Yefon: The Red Necklace (29 page)

As we stomped the clothes against the rocks, a uniform
cha-cha choum-choum
melody filled my ears, and water from the pan splashed occasionally on my face. I wiped it with my arm.

Unexpectedly, Kadoh blurted, “Your plans are your deepest secrets.”

Rolling my eyes, I looked at her. “Yes, so is that of every girl in this village. What do you mean?”

“I mean that your plans which are your innermost secrets will kill you. You will die.” I looked at her, puzzled then I laughed. With the flower arrangement around her hair and the clay on her face, she looked like some kind of special guru delivering a message, but my
sha
η
g
didn’t glow so I knew it was a joke.

“
Haba
, are you an angel of death?” I asked with a smirk.

“No, but I saw that part,” she said, squinting. With this girl, it was so hard to tell when she was joking.

I nudged her playfully. “
Abeg, abeg
,
carry your bad luck go! Say I go die. Na, you go kill me
?” This form of slang was introduced as Pidgin English around the time when Uncle Lavran was still alive to help the whites and blacks communicate easily.

With the serious camel face, she looked at me, still as a rock. “Yefon, I am not joking. That thing that you want, and you know what it is, it will kill you.”

Shu’muiy
! I pondered on her words for a moment. How could moving to Bamenda kill me? How would an admission into
Lourdes and being the first girl from Nso to pass the Common Entrance Exams kill me? I wanted to be like other children in big cities all over the world. I wanted to write and pass exams and become educated.

How could something I had been nurturing for more than three good years kill me? Education didn’t kill the Fon’s ex-wife. Kadoh herself said that the Fon’s first wife left for the city and no one ever heard from her again. Some said she was eaten by wild animals at the border, others said she was now a big woman in the city, others said she had gone mad from spells cast on her from the palace.

Whatever the case, she was a heroine and if she hadn’t died, I wouldn’t die either. I looked at Kadoh’s serious camel expression.
Fearing for one single second that she might be serious, I panicked. I didn’t want to die. “Oh no, god! No!”

Kadoh burst out laughing. “You should have seen your face!”

I hit her playfully, visibly relieved. “I will kill you, silly girl,” I said, hitting her over and over, while she laughed hysterically. A few others were watching us. Some of them looked amazed. Among them was Yenla. Her eyes told a sad story, but her face looked so peaceful as she washed. I wondered when it was exactly that we had drifted apart, and I longed for a better relationship with her. I always had.

“How can you kill me when I’m god? I am here in your presence to tell youuuuu that I know your deepest secrets,” Kadoh’s sorceress voice distracted me from thinking about Yenla.

Before I could answer Kadoh, a big dramatic hush ensued, and then, there was silence. It was the type of pin-drop silence where everyone stopped talking at the same time. People said angels were passing, and almost immediately noise resumed.

“Your biggest secret is not marriage, even though your mother has made countless sacrifices to the gods to soften your heart to these suitors.”

I started drawing something on the bank. It was nothing really, just sticks and circles.

“This village is too small for me, Kadoh, and the suitors, I can’t relate with them, they think different from me, and...and...I don’t know. I want more.”

A few disapproving smirks were channeled our way, especially from Sola, of course. I heard that she too, was facing serious man problems. Her fiancé had returned her for free, refusing to accept a refund of her bride price. He only wanted nothing to do with her, not even his money.

I asked Kadoh why but even Kadoh knew nothing about it. Sola and her mother were keeping it under wraps. Nothing would destroy Sola’s chances of marrying the prince.

Yenla pinched me, hoping I would shut up or something but I pretended like I didn’t notice her.

“There you goooo, your deepest secret,” Kadoh chorused with her witchy sorceress voice.

Kadoh went on to tell me the story of the fox and the hare. She had many versions. This was the one where the hare ate the fox. Only a story that Kadoh told would end that way. I laughed heartily, my shoulders heaving as I did.

“You and your stories,” I joked back.

Kadoh chanted again, “That iiiis your deepest secret.”

We laughed so hard that our backs and ribs hurt. The laundry lay on the rocks, and the choom-choom from other girls’ washing on the rocks echoed in my ears. This was one of the best things I loved!

My chest suddenly began burning, and I felt heat all over as my
sha
η
g
began to glow. From the corner of my eye, I suddenly perceived three tall, well-built men approaching us. They were dressed in animal skin
te’s
and had strange black tribal marks on their faces. I had never seen them before, but I guessed that they were the seers that Kadoh had spoken of.

“Are those the seers?” I asked, laying low.

Kadoh said nothing; she only began to breathe fast, and heavy. I was confused, especially because my
sha
η
g
would not stop sending out those warm signals. What was I to do? Run? Duck? Hide? What? The
sha
η
g
didn’t speak, so I used my discretion and ducked behind Kadoh.

As they passed by the fleet of girls, I could hear unending giggles, and saw them perking up their breasts expectantly. The men would look into each and every single girl’s face, study her
slowly then continue, leaving them gravely disappointed, but about what? I had no idea.

I pinched Kadoh hard. “Are those the seers?”

“Yes!”

“Doesn’t concern me,” I kept mumbling to myself, suddenly wondering what to do.

Unfortunately for us they began approaching us.

“W..what do I do?” I panicked.

“Just look down,” Kadoh whispered with urgency.

I looked down, exhaling continually to control my heart that wanted to leave my body through my mouth.

Some of the girls seated next to us began sitting in a suggestive manner. I saw Sola poke out her skinny buttocks. The guys passed her by. Her face formed the mean scowl that usually masked Sola’s disappointment. I began to laugh and only stopped when I saw Kadoh’s eyes widened in fear.

