WAZOBIA: A Tale of Two worlds

A Covenant

I was fourteen when I met Ahunwanyi. It was about one month after she was banished from the village, I'd actually witnessed the gathering at the village square, where she was sent away. My father was the prosecutor.

I was on my way to the stream with my sister to fetch water. She'd stopped on the way to greet a friend, as usual, and as usual I'd left her because I hated time wasting more than I hated her friends. That was when I met Ahunwanyi.

She, Ahunwanyi, was in front of her house, the same house; I don't know if I'd wandered too far or followed a wrong path but I met her, and once I recognised her I slowed a bit. I don't know why, but she didn't seem a threat at all although I'd been consciously made to believe so. She was sitting on a wooden rocking chair and her fingers were clasped. She was looking at the trees when she saw me carrying my empty keg. She didn't say anything at first, then noticed I was walking slower and staring at her, so she took interest. She called me, and I answered her. Naturally, I wasn't supposed to, it was forbidden, and if my sister was with me, she would've given me a harsh slap and reported to my father when we'd got home.

I walked up to her and she told me who she was, even though I knew already. Then she asked me who I was. She didn't even flinch when I told her I was Ejiofor's daughter, and she didn't treat me with spite even after.

I'd continued to meet her after that day, whenever I went to the stream I would make sure to see her. I'd even offer to go to the stream at unusual times just to meet her. I'd tell her everything that happened in the house, everything. What my father did, what my siblings were doing, how my mother was coping - everything.

She always entertained with food and I always refused eating, unless she sent one of her daughter's to buy it in my presence. Despite the fact that she was my confidant I still had this fear of her.

She picked girls who ran away from her homes, those were her daughters.

She'd once suggested that I stay with her and be one of her Daughters. I told her no. If I left the house my mom would suffer in silence and she'd have no one else to talk to and cry onto. I already let her know that my weakness was my mom.

The last time I met her was the first time I went into the main house. I went to fetch water alone that day, and my dad was out late preparing one fetish or the other. I met all the Daughters and we got to know each other. After that she sat me down in her parlor. It was the year before i was to go to university and then move to the US to start training at the Academy.

She told me:
"My child, I plan to return to the village soon, with all my daughters. I will come back to my place and make a change in the village, but I will wait till you return. I have grown so fond of you that I suddenly feel I can't do it without you. You are a promising child. And you've always wanted all of them to pay. When you come back, we will both make sure it happens.
You will come back, won't you?"

I nodded, more passionately than I'd done any other thing in my life.