Tears Like Rivers

By Orji A. Orji

Ogbeyialu was not born like every other person. Sequel, she had no person in this world except Ade and she was the only person in Ade’s life. Her birth placed her on the lowest social stratum. She was an evening flower and their peculiar world made Ade give her the nod to run his life. Fate brought Ade to Col. Kalu, one of the Biafran leaders. Circumstances and the meeting conspired and forced him to research on the Nigeria Biafra War for his degree project. Lilly, a head turner with brains, was from a rich and powerful family. Many men with muscles wanted her hand in marriage but she would not look their way. She wanted Ade but he did not want her and did not want to get near her. He had nothing, as a result, was not yet ready for marriage. Lilly’s father was dangerous. Ade’s background made him weak and vulnerable but her uncle and foster father, Joe Onuma, was a Biafran captain and had a truckload of the war stories. Research apart, Lilly would give Ade what he did not have.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Sep 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781483498904

Book preview

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CHAPTER 1

T WILIGHT HAD NOT SET IN but evening had greeted the world. The taxi stopped at the Apenu motor park. Ade climbed out of the car, his expression said it all. He did not know what lay ahead of him but he handed it all to fate. All the Nkporo bound taxis had gone. He knew it. All the waiting at Isiukwuato junction was in vain. But he would not go back to where he started. That was the reason he took the available taxi at Isiukwuato. He could do the rest of the journey on foot. He had done it before. It would save him some coins. He had run out of money. Ogbeyialu had not given him his monthly stipend.

He stood at the trunk waiting for the driver to disembark but he was not forthcoming. He was neck deep in a chat with the market women. Ade was not interested in what the driver was doing. He just wanted to be out of that place, quick, to see if he could get a lift. It was no secret to him that the drivers did a lot of obscene things with the women.

The driver barked a laugh, opened his door and climbed out. The man kept talking as he walked toward the trunk of his car. And Ade looked at him with a heavy face but the driver did not care about Ade’s feelings. The women in his car matched him in talk and he mixed the chat with smiles and laughs to Ade’s chagrin.

Ade stood in front of the shack and waited. Night was fast approaching. The woman in the bar swept aside the dirty curtain that hung on the window with her left arm and looked out. People came and went. She always had uninvited visitors at the road in front of her stall. Men and women looking for hitch hikes or a taxi. The night was always their terror. Their business was not hers and neither was their fate. She removed her hand and the curtain covered the window and she returned to her business.

If the woman was spying Ade, he did not know and did not care. He was buried in his world. A world filled with despair. Before him was a darkness that might swallow his world. He looked at the road that would take him to Amurie. On the sides were walls. Walls made of forests. Forests could be a cloakroom for beasts. An evil man is a beast. He remembered when two women were beheaded on the same road. A madman did the job. Any person could be mad. It is a question of acting well. It had happened in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria. Men used the ugly name to cover their nefarious acts. Two weeks later, the madman was seen slain in the same spot he did his victims. It was another mad act but this time without a human face. He looked at the other side of the road, the side he had trekked to get to that point where he stood. A man was coming toward him and he knew that he was going to the bar. Habitual drinkers, he thought. He kept on watching him until he got very close. His eyes were glassy and had the color of a python’s eyes and a dribble of spittle was gushing down his cheek. His face had the flush of a drunkard who had taken a cup too many. He passed him carrying along a stale odor that could get to the sky. Overnight –old palm wine–, he thought.

After a few minutes the man entered, Ade started to hear raised voices. He became disgusted. It was the voice of palm wine and he became disgusted that the bottle did not allow him to know peace that would give him the wherewithal to nurse his feelings from where he stood. He heard the woman’s voice. He knew her and knew her voice. But the voice of the others drowned hers. Ade looked back into the bar and could see standing figures with arms stretched and fingers jerking. Tension was high. It was a normal wine house affair. Bottles could be bullets when fired by palmy – palm wine. He looked around him and felt that it was better to avoid police and their come today, come tomorrow. So he took the first step and the second and he was on his way to Nkporo. The night had come. A man must have balls and face what lay ahead. No one ever died twice. With fear the world would never roll. The night became darker as he walked but he walked on. Walking from there to Amurie was like walking from his bed to the door that led out of his room. He could do it with his eyes closed.

He heard the drone of an engine and he did not know from which end the sound was coming. It was a car. He cocked his head to one side. It was coming behind him. Maybe it was luck knocking on his door. But some men could be mean and fear could make others be wicked. All he knew was that the coming car was not loaded with assassins. He had a make belief that fear was dead in him. He saw the rays of light probing the banks of the forest that flanked him. In a minute the noise was terrible and he stood by the side. The car was coming with an alarming speed. The road was bad for such a speed. He waved to try his luck, to tell the driver they were going in the same direction, to plead for mercy. The night was his weapon but fear could deny him the benevolence. The car raced passed him. His hope sank and he stood there rooted. He loathed the car and wished evil to the driver. It stopped and with reverse and a speed that was not normal raced towards him. It stopped exactly where he stood. The door window motored down and a head peaked out. On the face was grey moustache and the head was a shaved coconut with a ruff of hair around the neck. He knew him. He was Colonel Kalu. The head withdrew and the front curb door opened. He hesitated though he knew that was an invitation to enter.

Enter

He removed his backpack and entered. Then he closed the door and placed the bag at his foot. The man had been an angel. How would he have done it if God had not intervened? Maybe he would have joined Ogbeyialu by five in the morning. He looked at the man whose thick eye glasses faced forward as he raced the car and said,

Thanks general.

