Addie Kamara is a seventeen year old Christian girl attending a rich school in London. This story follows her life in 2023 in the months leading to her finals in July. In this time, friendships will be tested, new friends will be made, two amazing...
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Qadir Al Jafa
I stood at the entrance of the living room unable to move. What I had just seen had frightened me. Elaine and Ray weren't hurting each other with the machetes. The dance was more like a ritual. They dropped the machetes and picked up money and began burning it. They acted like they hadn't seen me. It was like I was invisible to them. Tendai was facing them so he didn't see me watching. Ray got rum and began drinking it while Elaine picked up two cigarettes and began smoking them. They continued their ritual of dancing. Ray began spitting some of the alcohol on Tendai who didn't stop drumming and chanting. The spirit left Ray first and he noticed me. He didn't acknowledge me. Elaine stopped being possessed too and ignored me. What's up with this family? She took some alcohol and then got possessed again. This spirit was different from the first one. The spirit was loud and full of rage. She began stomping the ground hard and pushing Ray. He didn't do anything to her. Elaine moved around the room gyrating her body.
I didn't expect her to do what she did. She ran to where I was and pushed me down. I screamed. Was she going to hurt me in her state? Tendai turned to see me but he didn't come to help. Elaine continued doing her ritual and dancing but on top of me. I stopped screaming and began crying instead. Elaine got up and did one of the weirdest things I have ever seen someone do in my life. She picked up a chicken from the ground near the altar. I hadn't noticed the chicken earlier. She bit the chicken on the neck and made the blood of the chicken drip in front of the altar. The spirit left her body when the blood stopped dripping from the dead chicken's body. Tendai stopped drumming and chanting and came to me.
"Addie, I am sorry you had to witness that," he said. I couldn't leave what I was doing because mom was being possessed by Ezili Dantor. He tried to help me up.
"Don't touch me," I shouted.
I got up and and walked back to his bedroom. My God, I have just witnessed a voodoo ritual. Tendai told me before that his family does voodoo. I never knew how a voodoo ritual looks like until now. I checked my phone. It was like 3:46 a.m. I can't leave now. I need to wait till 5 a.m to leave. If it means I walk home, I will do so when it reaches 5 a.m.
Tendai found me seated on his bed thinking.
"Addie, you weren't supposed to see that," he said.
When were you going to tell me that you do such things in your religion?
"I did tell you that we practiced voodoo in our family before," he said. It was scary, what your parents were doing with the machetes and what your mom did with the chicken.
"Addie, I thought you knew what happens in voodoo rituals," he said.
I didn't know. All I knew is that it's satanic because people worship spirits. That was all.
"Well, I am sorry about that," he said. But Voodoo is a beautiful religion. What you saw was us appreciating our loas for helping dad's candidate Isla Walker win the Mayoral race. The first spirit who possessed both of them is Ogun. A warrior spirit who likes to drink rum and is a heavy smoker.
