IKWIKWI - THE OWL

‘You know you can’t go’, Chukwudum tells his sister blocking the door of her hut. ‘Please Chukwudum leave me, I am not in the mood now’, she replied as she bends down to pick the Akwu Ojukwu palm kernel she will use for prayer before leaving. “For once in your life Ola, be reasonable”. “I am being reasonable”, Ola barked back as she turned around to look at her brother. ’So you want me to sit down here doing nothing when I have all it takes to go out there and find Nne?

It’s been six market days since their mother went to Amaku and she has not returned. Nobody has also heard from her. After the third day, the Igwe sent two warriors and one of his cabinet members to go to Amaku and look for her but up until now, they have not returned too. Everybody in the community is worried and scared at the same time. Nne Obinna says she still feels her which means she is still alive. They have done a ritual for her safety and had consulted Okike but nothing has come out of it.

“Ola, if you go out there, you will risk exposing your extra gifts and you know it won’t end well for you", Chukwudum said. He knows that people will brand her mmuo-mmiri or ogbanje if they know she has these extra gifts. ‘And besides’, he continued ‘You are the next Adaokike, something should not happen to you too’.

Ola ignored him and continued praying. Chukwudum watched her for a while, sighed, and said to her almost in a whisper. “Please, Ola I know you are worried, I am too but we have to be careful and reasonable. Let’s wait and let the elders handle this”. Ola’s eyes flared open immediately; she turned and looked at her brother. Her a have changed now looking like Akummirigwe, an early morning cloud. ‘Wait?’ she said ‘Did you say wait, eeh?’ ‘For how long do you think we should wait?’ Her voice now rising, "What if she is in danger? What if she needs my help? What if it is now that I am supposed to use my gifts? And you want me to sit here and wait?"

Chukwudum could sense that she is just feeling guilty for not using her extraordinary gifts to help their mother so he let her talk until she started crying. He moved closer to her and sat down opposite her with his legs crossed too. He stretched out and held her hands.

Ola sincerely doesn’t know what to do. She just wants to run out there and grabbed their mother back but something at the back of her mind is telling her not to go. As Chukwudum held her hands, she started feeling comforted. He doesn’t need words to comfort.

Chukwudum held his sister’s hands and after a while, he felt her getting relaxed. He was grateful that she is already calm. Then suddenly, she jerked. She is looking over his shoulder as if she is staring at something deadly. Her feelings turned to fear, complete fear was overwhelming her.

He turned his back and looked outside the door to see what was there. He couldn’t see anything. He felt his sister’s hands slipping off his and he turned back only to see her lying on the floor motionless.

‘Ola, Ola’, he called while shaking her legs. She didn’t move. He stood up and screamed, ‘Nwankwo! Uloma!’, the two servants who were outside rushed in. Immediately they came in, he rushed out and sprinted across the compound to Nne Obinna’s hut. Nne!” he called as he entered her hut. She was supposed to be having her midday rest but she was sitting on the floor with aka, beads and nzu, chalk in front of her. Chukwudum assumed she is praying for their mother.

Nne Obinna stopped her prayer and turned to Chukwudum, “Ogini, what is it?”, she asked him. ‘Nne, please come. I don’t know what is wrong with Ola, she is not moving’. She stood up immediately and followed him out of the hut asking him what happened. ‘I don’t know, she was looking like she saw something and then she fell’, he said.

When they got to her hut, the servants have already put her on the bed. Uloma was fanning her while Nwankwo was just standing there looking lost. “Get me water and Ojukwu”, Nne Obinna ordered as she entered the hut. Both servants rushed out to get them. After some seconds they returned with the items and handed it to Nne Obinna. She chewed the Ojukwu and placed it on Ola’s forehead. Carrying the water in her left palm, she used her right hand to sprinkle the water on Ola as she murmurs some words. After some time, she was done then she instructed the servants to let her rest but to call her once she woke up and left. Chukwudum watched his sister lying down there with the Ojukwu still on her forehead and wondered what happened.

*******************************************************Ola opened her eyes, the sun has already set but the light from the uli, torch outside is entering her hut. She looked at the door half expecting to see the same creature again. She tried to bring down her legs when she touched something. She tensed and that was when she saw her brother lying on the floor of her hut. She smiled, he won’t leave her side.

Chukwudum felt something touch him, he opened his eyes and looked around that was when he noticed that he has slept off. He got up immediately and looked at his sister, she was staring at him. ‘Ola! You are awake’, he said to her. ‘Ekene dili Chukwuokike, thanks to Almighty’. ‘Nwankwo!’ he screamed to the servant outside, ‘Tell Nne she is awake’.

Chukwudum turned to his sister, “What happened”, he asked. ‘It is as if you saw something evil’. ‘Because it is’, Ola replied immediately. ‘It is that same creature I saw at the farm’.

They had told Nne Obinna about it that day but she said that it could be Ola’s imagination because she was tense about her first Ngozi Egwu Onwa and since Chukwudum did not see it too that it may not be real. But she still said a protection prayer for her just in case.

