Chapter 67

Vincent and the others got to the village square in time. There was a huge pile of big yams under a tree and most of the villagers had gathered while more were still arriving from the neighboring village. The villagers were nicely dressed in their traditional clothes and those who formed a large circle around the dancers and drummers, danced also. 

The royal family and the chiefs sat under the shade of a bigger tree to watch the dancers and drummers. It was really a gay event and the priests watched with so much interest. When Vincent glanced at Kikelomo, he noticed that she kept glancing around as if looking for someone and he knew that she was probably looking for him, so be moved backward, hiding behind the crowd, but making sure that he could still see the dance arena.

While Babatunde was busy showing the other priests his dance steps as if trying to teach them, Vincent looked up and that was when he caught a glimpse of someone in white on the other side of the crowd. She was walking behind the people as if trying to find an advantaged spot. 

Vincent noticed that apart from her white attire, she stood out because of the white drawings she had painted on her face, neck shoulders, arms and feet, while her long braided hair was wrapped in three buns on her head. Vincent couldn't figure out why his heart felt so light just at the sight of her beauty, but he knew that there was something rather alluring about her. For the very first time in his life, he was suddenly attracted to the opposite sex. 

As he stared at her in awe, watching her watch the dancers with some interest in her eyes, he tuned out everyone else around him, including the sound of the cheering villagers, the songs of the singers and the loud drumming of the drummers, all his undivided attention were fixed on her. 

He was so helplessly drawn to her that he didn't know when his legs began to slowly move in a circle behind the large crowd towards her, and Babatunde and the other priests who were too carried away by the sight of new dancers in colorful dyed clothes who had replaced the former ones when the beatings of the drums changed, didn't even notice that he had left their side. 

As Vincent continued to move closer and closer towards Ewatomi, seeking to see her up close, that was when she also noticed him as she tore her eyes away from the dancers, and their gazes locked.

Shyly pulling her veil lower over her face with both hands and realizing that he was heading her way, Ewatomi turned and snuck away from the crowd, lowering her head. When Vincent got to the spot where he had seen her standing and did not find her, he was surprised and quickly glanced around as he maneuvered his way through the crowd, turning his head here and there, trying to find her in the crowd. Just then, he looked towards the bush, several feet away from the square, and he saw her slinking into the bush.

Throwing caution to the wind, he went after her, going further and further into the bush as she moved from tree to tree, trying to hide from him, and the scene was replayed to Vincent like a deja Vu. He felt like he had seen this happening before when he was just a mere teenager. 

As he continued to briskly move through the bush, following her and pushing branches and tall plants out of the way, he finally came into a small clearing where the trees stood far apart from each other. Looking around now in a slow circle, he discovered that he was all alone and there was no sign of her anymore. 

All that was left was the lively sound of the forest around him and the sound of beating drums seemed more distant now. As he looked around, wondering if he was lost and had only followed a mirage, he heard a soft sound from above,

"Psst!"

He turned around and looked up and found her sitting on a bough of a tree, her legs dangling right above him. "Your curiosity might be your own folly, stranger." She said down to him.

"I can say the same about you...I have a strong conviction that you are the intruder who keeps sniffing me." He said wryly, now noticing that she was barefooted, but he was suddenly stunned when Ewatomi suddenly vanished from the tree.

                                                                                ★★★

"Over here." Ewatomi partially emerged from a tree a few feet away at his side and he turned towards the direction, surprised to see her there.

"How did you do that?" He asked in awe, adjusting his eyeglasses.

"It's something that I do almost all the time." She said with a proud smile, subtly shrugging a shoulder. "You can't?"

"What do you mean by I can't? Humans are not supposed to vanish?" He answered.

"Your sky god didn't give you such ability?" She asked wryly.

"What do you mean by sky god?" He asked, confused. "Who's sky god?"

"The one who lives in the sky." She gestured with her chin up at the sky. "The one your lot lift their hands to all the time."

Vincent glanced up at the sky, now understanding whom she meant. "Oh!" He chuckled. "We don't call him sky god, although, he has other names but I prefer to call him Lord of Hosts."

"Lord of Hosts." She tested the pronunciation to see how it would sound in her own mouth. "...hmmm... Sounds authoritative." She concluded. "...but I like it."

"He's the Superior God and those who fear and love him can do anything in his name." Vincent stated.

"Well, if he can convince my hard-hearted grandmother to end my exile, only then will I believe you." Ewatomi said.

"You are in exile?" He asked, perplexed again. Then he glanced around. "If you are in exile then how come you are still within the village?"

She chuckled, walked to the front of the tree and leaned her back against it with her hands behind her. "Pfft! I might look human but I'm not from around here, priest."

"From another village perhaps?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not of this world."

"What do you mean?"

"Let me show you..." She pulled back her white veil and turned the side of her head to him, pushing and bending her ear forward to show him the gills at the back of her ear.

Vincent's eyes grew wide. "What's that?" He asked, a bit repulsed.

"Gills, haven't seen one before?"

"On a fish, yes, but humans don't have gills! Only fishes and other aquatic animals do...why do you even have that?" He swept his eyes over her, trying to figure out any other odd thing about her.

Seeing the look of repulsion on his face, she chuckled. "Don't worry... It's almost useless on land, except when I've to stay underwater for a few minutes. The real gills are on my rib sides and they help me easily breathe underwater for as long as I want, but you can't see them in this human body."

Vincent pursed his lips now as he contemplated on what she had said then began to slowly nod his head, not believing anything she has just said, "Good makeup costume...I must say that I underestimated this village..." With a hand on his chin and the other pointing at her, he squinted an eye and said wryly, "...I'm impressed... Now, back to the reason why I followed you- why do you keep sneaking into my room at night? Do you haunt that place?"