Boy, do you know me? He said glancing at him.

Yes and everybody knows you.

Where are you from?

Agbaja.

He inadvertently shot him another look.

He knew there was something swimming on his mind and he could not fathom what it was.

I don’t know you.

General!

He smiled nervously. I’m not a general, he paused, I retired a colonel.

You are a general. You made us proud, sir. Men wear the soldiers’ stars and eagles and we do same for you. Can the empty generals parading our barracks match your deeds? Yes, we lost the war but it doesn’t mean that we do not know who is who.

You say you’re from Agbaja?

Yes general.

Why not we leave the military and settle for something else; like, sir?

Okay, he said with a shrug.

Who’s your dad?

Agha Odum Ude

I don’t know him.

You may not know him. He hasn’t been around for long.

Who’s your mom?

Ogbeyialu

Col. Kalu turned and looked at him with his bifocals and Ade’s heart skipped. He wanted the man to focus on his driving. The speed was too much. They could talk why he looked forward.

Elderly like me?

Yes sir.

His expression changed and he looked forward. It’s a pity.

Thanks sir.

Time heals the wound and I don’t think you knew him, given your age.

No sir.

Col. Kalu knew the story very well but could not remember whether he had seen Agha before he died. Maybe Agha had known him before his untimely death. His son had said that everybody knew him. That is one of the evils of being a star though a minor star he was. He passed his paw through his face. Today’s children: fast lane wrecks them like auto. What’s your name?

Ade

A Yoruba name?

He smiled weakly and briefly explained how the name came. This was not the first nor would it be the last this question would come up. It was like a scar that would never fade.

What do you do?

I am a student

I thought as much. Where?

ABIASU

Boy, take it seriously. That’s the way forward. Your people are putting you on a sound footing.

Okay sir. It’s almost over.

"Are you in your final year?

Yes sir

CHAPTER 2

T HE MAN STOPPED IN FRONT of their house. So he knows our house, he thought. The two occupants of the car looked at each other on the face. It appeared to Ade as if the action had lasted forever. And Col. Kalu held out his hand and they shook.

Thanks general- em- sir

The man was smiling in his mind and looking at him with an impassive face. His two hands tightly held the steering.

Truly, I really don’t know how to thank you. But God will reward you for what you have done for me tonight and all what you did for Ndigbo. He climbed out of the car, closed the door and was wearing his backpack when the colonel removed his eyes from the young guy. His bravery was unparalleled. It was not everybody that could brace the night in the lonely forest. Were it the Biafra days the boy would have been a material, he thought. And then drove off.

Ade stopped at the door and drew his backpack forward and was groping the bag for his key when the door swung open. Standing on the other side was Ogbeyialu holding the door and waiting for him to enter. He greeted, zipped the backpack and entered. Her eyes followed him for sometime before she closed the door and returned to him.

You returned late.

Yes, he said and breathed out as though he had just come out of a difficult situation. Truly, he faced a difficult situation but luck lightened it up for him. He collapsed on a sofa, his backpack on his laps, his hands over it thereby carrying it as a man would carry a baby. He threw his head back and placed it on the headrest, looking drained. I got to Isiukwuato late and sequel couldn’t get a ride from Apenu Item so I decided to leg it and night had come.

Ogbeyialu’s face wore an expression that said she did not like it.

I would’ve been here when the cocks were doing the rounds.

Who picked you up?

General Kalu.

Ogbu Kalu? Her eyes were as big as a boxer’s fists.

Yes. He saw me on the way home, in no man’s land. He looked at Ogbeyialu and noted that she was not herself. She wore gooseflesh like feathers to a bird. And he did not know why she was this way. He looked at her on the face and their eyes locked. Is there anything wrong with it?

Thank God, said Ogbeyialu who stared at the floor and her closed mouth was moving like that of a goat chewing cud while her two arms were folded on her bosom.

Why?

That man? She lifted up her face. To kill a human being is like swatting a fly for him.

Ade laughed. His head rolled round and round the headrest as he laughed and he leavened up.

This is not a laughing matter. She bent down her head and passed her hand over the plaited hair which she wore.

Ade looked at Ogbeyialu’s hair. He could not see anyone that was black. The irony was the hair was plaited in black thread – covered spikes that hung about her head. The root was gray and some gray ones were escaping from the threads that held them which made it look like a bad work done on gray wool. He reserved his comment. Ogbeyialu was his mother. The only mother he knew. She had passed the age of fashion.

The people he has killed are more than the hair on my head

Ade’s thought about Ogbeyialu’s hair had not given him room to come up with a reasonable answer.

You never heard of the Ohafia story where he captured Gowon’s junior brother? Your father was still on my back then.

He wasn’t Gowon’s brother and it was war

On Sunday I will give a thanksgiving offering in the church. He has killed men strong and mighty and seeing you alone in the lonely forest, heeh! That would be throwing a morsel of meat to an elephant dog. He carries a gun or two always. She twisted as if there were a serrated knife moving forward and backward in her stomach, He’s jujuish and could turn you into a tortoise. She drawled with a voice a little high.

Ogbeyialu, he’s a war hero. But he knew why the reference to a tortoise.

I know but what I am saying is that he is drunk with Hausa blood and kills at random with little or no provocation. He has killed many times since the war ended. Have you heard about the thieves and the Igbere junction police?

