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ÌRÌNÀJÒ

The journey

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©Temitope Sevezun Toyon, 2022

This story is a work of fiction, yet an absolute inspiration of the Holyspirit. All rights
reserved. No part of this work can be reprinted, published in any form or made into
a movie without the permission of the author, Temitope Sevezun Toyon. All
incidents, persons and occurences in this book are fictional. Any resemblance to any
person, event or situation is coincidental.

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DISCLAIMER

The Yoruba words and sentences in this book are written with diacritic marks to the
best of the author’s research, consultation and ability. Hence, further confirmation
of interpretation accuracy might be required.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
What is candlelight without the Wax, the Thread and the Lighter? To Him that
gives, sustains, preserves and beatifies, I am grateful. To Him, whose life I now live, I
am grateful. And to the best Companion of all times, the Holyspirit, I am grateful.

Temitope Sevezun Toyon, thank you for cheering yourself on and for mustering
strength when there was no zeal to continue.

Daddy, Mummy, Toyin and Tife, thank you! For listening to me narrate long
haphazard headless and tailless stories, for reading this story while it was yet in its
nursery form, for your constant support that has afforded me the chance to write
this, and for being the perfect description of family, I say thank you again. Daddy
and mummy, my very own Mr and Mrs Johnson Toyon, thank you for having
creative genes, cause wetin I for write? And, most importantly, thank you for
grooming us in the way of the Lord, cause what is creativity without knowing the
Lord?

Samuel Ogundoju, thank you for being my number 1 literary fan. Camillus Mbachu,
thank you for listening to this story when it was yet disconnected pieces of puzzle in
my head. Esther Balekan, Michael Olonade, Tolutope Peter, George Kumasi,
Olumide Gbadamosi, thank you for letting me know I had to do more than writing
and uploading random contents on Whatsapp. Rowland Bassey, Daniel Odekunle,
Samuel Ogundoju, Esther Balekan and Emmanuel Taiwo, thank you for
painstakingly reading the manuscript and showing me loopholes that needed to be
mended.

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Esther Balekan, thank you again. At every edge of giving up, I found myself crawling
back to our chats to read your comments, they gave strength. Rowland Bassey,
Samuel Ogundoju and Boluwatife Toyon, what really would I have done without
you guys? VNs upon VNs, messages upon messages, reviews upon reviews,
brainstorming upon brainstorming, screening upon screening, I was afraid you’ll get
tired of me. I am more than grateful to God for you trio, for being every shade of
support. Oluwatoyin Toyon, thank you for helping me balance creativity and reality,
for always answering my “Will it actually make sense in real life if…” questions.
Timileyin Fashaun and Stephen Elufisan, you both came to the rescue at a time the
girl was clueless and helpless. Thank you for bringing visual life to my handiwork.

Dr Rotimi Oladipupo, thank you for being such an inspiration. Thank you for the
unflinching support sir. Mr Opeyemi Mudathir of Philbeth College, my Oluko, I
remember how intrigued you were when I read out that Yoruba essay assignment.
Thank you for the kind remarks, you made me build this novel on that short essay.
Tobi Sax Arowojolu of Philbeth College, you were my first reader. Thank you for
reading my very first novel, for loving it and for saying with a smile “Welldone, this
is interesting!” Olufunke Hadassah Mogbojuri, your writing tenacity gave strength
intermittently.

Finally, I acknowledge the works of the following people I describe as ‘Prophetic

creatives’. This young girl is running on the fuel the following book and movies once
deposited in her: GHOST RUN by Opeyemi Akintunde, AWO JESU by Oreofe
Williams and ESIN AJOJI by ANCREDAM and Mount Zion Films Productions.

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DEDICATION

To you, cause your dreams are valid. So get to work.

To you, cause there is so much in you to harness. Juice it! Juice it!! Fill the barrels!
You have to die empty!

To you, cause there is light in you! C’mon let us light up this world together.

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PROLOGUE
ILÉ-IFÈ
History has it that in the late 18s, strange jaw-dropping sculptures were found in Ilé-
ifè, an ancient powerful town situated in Osun state, Southwest, Nigeria. Children
from the Katiunwi compound stumbled on them while they played on that faithful
day. In the year 1960, October 1st to be precise, these sculptures were taken to the
British Museum, London. The style and architecture of these sculptures sets them
apart to be the most priced artifacts the British Museum ever curated.

Among the sculptures taken were: a copper alloy figure of a king, a brass alloy torso
of a goddess, a ceramic mask, a terracotta hand holding a bird, a wooden seated
figure and a bronze alloy crowned head. The bronze alloy crowned head stands out
uniquely, as it carries a fathomable aura. It is believed that the bronze alloy crowned
head represents that of Oduduwa, the founder and father of the Yorubas, hence, the
reason for its high value and sacredness.

However, the bronze alloy crowned head is a guise.

THERE EXISTS THE ORIGINAL GOLD ALLOY CROWNED HEAD,

HIDDEN SOMEWHERE IN THE YORUBA SOIL.

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 THE NATIONAL NEWSPAPER DAILY GIST

We are doing all we can to bring back the missing Prospective "It's been 10 years and 5 months
Corp Members. since we last heard from Osun
state corp members who were
- Director, Nigeria Search Bureau, 29th June, 2018 posted to Ilesha Senior Grammar
School. They have been declared
missing since 5th of April 2008.
And no tangible action or I say,
result, has been shown"
ASO PAPERS -Barrister Adeola Olaade, Human
The Federal Republic of right activist.
Nigeria celebrates the fallen THE CURRENT
heroes of the 4th of April
Mother of Johnson Bukola, missing
2008 and the 24th of June
final year student of History,
2018 disappearance.
University of Lagos, cries out!
- 1st October 2018, President
"My daughter has not been found yet"
Ahmed Jongola
-The current digest

MIRROR NEWSPAPER

On the 24th of June 2018, 10 prospective corp members

AMEBLOG
got missing on their way to NYSC Orientation Camp,
"Samuel had great dreams and plans for Ede, Osun State. Till date their bodies have not been
Nigeria, He deserves justice from the found, neither have they been recognized in surrounding
government" villages. What could have happened? What experience
was it? Deadly? Horrible? Terrorizing? No one knows
- Dorcas Okpodi, Sister of Samuel Okpodi, still!
missing student of University of Lagos
- Mirror headlines

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CHAPTER 1: ADESEWA GRACE ADEKOYA

"Sewa! Adesewa!! Adesewa!!!!" Her voice pierced through my ears like javelins.
"Ohhhh God! Who..." I said as I angrily pulled down my duvet to peep at the
disturber.

"Who is that right? Well...it is me Dr Ibironke Adekoya, wife of Pastor Adetunji

Adekoya and mother of..." My mother said as she launched into my bed like an
excited puppy.

"I hadn't even asked who that is" I said turning over to face her.

"Is it not you? Adesewa Grace Adekoya!" She said, laughing hysterically.

"Argh Mummy your voice!" I said, looking towards the window, trying to avoid her
gaze.

If you are Yoruba, I’m sure you will make an accurate guess of her reply.

"Orí íyá àwon bàbá e lò nbá wí”1 She said

“It was this same voice I used to sing you to sleep whenever your baby cries
attempted to pull down the house" She said like she was gossiping with someone.

"Mummy" I slightly exhaled and couldn’t help but laugh.

"And yes, is it not this same voice I used to read bedtime stories to you until you
decided to..." She said with her signature gloomy funny face.

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Mummy read me bedtime stories till I got to primary 6. I had to close my door
before every 8 pm so she won't come in. I remember how she would knock at the
door and say

“Adesewa, I know you're neither sleeping nor praying, so because you are now in
JSS1 you will not allow us read you bedtime stories anymore. Honey you're not
saying anything?” She was always trying to convert Dad to being a supporting
speaker.

“Really mum?” I asked, stifling a laugh

“Yes o. My baby became a woman overnight” Mum replied, beaming with smiles

My mum is such a perpendicular line to my dad. Mum is an overflow of vibes, while

Dad lives like a mountain dweller. You know the way we tease people who are
fasting about ‘Mountain’ and all, Dad is a regular mountain person. Although mum
is a professor of psychology at the University of Lagos yet she has to be the goofiest
person I’ve ever met. Talk about a goofy nerd! She doesn’t look like books but
ohhhhh that’s what she is. She became a professor at the age of 28. I have heard it
every single day. When I had good grades, I heard it. When I didn’t, I heard it.
When I slept too much, I heard it. When I am on a long conversation, I heard it. I
am 20 and everything in the house screams “Professor at 28! You must be a
professor at 28”. I dread entering her library; her library screams it louder than any
other place in the house. The kitchen seems to be my only safe haven.

Dad, on the other hand, is the General Overseer of the City of Refuge Ministries
(CORM) and apart from the fact that my father pastors a church; he is the complete
description of a Christ like man. Mum is Christ like too yeah, absolutely, but not

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your regular definition of Christlikeness. She's hilarious, blunt and of course she's
the ginger woman and our hype woman.

A graduate of International Finance and Accounting, an internationally recognized

chartered accountant and a Financial Times editor, yet my mum still bumps into my
room to wake me up. Who does that?

"Me" my mother replied, looking through her phone

"It is my service year mum! I should check my posting letter myself" I said, raising an
eyebrow.

"Ah look at this one, you that we want to help receive the shock when they will post
you to Borno state" She said, laughing and tickling me.

"Mummy really...at least you have served already...at Iseyin Orientation..." I said,
stifling a yawn.

She interrupted me almost immediately I said ‘Iseyin orientation camp’

"Ah that time ehn, Sewa, you need to see me in my..." She started

I have heard this line over 300 times.

