiled broadly like a happy lunatic, got up to his feet, took the clay plate, wore it on his head like a cap, held the hem of his agbada with his thumbs and index fingers then began to dance and shake his buttocks from one side to the other. Turning towards the village, he started a song and began to dance down the bush path, while Ewatomi watched him go for a while before slinking into the bush.

                                                                              ★★★

After walking for a few hours, the Queen paused and said to the two guards and maidservant who had escorted her deep into the forest. "Wait here; Kike and I will continue from here. I don't think it's that far anymore."

The guards and servant obeyed, and taking her little daughter's hand, the Queen continued her journey into the forest. When they had walked for what felt like an extra hour, they stopped under a large tree near a brook.

"Maami, why have you brought me here?" Kikelomo wearily asked. "We have been walking since morning. I'm hungry and tired and I want to go back home. This kind of stress is too much for a princess!" She complained.

"Relax Kike and stop acting like a child! Have you forgotten that you are almost sixteen years of age? I brought you here for a very important reason, so just relax and stop complaining. If it's food that you want, you'll get it." The Queen assured her.