‘Hmmn’ Chukwudum sighed. “But why can’t I see it?” he asked. Ola was in the middle of saying ‘I don’t know’ when Nne Obinna walked in. “Ola, nwa m, Ola my daughter, are you okay?”, she said immediately as she entered the hut. Ola just nodded. ‘What happened’ she asked. Ola told her that she saw that same creature she saw at the farm stand at her door staring at her. ‘This could be serious’ Nne Obinna said to herself. She told Ola not to worry and that they will try to find out what it is.

Nne Obinna told the servants to get her palm fronds and she put them at the entrance of her hut and sprinkled ash around her hut. She instructed Ola not to leave the hut for now. Ola agitated saying she can’t be indoors. Nne Obinna told her that if the creature is looking as evil as she said, then someone is after her and she needs to be where there is protection. When Nne Obinna left, Chukwudum insisted on sleeping in her hut that night even though it was not allowed.

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Ola heard distant murmuring and she opened her eyes. The sun is already up high in the sky. How did she sleep this long? She and Chukwudum had been up most of the night talking but she didn’t even imagine that she will be sleeping till midday. She brought her feet down her bed and looked around, Chukwudum was not there.

The murmur started coming up loud. It sounded like a group of people saying a lot of things at the same time. She was about to come down from her bed to go and check what was happening when her brother rushed into her hut half panting. He looked her straight in the eyes and said what she hadn’t expected to hear at that time, ‘Nne is back’.

Ola’s heart flipped, she wasn’t sure why but before she could think about it, she started running. She followed the direction of the murmur to the entrance of their compound. She ran to her and wrapped her hands around her waist in a tight embrace. As she embraced their mother, she was shivering and crying. She doesn’t know what to feel or say but she knows that she is grateful that their mother is back.

Adaokike folded her arms around her daughter. She knows that she must have been scared since she left. The journey had been long and she just wants to rest at that moment. She looked up and saw her son staring at her like he had seen a ghost. She smiled at him and that was when Chukwudum ran and embraced her too. She held both of them on the shoulder and they followed her to her hut together with her companions. The villagers who had followed her to the entrance of their compound have already started going. When they reached her hut, Nne Obinna ordered the servants to get her water to bath and food but Nne said she is not eating until she finished resting. Nne Obinna told Ola and Chukwudum to go back to their hut while she sat back with her sister to take care of her.

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It’s been two days since their mother came back from Amaku. Ola still feels this uneasiness inside her. Their mother is back home safe and sound and she is supposed to be genuinely happy but deep down inside her, her mind is not at rest.

After their mother had finished resting, she had gone to Obi Igwe, King’s palace to see the Igwe and to thank him for sending out people to check on her.

Their mother had said everything was fine. She said that the people of Amaku had only called to make peace with her and to cast out an evil spirit in the community. When asked why the men sent by Igwe didn’t come back immediately, she only said that she had told them to wait so they would all go back together.

This didn’t make sense to Ola, messengers are supposed to return with a reply so as not to keep everybody worried. Nobody tried to query her more, she is the Adaokike after all and if she says that everything is fine then everything is fine, and besides everybody came back safely and none of them is complaining. But Ola is worried, she knows that something is wrong somewhere and Chukwudum thought so too but they can’t place their hands on it.

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Ola lay on her bed and closed her eyes, she just want a good night's rest and leave the worries for tomorrow. She is still confined to her hut. When they told her mother what she saw, her mother said that it may be her imagination but she did a little protection ritual for her and still told her to stay in her hut until they are sure. She doesn’t know how long they want her to stay inside but if by tomorrow nothing is heard or seen then she is going about her normal business. She has missed blending with the forces of nature. She had missed transforming.

Ola had just closed her eyes for a while when she heard a screeching of an owl, it was so vivid that it couldn’t possibly be her dream and so piercing that it could have deafened a baby. She sat up on her bed. The compound was dead quiet. Fear is now griping her. She waited for Chukwudum to come in but he isn’t. Then she came out of her hut and ran as fast as she could to their mother’s hut. She was almost at the hut when she noticed some servants gathering at the entrance of Nne Obinna’s hut. She started moving fast towards the hut. As she came closer, she heard some of the servants crying. She moved closer and some of them looked at her with pity.

As she entered the hut, she saw Nne Obinna lying on her back on her bed. Their mother was in front of her sprinkling her water with palm fronds murmuring some incantations. Her two maidservants were behind her one holding a white cloth. Chukwudum was standing at the extreme of the hut staring at the drama in the hut. He saw her walk in but he didn’t move.

Ola doesn’t understand what’s going on so she came closer and stood by their mother and looked at Nne Obinna. Their mother stopped almost immediately and gave the calabash of water to her other servant and motioned to the one with a white cloth. She used it and covers Nne Obinna’s whole body including her face. That was when it dawned on Ola, her heart sank, Nne Obinna is dead.