IJE : AN
EXPECTED JOURNEY
In our youthful days when
the cockerel had sprouted fewer hairs, went on fewer maiden chases and pecked
more frequently, we called ourselves men. Men because we did all things that
the society required of us and we could beat our chests and say that we were
men. The nights were too short and the days too long, not enough time it seemed
was our challenge. The kegs in Mama Ugochi’s joint was but water to our throats
and we sought more dare-devil events than most of our age grade members and it
was for this attitude and the fear that we would fail to prove ourselves as men
to the society that we loved that we went into the evil forest to seek a rare
gem as the chief priest described it. An unsoiled virgin meant for a sacrifice
to Ani to appease her of the sacrilege Amanze committed when he lay with his
goat the night before in the same compound his wife and children inhabited. He
had been publicly ridiculed caned and exiled but the taboo hung grimly over the
village like an uncertain Ijele masquerade during new yam festivals.
“She has run away” he told us and we were to
find her. “Uggghhhhugghhhhh” I cleared my throat. “Nna anyi what is it” my
third wife Nneka said as she ran forward, “there is no problem just get me some
water” I replied and continued.
My deepest worry was not
that we wouldn’t succeed but what was to become of the virgin. Okezie the
fiercest amongst us had a slight penchant for not keeping his tail in check and
I feared what consequences might befall us were we to present a defiled virgin
before the gods. We set out the next day after much preparation.
It was somewhat less difficult than we
anticipated, but I would perhaps now give credit to the potent charms I and
other carried. We travelled for three weeks without success and it was not long
before ill tempered souls began to let off steam. They avowed suspiciously that
there was no virgin existed and that the chief priest intended to kill us all.
They however were cautious in their speech for Ezemmuo the Priest was rumored
to have the ability to materialize out of thin air. For all we cared he could
as well be listening. It was somehow our inclination towards boredom over a
seemingly uneventful adventure that brought a new turn in the strings of time
that if I could alter by mere wishes I would do over and over again to avert
the things that came after. Like the most common form of negative telepathy “speak of the devil and he will appear”
the devil did appear too dressed in ominous white regalia carrying a clay pot
in his hand and motioning to us to look inside.
We had been told that our
charms protected us from being harmed, but at all cost we were not to engage in
any interaction with any spirit in the form of man , animal ,birds and any form
at all. We were to speak only to ourselves and nothing else. That day when
reckoning came barefaced and savage with his steel sword of consequence , less
willed souls faltered.
To be continued………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 
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