My Third Cycle

9. Clarifications

Mama Jaja walked in with two guards by each side.

"You see, George," Ochukwu continued, "I have tried every means medically possible to stay alive, paying European doctors heavily to come treat me here in absolute secrecy, but all they have been able to do is to prolong the inevitable by two years or more. I have been constantly operated on since the last day of war in Biafra."

I grinned, "You mean the war you deserted, leaving your people to die?"

"I did that to ensure the survival of the head, so the Biafran dream can live on." He replied.

"You are a deranged bastard." I spat at him.

He got out a towel, wiped his face clean, "I have tried but you have refused to see reason." A spasm of cough interrupted him. "Let us begin."

The guards escorting Mama Jaja left the room, and then a man in a white coat stepped in and began preparing the tools and equipment needed for the procedure. I could only see his eyes as he wore a protective mask over his nose and mouth.

I had lost every fight in me. I closed my eyes and tried to rest, I continued to hear movement and murmuring sounds and from the snatches of conversation I could hear, I couldn't make sense out of what they were saying. My eyes snapped open as I felt the prick of a needle pierce my wrist, They had punctured my artery with a syringe and blood had begun to seep out of me through a rubber tube into a plastic bag hung below my table.

Ochukwu, now heavily sedated was also strapped to the table and placed upside down, the tables were positioned opposite each other. None of the procedures made any sense to me but Uche watched with anxiety, her hands folded. Nzeagwu pushed Mama Jaja over to us.

"Start the transfusion." He said.

Mama Jaja brought out a powdery substance from her bag and a dagger and she blew the powder into the air. Suspended in the air, they seemed to dance as they drifted towards and then around me. She screamed and her eyes dilated till the whites of them weren't visible anymore. She began to chant in some strange tongue, dancing at the same time.

Then she approached me, no further than an inch from me still chanting and dancing, then she stopped, hands lifted, the particles froze in the air too. Mama Jaja lowered her hands slowly and the particles followed her Lea, till they dropped to the floor.

From my limited view, I could see the powder particles had formed a star with me at its core. Mama Jaja snapped her fingers and the particles lit up, I was in the middle of a burning star, it burnt without any smoke. If I was not strapped to a table dying, I would admit it was beautiful.

Uche and the rest of them shifted back as they had become afraid, they were all startled by the fire. I began to feel cold and weak, life was slowly leaving my body. Mama Jaja came closer and whispered in my ear, "Your heart is pure, your fire burns without poison." She held my chin and I could smell her palm, it reeked of garlic.

"One question, Mama Jaja." I said in a weak drowsy voice. "Why garlic?" She tapped my head gently and continued in her soft whisper that surprisingly comforted me.

"Mother Osun has not called you this day, find your love."

"What--"

Mama Jaja's dagger lit red hot and she held it up high and shouted "Be free and continue your cycle, bright star of joy!"

"No!" I saw Uche through the fire as she screamed She drew her gun and fired at Mama Jaja, but Mama Jaja held on, and pushed the dagger through my chest and into my heart. I died immediately, blood not totally drained.