"...in my khaki trousers, ah ah ah, your father couldn't keep his eyes off me, lepa
NCCF president that year"

We said the last sentence together.

She laughed so hard and loud that my ears almost blew off.

I jerked up from the bed immediately I remembered I had not greeted her.

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I knelt down to greet her "Mummy Ekaaro2 ma".

Of course you guessed her reply right.

"You are just seeing me right?" She said, pouting and eyeballing me.

I stood up and headed to the toilet.

"Hmmn?" She asked again, as a reminder.

I couldn't help but laugh.

‘Mum, really?’ I said.

"Yes o really really" she said, pouting.

“I’m sorry Mother love” I said as I closed the door.

"Where did Daddy find you please?" I shouted from the toilet, as I rinsed my face.

"NCCF ooo" She replied almost before I finished asking my question.

I actually didn't ask for a response but I will rather keep quiet than tell her the
question wasn’t meant to be answered.

"Adesewa, you didn't even ask where you were posted to" She said immediately I
entered the room.

Of course that was why she came into my room like an excited puppy.

"I saw it already" I replied as I wiped my face.

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Now here goes the Mummy G.O. in her. You so wouldn't believe my mum when she
decides to be all Mummy G.Oish.

"My daughter, the devil is in trouble" She said as I sat beside her.

"For there's no hiding place for him, blessed are your senses Adesewa" She said
putting my hand into hers.

"Thank you mummy" I smiled as I hugged her.

Now here’s where the problem lies. The 2 seconds hug I intended was turning into
15 seconds.

"Mum I think you should let me go" I struggled to say. She squeezed me in the more,
tightening the hug. Oh how I love my mum’s cologne.

My phone rang.

"Mummy my phone is ringing" I mumbled.

She released me and tickled me before doing that completely. I stumbled down with
laughter to the extension box to pick my phone.

"Oh mummy I missed the call" I said, frowning at her through the mirror.

Wait! Was she crying? She was stylishly wiping her tears. Why was mum crying?

"Mum" I said turning back to take a closer look at her.

"Mummy, are you..." I started asking.

"Adesewa who is that person you always speak to?" She smiled, raising an eyebrow.

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"Jesus" I said, smiling my way to the wardrobe.

"I can see you're smiling Adesewa" She laughed and she threw a pillow at me.

"You like man o, I hope he is a Nigerian, before you bring one Russian or German.
Grandma will not accept him o" She joked.

"Mum!!!" I exclaimed, laughing hard.

I changed from my night wear to a gown.

"What?" She said laughing.

"Is Dad aware I was posted to Osun state?" I asked.

Why was I even asking, Dad must have known.

"You know your father now?" She said with this Pastor's wife seriousness.

We laughed. Of course I do.

"You've not called back the person o" She said as she stood up from my bed and
walked towards the door.

I didn't answer. This woman wants to be ruling in my affairs and I won’t allow it.
She has been indirectly stalking me for her son-in-law since I got back.

"I know you heard me, you don't want us to hear his voice, I hope he's not baritone
like your father. For our first few months together, I always went into shock anytime
your father called me from the sitting room" She said, laughing.

"Hmmn mummy, mummy" I laughed as I folded my duvet.

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“I love your slippers o, should I come for it?” I asked

“No dear, my husband gave it to me” She said as she closed my door

I had just finished my fellowship timeout and this aroma has been putting my nose
under pressure. Mum was in the kitchen making breakfast, ‘Award winning chef’ she
calls herself. I walked passed Dad's prayer room and I heard someone crying silently.
Could Dad be crying? Dad never cries! He did once, when we lost Adesope.
Adesope is my twin brother. He is, even in death. I feel it would hurt him if I use a
'was' for him. So he is my twin and he is forever with me. Could that have been the
reason Mum shed a tear and Dad was weeping? I looked at the calendar on my
phone and it wasn’t November 6th. And even if it is, it has been years and they've
never been this emotional about Adesope's death. They seem to be growing out of it
yearly, although, that is almost impossible.

"Holy spirit your comfortee needs a word" I said as I walked downstairs. My phone
rang and boom my mood lit up. I totally forgot Dad was weeping or Mum cried.

“Hi Jay” I said, blushing.

Adejide Michael Folawe is my very close friend in whom I'm well pleased. We
studied in Canada together. We both came back for the NYSC. Although he grew
up in Canada, his parents think it is paramount that he does the needful, so he's
here to serve his father land. Mosquito bites will look so beautiful, no, handsome on
him. I have been teasing him about that since we got back to Nigeria few weeks ago.
I can hear you say “Look who is talking”. I might do better than him, you know I
was born and brought up in Nigeria till I was 14.

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“Beautiful yo-ru-ba girl, how are you?” he said with this his funny Yoruba accent.

I could tell he was smiling.

"It is yo-ro-ba not yo-ru-ba sir" I said, still smiling.

"But it is spelt yo-ru-ba" he said.

I sighed and smiled

"I can literally feel you smiling Ewa" he said.

He is the only one that calls me Ewa. Oh God! I've never liked, crushed on or loved
someone like Adejide in my whole life. He is the most down to earth, caring and fun
to be with person I know after my mum.

"Sorry I missed your call. Was with mum" I apologized.

"Oh my mother-in-law, how is she?" He asked.

Here we go again, Adejide is calling my mum his mother-in-law for the 422th time,
in fact for every time I mentioned my mum.

"Here we go again” I said under my breath, blushing.

“She's very well thanks. How is your mum too?" I replied.

"She's fine”

His parents are Nigerians and they've stayed in United Kingdom for about 20 years.
They migrated when Adejide was 2 years. I’m surpised at how fluent his Yoruba is. I

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spent my entire life till high school in Nigeria and this young man that has been in
the UK since nursery corrects my Yoruba.

“She’s here, would you like to speak with her?” He said with so much enthusiasm.

His mum is such a pleasant woman. I have met her when she came visiting a couple
of times in Canada. And I met her at the airport when we got back to Nigeria as
well. I keep wondering why his mum calls me my daughter anytime we spoke. I
know what you're thinking, cute right? Well it is. But, I have not heard from God
concerning him. And he hasn't heard either. Isn't this frustrating and difficult?
Everything points to a “Move ahead” and the Supreme One still says “Hold on”.
Every silence is consent but maybe not my Father’s.

I heard her voice in the background

“Who's that?” She asked.

"Guess who?" Adejide asked.

I just couldn't help but smile. I find it amusing how they joke around.

"Oh goodness, Adejide, is it Joana? It should be Joanna" She said.

“Noooo” Jay refuted.

“Ermmm, Adesewa? It must be Adesewa” She said laughing.

"Yes it is...Ewa are you there? I'll give the phone to mum now" He said.

I bet you are as confused as I am.

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“Who is Joana?” was the exact question that kept appearing in my brain mirror. I
suddenly lost my voice and my speech articulation; I didn't know I could stutter in a
conversation.

“Who in heaven is Joana? His high school girlfriend or one of those French girls in
Quebec? Or Adejide is married??? Married with how many children? God!!! How did
I not know? After how close and far we've come, a Joanna has come to part us like
the red sea. Their names start with the letter J. Oh no!!!...”

I suddenly remembered Dad was weeping and Mum shed tears. Felt like my world
was crumbling.

“Why did Dr Folawe mention her name before mine? Could it be that...”

That was how clumsy my thoughts were…all these ran through my mind in 5
seconds.

"My daughter my daughter, Adesewa mi" Jay's mum said, with so much joy.

"Mummy, good morning ma'am, how are you ma?" I replied, smiling like an idiot
about to be dumped.

“Wait? Could I have been dumped? Dr Folawe just mentioned Joanna few seconds
ago and now she is calling me her daughter” I thought to myself.

"I've missed your beautiful smile and face my dear...won't you come say hi to us?
Adejide is such a boring companion. Wonder why you love him though." She said
laughing out loud.

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I would let the love part slide because I didn’t say I love Adejide and I don’t love
him.

Ok that was a lie, I LOVE HIM!!!

I could hear Adejide's voice in the background "Really Mum?"

He rubs his head from the middle to the back of his neck when he says "Really?"

I blushed when I thought about it.

"What is doing this one?" My mum sat on the couch with me.

"Shhh" I signaled to her with a wink, before Jay will speak to my mum and then give
the phone to his mother and they will do Wedding introduction for us on the
phone.

“Plus Baba J has been asking of you too…and since this young man will not let us see
your fine face, I have decided to invite you myself” Dr Folawe said.

You wouldn’t believe that this invitation is coming from the reputable Dr Folawe
wife to the famous Engineer Folawe. Jay’s mum owns a room dedicated to awards
and plagues. She is strongly affiliated with Stanford University, WHO, UNESCO,
Doctors without borders, among others. And Engineer Folawe is the popular
business tycoon. And to think that Dr Folawe calls her husband ‘Baba J” is so funny.

“Baba J and I will be going to the UK next week, we have some engagements for
about a month. So it’ll be nice to host you before we go.”

"I look forward to being your guest too ma" I said smiling. Then the 2 minutes of
pleasantries came to an end. I hung up before Jay got the phone back.

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 

I needed air urgently. Guess who knocked vigorously at the door of my

subconscious? "JOANA".

Dad had called Mum upstairs few seconds before I ended the call. I took a deep
breath and said silently "Holyspirit".

"Yes I know, I'm over reacting already" I replied.

I headed to my room after taking a bottle of water and a plate of fruit salad from the
kitchen.

"You've got all the light I need Jesus... Keep my life illuminated by you…" my phone
rang out louder than usual.

It was Jay. It was a video call and I could see his face, dark and calm. I really didn't
want to pick his call. We spoke every day for 4 years and I've never heard of "Joana".
He called again and I just stared at his face on the call. His face tampered with my
decision really. I didn't want to pick his call, yet. The call ended and my phone
beeped, it was a text message from him.

