Riches Of The Dead-Ije (The Journey) - Episode 4

 

We saw everyone sitting calmly as blanny went about to entertain them with some kinda brainy stuff..

His name was blessing , but we called him blanny . He was smooth, malleable as putty, his greasy manners oiled the clogged wheels of the deals that happened in our small town, once in a while. He grew up here, lived among us until nine years ago . When his mother’s death scattered the family in different directions, like the grains of corn from a container that crashed, leaving the blind father stranded, all by himself, waiting on hope, waiting to be picked up, the lone grain buried somewhere in sand, beneath twigs. We always knew that blanny didn’t believe in anything, but we didn’t know what he would do to prove that. He only knew how to work hard, we’d say; he knew how to deal the cards. 

Late Jahrul , who was his best friend , gave him the alias (blanny), used to say that the boy could sell his mother, that the poor woman had Death to thank, for her second son was scheming to palm her off for a fistful of cash. Who would buy her, for how much, to what use,Jahrul  never said, preferring to intone, ‘If there’s one person who will do anything to get money, it’s he.blanny’

Whenever blanny and Jahrul were together , I stood by the window and watched them at play.

‘blanny!’ Jahrul , hollered as blanny emerged, walking briskly along.

‘Is inside my blood!’ the boy was suddenly gratified.
But I know he will miss jahrul so bad…

Chris hailed from the gathering “the one and only blanny whey de reason wella”

Blanny :Das right. A million stars no equal the single moon.’

Sege :Na You sabi the thing!’

Blanny : Das me you hail.’

Kola : You who come across a rooster on a bushpath and ask, Your feather or your flesh?’

Blanny : Talent senior training. Abinibi pass ability.’

Sege : On account of the new yam you redesign your mother’s facial marks with a machete!’

Blanny now close to his addressor, pulled a face.

Read " The Retelling Story of Igodo " by the same author ( Ifeoma Isabella Okeke )

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/riches-of-the-dead-ije-the-journey

. The mention of his mother was part of the game, but it came too early. The gathering under the strange tree erupted into laughter, and when he made a rude sign at sege nobody really noticed. But I do, from there I cut in…

Me : hmmm hmmm! Guyz I fink that should be enough for now, it’s getting late let’s look for a place to sleep…

They all stood up in preparation for the sleeping stuff, tonight it’s gonna be me and blanny on guard, we took a walk a bit away from others as we both chatted for 10 minutes till we depart to our post..

I was sitting untop of a tree watching the environment, when I saw something strange coming towards our direction. 

Immediately I signal blaNny to inform him about what am seeing and he also responded that he can see everything, at first am unable to get the clear picture of what or who is coming, until  when they edge closer..

I saw two dwarf they both tied red cloth around their waist, white cloth tied on their head, and they both were hawking something best known to them, suddenly I can’t feel my legs anymore, it seems maybe am on air or on water. My head became big I tried to scream but I can’t hear myself screaming. 

This continued for 20 minutes till am able to get myself, then I saw blanny also battling the same thing that just happened to me. I dropped down from the tree and I trailed them till they got to the midst of sleeping others.
The male one looked at the female and they both shake their head in pity..

Female : what are those strange creature doing here?

Male : they are here in search of the Egg OF Life..

When I heard him say that I almost pee on myself cus I was very surprise to see him say that. How did he know what we are here for? I said that in my mind 

Female : Don’t they know  that this is the evil forest of the ancestors?

Male : maybe, but what I see is that, most of them are here because of wealth 

Female : yes, how I wish they know what evil await them on this journey, cus no one come’s here and go freely…

Male : would they even get what they want? Cus most of them will fail to keep to the warning given to them..

Female : how I wish they can do that, all of them will survive..

Male : see let’s go, they are too ugly I can’t even stand their irritating smell..

Female : same here 

*Watching from distance * I shake my head, nawa o even monster self they talk say we ugly, so monster self the get taste, see as them short and them still dey abuse person, hehehe I laughed, anyways na money cus am.

As they were about going, blanny show into the scene and I quickly drag him down..

Immediately two of them halt and look back, blanny want to scream but I covered his mouth with my hands..

Me : *whispering* you de craze? U want make those short things come take us do night suya?

Blanny : no vex na fear catch me, wait o e be like say them they come our side o..

