When Gods Bleed (25 page)

“Get out of here.” Oludu’s hand clenched to a fist.

“I sincerely hope you do not think your mother-sister had you from one decent man somewhere or did not know how you existed. Your mother or sister had you by sleeping with all kinds of men, both short and tall, ugly and fine, rich and poor, dirty and clean, their sperms all mixed up in her womb. And did I mention that even all kinds of creatures dressed like men all dug into your mother?”

With a speed faster than any man could run, Oludu got to where the witch was and clawed his two hands to around her neck, saying, “I am not afraid of you.”

Agreshi waved her hands around his face to cast a spell on him, but nothing happened. Then she dipped her two fingers into his eyes until he let go. As soon as he got his focus, he headed to finish her off, witch or no witch. Agreshi was on the floor, trying to regain her breath. Nobody had ever touched her without something dreadful happening to the person—to imagine the newness of strangulation. She saw the man coming toward her with death as his goal. Most of her life she sought death as the perfect refuge, but the way things were now, she was no longer in a hurry to get there, so she stopped playing games.

“If you kill me now, your wife will follow me.”

“You have no power over her; she is Ogbanje.”

Agreshi got up to strengthen her pride. She was happy there was nobody around to see a feared person like she, on the floor, nearly begging for her life.

“Yes, I can’t kill her, but where her spirit plays requires her life on the earth. Any minute now her spirit will leave her body and be reincarnated, now that she has already given you a son.”

“Your tongue speaks false words.”

“I might be wicked in the way I carry out my actions, but I always let everyone know the truth about the actions they take.”

“But her world is a different one from yours. How can you prevent this from happening?”

“Let’s just say our worlds can collide. I can help you find her package and make her live a normal life as long as nature grants her.”

“For this, what do you want?”

“I want you to join me in my world.”

“Never.”

“You do not realize it, but you know what it feels like to have the one person who feels your heart. It is not by having a thousand wives by your side, the emptiness still remains. People search their lifetime to have someone who can provide this fulfillment. Men who have nothing go home with a smile if they have the right bride. You are complete and you do not even know it. Pure happiness is what you toy with and one day you will wake up to lose it forever.”

“The day she dies, I will be at her side, even if it is in death, but I will never give you my soul.”

“I did not ask for your soul.”

“But you require my eternity, as they have yours. I will never join you.”

Agreshi sighed and said, “I did not expect you to join me anyway, but I have another offer.”

“What is it?”

“There is a certain contestant for the throne that I want to be King and I need you to make it happen.”

“That decision has to be made by six chiefs and I am only one.”

“Do you think I am stupid? There are only three chiefs who will make that decision, the other three are men who will follow.”

“So how am I supposed to convince the other two chiefs?”

“You don’t have to. All you have to do is stand firmly by the boy I want and the other chiefs will eventually follow because none of them are ready to die, now that they have grown more powerful.”

“They might want to go to war instead before the eighty-second day.”

“Take it from me, those men want peace. Why do you think none of them have called a private meeting on the choice of the successor till now?”

“Odagwe sent a message to me that he would like to meet with Ihua and me a day before we tell the high chiefs our decision at the conference room in Utagba.”

“Hear his language: He would like to. That does not sound like a man ready for war.”

“So when do you start with the ceremony?”

“I take it we have come to an agreement. But are you not going to ask which of the Hurdene’s sons I want to succeed the King?”

Oludu looked at the witch’s eyes and replied, “I know the contestant you want.”

Agreshi realized that they had an agreement and that he knew who she had in mind.

“The ceremony starts now, but I should warn you, even if she gets to bring out the package, if her feelings for you are not as great as you have for her, she will still return to her world.”

“I understand.”

“I don’t think you do. Even if she dies and goes back to their world, you still have to vote for my contestant, even if none of the other chiefs agree with you and you all die at the hands of the high chiefs.”

“I said I understand.”

Oludu led her to where his wife was and they saw her still asleep on the bed.

“So what happens now that she is still asleep?”

“She isn’t.”

“She isn’t what?”

“Asleep,” Agreshi said.

Immediately, Ugonwa’s eyes opened and she dived at Agreshi with a knife in her hand. The witch stretched her palm to her, throwing white chalk on her face and the chief’s wife stood lifeless, rocking to and fro.

Oludu looked dazed, watching his wife as though she was a pendulum.

“Oludu, have you ever been to a de-initiation of an Ogbanje?”

“I have only heard stories.”

“Well, welcome to reality. I will say all I have to say once, so you better listen.” Agreshi poured white chalk around the motionless girl as she spoke. “As I implied before, if she cares for you the most, her package that locks the key between you and the girl will be made up of something she cherishes that links the both of you together.”

“One time I knew it was her father she cared for the most.”

“You better hope her feelings deviated, because when she breaks out from the trance she is in, she will head for the place she hid it and I doubt if you and I can catch up to someone running back to Utagba.” The witch stopped pouring the chalk and looked in the chief’s direction. “You are supposed to be sure that she feels for you more than anyone. And I mean anyone, even her child.”

“Only a fool knows what lies in the heart of a woman. All I know is that I feel for her the most.”

“That is not good enough, but it is all we have right now.”

The witch started saying incantations while she moved rhythmically around the swaying body. Then she started moving back while she spoke to Oludu again without looking at his direction.

