Bamboo Grove by the Brook

Part 6 - Back to the Grove

What Dr. Van Niekirk heard left a frown on her face. She was just back from the hospital after a grueling 12 hours shift. She intended to take a shower and a short nap when the telephone rang. Shawn took the call and relayed to his mother that it was aunt Miranda. Something happened to Nikki and her presence was needed. She was dead tired but she could no way ignore this call. They were not just neighbors and her son's friends, they were her extended family. She took a quick shower, changed into jeans and a T-shirt, took an umbrella, and made a short run for the Mwangi household with Shawn in tow.

She took the final gulp of coffee and placed the mug on the table. 'I would have called it sleep- paralysis if she did not have all those dirt and dry roots on her. Are you sure she wasn't sleepwalking? If she hadn't gone outside how did she pick up all the dirt?'

'Martha, we are absolutely sure she did not leave the house. She would have to disengage the alarm and she doesn't know the code.' Prof. Mwangi said.

'Moreover, Rover would have barked if someone tried to pass him. He sleeps at the head of the stairs and it is impossible to go downstairs without waking him,' added Peter.

Mama Njeri was sitting at the corner of the couch with her head between her palms. 'Martha, we were all there when her scream woke us up. She was still on the bed, very much asleep,' she said in a tired voice.

Nobody slept the previous night after the episode. The rest of the night, however, passed peacefully without any further incident. Mental exhaustion had finally taken over and Nikki had fallen asleep at dawn. Miranda had left her in the bedroom with Wanjiru and called Nikki's parents. Now they were sitting on either side of her in complete silence. 

'Is her mental health alright?' Nikki's mother finally spoke in a feeble tone.

'I don't think there is any problem with her mental health, Richa. Let me talk to her when she wakes up,' Martha consoled the worried parents.

'There is absolutely nothing wrong with her,' Mama Njeri retorted. 'If she is going crazy then I have gone crazy too.'

Everyone was taken aback by the sharpness in her tone. 'I have seen things too yesterday evening.' She proceeded to narrate her sighting outside the bedroom. There was a hushed silence when she finished. They all knew Mama Njeri would never say something that she was not sure about.

'Why didn't you tell us before, Mama?' Prof. Mwangi broke the silence.

'Tell who? You? Would you have believed? You are a born skeptic. You never believe in anything,' she replied rather angrily. Professor Mwangi was not known for being a great believer in the paranormal. As an anthropologist, he believes there are historical truths behind a legend but he strongly refuses to believe in traditional stories involving spirits.

'You still should have told us, Mum.'

Suddenly Mama Njeri was really looking all of her seventy-three years. She had aged overnight. 'There is another reason I did not mention it; I doubted what I saw. I tried to tell myself that I had been imagining things after hearing Nikki's experience. But I no longer think so.' Mama Njeri said after a pause.

'This changes the whole scenario,' commented Derrick Wright who was only listening to the conversations till now. He was the uncle of Robin – another friend of Peter's. In Nikki's friend circle he was everyone's uncle D. Derrick was an archeologist and a long-time friend of Professor Mwangi. He lived in Zimbabwe, but whenever, he came to the city he made it a point to visit his old friend.

'Mwangi, you may not like what I am going to say. But try to keep an open mind. I think her soul was taken to the underworld or spirit world. It is believed among many cultures that the spirits of the dead reside underground and there are dwelling places like we have here; only that there is complete darkness.' Professor Mwangi was about to open his mouth in protest but Derrick put up his hand to stop him from interrupting. 'It sounds weird, I know. I heard similar stories from people who worked with me during my field trips. Though I haven't witnessed one myself, somehow I can't dismiss everything as the superstitions of the village folks.'