Me : make we hide wella..

Female : I think someone is watching us 
Male : let’s check…

Me : chai see gobe o, we die here *in yaw voice*

We hid from their sight as we move from that spot to somewhere else and cover ourselves with leafs ..then they both checked our previous spot…and they walked down to where we are, but they can’t see us cus of the leaf…the female one stand on blanny’s back whilst the male stand on my leg, though them get weight small sha..

Mehn, this short thing go brake my leg here o, I said inside of me, blanny’s eyes don almost turn red like tp and kp’s own when them just kush binish..lol. (in bojan’s voice..

Then I hear something dropping like water on blanny’s body, at first I thought was rain, but the elders say na masquerade whey wan fall him own hand go talk say make rain fall untop him head. So if that’s true why ain’t they running then.. that was when I realise that the female one was urinating on blanny’s body, at first I want to laugh but I know if I try such that will be my end, so I have to stay silent to avoid story that touch..

Female : I can smell something like those one sleeping there

Male : yes, it seems some of them are awake

Female : I don’t think so, lets go..

They both walk away, blanny stood up as he was soaked with pee. I laughed really hard that everyone almost woke up

Blanny : come wetin de funny now?

Me : wetin no funny, see as monster pee untop ur head, and na even female monster..hahaha 

Blanny : e be like say you de mad..

Me : Na my body you fit get power, if na dat short monster now you no go gree talk..

Blanny : but serious o, dose monster no get brain o

Me : why you talk am?

Blanny : u no see as that female stand for my back whey she no even notice? 

Me : I wonder self.

Blanny : nawa o, see wetin money de cause 

Me : you even know wetin funny pass? That male monster begin tell him wife say him no fit stand for where we de cus we de smell and we come ugly join

Blanny : na thunder go fire them. 

Me : abeg make we go our post jare, day go soon brake

We both depart to our point, I signal to blanny just to confirm if everything is alright, he signal back that all is well , then I saw something coming but this time it looks more awful and strange, I saw a tall huge looking creature as tall as a nepa poll, his hands were taller than the tree am on, I saw darkness and evil in his eyes, I saw evil wind coming behind it, I quickly signal blanny and we both jumped down from the tree, we rushed to wake others.

Immediately we get them informed cus we gat no much time to give them the news in detail, but the problem is where do we run to at this hour of the night?

Vincent brought the idea that we should hid somewhere, but kola object him saying it might be very risky cus the monster is very powerful and it moves with wind, we all agree to what kola says, then we put on our touch and we start running, but the problem is we don’t even know maybe we are running towards  his direction or not cus the sound keep booming louder and louder.

The day was actually getting brighter, but the moon is still very visible, then something told me we should stop running else we will fall into the deadly monster’s trap, immediately I told everyone to stop running and but some of them disagree saying it’s too dangerous to stop, I warned them that running is more dangerous than stopping after giving them enough excuse, they finally agreed, we all hid ourselves in the bush, then we saw the monster coming from where we all were actually running to.. 

Cynthia : ah! Tank God o, naso we for enter him hands ni

Me : I told you 

Kola : so what’s next now? 

Me : the search continues ‎

Vincent : so which direction do we go now ?

Me : we head west

Kola : no , let’s take east

Me : why?

Kola : cus right from the beginning of this search, you have been directing us as you wish and we won’t take that from you, we are not your slaves and you are not even the strongest here, if you wana lead you have to fight for it..now prove yourself strong (getting ready for a fight) 

Me : kola, am not trying to lead am just doing what the spirit tells me, so why are you guys getting upset? 

Sege : ben we don’t want you as the leader if you want to lead, then take up the challenge 

Chris b : yes ben take up the challenge 

Me : ok, I agree with you guys, let kola lead..
Kola : good! We head east and it’s high time we defend ourselves  we have the strength, we don’t have to run always,‎

Me : kola no let’s just keep running we all know we have 4 days left for this search and that has possibly tell us that we don’t have much time.

Vincent : hey ben just shut up, u coward..

We followed what kola said, then we get to a river bank, the water is as pure as a crystal clear glass, but to me, it’s as black as a charcoal.. then everyone try to drink from it..I quickly remind them of what the herbalist man told us, yet they never listen then Chris jumped into it and drank out of it, as he was trying to show others that the water is safe , something strange happene.