Goodnight Ogbeyialu, he said and got up to leave. He was not ready to spend the night debating about General Ogbu Kalu. He was tired and had some work to do. The night was his best time to study. He got up holding his backpack by the handle and walked toward his room. He knew all the stories and many more which he knew Ogbeyialu did not know.

John Okere was a captain during the Nigeria Biafra war. He was one of the few who had secondary school education before the war. After the war, there was no place for the Igbos in the public service, so he became self-employed and made it fast. He was one of the first set of importers in Abiriba - Nkporo axis. One day at Port Harcourt Road, in Aba, he parked his car by the road and stood by the side waiting to cross to the other side of the road but a military truck hit him where he stood. The driver did not stop. He just looked at the wing mirror and saw the man on his death throes. His death crashed the family’s hope because he was their bread winner.

At Amasiri in Afikpo, an eight year old girl had her small sister on her back and was standing by the road; a military truck ran over them. The two kids died at the spot. The driver did not stop the car. This was everyday thing in Igbo land. No question was ever asked and nothing was done to the errant drivers.

One day Colonel Kalu was driving along Oroni junction and these men drove past him in their fashion. Driving as if Igbo lives did not matter and he followed them driving with one hand and with the free hand he released a shot and burst their tyre. The jeep skidded to a stop and the two occupants jumped out to draw blood. A shark that smelt blood: one was wielding a pistol and the other had a cow hide whip and his gun hung behind his back. He poked out his head from his car window and pointing a shaky finger he said:

Go and tell whoever sent you that Colonel Ogbu Kalu burst your tyre and any of you who get nearer will go home in a casket.

They all simmered down, moving like two atheists who came face to face with angry gods. They knew his history. They were from Ohafia regiment. One of them was Colonel Abdullahi’s boy. He drove past them.

He was in Aba on a private business and some bad boys wanted to jack his car. They did not know who he was and did not know that he was packing a gun. They told him to raise his hands up and come out of the car quickly without touching anything. On raising his hands up, he gunned down two of the boys and the third one was mortally wounded.

The Inspector General of Police passed an order banning the mounting of road blocks and some officers’ pockets became dry and they set up a shop at the Igbere junction. Their road block was illegal and they were robbing people with impunity, giving change in the brazen daylight to their victims and taking revenge on those they felt had shortchanged them.

The colonel was going on his business and these cops told him to stop and he looked their way without minding them. They did not know it was him. Their hit man made to fire but the colonel was faster and the trigger happy cop’s hand dangled as if it were a scarecrow without bones and his confederates wanted to do what he could not do but all of them lay on the floor bleeding. He handcuffed them and called the authority.

CHAPTER 3

I T WAS MORNING AND OGBEYIALU was preparing for church and Ade was still in bed. He was a night owl. No one ever cheats nature. It is either you sleep in the night or you do it in the day. Ogbeyialu went to his door and knocked but he did not answer and she kept on knocking.

Awuu!, he said and his hand was in the air stretching while his mouth was a rictus. The slabs of muscle all over his body stood out and stretched his nerves. He shook as if he had a fever. He was still in bed and his sleep had been disturbed. Why can’t Ogbeyialu go to church and leave him alone?

Ade, open the door, she said with a commanding voice. She had heard his groan which could equate the roar of a lion.

He sat on the bed, sighing, and feeling as if there was not even an ounce of energy in him.

Ade, do I hear you sigh? She shouted, Open the door. Quick

He tried to kill another sigh but could not though it was not as loud as the former one. He fished for his slippers and walked to the door and opened it a fraction. After greeting, he leaned on the door and the frame and listened.

I think it will be wise we go to church together since I’m doing a thanksgiving for you

I’m not going to church, Ade said shaking his head. The sleepless inertia was gradually leaving him. The fog that had covered his vision was lifting and the cobweb that had occupied his brain was no more. Mm

Ogbeyialu who had turned to go, nursing her wound and brooding, turned and looked Ade straight in the face.

I want to go see the general.

Kalu!

Mm

I’ve told you, be careful with that man. I don’t like your friendship with him. I hate an idol worshipper. You don’t know him. During the war he had a tortoise. Every person knows about it. Maybe the tortoise is still there and it’s hungry. He wants to use you to sacrifice to it, she said shaking a pointed finger at him. All her arm shook, her expression was acid and she made to turn.

Forget that. He may be anything but he will not do me any harm. Calm your nerves. Then he came out of the room and leaned his back on the wall.

Ogbeyialu had known that Ade was stubborn. Youths always think they’re more intelligent than the elders.

I want to write a book about your war experience. I want the world to know what you passed through. He noticed Ogbeyialu’s whole being shook. He saw that the hair on her shriveled body stood erect.

She laughed, brandishing teeth colored brown by age. Her eyes shone like those of a cat. Can you do it? She said breathlessly.

Yes, it’s part of my exam.

She hugged him.

But I can’t do it without the general.

Ogbeyialu did not want to make any statement on this but would talk to the pastor so that they pray together for Ade. She needed a divine help to protect him from the wiles of Colonel Ogbu Kalu. She left him and carried her water to the bathroom.

Ade returned to his room and closed the door. He still needed a sleep and a quiet time. Later in the day, he would pay a visit to the general but this was something he did not know how to go about. To go knocking at the house of the towers of the land was not something he had done before and thinking about it put butterflies in his stomach.

