THE TWINS (2)

 

Ekam Dan made her reference to the incident to buttress her point for her belief but her grandson had since after the robbery had his eyelids, left or right, twitched and struck his foot, left or right, till it hurt and no one thing, negative or positive, had happened. Was the fault with him?

Not too long ago, he had personally planted a farm with two sets of corn. The first set was done at the start of the rain and the second set was done towards the period the rain was getting intense. In both, Dan ate till he was satiated. During harvest, the cobs of the first set were full of seeds while a lot of the second set had a lot of spaces on them. Based on his observation, he had told his grandmother when they had their argument again that the time of planting rather than the state of your stomach could be responsible for a poor or rich yield. Who do you side with?

This tale also Ekam Dan had made reference to. A certain man had a very charming daughter who he gladly married off and blithely received the mouth-watering bride-price from his son-in-law (being the tradition in Ndon Inim and adjoining clans and remarkable is the fact that families virtually sell their daughters now to their suitors).

The father of the bride rushed to buy a decent plot of land and started building swiftly on it too. But shortly after, he fell seriously ill. The house did not pass the foundations level and there was speculation that the witches and wizards in his village or ‘village people’ (which is the current parlance) were angry at his progress and were doing everything possible to hamper him.

But after making enquiries in one prayer house or the other, the ‘main cause’ of his ill health was not traceable to his ‘village people’ but rather, the wrath of the ancestors. The man who was eager to grab chunks of money from his own son-in-law did not place a kobo on his wife’s head as bride-price. So why was he quick to accept the one they offered him? Did he want to tell the roving spirits of the clan that his wife like an African oil bean popped from a tree?

It was only when the man, as the claim circulated, went back and properly married his own wife that he recovered from his state of ill health. Tales like this were now rife throughout Ndon Inim and adjoining clans and had forced men and women to do their marriages properly.

‘Why take a dowry for your daughter when you did not pay the one of your wife? If a bugaboo, real or imaginary, emerges from the shadows and hunts you down,’ Dan said to his grandmother, ‘it is plain nemesis.’ Or do you have a contrary view?

The reference Ekam Dan also made to palm nuts concerned one of Dan’s cousins. He was fond of breaking them at night to eat the kernels and once, he did it when a hen was laying eggs and an egg, according to those who witnessed it, actually mimicked the shape and size of a palm nut. Could you join Dan to investigate if, how and why this could be possible?

While still cooking the food, Dan said to his grandmother: ‘Well, grandma, I’m here to inform you my sister had just given birth to twins.’

If Ekam Dan was in a war front, she would have believed she was hit by a bomb.

Time stood still for a moment and then she smiled and said: ‘You’re kidding?’

‘I am not, grandma. You were well aware Uduak had drawn quite close to labour?’

Ekam Dan nodded.

Dan went on: ‘I came here from her home and my mother is there. Everyone is celebrating the arrival of the new babies. In fact, my mother asked me to come over and tell you.’

When the old woman had finally overcome her shock, she smiled long and said: ‘And how I was righteously splitting my twinned plantain a short moment ago!’

Dan gave her a broad grin.

She put the pot down, bathed and tied a beautiful set of wrappers with a matching scarf, blouse and sandals. Then, she proudly sat sideways on the back of Dan’s mother’s motorcycle and was ridden by Dan to go see the new additions to the growing list of her grandchildren.

THE END

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