"My favorite, I've known you for a long time. Would you please pick my call" I read
as I entered my room.

I smiled till my cheeks started hurting.

"Oh my Father, Who is this young piece of goodness" I said, blushing at the mirror.

"You've got all the light..." My phone rang again.

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"My favorite" He said, whining.

I didn't look at the phone. It was hard! Very hard! Pretending not to blush when
your ears are blushing was hard. Moreover I didn’t know how to say I was angry plus
I didn’t know how to say what I was angry about.

"Your royal Highness, would you do me the honor of staring at your subject once
again?" He asked with this hoarse and hilarious voice.

I broke out! I laughed so hard and looked at the phone.

"You see it's in you, you can’t even frown to save your life" He said, laughing loud.

"Don't even try to be funny Adejide" I said trying to be serious while rounding up
my long loud laughter.

I don't call him Adejide normally. The last time I called him his name was in my
first year. Since he had told me I am his favorite person in the world, I felt he
deserved a pet name…hence, the birth of the name ‘Jay’.

"My name is Jay o...don't call me Adejide" he said shouting and pouting.

I laughed till I could hardly breathe. My eyes were teary from laughter. He noticed.

"Ewa your eyes are teary already. Let me be serious now" he said putting his face up,
in an unserious way still.

"Joana is my cousin. She stays with great-grandma in the village and has met me
once. That was when I came to Nigeria for a summe visit at Grandma’s. I actually led
her to Christ and she's been unable to reach me for some months now since she

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studied in a boarding school. So she finally was able to when we got back to
Nigeria...Hmmn?" He said softly.

I couldn't talk yet, words weren't coming forth.

"Ewa" He called out softly.

"Sir" I said mumbling, feeling sorry.

"You know no one has the keys to the inner court of my heart right except you
yeah?" He said, staring at me.

I looked at the phone and I caught his eyes again, doing its primary assignment. He
once joked and said the primary assignment of his eyes was to stare at me. I looked
at the mirror almost immediately.

"You know right?" He said again.

"Jay, God has not said anything about us…and it worries me...why would He have us
wait at a spot when we could walk together with Him" I said, looking at him fully
well now.

"My favorite, He will speak. Mum doesn't call us to get the meal if it isn't ready
right? So let us be patient, we will be ready soon" He said, smiling.

I hate this, no, I actually love it. Who smiles while saying something serious? Jay
does it all the time. He never gets tensed. And look at me, tension headquarters.

"Breakfast is ready Desewa, come downstairs and eat. You must eat akara today"
Mum said from the door.

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Of course Jay heard her. Thank God she didn't come inside. He would have seen my
piece of goodness and start calling him "Oko mi3"…Yoruba mothers and their
association anthem.

"Ewa, you still have not tasted akara4?" He asked, laughing.

"I honestly don't like it" I replied.

"Well, you have to try new things to know if you like them or not" Jay said.

"That's true though. I might try it. Thank you" I said, stroking my hair.

"I finally tried gbegiri and ewedu with amala, and the combination tastes great" He
said, as proud as anything else.

"But Jay we said we were going to try it together!" I said, pouting.

"I'm sorry, Mum made it at home so I had no choice but to eat it. I will make it up
to you, amala and gbegiri for lunch tomorrow?" He said.

"Alright! Apology accepted" I smiled

“Foodie” He joked.

I honestly thought this bed-of-roses will continue, I sure didn’t see the rock of thorns
coming.

Mum has been on the phone since yesterday, calling different people and placing
orders for white shorts, boots, camp boxes, bed spreads and all.

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"But mum we have new buckets in the store" I said to her.

She ignored me.

If I did a 0.001% of that, then I did not ‘Gbeeko’5: the tale of a Yoruba daughter.

Well, why should I?

"Thank you dear. Don't forget the small bowl too. I want baby pink color
please...and yes…" She turned to me

"Desewa do you want pegs too?"

I sighed and shook my head.

Mum is just really up and down for this Camp thing.

"Answer me madam" she said.

"I do ma" I answered and sighed.

"It is your father's village people you're sighing for" She added and gave me a funny
stern look.

“Mum, Dad is from Zion, remember?” I laughed.

She nodded and smiled.

"Yes please, add two packs of pegs too...would you like the bucket with cover?" She
stole a glance at me.

"Mum!!!!!" I exclaimed.

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"Ok, ok, Please make it two, one with cover and the other without. Thank you dear.
Delivery has to be before 2pm tomorrow. Alright? Thanks." She ended the call.

"Mummy we have these things at home, the new bucket you got from Dr Omoleyin's
son's wedding is in the store" I said.

"Really? That expensive bucket? You don't know anything you this Canadian girl.
You should use it to bring Spirogyra into this house for me, no way" She refuted,
painstakingly going through her list.

I looked at her and laughed. She calls me Canadian girl anytime I refuse to eat some
Nigerian meals and when I don’t understand some basic Yoruba concepts. She is
more serious about the orientation camp than I am.

"Let me call Folex couture" She picked up her phone and continued ticking her list.

"For what again mummy?" I looked up from my phone.

“I said couture so I am calling to order dinner” She answered, sarcastically.

"Your white shorts and white tops of course"

And then she started her debate. She started with how I had to look good always,
plus how I needed to get new stuff for camp because I won’t be using them again.

“I might as well have to throw my phone away” I said under my breath.

I knew she heard me but I wasn’t expecting the big bounce of throw pillow. It was
too late for me to dodge.

I had them. I had all the things she was ordering for.

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"You have white shorts?" She said, feigning ignorance.

"Of course I do" I said, scoffing.

"Remember that all the stuff you are taking to camp won't enter this house again"
She said, assertively.

Now this is overly serious for my liking. Mum isn't the too serious person. In fact she
says serious things as lightly as possible, just like Jay.

"Mum, is camp that horrible, are there like huge microorganisms gallivanting
around, looking for whom to devour?" I said jokingly, trying to bring back her goofy
side.

She laughed.

"Maybe..." She said sounding unsure.

Aunty Kemi had told me about how critically uncomfortable camp is, the tension,
the soldiers everywhere, the blaring horn every morning, the extremely cold
mornings, the skin-tanning hot sun every afternoon, the windy rainy nights and the
sardine sized rooms. It was sickening to hear those but c'mon I was excited. I had
never been in such situation before so I found it really intriguing. Jay was posted to
Osun state too, the same state I was posted to. I've never been this excited in recent
times. We were in it together and we will be in it every step of the way, through
NYSC even till eternity. The thought of it couldn't but make me grin.

"Hello" the caller said.

"Hello good evening" I replied.

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"My name is Halimat Bello and I saw your contact on the Whatsapp group created
for Osun state corpers and..." She explained.

"Oh hi, Halimat, I am Adesewa Adekoya, pleased to meet you" I responded.

After about 2 minutes of discussion on how we can move from Lagos state to Osun
state and down to the orientation camp, we ended the call.

Halimat became the first friend I made during my service year. We scheduled to
meet at the Iyana-ipaja park at 6 am on Thursday morning as camp resumption was
that same day. I had informed Jay about it and he offered to come pick me up at
home that day but I refused. My mum might do a red carpet for him honestly.

It was Monday afternoon and I just had chicken kebab and watermelon-pineapple-
banana-apple smoothie. Chicken and smoothie is the best food in the world, I tell
you. Jay says it is not food though.

I looked at my wrist and I couldn't help but smile. The gold wristwatch sitting pretty
on my hand is genuinely the most beautiful I had seen. So Jay proposed yesterday.
He proposed that I become his girlfriend…and of all course, I said yes.

How did it play out?

So after service at my church, I saw Jay sitting at the back, grinning at me. I was
surprised to have seen him because he hadn't been to my church before. Now what
will be more shocking is my mother's paparazzi when she knows who he is.

30
"What are you doing here young piece of goodness" I said as I walked up to him
through the swamp of lady-bees staring at him.

Jay is sure a hot cake.

"I came to officially thank the Father for the woman He has given me" He said
smiling.

Yes, God spoke! Finally!! I was jumping and screaming like a corn being popped.
Guess who He spoke through? My mum! My mother!!!! Of all people to tell who my
husband will be my mum was the chosen one. Oh she has printed the invitation
cards already, she has booked the caterer I can assure you.

I had a dream the night I spoke to Jay’s mum and I just knew God was about to give
a seal. Apparently, mum had gone to meet Jay immediately after the service. I
wondered why she wasn’t beside Dad after the service.
“So what did she say?” I asked.
“Good afternoon young man, you are my Adesewa’s friend right?” Jay said. “I had to
prostrate immediately, I had no idea she knows me”. Jay continued, wiping off a
sweat bead from his forehead.

"Oh well" I said blushing and looking down at my green heels. "By the way, you look
really stunning ma'am. How can one person be this multidimensionally beautiful"
He said staring at me.

“Uncle, what was today’s topic in church?” I joked, trying to distract him.

“Erm, erm…”He stuttered, looking up

“Erm”

31
At this point I could only laugh because I know how dramatic Jay can be.

“I remember it ma, the Lion and the Lamb, reference texts were from Revelation 5
verse 5 and John 1 verse 29” He said, beaming with smiles.

“That’s my boy” I said

“No ma, should be ‘that’s my husband’” He whispered to me, grinning.

“Abeg”6 I laughed

I took him to Daddy and Mummy's office, at least for him to officially say hi. I
knocked and we entered.

"Mum, Dad, this is Adejide Folawe, my friend" I said and looked at him.

He already prostrated.

"Good afternoon sir. Good afternoon ma" He said as he rose up.

I was shocked to the bone when mum spoke, maybe not too shocked cause Jay
already told me.