CHAPTER 4

A DE GOT UP FROM BED and walked out of his room. There was no Ogbeyialu and only two of them shared the house. He brushed his mouth and went for breakfast. There was soup and unprepared garri . Today he did not feel like eating garri that early morning. Ogbeyialu’s diet ended in yam and fufu or garri though, once in a big while, she added some variants: maize and its derivatives, pumpkin, etc. Many times he had bought Ovaltine, bread and the other complementary stuff from his pocket money. Initially, she drank the tea like medicine but later learnt that it was food and accepted it as such. But whenever the stock ran out, she never bought a replacement. He had returned with a can of Quaker oat. He boiled water and fixed some for himself and left the rest in the kitchen. After eating to his fill, he belched and got up, leaving the plate where he ate without washing it. Then he watched the television for sometime and went to the bathroom with a bucketful of water. He lasted fifteen minutes in there. The perfume from the soap was nose filling and he knew that he would wear it all day. The perfume was the reason he was using Palm Olive. Ogbeyialu had no choice when it came to soap and in virtually everything minus Christianity and the others.

In his room he brought out a T – shirt; but it was rumpled. There was no power supply and he sighed. There was no way to iron it. He had a charcoal iron but he had no charcoal to fire it. It was frustrating. The campus was a paradise world. The generators were always there, automatic and never failing to come on. He donned it and it was roomy. It was cool and he added faded blue jeans with holes on the knee that hugged his legs. And he crowned it with a pair of Nike air trainers. He was every right guy’s defined ‘cool’ but he had to give time or lazy around for his body to stretch the T - shirt.

He sat down and thought about the house. It was practically his. Ogbeyialu was a fading sun and his father had never seen nor stepped into the house since it was built and would never do so any more. He did not know what would happen to the house after Ogbeyialu. He would not be tied at Nkporo because of a house. Greener pastures were out there for grab. Nkporo was a small town and had no elephants to kill. Well, she had a solution to everything and this would not elude her. He did not know why the house occupied his mind. He had never given thought to it. The house was a statue in a roundabout holding a fountain. He thought back and emotion overwhelmed him but youth does not give room for tears.

It was his early primary school days. They were living in Uba’s thatched house. The man had two wives and three kitchens. So Ogbeyialu and Ade lived in his free kitchen. It was a small room with a loft, cooking place and a narrow beaten-earth-bed. Many times Ade caught them in compromising situations. Maybe they were lovers or maybe that was his way of collecting his rent but all he knew was that nobody paid house rents at Nkporo then. He could remember how they moved from house to house. Houses that were palaces to him then but now he knew that they did not fit human habitation. The houses leaked when it rained. Night rains often disturbed their sleep. He had thought it was a normal way of life and he enjoyed their running about placing cooking pots and other odds and ends to collect the water. Ogbeyialu had no person to mend the roof for her and she had no money to hire hands. He later understood that it had been so even before she had his father.

One day, Ogbeyialu was bursting with happiness and Ade did not know why. She went to Uba’s sitting room and they talked for sometime. The following day Uba accompanied her to the chiefs. The meeting with the chiefs took the whole day. In the night, Ogbeyialu told Ade that they would soon have a house of their own. It would be roofed with zinc. Ade could remember vividly how she swept her hand up above them demonstrating the roof. That night was her happiest ever. Papa had brought money to wipe out her tears.

The following day Ogbeyialu was allotted a plot of land at Nchara Iya. Work started immediately on the land. After clearing, felling the trees and stumping, tippers started coming and going. Ogbeyialu was always there. Ade always ate at the construction site and stayed with her and the workers until it was dark when they went home. He never believed that anything could make Ogbeyialu forget her farm work. The time and energy she put in the work told every ear what she had passed through about house.

Ade heard her telling one of the workers that the chiefs took two bundles of zinc and that she gave them the money equivalent. Many villagers, both men and women, were there everyday to work. Ade fancied the sweating workers. Iwo, the bricklayer boss, wore a straw hat always. There was a day Glory, a laborer, took the hat from his head and piled it on the scarf she wore. Iwo jokingly heaped invectives on her and every person laughed. It helped a lot to fight the sun. But the whole thing gave Ade an added fun. He had never seen a woman who wore a straw hat. The other thrill was that the site was near his school; therefore, he was there even during break.

The house stood out like a jewel. It was built according to Agha’s plan. They had no place of their own to build the house but even if they had there was no way they could build such a house in the traditional plot, okpulo. The furnishing stuff came from Aba, ordered by Agha.

CHAPTER 5

S IBLING SQUABBLE WAS A COMMON thing but each time Ogbeyialu fought with her twin brother, Udenta, any of their distant male relations around would take sides with Udenta. But whoever was caught by their parents, though, received what was due them. Ogbeyialu knew that her male relations took sides with Udenta because he was a man. She was the only girl in the house. Mgbo and Ude could not have another female child. She enjoyed their growing up and had been told by their mother how they struggled for her breasts. From Ogbeyialu’s understanding, Mgbo did not have it easy breastfeeding them. As they grew up Ogbeyialu discovered that she did not look like the other members of the family. They were dark and heavy but she was fair and smallish. Her mother was smallish, but not as small as she was. She thought she would still grow to her mother’s size but that never happened.

With time, she discovered that people conspired behind her back and she did not know what everybody whispered about her. She took it stoically, knowing she wore no horns. The most annoying part of it was that her relatives were involved in this conspiracy. She did not take it seriously. She was an outsider amongst her distant brothers because of her gender. The good side of it was that their parents gave them equal love and that was the only thing that mattered.

