Ezekweche

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(Edited)

I swatted at the mosquito hovering around me and willed myself to be still. The whispers of Mama and Ezekweche faded to nothingness in my mind as I took in the sights around me.

The ogene drum was the first thing I’d noticed as soon as I entered Ezekweche’s hut. Or at least what looked like it. Nothing looked as it should be. For one, the hut faced the back of the road instead of the front, and as soon as you entered, you saw the ogene upside down and pasted weirdly on the wall, the divination altar was by the side in stead of the front, and even the benches were the wrong side up.

It was like someone took what a perfect hut should look like, rolled it in their mouth and spat it everywhere. If Ezekweche’s aim was to creep people out of their minds into a state of disorientation, he had achieved that. I swatted at the mosquito again, and this time, I killed it. But I ended up drawing the attention of the whispering adults to myself.

Mama gave me a look like she would have liked to slap me, and Ezekweche only peered at me with a curious glint in his eye. After a long, uncomfortable second of staring at me, he turned his face back to Mama. I guess that was his way of saying that his assessment had found me inadequate in some way and he was now disinterested in me. Why that left me slightly downcast, I had no clue.

“Ehen, you were saying, Nwanyi Chido,” he said in his soft singsong voice.

This was one mesmerising thing about Ezekweche. He looked all menacing till he opened his mouth to speak, and then out came a voice so soft and melodious, it put fair maidens to shame. There were even rumours that the Nightingale that sang on some nights in the village was actually Ezekweche, but no one could confirm for sure if that was true. Ezekweche himself merely laughed heartily the few times he'd been confronted.

“If I say I’m not worried, Ezekweche, I would be a liar,” Mama began in her usual dramatic semi-whisper. “I’ve never had that kind of dream. And you know dreams shouldn't be taken lightly.”

Ezekweche nodded sagely, eyes closed. “Just for emphasis, recount your dream again, and this time around, all concerned had better pay attention.” He added that last part with a pointed look in my direction. I fought the urge to squirm at his gaze and focused on Mama, who drew another overly dramatic breath and began.

“It was the night of Egwu nde mmuo dance of the gods. You know we are all supposed to stay inside. But in that dream, I don’t know what possessed me to send my daughter, Yagazie, to get me ugwu leaves by the stream. So she went, but it suddenly became dark and I had to go find her. I passed through the bushes so that the dancing gods won’t spot me and prayed to Chi that she had not entered harm’s way. But when I got to the stream...”

Mama paused then and looked at me like I had a hand in it. She broke into tears then, but at Ezekweche’s light cough, quieted and continued. “When I got to the stream, there was Yagazie, sitting on the big boulder beside the stream. I was going to scream her name and that’s when I saw Kamata, the god of doom, kneeling before her and in his hands were white roses. He gave it to her and she stretched her hand to collect it. That was when I screamed and woke up.”

Ezekweche was silent for a long time. His eyes were still closed and his brows creased tightly like he was in great pain. I sat silently beside Mama, saying nothing, feeling nothing. Yes, her dreams almost always came to pass. But the notorious god of doom kneeling to a mortal like me and that too with the white rose of matrimony in his hand was too bizarre to be true.

What did such a dream even mean?

Ezekweche finally opened his eyes, but there was shift in it. Like the man that was in front of us was no longer there. His eyes had gone very dark and I felt a slight chill run down my spine. This must be why no one toyed with him even with his feminine voice. The man exuded power itself. But then his eyes cleared and he shook his head.

“Indeed, this your dream is a bad one, Nwanyi Chido,” he began. “A bad sign indeed. And if my spirits are speaking rightly, it means that Kamata has indicated interest in your daughter, Yagazie.”

“Chukwu ekwena!!” God forbid. Mama yelled at the top of her voice, jumping from the bench. Another light cough from Ezekweche made her sit back down, but she swayed from side to side with her hands on her head like one bereaved.

“As I was saying,” he continued with a blank expression on his face. “Kamata has indicated interest in your daughter, but if we begin rites now, we may just nullify it. You said you had this dream just yesterday?”

“Yes, Ezekweche.” Mama’s voice became hopeful.

“Okay, let’s see what I can do. Go back to your house, Nwanyi Chido. Leave Yagazie here. I need to interrogate her myself.”
But Mama was already on her feet, retying her wrapper. She thanked Ezekweche profusely and with one final agonized look at me like I was the cause of the deepest miseries of life, she left the hut, muttering bitterly as she went.

The room was silent for a long time, and I bent my head to avoid Ezekweche’s pointed stare. But maybe if I hadn’t averted my gaze, I would have seen his eyes change again to that pitch black hue, and his next words wouldn’t have startled the life out of me.

“So, Yagazie,” he called with the most rapturous grin on his face. “Tell me again why you refused my rose.”

Jhymi🖤


My response to the Freewriter's Daily Prompt: Bad Sign.

Images created with Meta AI.

Posted Using InLeo Alpha



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16 comments
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Ahhh! You can't end this story like this ooo, where's the remaining part?

I need to know what Ezekweche is up to.

Have you ever consider documenting your stories or maybe turning them into a video to post on YouTube like tales by moonlight for a wider viewership or maybe something else.

Am very sure people would love it

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I've never thought of it, but thank you so much for this beautiful idea. I have been planning for a while now to compile all the stories I've written for Hive into a collection. But for the video part, I'll think about it. Thank you. I'm so glad you enjoyed my story.🥰

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Patiently waiting for part two 🤗

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Im waiting for the part 2

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Well, I don't know. But let's see.😅
Thank you for reading.🌺

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View or trade LOH tokens.


@jhymi, You have received 1.0000 LOH for posting in Ladies of Hive. We believe that you should be rewarded for the time and effort spent in creating articles. The goal is to encourage token holders to accumulate and hodl LOH tokens over a long period of time.

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Heyyyyyyyyy!

You should have seen my expression at that last part! I don’t understand. You plan to leave it like this?!

I was right. Ezekweche has a big head! I want to understand if he was possessed by the god or if Kwechy Kwechy is a low key perv!! Ahhjj

You can’t end it like this o!! @justfavour come and see this girl o!😭

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You're so annoying, you. What's with the nicknames?😂🤦🏾‍♀️

Anyway, let's hope he isn't. The female lead is 18, btw.

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Hey! You are an excellent story creator. This is very interesting

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Thank you so much. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.🥰

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You have such a beautiful style of writing.
I was hooked from the beginning to the end.
This is impressive

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Oh my. I'm certainly pleased to hear this. Thank you so much. I'll keep trying my best.🥰

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