"This is him. Welcome son. Welcome dearest son" She said smiling.

God told her who he was immediately we left Canada 5 weeks ago and she has been
acting oblivious. She heard God before me. I am shocked but not really. Do lions
not birth lions anyway?

I was not surprised.

32
"Mr Folawe Adejide you're welcome to the family of love" Dad finally said.

What a calm man my dad is. Mum has started calling him 'son' already. I was just
seated there like a piece of cheese. I suddenly forgot how to raise my head.

People of God, I never knew I could smile, blush and tear up at the same time.

"Pastor and Dr Adekoya, meeting your daughter has been the most fascinating phase
of my life…actually, the start of this fascinating phase of my life. I call her 'My
favorite' and she thinks it is mere flattering but she is really my favorite person in the
whole world and I am grateful to God for the gift of her friendship. She has brought
so much strength, love, joy and peace into my life. Thank you for giving this world
the gift of Adesewa" He said as he squeezed my hand.

My face was a flood already. Why I sobbed I didn't know. Of course you can predict
the outcome. Parents said capital YESs and mum hugged the heaven out of him. She
held him till we got to the car park and was waving at him like he was Benny Hinn
till he left.

"Can I pick you up by 5 pm this evening ma'am? I have to dish out my heart to you.
Just you and I with the Trinity" My mum read out loud from the dining room.

I stormed out of the kitchen "Mum!!!!"

"What happened? You asked me to read it na7" She said feeling awful.

"Sorry but it should not have been loud and you should have known it is a private
message" I said.

33
"Madam, please give me examples of public messages. Please take your phone abeg, I
have my husband too o" She said laughing.

Mum and Dad picked my dress and shoe for me. The debate and argument on what
to wear was hot. We finally came to a consensus as I picked a champagne gold dress
to go with a dark red heels and purse. Dad wanted gold, Mum wanted dark red. I
dismissed their indivicual suggestions with my combination of both. It was just a
meeting, not a date or even the actual proposal and the whole house had to go
through a debate on the art and psychology of colors. I think dad won mum though.
Mum was just shouting "Red color is good for dates". Dad had more cogent points;
he even explained how the color fits my skin tone.

Mum asked Dad to tell her the colors that fits her skin tone and he refused. If you
know my mum very well, you will know that kasala aff burst8. Their signature pillow
throwing and chasing around started and in few seconds they were out of my space,
running downstairs. I laughed as I watched the both of them.

“Oh dear Father, bless my home like this. But remove the little challenges” I thought
and smiled.

My twin brother's death was a major challenge, the biggest actually. Then the Holy
Spirit said to me, "You will face trials too but I promise you companionship,
mentorship and guidance, every step of the way".

Jay took us to a private beach he got as a present from his father’s friend during his
baby shower. The elites and their circles though.

34
Jay said so many things, flattering, sincere and teary words. He told me everything
about Adesewa. He told me she is his answered prayers, the evidence of God's favor
to him. He told me he had seen my weaknesses and that he's willing to still do life
with me. Then he asked if I was ready to work with him on setting the table before
the Chef calls us to start eating. I said yes! A loud yes! He hugged me so tight. The
tightest and longest we've ever had.

It was Tuesday night already and mum was doing a crosscheck of the things I would
be taking to camp. I was just watching her because she seemed to be doing it with
extra care and caution. I still had so many questions unanswered. Why did mum
shed a tear? Why was dad crying in his prayer room? And, most importantly, why
have I had this same funny dream for 3 days consecutively?

35
CHAPTER 2: FROM THE KNOWN INTO THE UNKNOWN

I opened my eyes as wide as possible. I just had the same dream, for the 5th time.

It is the morning of our trip to camp and I am still as excited as I have always been
just that fear smeared my heart a bit. I didn't know why. I knelt down beside my bed
and started worshipping then continued praying intensely in the Holyghost. At every
point I tried to enquire of God on what the dream could mean, I got the same word
"Put on the whole armor of God. Make it your skin, your irremovable outfit". I
understood, no doubt but in my opinion, maybe not as deep as the dream required.

Aunty Kemi had told me so many things about camp that I honestly cannot wait to
experience. More so, Jay and I had plans. How we would hopefully be in the same
platoon, buy food together, go for evening fellowships together and discuss about
life. Our parents mentioned although not in exact words that 'service year' is a self-
discovery, future-planning and life foundation period. So we plan on achieving great
feats together through adequate planning during the 3 weeks orientation camp.

It was almost 5 am and mum brought breakfast to me in bed. Cute? I know it is. But
it is weird; she has never done that before. I ate it anyway. I just included that
question to the list of questions God had to answer his daughter.

Jay had called that he was at the estate gate with the driver and that they will be here
in 10 minutes. Uncle John, the gateman, helped carry my luggage to the gate. Mum
and Dad held me my two hands respectively.

36
"I trust God for you my daughter, you will make God proud" Dad said. I smiled at
him and rested on his chest.

"You will make me that your hotdog and lettuce omelet Adesewa, I will eat it I
promise" Mum said.

Just before I could laugh Mum burst into tears. Dad held her shoulder and kissed
her forehead.

"She will be back by God's grace" Dad said

"...in few weeks" He added.

I am lost in my own paradise. Was I being sold off or what?

The ride to the car park was not as Jay and Ewa as usual. It was different. I told him
everything that has happened at home and all he said was "It is well", again with a
smile. His smile did something to me. It gave me joy and peace, felt like Jesus
himself smiled at me.

We got to the car park and I met Halimat for the first time. She is a plump, cute-
faced and dark-skinned lady. Looks like a nerd so I loved her from the beginning.
We were directed to the next available bus at the park. We went through a lot before
we could convince Jay’s mum that we were fine with boarding a commercial bus to
Osun state.

37
“If you don’t like James, let Ayo carry you guys na. I could call this professional
driver from Dinoson to take you guys there. Adejide! Is this how you want to stress
this princess for us” She kept saying.

It was our deliberate decision; we just wanted to enjoy the Nigerian life.

There were already 5 people in the bus; they were Prospective corp members as well.
With Jay and I, we would need 3 more passengers to fill the bus and then we move.

The bus was already noisy, "Camp has started o" I whispered to Jay, excited.

Eseosa was the owner of the phone blaring loud hip-hop song. Charcoaled, short,
slim girl with sharp mouth to complement her stature was my first impression of
Eseosa. Her gum chewing prowess is second to none as well. I met Kabiru too; a
gentle, tall and handsome guy, very reserved as well. Chibike was the light skinned,
tall and eloquent guy. He started and chaired most of the discussion we had in the
bus before we moved.

Sesinu was another exceptional lady. She just sat beside the window, plugged;
humming lyrics I couldn't hear well. I wasn't surprised to have known later on that
she is a medical doctor because she was so calm.

By the way, Halimat's Ofada rice9 has been making us touch our noses every 10
seconds. Mouthwatering aroma!

"We will pay for what?" Eseosa asked, chewing gum vigorously.

The driver had said we will pay for our luggage, even after the Tfare.

38
"Sir we are not paying for anything sir! It is NYSC camp we are going to" She added,
pulling her top above her cleavages.

I took a glance at Jay to see if he saw what I saw.

"Don't worry I won't fall" He said, poking me.

"It is your cup of tea" I said smiling, looking outside the window.

"Our cup of tea you mean" He said, bending to see my face.

"Please our cup of tea shift o" said Odafe with his blue headset hanging on his punk
shaped haircut. I was excited about the people I was meeting, the Eseosa, the Odafe
and my new best friend, Halimat. I really like her aura.

I thought Eseosa was loud and funny, but since Odafe entered it seemed the trophy
was going to change ownership. Odafe is the male version of Eseosa. Slim, dark and
humorous. Ego is the beautiful woman with a bit of a protruded belly, maybe
pregnant. Her husband brought her to the park and even told us to take good care
of her. I wonder why he allowed her go for the 3 weeks camp though. It probably is
interesting as we have been told.

Time is really not on our side anymore. It’s been 42 minutes of sitting still. I could
still relate a bit, but Jay couldn’t understand why the transport system was like that.

"Is this the bus going to Osun state camp please" asked the pastor-looking guy.

Got to know his name is Efiok, the soft-spoken and happy-faced guy, always smiling
when he spoke. More like a diluted version of my Jay. It took another 15 minutes for
the driver to arrange our bags and baggage in the booth. Almost everyone had

39
bought ofada rice from where Halimat got hers and the bus became a restaurant, full
of ofada rice aroma. We had spent 1 hour at the park and I was tired of sitting
down, but not when it is with Jay.

"Where's my ticket money Baba Sidi?" a lanky middle-aged man shouted.

Grudgingly the driver stretched out a #500 note to him. We were about to start
moving. Moving to the uncertain, to the unknown that we thought we knew.

It had not rained in days and the clouds were gathered. Jay and I were listening to
Lampard John's new album MY SOUL SINGS.

"Oya baby touch me, let me feel your..." a track from a Bluetooth device blared.

It was even louder than Eseosa's. I could barely even hear my favorite part of this
track and I had teased Jay into putting that track on repeat.

"Baby touch touch touch me" and "Let's put off the light..." sang Eseosa's speaker and
Odafe's speaker respectively.

"What's going on?" Chibike asked.

"Really guys?" Sesinu asked

"Excuse me prospective corp members, it is socially delinquent to play songs out

loud in a..." Said Kabiru.

"That is too much grammar, please can you both put off your speakers" Ego
interrupted.

40
“That is how they will use up their batteries and be asking who has power bank
later” Halimat whispered to me.

Halimat and I were just laughing quietly. I looked at Jay, he was praying under his
breath. A priest indeed!

Odafe just kept scrolling through his phone like he wasn’t even the owner of the
loud speaker.