“What is it, sis?” I asked.

Her eyes began to water. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but the only thing I knew was that this was bad, really bad. Kadoh had only gotten scared twice in her whole life.

“What is going on, Kadoh?” I urged her frantically.

“These men are possessed with the spirits of the ancestors, and they are here to find the new princess of the land.”

Oh! I knew that! Hadn’t she already told me? That couldn’t possibly concern me, or her, so what was she crying about?

One of the men, the ugly, angry one with a raffia bag hanging across his chest was looking at me, straight in my eyes. His chiseled look caused me to feel trepidation and I began to tremble. The other girls were all looking at him to see what he would do. He began to close the space between us and my red
sha
η
g
almost suffocated me with heat. No! This could not be!

Immediately, I knew that I had to run and I took to my heels. I had not even taken three steps when the reaper grabbed my left hand. I started screaming.

“Leave me alone! You are mistaken!”

The man didn’t even look me in the face. He put a chunky bracelet of cowries on my wrist: the shiny ones that cost a lot of money. In the Nso tradition, only wives of the palace wore
cowries, and I couldn’t believe this joke that was turning out to be real. I looked back at my puzzled sisters helplessly, and then reverted my attention back to the man, laughing uneasily since I hoped that this was a prank. The oracle surely couldn’t have chosen me!

The gods were wise and always made wise choices. Didn’t Kadoh just say that the spirits of the oracle possessed the seers when they went to choose the future Queen? If that was true, how had they picked me? There must be some kind of mistake!

“You have the wrong girl,” I explained, while trying hopelessly to yank off the bracelet from my wrist, but it wouldn’t come off. I fought with it, harder each time, but no matter how hard I tried, it wouldn’t come off. Had they put some type of
Juju
on it? Pa, please do something!
Ngonnso
, do something! This wasn’t really happening! The palace was now recruiting me?

“You have to listen to me. I am the wrong girl,” I cried bitterly, trying to wriggle free from his muscular frame.

The angry one looked at me. “Daughter of
Mtaar Nso
, your strong waist shall build him an empire, sons of the palace, and they will call you queen.”

My head rang wild like a laughing hyena. Queen? Who? Me? What did they mean by that? They couldn’t have possibly just picked me as the Queen to the paramount throne of Nso! My head rang so loud that I almost went deaf from my own screams.

“My father has many daughters. I am sure the oracle did not pick me!” I tried to explain, in vain.

The other guard smiled at me and went on his knees. “Daughter of
Ngonnso
, she smiles like the goddess, eyes like the sorcerer’s crystals, heart of fire! You are the one, my princess.”

I looked at Sola. It was one of the few times that we both shared the same sentiment on a given case. Both of us began to cry when we realized this was really real.

I screamed as they carried me away. Looking back at Kadoh, I cried loudly, “I don’t want to be the queen!”

This must be a dream, I thought to myself. Pa always said to count from one to ten, and when you opened your eyes, everything would be okay. So I squeezed my eyes shut, and began counting, but I couldn’t concentrate. I opened my eyes and indeed I was being carried on strong shoulders, heading towards
Squares
.
The palace was located in
Squares
! At some point, I thought it was a prank. Someone was trying to be funny.

Maybe these two muscle men were just thespians hired to scare me, but no one would joke about a matter like this, and to make things worse, everyone on the way back to the palace stood and watched in awe as I resisted my fate. I realized this was real!

The difference in ownership was obvious as we approached the palace. It was cleaner! Royal workers dressed in similar brown clothes cleared grass at the front of a luxurious monument.

My anxiety was replaced with awe once we entered the palace.
Nto’ Nso
, the Nso Palace is the spirit of Nso, and was built on ten hills. The main structures were constructed on a sloping hillside below the ancient market known as
way-Kimbo
.

It was comprised of several traditional mud-brick buildings decorated with woodcarvings around two courtyards where the Fon sat to receive his people.

In the middle of the first one, stood a statue of
Ngonnso
in her glory! I had never seen such a giant version of
Ngonnso
before!

We walked past enormous decorated pillars with the most unique woodcarvings. I had never seen anything as detailed. I was not prepared for the main attraction on the entry. Before my eyes were two
Mfuh
, or warrior, houses, one on the north and the other on the south. Obviously, I knew Pa was a member of the
Mfuh
in his youth, but seeing the buildings validated my childhood memory. The men in front of the building looked like the god of thunder himself! All I could hear was noisy manly chatter, and all I could see were torsos. Kadoh would literally have a heart attack if she saw this!

An old one-story structure built with stone held the royal courts, offices, and reception areas of the palace.
Groups of similar uniformed workers walked around, all staring at me as I was being carried through the courtyard. There was a beautiful lawn of grass with white
nyambara
walking majestically on it. Some groomsmen were cleaning their hooves. I had never seen anything like it and I just couldn’t help but notice how spotless the
nyambara
were. They made all the other animals I had ever seen look like pigs. Could such a heaven exist in the blackness of this village?

The rest of the day was spent giving me a tour of my new home. I was shown the palace wives’, or
vikiynto’
, corners, the palace children, or
wonnto
’, corners, the farms, and so on.

Towards nightfall, I was led into a chamber and dropped there. Two busty women dressed in beautiful colorful robes were waiting in the room for me.

“Our princess,” the taller one greeted me. “My name is Shamwun, and I shall show you around in the morning. Get some rest. You must be very tired.”

Before I could answer, she spoke again. Shamwun spoke very fast and she never shut up.

“This is your servant, Loh. She will be waiting on you. If you need nourishment, she will serve you a wonderful dinner.”