One Love, Many Tears

A day later and in the quiet of the night, while every other person in the household are supposedly asleep, Okechukwu just woke from a troubled sleep. He sits up on the bed, looks to his left in the far end of it near the wall where Cynthia is curled in her sleep beside Aunty Christy who is also asleep. They are all in the same room. Christy had thought of returning with them to her home at dawn, but she knows it's going to be a hard time convincing Susan's difficult in-laws. She had thought about it deep into the night and finally fell asleep resolved that she would try as much as she could to appeal to their consideration of the fact that she is their mother's sister, and closest to the children. Okechukwu climbs out of the bed to stand idly for a while, watching Cynthia and their aunt as they sleep. Suddenly, he feels a spontaneous urge to visit their mother's grave outside. It is extreme and strange, especially by this time of the night, but Okechukwu is an unpredictable boy with strange impulses sometimes. He does not really know any implication of that, or has any reason at all to think about it. He is just a boy on behest, answering nature's kind call, and in his childishness, he is going to creep out of this room. He is helplessly overwhelmed by a sudden burdensome need of his mother. It is 1:30 in the morning. Slowly he opens the door of the room, careful not to disturb the silence or wake the sleeping people in the house. The night is dead and the silence deafening. The door opens with a faint crackle into a dark corridor. He walks silently on tiptoe through the long stretch of it and towards the frontage. The frontage is a spacious verandah, and two poles away from it is their mother's grave. Still on tiptoe, he reaches the entrance of the verandah he must pass through, but suddenly stops as he hears some faint sound. He listens again and now moves towards the sound, which turns out to be hushed voices, coming from the far end of the verandah. Placing himself on the wall, he rears his head slightly from the darkness. Peeping from behind that wall, he could now see who own the voices. They are three men - Dike, Onuma and Onochie. He can only see their backs from this view, because their heads are close together over a keg of palm wine. From behind the wall, his inquisitive mind rose at the men, who are repeatedly nodding their heads as they talk mutedly in the cold silence of the night. In all simple curiosity and innocence, Okechukwu cleaves closer to the wall, and is now within an indiscreet earshot, all to get a closer snoop. He is being careful not to be noticed. But his heart suddenly skips one huge beat instead, and he all at once begins to sweat from his forehead - he just heard his name! Then a deeper curiosity pushes him closer to a full earshot. His heart is beating real fast in fright this time, and his breath swallowed in his mouth. He had come out just in time to hear the last part of their discussions. “Yes!” hushed Onuma in agreement. “The way she spoke yesterday, am sure there is something she knows. That type of girl, if allowed to live, would be a greater trouble than her mother” he emphasized. “What I need more is the boy. I need his hands in my farm. He must learn to farm like a true son of Obi, and not school, school, school!” said Dike. “But you know that woman Christy must interfere. See how she has been with them all this time.” Came Onochie’s opinion. “Leave that one to me.” Said Dike again. “If she becomes difficult, I will deal with her the way I dealt with her sister. What is important is the boy Okechukwu. Remember he is the first reason, long before his mother died” They all nodded in agreement to that. And Dike continues; “So, at the break of dawn, I will personally go to see Onwukansi for another Ngaze. Before the next market day, that girl will be ‘taken’ mysteriously, and nobody can explain it, nor have a cause to question us. Onwukansi knows his job very well. And as for that woman, just leave her to me.” He promised conclusively. “Dike! Dike!!” Onuma hailed him as they all nodded in agreement to Dike’s intended error-proof strategy. Onwukansi is a notorious herbalist in the village. Ngaze is a local name for his charms. The next ten minutes is now spent in another round of drinking. They drink the wine to their fill, and finally drank themselves into drunkenness and stupor. Every other person in the compound is asleep except them, and Okechukwu of course, who is still rooted behind the wall. By now, his eyeballs are engodged with horrow, and every hair in his body standing. He is terrified, and the pulsation of his heartbeat at this moment has never been this compared to that of a blazing volcano. Even as young as he is, he understood the men in their riddles and slogans, and knows they didn’t mean well. Didn’t he just hear what they are planning to do to him, his sister and aunty? Immediately they indicate a readiness to retire, Okechukwu as fast as light, creeps back as quietly as he came, unnoticed. No slightest sound is heard from him, and the men never knew they had an extra company. The night is still dead and the time is almost 2:00am. The men lingered at their drinking binge a little longer, intoxicating themselves some more with palm wine, until they really got tired and staggered to their different rooms. Inside the same room as he returns, Okechukwu could not sleep again. He is sweating profusely because of a pounding tension and burning heat he is experiencing. Still in shock of what he just overheard, he is nervous, restless and terribly frightened. Quietly, he walks to the bed where Cynthia and Christy are still sleeping, looking so very tired out. Obviously, they are all weak from yesterday’s activities. He taps their aunt, and she wakes up. Cynthia also wakes up amidst Christy's stirs, and the whispery voice she heard. It is Okechukwu's voice “Aunty, Aunty, wake up, get up” “Okechukwu! You are not sleeping!” asked Christy in surprise. She had woken with a startle at Okechukwu’s tap, now she opens her eyes slowly. “Aunty I just heard our uncles now. They said they will kill us; Cynthia and I, including you” said Okechukwu without any hesitation and in a rush-panic detachment, waiting for no reply “What are you saying Okechukwu. Which Uncles? Are you sure you were not in a dream?” Christy asked him with little seriousness, thinking the boy must have been disturbed by a dream. She therefore dismisses his words casually, opting to return him to bed. But by now, Cynthia is fully awake too, and sits up alert on the bed. “I went outside and I saw them. But they didn't see me” continued Okechukwu, in addition to what he said earlier. “Outside! You went outside?” asked Christy unbelievably and in surprise, taking a moment to look at him with great scrutiny. “Yes Aunty, I heard them” he said in a low voice, ignoring the frown on her face at the fact he said he had been outside by this time instead of sleeping. “What did you hear?” Cynthia asked, equally in a low voice. And he continues; “Uncle Dike said he will deal with you Aunty. He also said that in the next market day, Cynthia will be taken mysteriously and I don't know what he means by that. He said he needs me to be working in his farm and not go to school anymore.” He finished off, releasing himself with a heave of his shoulders. Cynthia and Christy now look at each other in disbelief “How did you get to know all this?” Cynthia asked skeptically “I wanted to go to mummy's grave side and I ...” “To do what!!” Cynthia and Christy echoed together in astonishment, impulsively and simultaneously bringing both hands to their mouths to stifle the sound of their voices in the dead silence of the night. “What did you want to do there by this time of the night?” Cynthia asked bewildered, still maintaining a hushed tone of voice. “I only wanted to go and be there. I wanted to see mummy”