“Orísírísi la ma ma rí ní NYSC yí o10...you know I've been the one entertaining you
people with Lil slizzy’s song since morning. And y’all have been enjoying it, even that
alhaja in the front was dancing and vibing to it, now élèyí tó sorí bìí dòdò11 came to
spoil the moment. Hmmm...hmmmm...E jé kí orí yín pe o12... Eseosa ò gbádùn o13”
Eseosa said even louder than the two speakers. She ended with the 'kpa kpa' chewing
gum sound.

Enjoyed what? Honestly it was enough noise on its own. Not until Odafe came and
increased the threshold.

Surprisingly Eseosa turned off her speaker first.

“But guy why are you behaving like a woman, simply put off the speaker, even the
lady has...” Chibike said to Odafe.

“Excuse me how do women behave?” Sesinu asked

“No I was trying to...” Chibike tried explaining.

“No you have to explain how women behave to us” Ego added.

I felt pity for Chibike, he was probably only trying to support Eseosa.

41
Chibike was in shock when Eseosa spoke, the very person he was trying to support.

"What do you guys even define womanhood as? Lack of sense?" Eseosa said.

Chibike couldn't even utter a word; he was weak for the entire female gender in that
bus.

"Sorry dear Odafe, could you just kindly put off your speaker" I said.

"Dear?" Jay asked, giving a cute puppy face. I tapped him out of his baby mood while
giving him the African mum stare.

"Fine people dey get fine sense na...I don hear you fine girl" He said eyeballing every
other person who looked at him like they were trash bags. Obviously I got half the
eyeing before he smiled at me.

“Ashàwó onírànù14” Eseosa chipped in, looking at her phone.

Then roared the hoarse wizardly laughter. "I hope say no be me she dey talk
to...Your family too riranu" Odafe said laughing, that ready-for-fight laughter.

I just knew we were in for it. I silently hoped we were not going to stay together in
camp or forever. The headache was too much and too early as well.

"Can we pray?" said Efiok, the pastor of the fold. I was happy that someone apart
from Jay and I initiated it.

"Can a Muslim pray for us first?" He added.

"...barakatu. Amin!" ended Halimat. We all said amen and amin.

42
"Christians!! Christians!!! Abeg short prayer o...mak we no close eye pray for Lagos,
open eye for Osun o" Odafe shouted, opening his ear.

Finally, we had our first laughter together. Odafe was the comedian of the fold. It
felt good to laugh together honestly. We had not gotten to Berger and a fight, the
first fight had happened. So it was good to laugh together.

Like Odafe saw it coming, Ego was extra. "From east to west, no other God" she
started singing. I couldn't laugh, I had to suppress my laughter and concentrate on
the prayer. I could hear Odafe's "Shey I talk am" and some scoffs and sighs too. After
the 5 minutes of intense prayer, mixed with English and Ibo deep vocabularies, we
said a big Amen!!!!

"Pastor Mrs OS" someone said.

"Who could it be" I asked myself.

Who else would it be, if not Eseosa or Odafe. It was Eseosa.

Halimat asked "What is OS again?

"Over sabi15" she answered, laughing.

Eseosa is just a female version of Odafe. They were probably twins in their past lives,
if there were any.

Eseosa had tapped Ego during the prayer to help her call one gala guy and Ego
ignored. I heard her say “The gala I have been looking for...mtchw…driver please
help me call that gala guy”.

43
"At least, after this few hours of journeying together we wouldn't have to clash at all,
so we all should endure whatever we are" I thought to myself.

The sky wasn't cloudy anymore, we had moved from Lagos state already. Mum had
called over 30 times already. Asking how the road was, who the other corpers in the
bus were, if our driver was professional, if I had eaten the meal she packed for me.

She packed two packs of food for Jay and I. Sweet woman indeed. I had a lot on my
mind really. Mum and Dad were acting weird early today. Why on earth would dad
weep and mum cry? Moreover, secretly, they didn’t want me to know something.
The dream I've been having lately, I just didn't understand and it worried me. I was
resting on Jay’s shoulder and I could see his WhatsApp chats and emails as he
responded to them. Jay was that complex man who knows his onions. He had time
for all his responsibilities and still gave me attention.

"Favorite" He whispered.

I opened my eyes.

"What is bothering you?" He asked holding my hand.

I told him all I had noticed and how scared I was.

I raised my head to look at him, and yes, he was smiling.

"You're smiling?" I said, looking at him sternly trying hard not to smile too.

"You're so pretty when you fidget" He said.

44
I melted.

"Adesewa you are not only my favorite, you are God's favorite too. Whatever is
happening or whatever might happen, God has your interest at heart and He will
not do anything to hurt you, neither will He permit anything to hurt you" He said
assuredly.

Every word was timely. I became lively again and my appetite came back. Mum had
put 2 extra chicken laps in Jay’s food pack. She even wrote our names on the food
packs. It was funny because she wrote 'Leaders are extraordinary hence they need
extra nutrients’ on Jay’s pack.

I wonder why so many things are unclear to me at this stage of my life.

I looked across the bus and almost all of us were sleeping. Except Sesinu and Kabiru
who were having a conversation.

“So you mean you studied medicine because someone you don’t know told you to?”
Kabiru asked.

“I know Him” Sesinu answered smiling

Ego has been sleeping for about 75% of our journey, maybe because she is pregnant.
I really adore her though because she's the strongest woman I've seen. If not, she
wouldn't have come all the way for one NYSC thing, even if compulsory, in her
pregnant state. She shrugged and said "It's just for 3 weeks" when I expressed
surprise and empathy.

"Guys wake up" Chibike shouted from the back.

45
One would have thought it was an emergency.

So many "What's up?" "Why?" "Guy how far?" "For what?" were flying in the bus.
Some were still trying to clean their drooling mouths and sleepy eyes.

"We don't even know ourselves, let us introduce ourselves" He said like a gang
leader.

"Are you kidding me?" Halimat said before readjusting her head on the chair.

You wouldn’t even be able to count the number of hisses that were in the air.

"True though, we don't know ourselves" said Efiok.

Then everyone saw the need for the introduction probably because it was coming
from him.

"Okay let's start from the front...from the driver" said Chibike.

Our driver said his name is Ijabanige Alani. His first name was too long and hard t
pronounce. After too many failed attempts, we opted for the name 'Baba driver'.

“My name is Halimat Abdulrahman, a muslim and a graduate of Accounting from

University of Ilorin“ said Halimat.

We nicknamed Halimat ‘Alhaja’.

“My name is Efiok Bassey, a graduate of History and Political science from Covenant
University and a Christian” Efiok said.

He already looked like a pastor so we called him ‘Pastor’

46
“I am Adejide Michael Folawe, exclusively known as ‘Jay’ by the love of my life, a
graduate of Information Technology from McGill University and a believer of
Christ” Jay announced.

Halimat’s tickle and the awwwns in the bus made me very shy.

‘This guy can be so extra’ I thought to myself as I smiled

“Yeah, no one else should call me Jay o, only Ewa is allowed to” He added and gave
a peace sign.

It was my turn…

“My name is Adesewa, exclusively…” I burst into laughter

“…exclusively known as ‘Ewa’ by Jay who I am engaged to, I am a Christian and I

have a Bsc in International Finance and Accounting from the University of
Toronto” I concluded.

“We will just call you ‘Iyawo’” Ego joked.

We all laughed.

“Hi guys! I am Sesinu Kumayon, a medical doctor. I hail from Badagry, Lagos state
and I am a Christian” Sesinu said.

Hence, we started calling Sesinu ‘Doctor’

“Good afternoon, my name is Kabiru Garba, a graduate of Architecture from

UniLag and a muslim” Kabiru said.

47
We had issues deciding what to nickname Kabiru, ‘Dangote’ or ‘OBO’. He opted for
‘Dangote’ so Dangote we started calling him.

“My people, una do o, as una know, my name be Odafe Oghenerunor, a.k.a Scoppy,
a.k.a Oghenerrrrrrrr, some people call me ‘Akporolaff’ as per say I funny die. My
friends dey call me ‘Daffy’, my babe dey call me ‘James’…but my mama dey call…”
Odafe started

“Odafe!! Please what did you study?” Chibike managed to ask, after laughing so
hard.

“Ok ok, so I bagged a first class degree in Electrical engineering from the prestigious
University of Benin. Pleased to meet y’all” Odafe concluded.

We were stunned. Odafe’s British accent has to be the best I have heard in Nigeria,
from a Nigerian.

“What just happened?” Ego asked, with her eyes wide opened

“Odafe, you’ve stayed in London before ko16?” Kabiru asked.

Odafe was just smiling and feeling like a superstar.

“My name is Ego and I am a lawyer, newly married, hail from Imo state and a
Christian.

We nicknamed her Iya Ibeji. Her small baby bump looks so cute.

“Of the greatest gbagba, of the greatest gbogbo17! My name is Eseosa Olayemi. Father is
Yoruba, mother is Edo. And I am a graduate of theatre art from the prestigious
Obafemi Awolowo University” Eseosa said.

48
“Oh nice, my sister graduated from OAU” Halimat said

“I am Chibike Okafor, graduate of Geology from ABUAD, hail from Enugu state”
Chibike concluded.

The introduction ended with discussion around what course was the best and which
was a waste of time. It was a very funny and enlightening discussion. I was already
fond of everyone, the ladies: Doctor (Sesinu), Iya Ibeji (Ego), Alhaja (Halimat),
Shanpepe (Eseosa) and myself , then the guys: Daffy (Odafe), Pastor (Efiok), Dangote
(Kabiru), Oyinbo (Chibike) and my Jay (Adejide)

Baba driver announced to us that we were getting close to Osun state, Iwo road to
be precise. It was 1:45 pm already, 5 hours on transit

"Somebody should sponsor us to buy akara na" said Eseosa.

