Odibo was excited when he laid out the whole situation to
him the next day,
“This is Epic mehn, you need to check that old dude out..” Odibo responded excitedly,
“Guy are you actually buying into all this stuff." Nnamdi chastised, "i mean seriously it sounds like
a childish bedtime story to me.”
“Look Nnamdi what do you have to lose? We are
already here and who knows what we will find out, I think its exciting and no
matter how modernized we are this is Africa, and you have to admit your family history
is extremely strange, just hear the guy out.” Odibo rationalized,
If only his friend had an idea of the
kind of dreams he had been having recently, strange was an understatement.
Last night he had
dreamt of a woman, a beautiful seductive woman with long flowing hair , red
lips and dark eyes calling out his name, he was beginning to think the whole
situation was beginning to affect his psyche.
If this old man didn’t have
answers he just may join his sister and serve in the church, because he was
getting tired of the whole situation.
They both set off to Agwu’s cave later that day, it was located
on the outskirts of his village just by the river side, rumor has it that
strange things happen there just after seven p.m so as they walked briskly towards
the riverside , young maidens were hurrying back from the stream. It didn’t help that Odibo
could not take his eyes off these young girls or that the girls kept making
annoying comments as they passed them by the roadside.
”that’s one of them..” he heard one say, “
the only one left.”
“wow so handsome and I hear he has a lot of money in the
city”
“yes after all the rituals they do in that family how will they not be
rich.”\
if this clueless little girls knew that he couldn’t care less about the
so called riches, his company was doing very well and he was comfortable but
since he lost his brother none of that mattered anymore.
Their guide stopped suddenly at a clearing by the river side
. ”this na where I go wait for una oga, I no dey go pass here?” the teenage boy
spoke in pidgin fear clearly in his voice. Nnamdi looked on ahead and understood why the young villager was apprehensive, he saw red
cloths tied to the trees as if to direct a stranger to a ritual site, charms and amulets hung haphazardly on each branch of the trees, the pathway appeared to be rarely used, this was evident by the bushes and wild weeds all over the place.
“Odibo you
better wait here too” Nnamdi muttered under his breath, deciding he would not come this far to quit now, but Odibo's response was quick and not surprising.
“No mehn we ride together” Nnamdi shrugged and continued,
following the path of the red cloths hanging on each tree as a map, they stopped suddenly as the
pathway ended ,slight panic began to creep in,just when they thought they were completely lost in the middle of this forsaken forest ,they saw a little boy
washing plates by the corner, breathing a sigh of relief they moved closer to
ask for directions , to their amazement they discovered it was actually a dwarf not a little boy..
'can you
lead us to Agwu’s cave?” Odibo asked ,the dwarf without even looking up pointed
to the left , they shared a look of disbelief ,as they made to continue on the journey as directed, the dwarf pointed straight at Odibo and shook
his head. Nnamdi at first thought the dwarf may be dumb, he looked him straight in the eye and questioned him, the Dwarf simply pointed to him
and nodded, it was clear Odibo had to turn back, Nnamdi had to go on this
journey alone.
Hours later Nnamdi was still deep in thought, Odibo was prancing up and down the tiny guest room in their uncle’s house like an agitated tiger, “ND
three hours, three hours I waited for you and you come back looking as if you
have seen a ghost, you wont even say a word, mehn I don’t get you o”.
Nnamdi ignored him, he did
not even know where to begin he kept on wondering how the old man had known about
his dreams.
“two reincarnations at the same time in the same place that is the
answer” the Old man's words kept ringing in his ears, it did not make a lick of sense. according to Agwu, the curse on his family came from the actions of his ancestor, the story was that his great
great grandfather and his best friend who had been hunters had one day gone into the forest to hunt and came
back with gold, how they got the gold no one could explain.
They both became
rich and influential in the village, his ancestor had married ten wives
but his best friend had refused to settle down, one fateful day , his ancestor's best friend went hunting
and came back with this beautiful woman , according to the old man that was
when the rift started between friends ,.
His ancestor had become obsessed with his best friends
wife , His ten wives could not satisfy him anymore, he yearned to be with his friend's wife. On a day when he knew his friend had gone hunting , his ancestor
went to his best friend’s house and raped his wife severally, the woman
filled with shame and embarrassment left the village never to return. When
his best friend returned from his hunting trip, he heard what happened and fought
his great great grandfather till they both lay bleeding on the floor, rumor has it that it was
his best friend that cursed his ancestor , telling him that him and his descendants would
never know peace whilst some people say that it was the woman who cursed his ancestor that misery and grief would never leave his family, whichever way it went , all that was happening today is because
of the greed of his ancestor and men in his clan would not stop dying until the wrong is
corrected.
“how
do I correct the wrong Agwu?” he remembered asking the old man in his dark
cave filled with half eaten spoilt meat and bones of dead animals, “how do I
correct a wrong that was done a hundred years ago?” Nnamdi pleaded but the man just stared at him
chewing his stick, Agwu kept on staring at him silent for several minutes as if he was in a trance, exasperated he
had stood up to leave when the old man suddenly whispered so faintly he almost did not hear him, “how is your best friend Odibo?” Nnamdi remembered being stunned into immobility “how..” he began to ask but the old man cut him
off continuing “will he forgive you anything your best friend, your brother
hmnn..will he let the past be in the past?”
“your great grandfather had a nickname
‘Onye Akpiri’ because of his greed for everything, is that in your blood Nnamdi?
, do you lust for her like your brother and everyone else who died did?”
“lust
for who Agwu?” Nnamdi whispered, goosebumps taking over his skin in fear, “lust for who?”
"his pet " Agwu responded, " his wife their
messenger, death never walks alone you see, he walks with his friends Grief and
pestilence and they have a messenger who can take on any form…look to your
dreams they have all the answers and look to your friend because they will find
him”
he remembers an eerie feeling coming over him as the old man’s eyes began to shine in the
darkness “look for your great grandfather’s store room he took something that
does not belong to him, him and his best friend, return it and grief will leave
you alone but as for death and pestilence…..they are already attracted to your
blood, you will have to find a way to chase them away yourself.” And with that
the old man retreated into the darkness , Nnamdi was left alone.
Sitting down
and reminiscing on the old man’s words it was clear what had just happened, he remembered the
two men in his dreams just as they had entered the village for the first time days ago, those men were clearly his great grandfather
and Odibo’s great grandfather, what was
it the old man said “two reincarnations at the same time in the same place
that is the answer”.
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