The good news

Ugomma smiled in the face of scorn. She walked to the stream with her head held high, you would have sworn she had on a crown. But more than that, her Chi had told her that she was a god. The ear that heard this tale multiplied in number so there was nothing more to hide.

Ugomma ceded. She joined him then in tilling the soil and Nwere would help with a  calabash of water. In the stream he would tickle her back and rub her ankles. He loved the colour of her skin like well mixed clay.

It was during this times that his eyes beheld a man that was his Chi. His hair the colour of the sun, his eyes the colour of fresh leaves. He was covered in white chalk and his lips were the same colours as ripened tomatoes.

Nwere starred at him unmoving. Should he alert the villagers or should he run to him and kiss him just like he had thought him? He was gripped by fear.

For one year Nwere  dwelt in fear. He heard stories of the white man and his God. Stories that were so distorted he craved a sight of his own. He was eager to reveal that the white man belonged to him. Ugomma hid her smile whenever she found him sneaking into the bamboo hut that served as a church, where the chalked man spent most of his day teaching the gospel.

She and her mother were the first to receive the Christ the white man so passionately spoke about. Because they were ostracized. It was only right that they went against the gods, the elders and the clan. The gods hated them, why else will a snake bite her father in his sleep, why else would it die in between her mother's legs.

The white priest had touched her face and told her she was beautiful. He called her Pulchra, when she asked what it meant, he said beautiful. That was the day after her baptism. Her baptismal name was Elizabeth he had chosen it for her. He said she was a Queen and should bear the name of one. Achalugo answered the same name after she had cursed it with her big headed friends. Ugomma knew she was jealous but she didn't know why. Afterall, Acha had it all. Didn't she?