"Ahn ahn18, but you just took kunu and egg roll now" asked Odafe while giving
Eseosa this bizarre look.

Thank God Chibike spoke, Eseosa and Odafe would have started another word
battle.

"Please Baba driver could you park anywhere there is akara" Chibike said.

"Oshey19 boss!!!" Said Odafe

"Chairman, spend the money" Eseosa shouted.

Chibike was shocked at the unsolicited hailings.

"Which money? What is making y'all jubilate?" He asked, surprised.

49
"You want to buy akara for us, don't you?" I said.

Chibike laughed so hard, I thought he was running mad.

"For who and who?" He said still laughing

"Me and you" Eseosa said, smiling.

"Sorry to disappoint y'all, I only want to buy #50 akara to eat the remaining bread
Kabiru bought for us".

"Ordinary akara you cannot buy for us" Ego teased Chibike.

"Am I Jesus who fed 5000?" Chibike asked, laughing.

"Where exactly is the bread" Chibike asked.

"True o where is it?" added Ego.

Then the search for the remaining bread began. Kabiru bought the fold 6 loaves of
bread we ate as lunch. We all ate it with butter, sardines or peanut butter that we
contributed. Majorly, only the ladies contributed. No guy had sardines. Some of
them didn't even bring beverages along. Guys are so funny indeed. And they ate the
most out of the bread. The ladies ate only a loaf and half and the guys ate 4 loaves.
The remaining half was what Chibike was banking on.

"Someone must have eaten that bread" Sesinu said.

We packed at the akara stall. I didn't like akara so I was not so excited. Adejide
offered to buy akara worth #1000 for us. I forgot to add that I was also nicknamed

50
“Sister Favorite”. Jay was asked what he loved about the NYSC idea and he said he
was happy about NYSC because he's with his favorite woman in the world. Jay can
be so extra!

We all came down at the akara stall to stretch our legs. Some of us went to pee,
Odafe and Chibike were tasting the poor woman's akara like they were having
lunch. Halimat was filming; she told me she has a vlog. I still remember her tiny
voice starting her video recording "Hello World...we are now at..."

We bought bags of water too. Adejide called out to everyone that the driver said we
still had a long way to go. We entered the bus and continued our journey.

"But wait Eseosa you were chewing something when I woke up, hope it wasn't our
bread" teased Chibike. Eseosa didn't even say anything.

"Yes it was you right?" asked Halimat.

"I saw Odafe throwing out a nylon bag, the nylon for the bread I guess" added
Kabiru.

"Eseosa and Odafe" almost everybody shouted.

They have been fighting since we left the park, how could they have probably
become a team.

Eseosa said laughing "It was not my idea o".

"Why you talk na...why you talk...you for no talk" Odafe said smiling and moving his
head like a rapper.

"Ah this life is deep o" said Halimat

51
"So you both can form a coup?" added Jay. There is indeed love in sharing food.

After so much persuasion from the folks in the fold, I tasted akara for the first time.
It wasn't such a bad snack. Honestly I liked it. Efiok calculated the number of pieces
I took and he said I took over #100 worth, I didn't realize. We all laughed. Laughing
together in the fold became our routine. We played word games, guessing games and
the 'name of name' game too. It was fun with the fold until we encountered
something.

"20 minutes past 4" answered Kabiru. We had been in this traffic on Iwo road for 2
hours and it wasn't moving, maybe an inch in 30 minutes. Our trip became tiring,
maybe to me though. There was an argument on the movie ‘Alimony’ and the
argument was hot. I was just not interested or maybe I was too tired to talk. I had
never travelled this far in my life and this one was going to make me hate the whole
NYSC thing. After about another 50 minutes we moved another centimeter. Lo and
behold, the traffic was even longer than we had thought. Osun state is a hilly one so
we saw how long the traffic pulled. There we were, our bus seated in a traffic of
miles, whose end we couldn’t see.

Kabiru checked the google map again. The distance from Apomu, where some road
side vendors said the traffic started, and where we were was about 12 miles. And
Baba driver said from Apomu village to the camp is still very far. According to google
map, it was another 15 miles.

I couldn't cry.

Mum's call was timely, I explained to her our ordeal and she called her friend who
stays close to Oluyole town.

52
“Dr Okoro’s driver will come pick you up”

“But mum, that’s far from here. We passed there 3 hours ago, and how would the
driver even come over. The road to where we are is blocked already” I explained.

All those were excuses. I didn't want to leave the fold, we were already knitted
together. I explained to mum and she yelled the heavens down on me. I was
seriously being honest, how many of us would come along and how many of us
would wait behind in this unending traffic. Would I leave my Jay to run for safety or
Halimat my new found friend or Ego the pregnant one or Efiok the man of God or
Kabiru the generous giver or Chibike the smart or Sesinu the gentle as dove or
Odafe the hilarious or Eseosa the humorous? Which of them? Even if I took the
ones that I love or know, of what depth is my Christianity then.

I looked through the bus again, 5 persons were asleep. Honestly they should be
sleeping, not even with the akara and bread we had. I looked outside our window
and I envied the other side of the road, those drivers were literally on high speed.
Oh what freedom! What an irony!

Jay had been fanning me for hours since we entered this horrible traffic and he had
barely slept since we started the trip.

“Jay?” I called him.

"Yes your royal highness" he said looking down into my face.

"I love you" I said faintly.

"Ma?" He said coughing

53
"I didn't get that" He added, smiling as he faced the window.

Of course he heard.

"I said you're bald" I said.

"That was not what you said before" He said tickling me.

"Hmmm na so person they take carry belle" someone said at the back. It was Odafe!
Loud annoying voice! I was somewhat angry. Why was he interfering? But wasn't it
true anyway?! Little drops of water make a mighty ocean. I subtly removed Jay’s hand
from my waist and placed it on his bible. We read 2 Corinthians 5 earlier. I moved
my head up and took my phone, scrolling through WhatsApp, my network was
down and no messages were coming in. I opened the Marriage Deal series to read, I
lost interest again. Now, for real, I was tired.

The driver was having a chat with another truck driver and I wasn't interested in
understanding their conversation. I leaned my head towards the chair in front and
was quiet. I was not saying anything but I needed to be still, in my head.

"Father!!" I shouted in my head. And I heard as soft as it has always been

"A warning notice, not an eviction notice".

I rose up my head and looked at Jay, his eyes were close but he wasn't sleeping. I
have seen him like this so many times.

I was tired of always being the extra, inconsiderate and annoying one in our
relationship. I had a bad habit of always letting people’s words get to me and it takes

54
its toll on my relationship with Jay. It wasn’t a bad habit now though, because the
Holyspirit used it as correction for us.

I placed my head on the chair and said a short prayer.

"Baba driver says this truck driver knows an in-town route that will take us outside
this traffic" Jay announced.

"Is our driver familiar with the route" asked Sesinu.

Baba driver after engaging in a discussion with the truck driver decided to follow the
truck driver. We all agreed because we were simply tired of staying in this 72 hours
traffic.

Odafe named the driver leading us 'Baba tribal'. His tribal marks were long! I had
not seen any tribal mark as long as his. Even grand Dad's tribal marks are dots
compared to Baba tribal's own.

After about another 30 minutes, we found way into the ‘saviour-route’. The
discussion about the movie ‘Alimony’ was an interesting one but I wasn’t really
interested. I had not spoken to Jay in the last 1 hour and I was unhappy. I touched
his hand while he was speaking "Even Jayden wouldn't have..."

He paused and looked into my eyes

"...known because Alicia was sick all through"

"I'm sorry" I said, looking at our hands.

"I'm sorry too ma" he said smiling.

55
That was it! We were sorry because we were gradually crossing a boundary. Also, we
were sorry because we let what someone said get to us.

Our bus had stopped for about 30 minutes now. A truck carrying planks had a
minor accident and all the planks had fallen into the swamp. The accident was on a
wooden bridge, the only passage we all had on this savior-route. So we came down to
exercise our bodies a bit, we've been sitting for about 9 hours. Something started
feeling wrong. The very familiar prompt I get from the Holyspirit, more like “Watch
and pray”.

56
CHAPTER 3: A DISGUISE IN BLESSING

Baba driver came down to thank Baba tribal for helping us out of the traffic. Efiok,
Chibike, Eseosa and Odafe were plucking almonds from an innocent almond tree
by the road side.

"Hello world...we are on a strange path...meet Adesewa my dear friend..." Halimat

said, going about making her video recording and introducing everyone to the
world. The almond team plucked a bucket full of almonds.

“Oya, cheese!” Baba driver said, as he clicked the snap button.

We took our first group photo, courtesy of the truck accident on the bridge and
Halimat’s vlog.

“Guys what do you think about this, let us go back to the route we left, get a hotel,
lodge and move tomorrow morning. It is 6:20 pm already” Kabiru suggested.

“That’s better honestly. Let me speak to the driver about it” Jay went over to the
driver to converse with him.

We were still laughing at Odafe's joke when the unbelievable happened. He

mimicked Peter in the bible when he asked for help for the overflow of fishes.
"Come help us with this harvest" He said, scoffing as he pulled the bucket of
almonds up, acting like a man with paper hands.

"Gboooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" was the resounding sound we heard with consequent

sounds of screams, breaks, metals and burning. The earth shook so much, one could

57
hear birds screeching and fleeing. Our heads were down for like a minute. It
sounded like an explosion.

"Guys it's an explosion" someone said with a shaky voice.