“They always have a guardian on earth and a husband in their other world who protects them from any form of danger and sleeps with her in their world.” The witch faced the chief with a grin. “Those nights she moaned in her dreams, someone else was doing all the work. At times her guardian gets jealous when she starts enjoying her life on earth and shortens her stay on the earth if he cannot get rid of what gives her the joy.”

Suddenly Ugonwa jerked and her eyes closed.

“Any minute now she is going to run to where she hid her package and you have to be there when she reaches it or else her guardian will take her away.”

“Supposing she hid it at another province?”

“As long as the person she cares about is living in this province, it will be somewhere close to where the person is.”

Ugonwa’s eyes opened and she ran. Oludu chased her. The Omees guarding the Haku saw their chief running after his wife and wanted to block her, but Oludu screamed, “Leave her!”

The Omees at the gates also wanted to stop her, but they heard the command of their chief running after her. Ugonwa ran like a cheetah, not looking back, and even showing a trace of getting tired. The chief and most of the Omees in the Haku chased her like a wave. The chief’s wife ran into the bushes, still at the same pace. The men were only human and the number of Omees chasing her began to drop. They chased her, but they were beginning to lose sight of her because she was too fast.

Oludu was beginning to infer that she heading to another province. Whatever direction she was heading, it was in the opposite direction of Utagba. The chief at this time was the only man still chasing her.

This is not the way to Utagba. She cares for someone else the most. Why am I bothered? If it was her father, I would understand, or even her mother. Since I have been with her I have not even touched another, while her heart drips for another man. I thought it was real, but they are all the same…Why am I still chasing after her? It’s a tragedy when the feelings you have for someone are not mutual. What am I thinking? She probably feels the most for her aunt. This is the direction to her place…yes what have I been thinking?

Oludu ran after her with all his energy, but he still could not catch up and he fell tired to the ground; he was only human. As he lay on the ground, he cursed the time he spent with the witch. He was now positive that nothing good ever came out of the witch’s negotiations. He started punching the ground and when he looked up, he saw the dust of his wife run past him in the direction they came from. He was extremely tired, but he still chased her again.

Her pace seemed to slow down as she neared her destination. Oludu looked straight ahead as he followed her. He was angry, yet pleased that her destination was back in his Haku. She ran all the way back to their bedroom and he followed her, panting like an animal. When she got back into the room, she stopped motionless again. Oludu wondered what next to do. He hoped the witch was still around.

She started swaying as though strings pulled her and then she walked in a dangling manner out of the room, out of the edifice, to a tree near the gates of the Haku and she started groping the ground with her hands. The Omees wanted to help her, but the chief warned them not to interfere. She stretched her hands into the hole she dug and pulled out a little package. Oludu squatted in front of her, then he opened her hands and wanted to take the package from her.

Her voice was as deep as Titan when she spoke.

“Who do you think you are?”

“Give me the package,” Oludu said, breathing heavily.

“Do you really think she wants to be with you while she has me?” the deep voice replied. Oludu head butted his wife, twisted her hands and took the package.

She rose and with the same deep voice said, “Give it back to me.”

Oludu got up and moved back. The witch never told him to expect this. All the Omees around were confused about what to do.

Then his wife used her two hands, grabbed him by the neck and raised him high enough for his feet not to touch the ground. The Omees wanted to fire on Ugonwa with their arrows, but Oludu, who was suspended in the air, used his hands to tell them not to. “Give me the package,” the voice repeated.

The Omees had started attacking the chief’s wife physically, so they would not leave any permanent injury, but she flung them away with one hand that was as powerful as that of fifty men. She suspended Oludu in the air until the chief dropped the package on the floor. She dropped him on the other side and bent down to pick up the little parcel. As she tried to hold it, it moved on its own back to the chief’s hand.

The guardian in the chief’s wife seemed angered by the event and she turned toward the chief with her eyes burning red. The chief suddenly had a frightful expression on his face. The wife rushed at her husband screaming.

Calmness came over him and he said, “Stop.”

She stopped.

Agreshi stood
behind the spectators, watching the event. She said loudly enough for only one person to hear, “What took him so long?”

Ugonwa stood still for a short time and then her body started jerking, as though something was trying to tear its way out of her. Again she suddenly stood still and everyone saw her standing calm, but Oludu saw something different. When she stood still, a perfectly handsome man came out of her. With a heavenly charm and with a sweet voice he said, “Come with me, my dearest.”

Oludu looked at the beauty in the spirit and he did not have any words to say.

Ugonwa looked at him and asked, “Will you miss me when I am gone?”

Oludu still did not say a word to her. The spectators watching saw her lips moving, but could not hear her words. The chief seemed to be in a trance from their perspective, but they were patient.

“Look at the world I live in, it has no troubles or pain, just bliss in a manner that the earth can no longer provide. Everything I want is here.”

The chief finally spoke.

“Everything.” A tear fell from Oludu’s eyes, but his face remained harden.

The guardian spoke to her again. “It is time we leave. We are running out of time, my angel. Collect the package from him and let us go home.”

Oludu stretched out his hand, giving her the package.

She took it without saying a word to him and faced the spirit saying, “Your world is your own and mine is wherever he is.”

As though she was hit by a mighty rock from behind, her body jerked enough for the spectators to see and she started falling, but before she landed on the ground, Oludu caught her. She looked at her husband and gave him the package. He opened it and saw a piece of his hair in it. She fell asleep immediately and he took her back to bed. The observers knew they had missed some parts of the story, but they had enough for gossip.