Ori was their next door neighbor and her friend. They belonged to the same age bracket. They chatted whenever they were together, which was almost every time except when domestic chores or farm work intervened. Sometimes they gossiped and conspired in a hushed tone. When they became a gossip column, they talked about everybody and this was when they were not within the earshot of anybody. They went to the toilet and while they were there, their chatting became more intensive.

Your senior brother’s eyeing me.

Which one?, she asked, knowing that she had four brothers.

Udenta, said Ori, exhibiting her lust for him. I’ll agree if he asks me

How do you know?

It shows whenever he sees me.

Ogbeyialu had observed it but did not read meaning into it. It was one of his childish behaviors, she had thought. She looked at the ground before her and the issue rolled over her mind and she did not know whether Ori wanted her to finish the job for her. It was clear from her tone that she wanted it more than him but feared to initiate the move. Their lives were primitive and simple which denied them early sophistication. They were fifteen going to sixteen, grown and matured with two goose eggs on their chests and a thatch of pubic hairs but they were naive. She might feel shy to tell Udenta her mind and it was a taboo for a girl to ask a boy for his love.

The train of Ogbeyialu’s thought continued but as if nothing was going on in her mind, she wiped her ass clean with the broken piece of bamboo in her hand and threw it on the heap and Ori chatted on without any audience. But why did Ori call Udenta her senior brother? Since she knew Ori, Udenta had been her twin brother and today… It was infatuation. Maybe it was because Udenta touched the ground before her. Minutes had robbed her some precious items, she thought. But she knew Ori called him her senior brother out of premature love.

Odum, Ogbeyialu’s eldest brother, was twenty three and was living at Ogwuasi Ukwu. It was Christmas time and he was home and would marry but had no girl in mind. He had written their father that he would marry that year. He was a complete man and had been initiated into the Agbala cult before travelling out of Nkporo and had gotten his own house over there, according to him. She had wanted to recommend Ori to him. She was a good girl and would make a perfect wife for Odum since she did not end up being Udenta’s girl. She knew that they desired each other and that it was sheer shyness that made them not hook up; so she feared that something terrible might happen if she was married within Udenta’s family. And they were fifteen. Mature enough to be married to a man. It was all thought, she knew it. She could not contribute in the affair. The young ones do not contribute in family matters. The voice of the elder is a law in any house in her community.

Christmas was over and those who lived outside Nkporo had started to return and there had been nobody she knew her brother was getting close to. Maybe he would not marry that year any more. If any move had been made she would have known. Her family had no reason to keep such a secret from her and had never kept any secret from her except things that a person of her age was not entitled to hear.

It was early morning and the cock had just crowed once. She was fast asleep when she was woken up from sleep. She opened her eyes to see that it was her mother who woke her up. It was early to go to farm and no one had told her to prepare for farm. The Christmas season that had put a pause to farm work had inculcated an unequal laziness in her. She turned and turned and looked up. The woman was there looking at her daughter as if they were on a war path. She had no option than to line behind and Mgbo towed her to the sitting room. Her father and Odum were already there and Ude showed her to a seat. She sat and her mother sat beside Ude. There was a pregnant quietness for sometime and Ogbeyialu smelt a rat. After a time that seemed forever, her father cleared his throat and Ogbeyialu knew it was coming.

Odum’ll go maybe tomorrow and you’ll go with him

Nobody said anything and Ogbeyialu felt on top of the world. All the pores in her were open and the hair on her body stood erect. She was trembling with emotion and she looked at her mother’s face and could not see anything. This was a dream come true and she looked at her brother’s face and met a smile. It was the dream of every person to live in the big town.

You are married to him. Tomorrow …

Her heart collapsed and she did not hear the rest. It was not possible. It had never been heard of. No brother had ever married his sister. Papa had gone mad. Papa was out of his mind. It was a continuation of her sleep. A dream. She would wake up to face the reality.

CHAPTER 6

A DE HAD NEVER HAD ANYTHING to do with the mighty. He was a little nervous. It was like a first date. It takes practice to master an art and Ade knew it. He stood in front of the house. The door was open and no curtain blinded the interior. He could see all the furniture in the house from his position. Then he tapped at the door with his knuckles and a boy appeared from a room. He knew the boy. He was Moses. Agbaja was a small village. Every person knew every other person. He was the colonel’s second cousin. He had known that Colonel Kalu’s father was called Moses and he had inferred that the boy was named after the great man’s father. They had many Moses. It was a tribute to their late patriarch. But what he did not know was whether the young Moses was there on a visit or lived with the man and ran his errands. The latter was more likely to be the case. The man was old and not married and there was no person to take care of him. At that age, he needed someone to be around him always though his military life could still be seen in him. He knew the boy was a student and that meant he combined the two tasks. It was not strange. Many did so.

Moses stood at the door and greeted and waited. He knew Ade and did not know what should bring him to their house. He returned the greeting and crowned it by asking him about his studies. After the small talk he delved into what brought him to the house.

Is the general in the house?

The boy hesitated for an answer. Many times the colonel never wanted disturbance. In such a case he had no alternative than to tell the person that the man was not available. Some of them abused him with words before leaving. But he was a messenger and had to read the script written by he who sent him. He had wanted to ask him whether the colonel knew that he was coming and a door opened and he turned around to see the man getting out of his room.

Good afternoon sir.

Boy, come on in, he said and walked like a tree attacked by the winds to his recliner. Then he sat down with difficulty.