We started running in opposite direction. The sound came from the express way we
just left. We were perplexed, confused and drained. People were murmuring, some
were screaming and talking in Yoruba. A woman started crying and stamping her
feet on the ground. After much persuasion by the bus driver and other passersby,
she explained her daughter was in the traffic selling 'Dodo Ikire'20 and she's sure she
must have been burnt in the explosion.

It just dawned on me that there was an explosion on the major route we just left. It
was unbelievable! I remembered the twin girls that waved at me from that blue
car...they led Jay and I into contemplating if we wanted a girl or boy child first...now
they are all gone? Halimat was crying and Ego was throwing up already. The smoke
filled the atmosphere and one could see the light and heat rising up from far.
Thankfully, buses had stopped coming towards our savior route because of the truck
accident. If not, the explosion would have extended to us.

This was God! He saved us! He used Baba tribal to save us. This time around I didn't
even care what an Odafe would say, I hugged Jay so tight!

I was shivering and I was sweating even to my palms. My hands become wet when
I'm tensed and scared.

"Everything is fine ok, everything will be fine alright?” Jay kept saying.

58
The wood truck had finished packing its wood and our route was cleared. It was
time to continue our journey. It was dusk already and despite the fact that I love
dusks, I didn’t just love this particular one. Draining, dry and depressing dusk.

“Unclé e jòór, e bá mi wá omo mí...Aùntí e jòór”21 the woman cried, holding Jay’s hand.

"Guys, this woman is pleading that we help her look for her child" Jay said scratching
his head.

“See as my husband confuse” I cracked a joke to myself. I really needed it. The
atmosphere was too depressing.

"But she said the girl is dead ko or which kinda stress..." Kabiru chipped in.

The woman's voice increased again. She was now at the door of the bus, holding my
arm. Her wrapper was down and her brown underskirt was visible. How sad!

"Guys please let's go o, we just escaped fire and someone is asking us to go back
there" Odafe said.

"Abi o" said a few people.

"The fire can even catch up with us here" added Chibike.

The woman's face was soaked with tears, she kept begging us with her eyes and one
could see through her agony.

"Guys let's help her please" Sesinu and I said simultaneously.

Efiok and Jay offered to help. They came down and walked with the woman back to
the major route. I was praying under my breath when Sesinu held my hand and

59
started praying with me as well. We were so engrossed in prayer that we didn't know
Ego was coughing. The smoke was choking I guess and she was gasping for breath.

"Doctor! Sesi!!!" shouted Halimat.

Sesinu jumped seats from the back to where Ego was sitting. A doctor indeed! After
confirming Ego isn't asthmatic, she made her sit up, removed her jacket and
loosened her bra strap. She sprinked water all over the bus, gave her water to drink
and started fanning her. Ego stopped coughing and became stable again.

"Mooomi" shouted a little girl running from afar with a tray on her hand. The
woman's daughter didn't die, she was alive!

That moment was very emotional. The woman carried her up and wept till they
started singing and dancing together. Sesinu, Halimat and I came down to look at
the girl. She wasn't even bruised. She explained the explosion ordeal to her mum
and I interpreted to everyone. The woman was already looking like a mess; mud,
dust and sand were finely designed on her. She thanked us and couldn't stop saying
“Esè gan”23.

“Kí l’orúko e?”24 Jay bent down beside her.

“IniJesu” she said, giving a bright smile.

Her name means "Jesus' inheritance" and it felt like she knew the meaning of the
name. Her smile was loaded. She couldn't stop waving at our bus when we were
leaving.

60
It was dark already and things were almost scary again. We just kept following Baba
tribal. Of course, he brought us to this route, we don’t have the slightest idea about
another hence we follow him to the latter.

"Guys, there's no network o" Chibike said.

"No network ke? What network are you using?" Halimat said, trying to mix fear with
humor.

Truthfully, we lost network...MTN users and GLO users and 9 MOBILE users and
AIRTEL users, you name it! We couldn't even check google map to know where we
were. I smelt danger.

"Jay where are we going?" I asked him with my almost teary eyes.

"God is with..." He said.

"No be camp we dey go...which kind yawa be all dis na...we still dey inside bush for
8 pm" Odafe said angrily.

Someone sneezed at the back and I sensed fear. We were all afraid of this
uncertainty.

"Guys..."

Everybody turned to look at Efiok.

"Guys" was that one word that pulled attention in the fold. It depicted urgency.

Efiok continued "Guys, let's be calm, God is with us. Let's worship and pray instead
of worrying".

61
Halimat was already making serious prayers with her Islamic prayer bead ‘Tasbih’.

"Jehovah is your name, Jehovah is your naaaammme, mighty warrior, great in

battle..." We all sang in unison.

I smiled because I didn't know we all could sing so well. Chibike the lover boy that
was loving up on Eseosa was the loudest tenor brother. And Ego, our Mama
ejima25, was the lead soprano. Sesinu's alto was beautifully sonorous.

"God says He will send direction to us very soon" I said faintly.

"Thank God, glory to God” became the anthem in the bus.

I heard clearly and I was glad God had us in mind. I've always known though.

Almost immediatelt, our bus driver stopped at a junction. Actually, a man stopped
him.

Our bus driver was conversing with the man when we figured out he was a mad
man.

"Please let's go o, Baba tribal is waiting for us" said Ego

The tattered, unkept and dirty mad man said, looking at Baba driver sternly “Njé o
mò ìtàn ‘Aó merin joba’?”26

Baba driver shunned him off and ignited the car. The mad man started laughing so
loud and hysterically as he held unto the driver's door.

Of course we were afraid but then I couldn’t explain the peace I felt.

"Oya Baba what's happening?" Chibike asked.

62
Baba had been pressing the accelerator but the bus wasn't moving. It couldn't have
been the mad man's strength, was it?

Why will someone we've not seen before just decide to hold us down, refusing to let
us go.

I have been trying to understand the Yoruba he spoke but I have not been keen on
Yoruba proverbs, neither was Jay. He turned again and faced the driver's side mirror,
holding down the bus and laughing hysterically. Baba driver didn't stop using his
accelerator too but to no avail. Baba tribal was already honking at us and we just
couldn’t wait to be loosed from the grip of this man constituting nuisance.

"Kpoo" the mad man fell down. Chibike just hit the man's head with a plank.

"That's not good Chibike!" Sesinu shouted.

Our bus jerked to the front and we drove towards Baba tribal at the opposite route.

The mad man kept shouting and saying “Egba owó àlàáfíà yín, e má gba owó òsì”28

Then my peace left, I became scared again.

“Guys, I think the man is giving us description o. He says we should go left and not
right, or right and not left…my Yoruba isn’t all that great” I said

“You are not even sure of what he is saying” Kabiru said and sighed.
And for the first time, I regretted not learning Yoruba well.

After following Baba tribal for over 30 minutes, it then dawned on us that there
were no buses or cars behind us.

63
"No bus dey our back o" said Odafe.

We became awfully quiet and our faces gave off so much fear.

"What if that mad man was the direction God was sending to us" Ego said as she
tried to sit up.

We looked at ourselves and the answer came. We just ignored the helper God sent.
It now dawned on us that we were stuck in the woods.

We couldn't turn back for we didn't know where exactly we were. Battery dead,
network down, Google map inaccessible...we followed Baba tribal like gullible
infants.

It was 8:50 pm and we were approaching a small village. We had honked at Baba
tribal a million times before so we could communicate and know what’s up. The
beginning of our fear pro max was when he didn't stop or blink his back light at us.

I could hear Baba driver's hoarse voice making incantation and enchantment.

"Guys let's just scream ‘Egbàmí o'29 when we get to that village o" Halimat suggested.

"Which kain Egbami? Do we even know what's going on? What will we tell them they
should help us for?" Eseosa said

Jay was conversing with Baba driver and it didn’t look like what the driver was saying
made sense.

"But we fit not just dey like this naa...we no be carton of wine we dey one go deliver
na " Odafe said shouting.

64
Cartons? Deliver? It was more like what Odafe said.

"My love, what is going on? What should we do?" I said, looking at Jay.

He sighed and smiled. Who smiles in a situation like this?

I was gradually replacing inquiry from the Holyspirit with asking Jay questions. Little
did I know that the bridegroom will soon be taken away and the bride will rely
absolutely on the Comforter.

"Odafe! Odafe!! Odafe!!!! Don't shout at me o...I no well o!!!" Eseosa shouted.

"You dey craze?! You chop winch??? abi your fada..." Odafe replied with hotter
frequency.

I was just really tired. I was tired of the journey, the noise, the fights, the darkness,
the forest smell, my sweaty body, dirty clothes and the uncertainty. I shut my eyes to
see if I could escape the mess we were in.

"Guyssssss" I heard a voice beside me.

It was Jay. Jay seldom involves in stuff like this.

"The last thing, the very last thing we should be doing right now is to argue or fight.
If there is a time we should be united, it is now! Like now! Can't you see where we
are? In an actual forest with no direction or destination...argh…let’s do better please"
Jay said.

Efiok immediately asked us all to join hands and pray together.

65
We all had no choice but to pray. We were praying for a miracle and so in tongues.
Only Sesi, Efiok, Jay and I were praying. Others were just saying amen to the
mysteries we spoke. The presence of God was mighty in the bus. At a point I
couldn't here myself yet I was praying.

Then our bus stopped.

"In Jesus name we pray" Efiok said in split seconds.

We didn’t know what reality we will be in when we open our eyes, but we wouldn’t
shut them forever.

We looked forward to see what situation again made our bus stop after several hours
through an unknown path.

Baba tribal's truck had entered a pothole of mud and the bus couldn’t move. We
couldn't move as well because Baba tribal's truck was in front of us.

"Glory to God" Ego shouted.

"How na? How?? We too no go fit move na" Odafe interrupted, a bit vexed.

"Baba, please pass the left side sir" Jay said.

