Ife

Hello friends. I have been away for a while..too long maybe but I have been busy. I also want to share something of what I have been doing. I would like to invite each and everyone of my followers to my new home, or should I say my second home. I have a website of my own it is http://ephesusworld.com.ng I do hope you will visit, post your own articles, poems whatever there and hopefully be part of the forum. I would love to learn from you. I am posting an excerpt of my upcoming novel and I still hope I will be able to invite writers soon to CenterStage.

Ife carried an uncanny ability to know what was going to happen and would innocently announce an impending event with a casualness that made people around her give her a second look. One day at lunch she suddenly stopped eating and stared at her father with an air of consternation. Her father had looked up and asked her what the matter was.
“That your friend Abdul is going to be caught soon. He has been stealing from the police exhibit stores and has been planning to let them think it is you but he will be caught a few nights from now by the inspector himself. Will you be on duty Papa? I have just been told.”
Her father stared and swallowed his food, washed his hands and walked to his room. Everybody stopped eating and stared at Ife. She stared back and washed her hands too going into her father’s room. She found him sitting quietly on the bed and sat next to him.
“I am sorry Papa; I did not mean to offend you.”

 Her father turned and stared at her, for long seconds. Then he sighed, “I did not tell anyone but I am going to be placed on suspension and room orderly for those missing items Ife, so how did you know?”
Ife shrugged helpless, “I don’t know how I know, they just tell me, things or sometimes I just suddenly know”.
“Like you see visions”?
"No, papa I have no idea how it happens, I just know and sometimes I argue with them but they wouldn’t tell me if I press. I just know.” Ife was now close to tears.
Her father looked at her and drew her close in an embrace comforting her.
“It is okay, might be nice if you know how to make thieves stop.” and he laughed but Ife heard the catch in his voice and looked up at him. “Don’t worry, Papa, you will even get a nice letter from this.”
He laughed now in genuine amusement. “That one was you right”? I can tell sometimes when it is you from when it is her.”
“Are there two of me Papa?”
“Definitely, I like both of you,” he added in soft voice, "Sometimes though I am scared of the other.”

When she finished her primary education there had been drama about the desirability of her going to secondary school. The women had all risen up against her that she was just a girl and was going to be somebody’s wife someday so why bother sending her to school. She had said nothing and stared at her father. He looked at the women and shrugged that he did not see any reason why she should not be allowed to go to secondary school. Then his mother came and supported the wives arguing that she was from one branch of the family house. It was the turn of the second wife to have her son educated. Her father pointed out quietly that the said son was not even ready for primary.

That did not wash with the wives and things went a bit ugly as they referred to her ‘strong head’. She asked what that meant and she was told that her strangeness did not guarantee that she would finish school. Spirit children could decide to leave at the peak of their successes so that their departure could be painful. They asked why her father had never been able to extract from her the secret pact and where she hid the symbol. Her father shook his head and gave her mother a puzzled look

“Why give her this unnecessary stress?”

Her mother stared close to tears and demanded that he should apologize as she had done everything in her power to get Ife to cooperate but each time Ife had shrugged and said she did not understand what she was talking about.

“I thought since you are close to her, you could make her talk.” Her mother finished.

Her grandmother who was smoking her pipe and had been giving Ife a very close observation suddenly spoke. She declared that she was calling in the medicine man who would decide. Ife observed that her grandmother said it with some relish in her voice. Grandma continued her close inspection of Ife giving her a disdainful look, she added that the medicine man was so powerful that no spirit child or abiku could resist him.

Ife looked at her grandmother and smiled. She said nothing. She was curious, how can a man make what does not exist happen? She wondered.

It was arranged that the man should come in on the next market day early in the morning. Ife shrugged and went to her room. Her mother hovered over her pleading and promising all types of things. Ife watched her mother and then smiled. She explained to her mother that she had no pact with anyone and was simply living as normal as she could. Her mother said she was going to vigil in the church and Ife shrugged and wished her well.

The next morning, the medicine man came and brought out his divining beads. She was asked to sit in front of him. She sat on the mat and stretched out her hand. The medicine man took one cursory look and then a shocked second look and fainted.

There was instant pandemonium. Everybody started shouting at once. Ife stared at the man irritated, why make a ceremony out of nothing. She stood up and walked away.

When the old medicine man was finally revived, he insisted on seeing Ife. Her father who had been as stunned as the rest of the family had a determined look on his face as he watched the medicine man. He asked why the man wanted to talk with Ife, the medicine man who looked as stunned as her father tried to speak, swallowed and insisted on seeing Ife. There was silence as her father watched the man then sighed before he ordered one of the younger children to go fetch Ife from her room. Ife came back wondering what she was going to be accused of now. The old man saw her and bowed very low in greeting saying he would be of assistance if ever he was needed.