Ade stood and watched Moses disappear into a room and he imagined the man’s heroic days. Colonel Kalu was a man whose name put fear in macho men. Colonel Kalu was a lion in battle. Colonel Kalu tore men with cutting edge weapons to shreds with his bare hands. The mighty had fallen. He thought of Ogbeyialu and never believed that the same fate awaited him. He followed and the man waved him to a seat and he sat and waited as if it were the man who sent for him. That was the tradition and he never wanted to offend him. He needed him for his project and wanted his friendship.

You decided to visit me?

Yes, said Ade and he rubbed his hands together and any person looking at his face would think he was in pains.

And the man was reading the words behind the yes. His profession and rank had taught him much about human behavior. He had managed men. There was something the boy had not said. Do I offer you beer?

No sir, said Ade with a nervous laugh. He felt that he was not acting normal and did not know why the presence of the man should faze him. He had been with him in his car for hours the day he picked him while he was trekking home. Then he acted normal and the time they spent together was enough to kill the jim jam.

How old are you?

In a few months I’ll be twenty one sir.

Nnam Called the colonel.

Sir.

Bring him Coca Cola. And he turned to Ade and said, I think that’d be okay?

Thanks sir, said Ade, nodding and smiling nervously.

You’re refined and that’s why you’ve gone this far this early. Boys were out there drinking themselves to stupor and smoking every substance and never thought of the future and those who would be tomorrow’s leaders were not excluded. But another faction of his mind revolted: Ade could be pretending. He had seen boys who behaved this way before the people they reverenced and drank a tank when not bonded.

The colonel laced his hands together and placed them on his laps and they rested on the jeans shorts he wore. His shriveled legs stood apart and on his feet were slippers. Every hair on his body was gray and his head was a shaved coconut with a ring of gray hair around the neck. His dressing was modern unlike every Nkporo Tom, Uka and Nnanna who wore wrappers as if they belonged to the past generations.

Ade, like every Agbaja man and woman, had seen the house many times but he was one of the many who had never been inside it. The floor was tiled and a ceiling fan hung overhead. The walls were blue. It was a modern house in a wrong place and he did not know why the man did not build the house at the Agbaja new layout where Ogbeyialu built their house. He knew it was not money. There were many Igbo sons and daughters who were ready to give him an Aso Rock wherever he wanted it. And his children could do it if he asked. They were waves on the other side of the Atlantic. Ade wished he had the means he would have built him a castle without his asking for it.

Colonel Kalu’s eyes were closed which made him look as if he were asleep. A room curtain parted and Moses walked out holding a tray on which were a bottle of Coca Cola, a straw and an opener. He placed it on the center table and returned to his shell. The man opened his eyes and glanced at the table and its occupants. A goat stopped at the door. It looked at them as if it were debating with himself whether it was in the right place or not. His eyes went to the goat.

Sshh! Said Ade emphasizing it with a wave of his hands.

The goat bleated and left.

That’s the modern day kola, Colonel Kalu said and smiled a little. It was like the grin of a skull.

Thanks sir, said Ade shyly as he took the opener and uncapped the bottle. With an exaggerated care he dipped the straw in the bottle and sucked.

Colonel Kalu had closed his eyes once more and Ade tried to fathom out what was on his mind but came out blank. An elderly man walking the compound stopped and saluted the colonel and he acknowledged the greeting with a nod and Ade saw that his eyes were open and he did not know how he did it. How he knew that the man was there. He felt it was not the first day and that he had a way of knowing when the man was in front of the house. He drank the mineral as if it would last forever. A family of ducks passed and the young were uncountable. The man coughed and Ade whipped around his head. Something was coming. That was the way of the elderly when they wanted to call for attention.

What made the toad run to me? He knew that Ade was not there on a friendly visit nor was he paying him homage for what he did during the war.

Sir?, he said, holding the bottle with his two hands.

"Ka conel", said a passing woman without looking into the house.

Ade felt that she had looked into the house with the corner of her eye or how did she know that the colonel was in the sitting room? A smile nearly lined his mouth when he thought of the word Conel which was the woman’s corrupt version of colonel and ka which at Nkporo served for every greeting. The simplest greeting in the world. And the colonel nodded his acceptance a second time.

I know this isn’t a courtesy call …

Ade laughed and the man waited.

Mm He paused and stared at the floor where the man’s feet stood. Fate conspired to make my meeting you possible. The hazard was a blessing in disguise. I wouldn’t have been here if we hadn’t met. I think my mom saw a nightmare during the war and it still haunts her nights till today. I’m talking about Ogbeyialu. Her trauma and the scars you bear for us made me decide to wear your crown. Putting it in the closet makes it no crown.

The colonel’s upper lip twitched. It seems you’re poetic.

Ade blushed and the colonel watched him. Youth is intoxicating.

My project’s about the Nigeria Biafra war and Nkporo. He paused for response and when none came he added I need your help.

What’re you reading?

History, he said and sucked without knowing it was the last of his bottle and sucked again then drew air. He placed the bottle on the tray.

Why didn’t you talk about it the other day?

I hadn’t been informed. It was last night I saw it on my computer.

Without a word Colonel Kalu held onto the wooden arm of his seat and with much difficulty stood on his feet and turned and walked into his room and Ade’s mind was a whirlwind. The man could return with a gun and blow his head to pieces. Ogbeyialu had said taking human lives was to him less than killing a fly. He had done it during and after the war. In Nigeria laws are meant for everybody but some are above them and Ade believed his host to belong to the privileged class. He felt like getting up and running away. But if he could do him no harm while they were alone in no man’s land, he would not do it now.

