Lineage

Bankole Ajayi Part 7

Its Monday and Bankole had gone to school. She was not feeling any better, and tomorrow was her appointment with her doctor. Remembering her dream of the previous day, she decided to seek spiritual help. She recalled during one of her official surveillance she had spotted a spiritual church. It is quite far from her home; she would have to take about three bus rides to get there. The church is very close to a slum built along the bank of the lagoon. Most of the settlers live in floating homes and moving around required the use of a canoe. Thank goodness that the church was on dry land and easily located. She remembered almost getting lost in the floating city slums. It's not her style to see spiritualist, she grew up attending an orthodox church. She liked the orthodox church was orderly, predictable, the spiritual churches were just too unconventional for her. Now she had no choice she needs to find out what was happening to her and maybe her son. People say that in the spiritual churches they often see visions and can reveal spiritual things. Seeing no other way out she  needs all the help she can get to find out about her son. 

 She located the place. She walked in, not surprised by what she saw. It was an average-sized room; they painted the walls white with a deep red backdrop at the podium. There were pictures of blond Jesus with his two fingers showing the peace sign, of Jesus with his twelve disciples having the last supper, of Jesus on the cross being crucified, and one of baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. There was undeniably the strong smell of incense, although none was being burnt at that moment. It is common knowledge that these spiritual churches burn all sorts of coloured candles and incense. She noticed two rows of benches with an aisle between them. To the extreme right, there were two women dressed in long white robes lying on mats, presumably sleeping.  Confused about what to do so she turned around to leave and there she saw a teenage boy in a white robe, smiling at her. The boy was about seventeen years old. He was very polite; he greeted her and of course he knew she was not a member because she had her shoes on. The boy politely asked her to take off her shoes and leave them by the door, assuring her that no one would take them. He then asked her to sit down.

"How can we be of help to you, madam?" he asked.

"I would like to see your pastor or.... leader," she stuttered, not sure if their leader is referred to as pastor or not.

He told her he was around and would tell him about her. He went away and came back with a white scarf for her to cover her hair, and then he swept and mop the areas she walked on in her shoes. She had waited for twenty minutes, she  felt weak and the smell of this place did not help matters. Just then the teenage boy pulled back the red backdrop and signal to her to come. There was a door to the left she got up and followed. Passing through the door was a corridor and five doors, two on each side and one directly opposite. One would not have imagined from inside the auditorium that there would be this many rooms inside. All the doors were shut except the second door to the right; she could not resist it and looked in. She saw five children, four girls and a boy between the ages of nine to eleven. They were all tied up both hands and legs with a white cloth and they had a bible strapped around their chest with a chain and locked with a padlock. They looked dirty and malnourished. She could also see blisters on their bodies. One or two of them looked at her, and the others just seemed worn out by their predicament.

She heard the teenage boy knocking, and he opened the door that was straight ahead, and behind the door was another red curtain. The room was almost like a regular office, with an executive table and chair, two other chairs by the table for guests, a desktop, a small fridge, an air conditioner and a standing fan. The air conditioner was on and she could hear its loud humming and then rattling noise when the electric current dropped. The fan was rotating, spreading the cold air from the AC. She shivered as the cold air touched her skin. Sitting behind the desk was a chubby, dark-skinned, bearded man. He had on a white robe, too.

"Please madam, do have a sit," said the chubby man as the teenage boy left quietly closing the door behind him.

"How can we help you, ma?" he asked her.

She narrated her dream and explained her worry about her son.

"Sir is there was any way of knowing if my son is a witch or something evil has entered him'," she asked.

She did not anything about Bankole's illness or hers or the tale of his doctor not wanting to feed him answers. If he was authentic, he would know already after all he is a spiritual man, she thought to herself. It sounded strange and completely ridiculous hearing herself saying that her sweet baby was a witch. She already regretted coming to this place, but she was here already, so let her at least hear what the man has got to say.

"My sister, the only way of knowing is for you to bring your son for prayer," he told her. "You must have seen the children in the other room. Well, those children have confessed to being witches."

According to him to break a child from witchcraft would require the child to confess and then stay in the church for another seven days. How long they would stay depends on how soon they confess. For very strong witches, it might take up to two weeks to confess.

"We tie them up with holy white cloth and the bibles on their chest are to prevent them from going for their meetings where they would get empowered," he added.

Of course, there isn't a child who won't confess to being a witch under these conditions even if they were not, she thought to herself. She was certain that would be tortured probably with starvation and flogging. Sometimes they do some incisions on the bodies unfortunately under very unhygienic conditions, using the same razor blade for all their victims.

"Isn't there any other way to know if he was one?" she asked.

"I am sorry but there is no other way unless of course, you are one of them, they know their own," he answered.

She wondered within herself couldn't he as a spiritual man sense if someone was a witch or not and just as if he read her mind.

He answered, "I can tell if someone is a witch or not, but I prefer they confess to the congregation. If I tell a parent that their child is a witch, they are not likely to believe me without a confession."

He then told her she will need to come for cleansing as well, 'to be purified'. If she wanted to do this she should come with six yards of white cotton cloth, locally made black soup, white hen, and white chalk, and a small clay pot. There would be other things too, but those she cannot get them so she would have to provide the money to go buy them.

She had heard enough and with a deep sigh, she stood up and told him she would get back to him. He then told her she does not have much time if her son was really a witch, the longer she delays the stronger he would become and it might get to a stage of no return when there will be no deliverance for him. 

"Madam, when are you coming?" he asked.

"I don't know," she replied, "It's just a dream, I am overreacting. It's just stress."

"Madam, sometimes dreams are windows into the spiritual realm and but not be taken for granted," he told her.

She thanked him for his time and quickly left the place before he tries harder to change her mind. There have been cases of people being hypnotized and exploited.  She did not see the chained children again. The door to that room was now closed. As she stepped out of the auditorium, she put on her shoes and gave the scarf to the teenage boy who was sitting outside. Finally she could breathe, what was she thinking of coming here. Her son is not a witch or wizard, she could never subject to her son what she has just seen and heard. 

It was child abuse unfortunately there is nothing the police could do. It is a religious thing. If the police raid the place, the parents would only take them to somewhere else. Most members of the police force believe in these things or themselves are members of such churches, it is part of the culture. She suddenly started coughing and coughed up blood. Okay things are getting worse she needs to get to the hospital now but first, she would get home to leave a message for Bankole then she would go to the hospital.