MAIDENS

MAIDENS 7

Wura took the road in longer strides than usual, so she was panting by the time she got to her door. Her father had no issues keeping up with her despite his age. He was a trained man and had spent his younger days in the discipline of keeping not only his mind but his body healthy. He still had to ask either way.

"Wura, be careful. Wura? Wura!" He baritoned. That stopped her strides and made her turn sheepishly. "Sorry, Father. Yes, Father?"

"Talk to me a little before you run in as I see you plan to do. You already explained what led to the hospital visit this afternoon but you are yet to explain the reason for the excitement. Last night, you swung from confusion to confidence and then fear. Yes, I saw it but the person I met in the hospital this afternoon was a different person. When I heard you had fainted in front of the whole class, I thought I would meet a defeated Wura in the hospital but what is this joy I see?"

Wura gave him a big smile. "Two things happened. One. For the first time, I saw a vision of the ten ladies. Even though I could not see their faces I could feel the joy and favour they felt as they waited in a special room. They wore such bright clothes and none of them had been forced to stay there."

"So how does this affect your countenance?"

"The vision did not end well but it was still different from the visions of the covens. At one point, one of the maidens got tired and voiced it out. Her impatience and tiredness infected the rest, and I sensed that something horrible was going to happen. When I thought about it later in the hospital while I waited for you to come, I realized the reason for the Call. The maidens will get tired not only because of Olóròógbò's scheme like you said last night but because it is the simple nature of humans to be tired after a season. I have been called into an honourable work- finding a solution to this problem and it is going to be easy."

"Easy, you say?" He may not have heard well.

"Yes, Father, I said 'easy.' Reason two: My teacher said something at the hospital that got me thinking. He said he was appointed not by merit but by grace." Father found himself unconsciously nodding as he listened. "And what does this mean?" He asked.

"It means that King Adélòwò knows that I am incapable but he still chose me. It means there is something he knows that I do not and that he is not expecting anything spectacular in my service as a Called except what he can work through me. Now, Father, may I go?"

"Answer this last question and I will be out of your way. What now? What is the next plan?"

"The Iwe-Mimo." Father was suspicious of that smile. It is the same type her mother used to wear before one of her troublemaking.

"What do you plan to do with the Iwe-Mimo?"

"Read it all, of course. There was something about the way Teacher Alakola's eyes widened when he heard I had read the Iwe-Mimo before. I feel there's more to that book and I am going to find it out myself." Then she was gone.

I forgot to tell her I have a meeting with the Àwon Asónà community today. I'm sure she would not notice my absence until morning.

Father smiled slowly. His daughter was a faster learner. It had taken him weeks to get the confidence she was already showing a day after she learned about her call or to even understand any part of the call as "seeking a solution" this early. The way she was going, there really may be hope yet for the kingdom.

*****

Wura yawned for the fifth time but refused to put down the Iwe-Mimo. She had never seen so much information before in one book. The more she read, the more responsibility she felt placed upon her concerning the call. The more real the call became, the more her heart humbled itself before King Adélòwò's plan. She had thought she knew a lot about the king but just some hours into the Iwe-Mimo and she knew she had a lot to learn. There was something on everything, instructions down to the smallest detail. She had seen lessons they had been taught since her younger school days and lessons they would be taught in their final year. She saw the requirements to becoming a steward and from what she was seeing some of her classmates may not make it to graduation day in happiness. This call had come at the right time and now she could tailor her life to fit into what she wanted for her future. She had only been into the book some minutes before realizing that she had spoken big words to her father. There was no way she could finish the whole book in one night or even a day.