Moses got out of his room and removed the tray. A hawk swooped down and attacked a chick. The hen yelled and women joined their voices to shoo away the bird. It could not cart away the target but inflicted a mortal wound on it. Blood was gushing out of the body and the mother was running round and round poised for war with the wings spread out as if it would fly off to get even with the offender. It cried and cried. A cry for war of unequal strength or maybe it was seeking help.

A footfall called Ade’s attention and he turned to see the colonel getting out of his room with a book and two notes that had seen days in hand and a towel draped over his neck. One of them had a burnt ear. His heart skipped and he immediately calmed down. Books are not guns. He knew the book and had read it but the others he had never seen.

Let’s take a walk

Ade observed the man closely and knew that there was no place he could conceal a gun and no matter the training he had received any attempt to snuff life out of him with his bare hands would be suicide. He stood up and fell by his side.

CHAPTER 7

O GBEYIALU DID NOT KNOW WHAT to do. She felt as if an atom bomb had fallen on her. If Ogbeyialu were suicidal she would have taken her life. Her eyes turned. The house was a furnace consuming her. And she never planned for what she was facing. Never knew fate would take that course. And she groped back to bed as if the house was not lighted enough. It was misery that made her grope. The bed was thorny and the house spun. Her tears bathed the mat she lay on and she was sick to the stomach. She saw herself in a broken mirror. She did not know that life would end up being this bitter. The next step she took would be death and she did not want to die. She looked for a catharsis and found one. Ori was there and had always been there for her in her difficult times. Rays of light had started to penetrate the house. It was still early for a visit of this nature but no time was early for them as far as they were free.

The gods and ancestors worked for her and the door was open and Ori was up with a piece bamboo asswipe in her hand. She was on her way to the toilet.

Ogbeyialu, called Ori with a surprised voice, cocking her heard to one side and looking at her the way a mother would look at her child who caught flu. You look like a fowl that fought its way out of the marketers’ hands.

Ogbeyialu did not reply but squirmed as she walked closer to her friend and Ori’s gaze followed her every move. This was not the Ogbeyialu she knew. Something had gone seriously wrong and what might it be? And Ori could not come up with an answer. Ogbeyialu collapsed onto her and her head rested on Ori’s shoulder. Her tears bathed Ori and she held and cooed Ogbeyialu. She rested her cheek on Ogbeyialu’s head. Ori was a head taller than Ogbeyialu and her action brought them to the same level where she shared in whatever was her sorrow. Ogbeyialu’s sobs were a razor searing the heart. She waited to let her cry the heat off her body. They would talk. There had been no secret between them. She carried her as if she were dying of dysentery and they sat on the beaten earth bed. After crying her fill, she detached herself from Ori and wiped her eyes clean with the back of her hand. Ori could see that the eyes were red and puffy.

I ammm…

Ori waited and looked down so that her friend would be unfazed. She saw a flake of dirt that caked the hand–woven straw mat they sat on and she meticulously removed it with two fingers and that was not the first but it did not occur to her that dirt had changed the color of the mat.

I’ll be leaving with Odum to …

Ori jerked back and wore a grimace borne out of surprise on his face and then a smile, Ogbeyialu!

We’re married.

Ori’s eyelids folded and fluttered in awe and she felt as though she were drained of energy.

He said… And she sobbed and the rest of what she said became inaudible.

But Ori had heard her. Yes they aren’t your biological parents.

She shifted from her and on her face was a sad expression and Ori stared at her and their eyes locked as would a bull and a matador in a ring.

So you’d known It was a statement and not a question. She made to leave and Ori held her by the upper arm and she struggled to get free but Ori was bigger and stronger than her and turned her around.

Everybody knows

Ogbeyialu shot her a look and her breath seized.

Your father’s a hunter and- She breathed in hard and looked around and there was no other person near.

Ogbeyialu stared at her and she could see that Ori was afraid. They had been friends for long and had known each other in and out and she did not know why her friend was that afraid.

Adaugo’s father was a hunter also and he fought and beat up your father. Threw him on the ground and fed him some sand. Then we weren’t yet born. They made peace and everybody forgot it. It was men thing. But after some years there was a group hunt of all Agbaja hunters. Her breath became labored and she looked around again and she was shivering as if they were out of Iroyi at the peak of harmattan.

Ogbeyialu knew that Ori had a terrible secret she wanted to let her know but was battling with fear and she did not know what the secret might be. She waited knowing that it was coming and was determined to get it from her if she refused to divulge the secret.

You know that many people refuse to join the group hunt. Sometimes the chiefs make it compulsory but some claim sick. The reason is, many use it as a shield to settle scores.

Ogbeyialu had not understood where she was going.

There was an Agbaja village hunt. And she looked around and there was no other person around. A fifth ear must not hear this.

Ogbeyialu thoughtfully nodded.

Your dad accidentally shot and killed him. Everybody knew it was accident on purpose.

Ogbeyialu was shocked to the marrow.

The man’s family decided to settle it the traditional way. Five times they gave your dad poison five times he came out healthier. Poison was his blood tonic. And he always carried a gun so they couldn’t muscle him.

The anger and thoughtfulness had evaporated out of Ogbeyialu.

Nduka’s father disappeared and in four days your father married his wife.

Ogbeyialu had known that her father was married to the woman for a short while.

They’d been lovers and all fingers pointed at your dad as the author of his death. He fed him to ants in an anthill at the man’s farm. The ants could devour an elephant in a minute if they were many. Bones were seen but no person could prove who they belonged to. Papa Nduka was also a strong man and your dad didn’t want to take chances. The marriage didn’t last a month.

