Lineage

Bankole Ajayi Part 8

At school that day Bankole had so much on his mind, so much so that during break time he did not join the group but was in a quiet spot in the school, behind the staff room. Three things bothered him, first, he could not tell his mother he loved her, just thinking about it now caused him pain in his chest. Second, his mother looks really sick. She had said little except that she was feeling pains all over her body and weakness, had gone to the hospital and now was waiting for her test results. She did not go to work today as well; his Mama always went to work. Third, he could not pray. All this while he never paid attention to it during the morning devotion in school, how none of them in the group open their mouths to say the Lord's Prayer or the Grace. It was during the time his mother asked for them to say the 23rd Psalm he knew something was wrong.

Right there and then he tried saying the Grace and just started coughing again. Tinuke found him coughing and asked him if he was OK. She did not see him with the group and came looking for him.

"I can't pray. Whenever I try to, I start coughing. Does this happen to you, to everyone else?" he asked.

Tinuke explained "That it is part of the working of the Flesh we eat during meetings. Not only does it give us power, but it also won't let us pray or express love to anyone."

She narrated her story of how she felt love for her dad, and gradually it faded away. Now she feels nothing towards her father or any family member. Bankole was shocked.

"Can one leave the group?" he asked her. "Can what we did to my mother be stopped? Its still hurting her."

"Don't let Lydia hear you." She replied, smiling.

"You can't leave," she added. "Once one eats of the Flesh it gradually takes over the soul. The more one partakes of it, the more it consumes the soul until you feel nothing."

Staring into his eyes she continued, "To break a curse would require telling the one you love the most that you love them. It during this time the Flesh will tear your soul apart, ultimately it will kill you. I know all this because I attempted it."

Tinuke's mother had died two years ago, and she and her two younger brothers had become very close to their father. Suddenly, out of the blue her father announces that he was going to remarry. They were too young not to have a mother in the home, plus his work entailed his traveling a lot and he cannot let his children be raised by an illiterate or semi-illiterate house-helps. Tinuke was so angry with her father. All this happened not too long after she had just joined the group. She did not believe that her stepmother truly loved her dad, and she certainly did not want another mother. Tinuke believed that her stepmother was a gold digger and once her father lost his money she would leave, so she brought him before the meeting. She wanted him to lose money and fall sick, and then the woman would leave. It all happened to him,

"My stepmother did not leave. She stayed and took care of him, to extent of paying our school fees when my father could not," she said

The mistake she made was telling Lydia to reverse the curse or spell since her stepmother was not going anywhere. Her dad need not suffer anymore, and she was no longer interested in being a part of the group. Lydia told her to set her father free she must tell him she loved him three times. Lydia then warned her, if she was unable to do it, she would never leave the group. Her father would never be free, never really gain his health back as it was. He would never be as wealthy as he used to be. When things seem to be going well for him, something would suddenly go wrong. And for telling her this secret Tinuke would be her slave. At the time Tinuke did not care so long as her father was free and at least her sibling would well be provided for.

When she got to her father's sickbed, she tried to do it. In the first attempt, there was so much pain, she thought she would die. The pain was so much; it felt like someone was literally pulling her heart out of her chest. She could not say it a second time. All she did was cry, she cried so much from the physical pain and emotional pain of regret. She narrated her tale without an iota of emotion

"Don't look so sad, I don't feel anything anymore. It's like a dream, everything that happened. The Flesh got rid of the pain.  There is something you should know. Normally children are release from the influence of the Flesh  when we turn ten and they would have no recollection of ever being a member, but for people like me who made an attempt to reverse a curse we don't get that chance, we are never leaving," Tinuke said.

"I have been Lydia's slave for over a year and often she would demand of me to do her evil schemes for my freedom, but she never kept her promise. Do you remember the incident in the classroom a long time ago? I was so upset with Lydia because she failed to fulfill her promise."

"Lydia was the one who asked her to put the money in his bag. This was the condition she presented, and I finally gained my freedom," she said with a sad smile.

Too many surprises. He didn't know if to believe her, but he thanked her, and just as he was leaving, she pulled him back.

"Rumour has it that if anyone of us can actually say the words 'I love you' to the one we love the most three times and still be alive and if the person of says those words back, you will be free. But! You would lose something. What it is, I did not know, that is just the rumour," she whispered.

"Don't tell anyone I told you this," she warned.

"I won't I promise, but I must save my mother. I have no one else," Bankole cried.

"I understand, but you can never leave the group. Bankole, you must just allow things to be the way they are. Your mother would always be sick but she would never die that is just the price you have to pay for requesting for something from the group," Tinuke added.

"I don't care, I have to save my mother," he said, wiping his tears. His chest was hurting. "I have to go home and thank you, Tinuke," he said and left her.