The Seer ( A Short Story)

Chapter One

My grandmother used to say that you should never bend down in a market place. She said if you do, you will see that not all legs touch the ground, some stay afloat, and those are the spirits that move about in the market place. But I never needed to bend down before I could see them. I always did, not only in the market, no, I saw them everywhere else and I didn't know if my grandmother saw them too.

I do overhear my parents sometimes when they talked. They think I'm a troubled child.

"But don't they see what I see?"

I realized they didn't when they never paid attention to the girl who always sat on our fence waiting for someone or the old man who always walked around our compound at night looking for something. None of them ever spoke. They would vanish and come back when they pleased.

My father was an accountant. He worked in a bank that was a 20-minute drive away from our house while my mum was a trader. She had her shop downtown where she sold provisions and household items.
My sister and I went to the same school. We walked to and fro every day; the school was not too far from where we lived. I was in my first year in senior secondary school (ss1) and my sister was in her last (ss3). When I figured I was the only one who saw these spirits, I kept it to myself and tried not to draw more attention to myself. After all, these spirits are harmless but not all, and its the latter I feared the most.

My sister and I were walking back from school today. It was a dull afternoon and the rain threatened to fall so we both had to hurry home. But as we approached our house, I saw something... a demon standing by our street these things were never a good sign. I froze at the sight of It. It had something like a skull for a head and an unnaturally twisted figure. It was levitating as if it was hung by the neck and it seemed like it was waiting... but for whom was it waiting for?

"Jide! Jide!" my sister called me.

"What's wrong with you? Let's go, it is going to rain."

   I couldn't move, and I could tell my sister was getting impatient already and she walked away, right passed the spirit whose head turned to look at her and then turned away to look back at me.

  "Why are you here?" I said in a whisper.

It started drizzling and I felt the small drops of rain on my skin. I saw my sister come back to me and she grabbed my hand.
"I don't have time for this," she said as we both walked past the demon. It turned it's head to look at us and after a while, it turned it's head to look away.

My sister did not keep the whole incident to herself. She told my mother who then told my father and later that evening they both came to my room. I knew what they were going to say so I had to play my cards right so they do not call the priest again. Yes, 'the priest'. I'm tired of holy water and all those long days of fasting and mostly church elders coming to check up on me and asking me all sorts of absurd questions. They would call me a poor boy and come with their pity that I do not want, so  I have to be real smart about this conversation.

"Your sister told us what happened today, are you okay?" my father started and I was silent, debating whether I should or shouldn't them what I saw. I wanted to tell them that someone we know may be in trouble.

"Jide" my mother called.

"Yes, I'm okay. I only saw a cat in the bushes."

I saw my mother give a sigh of relief and my father's face brighten up.
"I'll try to keep those cats out of our compound. I saw one by the fence the other day," my father said.
"Don't worry, we will take care of it. We know you don't like cats that much," my mother added as they both stood up and left the room.
"I wish I could tell them that somebody was going to die soon,
somebody we know.

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