How do you know all these?

I told her.

Ori nearly jumped out of her skin as they turned to see her father standing behind them. Her heart beat as if it was doing a competition and shame overwhelmed Ogbeyialu.

I didn’t want your friendship. That was when I told her after giving her a good dose of beating but children, she didn’t heed my advice and the relationship has been without blemish. Your father didn’t act his way.

Ogbeyialu brought down her jaw looking at the man’s feet.

No one believed him when he said that he picked you from a shrine.

A shrine?, shouted Ogbeyialu.

Yes. According to him, you were a ‘prayer’ to some gods.

Ogbeyialu drew in a long breath.

Nobody would marry Ude’s daughter and the way he birthed you paints you darker. That’s why he gave you to his son.

Ogbeyialu breathed out But he said that in one of his hunting expeditions he met a woman who had twins in the farm. One was a boy and the other was a girl and the woman had dug a shallow grave with her hands on Okputu Lake to bury the girl.

Which woman?

An Item woman.

Another version, said Ori and her mouth remained like O.

The woman was running away from being sacrificed to the gods and she had not gotten a male child. She would lose everything if her husband’s other wife did so before her and Ude needed a female child.

Have you told any other person this?

Ogbeyialu shook her head.

Never say this again in your life. That you were born twins makes you a darker devil than an evil spirit though nobody will believe it like everyone takes the original story as anything but the truth.

Thanks, said Ogbeyialu and she held Ori’s hand and they left.

The man stood there buried in thought.

Ogbeyialu was not born twins. If truly she was born by an Item woman, scratch the bottom of the lake and you will see the bones of the woman that brought her to earth. On a second thought he reasoned that since twin birth attracted capital punishment to both mother and children that it was infinitesimally possible that Ogbeyialu was born twins and if so her mother was from this village, evading the slaughter that awaited them. And she and Ude made a pact to keep it quiet. Maybe after a while Ude removed her to make the secret watertight. Ude was a devil incarnate and a bag of lies. This last version was more plausible but nobody would believe anything that came out of his mouth on this issue. Udenta was about nine months when Ogbeyialu came though he was still squeezing Mgbo’s nipples with his teeth. He thought of those born at the same time and their mothers but came out blank. Nobody would ever know the truth surrounding Ogbeyialu’s birth.

It was early morning and Ogbeyialu was still in bed shivering like a rat fished out of water. Since she heard the news she had not been the same. It was devastating. It was a blow. Her father had left early and her mother was also up early, doing things. She knew it. She had heard her footfalls and could still hear the telltale that made her know she was at work. Normally, she would have been the one doing the work but they knew she was passing through a nervous attack that was next to death. How could a family be this wicked? Secrets are kept and everybody has one or two secrets but this was something more than a secret. Even the goats walking Agbaja compounds on two legs knew that one day the cat would be let out of the bag, either by accident or design. And her parents knew that they had this grand plan without letting her know her position in the family in time. She turned and balled herself into a fetus tucking her two hands in between her laps.

Somebody entered the house and she heard the conversation between her mother and the person. Her mother should be in the kitchen cooking but the enormity of work in the house could not permit her to be in one particular place. Also the work did not give her room for a lengthy small talk. The door to her room opened and she closed her eyes tight. She did not want to see any face. All of them wore horns. They had betrayed her. The friend she trusted so much had failed her.

CHAPTER 8

C OLONEL KALU AND ADE STOOD in the house and backed the door. It was a thatched house with mud walls. On the walls were big wire gauze windows. The door was also protected by wire gauze. Ade had known that the colonel had a poultry farm and had been there several times during his primary and secondary school days but he had never been inside the building. Every person in Agbaja and Nkporo knew about the farm. Poultry farming is not a common thing in the town and at Agbaja, news makes round like the tropical wind. Ade knew that people came from all corners of Nkporo and Abiriba to buy eggs from the man and Ade knew that snakes visited the farm always for eggs. Ade’s presence in the building made his skin crawl. A python might come in for a couple of fowls or some eggs and could pounce on them since they would make a better meal. During one new yam festival, Ogbeyialu prepared a pot of special soup and made porridge. Ade overfed and threw up on the floor. A few days later, he saw some people from the farm and he felt some of the eggs in their kitty might have been vomited by the snakes after eating more than their fill.

The chickens welcomed them with some noise and clustered around the colonel. They knew him. They flapped their wings in appreciation of his presence. He tucked the book in his hand under his armpit and from a bag that hung on the wall took a handful of corn and threw it to them and he repeated the action several times, each time throwing the corn in a different direction. The fowl went wild struggling for who would eat the greatest number of corn. Ade liked to watch this fowl competition as they were not caged. They roamed the building like free men and stepping on their eggs that littered the floor. Caging them would have amounted to mass imprisonment since they were many.

Ade knew that the colonel’s farm was his passion. He did not farm for money but to show the new way of farming to the sons and daughters of Nkporo in general and Agbaja in particular. Every Nkporo man and woman did crop farming, especially yam and cassava. Also it served as a source of meat and eggs for his consumption. Colonel Kalu belonged to the elite class and would not eat like everyday Nkporo people. His soup announced his class. During the big festivals he favored his loved ones with some chickens.

It was possible Moses gathered the eggs when school and other household activities permitted him but he knew that Rhoda, another cousin of the colonel, did the work. She combined