Illusion of Permanence

Calabash of the gods(4)

I spent the next few months with my family. Every morning I woke up to a beautiful wife and a healthy son, I was happy. The prince's men never came for me. As to why they were meant to come for me, I could recall. I had this nagging feeling that something was wrong, that I had forgotten something very important.

My life was the same every day; go to the farm, come back home, have some palm wine and kola nut, chat with friends and family, go to sleep, rinse repeat, rinse repeat, rinse repeat, rinse repeat.

"RINSE REPEAT!!!"

"WHAT AM I DOING HERE?!"

"WHY AM I HERE?!"

"I NEED TO WAKE UP!!"

"For what?"

"I CAN NOT REMEMBER!!!"

"WHAT IS HAPPENING, WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER?"

"Indeed, why can't you?"

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME? WHERE AM I? WHAT IS THIS? WHO ARE YOU?!"

"WHY, WHY, WHY. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!!"

"PLEASE STOP!!!"

"Remember, your duty" A voice, as silent as the night whispered.

Clang My hands shivered, making me drop my hoe to the ground. My son, seeing this, ran up to me. He picked up the hoe and looked at me worriedly.

"Baba, is something the matter?"

I looked at his big black eyes, I felt guilty for startling him. I took the hoe from him and rubbed his head.

"Nothing son, I am okay." I said and smiled to reassure him.

I assured him nothing was wrong despite his insistence that I was acting odd. He ended up conceding when I told him I would buy some cashew for him on the way back. But deep down, I was worried, there was something I was forgetting, something was not right but the more I tried to think of it, the more it eluded me. A day of farm work made me forget the incident by the evening. When it was time, I packed up my tools and along with my son walked towards our home.

When we got to the gate of the outer courtyard, I knew something was wrong, the charm on the gate was clanging furiously even without wind, Meaning, a supernatural entity was nearby. I held my son's arm as I pushed the gate open and walked cautiously into the courtyard. Within the courtyard itself, there was an eerie, unnerving silence. I held Akanni close to me for fear of what might be lurking in the shadows. There was neither the call of the cricket, nor songs of the birds, nor the clanging of the charms, nor the sounds of my wife cooking.

"Oh no, Aduke!!!" Suddenly it hit me, I panicked and ran into the house without a second thought, thereby leaving Akanni by himself. The house was dark without a sliver of light from any of the rooms. Only the light of the moon, shining through the open windows and the door to the inner courtyard was visible.

'The inner courtyard?' I mused.

My heart started to beat so quickly that I was afraid it would burst out of my chest. I held my breath as I approached the inner courtyard. The closer I got to it, the more goosebumps I got. I started to hyperventilate, dreading what I might see there.

The inner courtyard was drenched in moonlight, giving me sight to see that which I dreaded the most, that which I wanted to avoid, that which I dared not to dream of. My heart seized and my throat closed up, for there she was, under the moonlight, lying in a pool of her blood.

My Aduke lay lifeless as if she were one of the works of those willful clay sculptors. My Aduke, with eyes that were as bright as the stars of the night, were now without light, my Aduke, dead, seized by the grip of misfortune and death.