"I've not done so for days now, have I?"

"Yeah? After you almost broke my nose with that forehead of yours!" He gave her a disgruntled look as he remembered the pain.

"I was only defending myself." She simply replied.

"Do you go around sneaking into people's houses in the dead of the night?" He asked.

"No."

"Then why mine? Have you got something against priests?"

"As long as you do not try to hurt the people, we'll be fine."

"Why do you walk around barefooted anyway?" He stared at her feet. "Have you got anything against shoes?"

"What do I need shoes for?" She asked.

"To protect your soles from the hot earth and from sharp objects? Don't you ever get pricked by thorns or broken and pointy twigs?"

"My soles are just fine, priest." She lifted her right foot so that he could see under it and he realized much to his surprise, that they were as smooth and soft as a newborn's. "I've been walking barefooted for the past twenty-four years and I've never needed shoes."

"Hmmm...you are strange in a lot of ways, maiden. But the good thing is that I now have a face to the girl in my dreams... I can now resketch a new you."

"What do you mean?" She asked, puzzled.

"I've been seeing you in my dreams ever since I was fifteen...but I never saw your face until now."

She stared at him in surprise.

"What?" He asked, noticing how big and round her eyes had become.

"I've also been having the same dreams of you ever since I started wearing the bracelet you took from me." She told him. "I was only twelve then."

He pulled out the bracelet from his pocket and held it up in front of him. "If you mean this, it's actually mine."

"Finders, keepers." She stated, hands on her hips now as she leveled a gaze at him.

"I lost it years ago." He told her.

"For a priest, you still tell a lie?" She gave him a quizzical look and Vincent felt a bit ashamed. "You got rid of it several years ago by angrily throwing it into the river."

His brow creased with a frown and he dropped the hand holding up the bracelet down to his side. "How do you know that?"

"I know almost everything that there's to know." She answered.

"Then why didn't you know that I was going to ambush you the night I took this bracelet from you?" He lifted a questioning brow, willing to beat her at her own game.

"I was only careless." She rolled her eyes and exhaled.

"Speaking of that, why were you sniffing me anyway?"

"To get accustomed to your scent of course. I've got the smelling ability of a hound which means that I can track and find you whenever I want."

"I see...how about I make it easy for you and tell you where to find me anytime you want- the church."

"I'm never stepping my feet into a church!" She strongly said. "It looks like a shrine for your sky god."

"Why do you say so?" He asked, baffled.

"The former priests came here to preach about bowing down to man-made idols but you lot are no different. Does your Lord of Host allow you to bow down before statues created with your own hands? How different are you people from those who serve my mother and other gods? Because you call them saints doesn't make them any less idols."

Vincent stared at her in surprise. "And how did you know that God is against idol-worshipping when you have never been to church?"

"Well, I can't explain it... I snuck home one night and my father had left that book in the sitting room..."

"It's called the Holy Bible." He told her.

"Right...I was just walking by when the book opened and the pages flipped. At first, I thought it was the breeze coming through the window that did it but when I drew closer to the book, a last single page flipped and there was light glowing on a few words."

"What were the words?" He asked.

"I've got a good memory, so I'll tell you exactly what I saw. The first page opened to me was Leviticus, and in Leviticus 19:4, it said- 'Do not turn to idols, nor make for yourselves molded gods: I am the Lord your God.'

Light shone on another part after the pages flipped a few times and in Leviticus 26:1, it stated- 'You shall not make idols for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God.'

It showed me another place in Psalms 97:7 which says:

'Let all be put to shame who serve carved images, who boast of idols. Worship Him, all you gods.’

“I saw more as more pages flipped- in Isaiah 31:7, I read,

'For in that day every man shall throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves.'

I got tired of reading at Jeremiah 10:8, which said: 'But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish; A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine.'

“So, tell me, are your lot not hypocritical?" she asked.

Vincent heaved a sigh. He knew that she was right about the scriptures quite alright, but he didn't make the doctrine. Catholic was the first church ever and what could he say against the doctrine that had thrived for years. "Why would a Holy Bible open to you?" He asked, perplexed.

"I am baffled myself. Perhaps, your god was trying to show me something or make me pass a message to my father."

"And did you?"

"No. You are the first person that I've told."

"How is it possible that you could even read it?" He asked.

"I don't know...it baffled me too because at that moment, I could read but immediately I left the sitting room, the ability was gone."

Vincent sighed again then asked, "What are you called?"

"So many names..." She gave a small smile now. "...depends on which you want... The villagers call me Ige; my mother calls me Abeni; my father calls me Ebunoluwa, but my real name is Ewatomi which means beauty is enough."

"You are Babatunde's daughter?" Vincent asked in surprise.

"You have met my father?" She blinked in surprise too.

"Yes, and he has told us so much about you."

"Did he say something nice?" She asked.

"If your refusing to convert to Christianity, get some education and get married is something nice, I think that's pretty much it."

Ewatomi pouted now. "I'm not going to do any of that." She adamantly stated.

"And...yes! He also mentioned that you are very stubborn." Vincent added.

"Now that you know my name, what are you called?" She asked.

"Vincent."

"I'll call you glasses." She said wryly.

"I'll prefer Vincent, thank you very much." He insisted.

"Glasses it is!" She refused to change her mind.

"I could call you barefoot or the nightcrawler just to even things." He said.

"You wouldn't."

"Vincent it is then."

"Will try..." She smiled.

A short silence ensued between them now as both of them thought of how to dispel the awkward moment of silence, when Ewatomi finally spoke, breaking the silence now. "Are you afraid of snakes?" She swallowed hard, her eyes fixed over his shoulder, behind him.