"What if we get stucked too?" Halimat asked, putting back her scarf on her shoulder.

"We won't in the name of Jesus" Efiok answered.

"But guys…wait…where exactly are we going? We are bypassing Baba tribal that has
been leading..." Chibike said.

“What the heck are you saying???” Kabiru shouted.

66
We were all frustrated and tired. It was my first time hearing Kabiru shout.

“Leading us to where?? Where the heck is he leading us to? We don’t even know”
Kabiru continued
“Oh oh oh, so you are saying we should have stayed in the traffic and get…” Chibike
fired back.

Baba driver said something in Yoruba, the urgency and seriousness in his tune said
it all, that we should keep quiet and be still as we cross the mud sea.

Baba driver raised the accelerator 3 times and the echoes filled the atmosphere.

We were so quiet I could hear our breaths and the corresponding rhythms,
overlapping each others.

Then we entered.

Halimat folded my hand as we drove into the large pothole.

Ego's eyes were tightly shut like she was already in labor.

It was like our bus swam through the water in the pothole. We came out without a
screech or delay.

We heaved a big sigh almost at the same time.

But something wasn’t right.

We were perplexed and confused. We were lost. Something was not clear to us.

Baba tribal who was the only person in his truck was not who we saw when we
passed beside his truck.

67
Adejide and Chibike who said they'd find ways to bring out Baba tribal's truck were
handicapped with what we saw.

Two middle aged men and an old man were sitting in the front. The old man wore a
fettish looking material and the other two men wore white clothes with beads.

Was I watching an epic Yoruba movie or something?

We had too little time to capture what we saw. Our mouths were agape.

"B...Ba...Baba...did you see that?" Adejide asked. Baba didn't. He drove us through
the water so he was fully oblivious of it. We turned back to show the Baba driver the
cause of our confusion and we saw greater confusion. No one was in the truck.

“Yeeee! Orí ìyá mi ò30” Halimat shouted.

They disappeared.

Baba driver couldn't even witness what we saw earlier but he could still relate
because no one was in the truck. And we all knew that they couldn’t have come
down from the truck into the mud pothole.

My palms were already pumping out water, Jay knew, he wrapped his face towel on
them.

"Can we just leave here" Sesinu said, panicking.

"To where?" Kabiru said laughing sarcastically.

"To any freaking where, please!" Chibike shouted.

"Eh God, they can appear in this bus now o" Ego said, crying.

68
The windows!!!

We all moved to the center of the bus like we were about to be captured. It wasn’t
the best option but at least each person didn’t want to be the first to be captured.

"Let the ladies stay in the middle" Efiok suggested.

"For wetin na! Na guy come this world come die? Gender equality abeg" Odafe said,
adjusting himself to the center position he luckily got.

"Odafe you dey craze!!!" Eseosa shouted.

I managed to laugh. Funny people indeed.

Halimat was already sobbing like a child and I would end up crying too if I tried to
say another “Sorry Halimat, we'll be fine”

"Guys" Sesinu called out "My network is back"

"Google map...go to...Google map...be fast...google" filled the bus.

We had to make use of the opportunity to know where exactly we were, as fast as
possible.

Sesinu's hands were shaking, her speed at that point would determine where we
would head to. It was 9:30 pm and a bat just flew passed the front of our bus. Kabiru
collected the phone from her and scrolled through, looking for Google map. We
were all looking into one phone...that defining moment in the woods.

"Where is your google...” Kabiru asked.

'Battery critically low, please charge' the phone informed us.

69
"Oh no!" Ego said, holding her stomach.

'Infinix' popped up.

Sesinu's phone went off.

Down to the chairs we all went.

Kabiru's head leaned backward on the boot. Eseosa's sobbing face was on Chibike's
shoulder. Halimat's face was across my shoulder, she hugged me immediately the
phone died. I couldn't hug Jay now, I had a sobbing friend to calm down.

Efiok's head was between his hands. One would think Sesinu just lost a relative, her
hands were on her head. Chibike's hand was on his mouth. Jay was looking at the
ground, more like he was looking at the space...on the ground. Odafe was chewing
gum vigorously, oh the poor gum. Baba driver's left hand was on his forehead like
someone doing Paracetamol advert. Ego’s head on the chair was dropping tears
seriously, more like a water dispenser. And after looking at the fold, I could only
stare outside the window, look at the woods and wish for a miracle.

My second phone in my box!!!! The battery wasn’t exhausted. I jerked up, disrupting
Halimat's tear rhythm and removing Jay’s hands. I pulled out my box and brought
out the phone. I jumped 3 seats to where Sesinu was sitting. That was where we
found network earlier.

"Kabiru excuse me" I pushed him slightly. Everybody gathered around me. My
phone wasn't off yet, all it needed was network.

The door opened.

70
"Yeeee" Ego screamed.

Halimat and Eseosa’s head were under the chairs already, if not under the bus.

It was Baba driver. He came to join us to see what made us converge. In his words
maybe it was a charm that could make one appear and disappear. So he won't be left
out, he decided to join the circle.

Our laughter! We laughed again. It was so beautiful yet short! At least, it made some
tears get wiped and other prospective tears to return to their glands.

Then the moment of silence and urgency came. 3 minutes after the laughter, my
network was still on edge. We looked at each other intermittently, perhaps trying to
draw strength from each other's empty strength wells. Only Jay’s eyes had hope,
strength and life in one. He was looking at me already before I searched for his face.
I smiled.

"It's coming up" Kabiru said. He collected the phone from me and went straight to
Google map.

We were at Ile oluji village.

"Ile oluji!!!" Baba driver exclaimed and sighed.

Our driver exclaimed? Then we were done for. If the driver, the oldest and most
village-experienced could exclaim, then we are truly in God's hands.

"We are at the border of Osun state and Ondo state" Kabiru said.

Baba driver nodded.

71
"Baba don't you know any village around that we can sleep over in, maybe at a
relative’s place or..." Halimat asked Baba.

"Iperindo!" Baba driver said.

Kabiru typed Iperindo village even before Baba finished calling the name of the
place. He was super fast. Once bitten twice shy.

"5 kilometers away" Odafe said and heaved a sigh of relief.

I think Baba driver disappeared to his seat when Jay told him we were close to the
village.

We were excited again like we saw a ray of hope in this pre-midnight darkness. Baba
driver drove us through the crocked route and one could savor the woody forest
smell.

"Where is our Gbagaun31 book?” Kabiru asked

“What can we done?” Eseosa said and laughed.

We had a book we wrote everybody's grammatical blunder with their names written
on it. Only Chibike, Sesinu and Jay’s names were not there yet. Now Chibike is
down. Jay and Sesinu are the last people standing, hopefully they'll enter the book of
blunder too. People like Odafe, Eseosa and Ego had the most counts in the book. I
got in because of one blunder. Eseosa is the only one we didn't even bother about,
she has never spoken anything apart from pidgin english since we started our trip,
and even in that, she still fired.

"It was a mistake na" Chibike said innocently.

72
"Nobody gbagauns intentionally o" Kabiru said, laughing.

"Guys, Baba said he'll explain something to us when we get to Iperindo village at his
in-law's place" Adejide said.

Jay was more like our class captain, the mediator between Baba driver and everyone.
He understood and spoke Yoruba well, so he conversed with Baba than any other
person. We got to a T-junction with a hut in the middle. Baba driver parked the bus.
We were at alert again.

"What's happening o?" Sesinu asked.

“I think that's the town security guard, they call them 'Olode32', well charmed against
demonic and robbery infiltration into the village” Halimat answered

The olode conversed with Baba for a minute after which he moved round the bus. It
took him another minute to go round the bus, if not more, at least it afforded me
enough time to recite Psalms 91 to the end under my breath.

Baba driver started the bus and we took the left turn. In about 15 minutes, we got to
Iperindo village. All we could see were huts and few mud houses with small light
lamps. I smelt smoke, heated palm oil, a bit of oldness too.

I so missed Toronto. I missed De Rembrandt restaurant where Jay and I always ate. I
remember when we were leaving Canada and Eliot the delivery guy gave me a gift. I
was almost his everyday customer in my final year. Jay sent lunch to me every day he
sees that my schedule won't permit us to go out. I miss seeing the "What would you
like to have for lunch" text from De Rembrandt restaurant every 10 am. If there is
anything I'm thankful for, it is that Jay is here with me.

73
Baba driver parked the bus under a tree and came down.

"What did he say?" Ego asked.

"Baba said he's coming" Jay answered.

A young man walked up to Baba driver and prostrated to him. The loud laughter
and greetings showed that Baba driver was a known person there. Baba driver
walked back to the bus and explained to us that only one room was available.

"Ahh" Halimat exclaimed.

"Which ahh? We should even thank God that we've found a place to rest" said
Eseosa

"I know right!" Sesinu laughed and said.

"Should we bring our luggage?" Efiok asked.

"Yes I suggest we do so" I said.

We all came down as Baba driver unpacked our bags and baggage from the booth. If
anyone told us we won't be dropping our bags at NYSC camp, Ede, Osun state, I
would have argued. But here we are, in a village we didn't know. Ok we know the
village, Iperindo village. Whatever! We still didn't know though. After thanking and
greeting the old man, his wife and the young man outside, who Baba introduced to
be his wife’s parents and younger brother, we followed the young man into the mud
house. We walked gently and quietly through the passage as we followed the young
man, Ojeniyi. Ojeniyi stood in front of the room and gestured us to go in. There
were only 2 mats and a lamp in the room.

74
"Ewww, what is this smell?" Ego said, closing her nose.

"The smell of your mouth ma" Odafe answered.

"That was unfair Odafe" Halimat said, trying not to laugh.

"God finally provided where we would lay and it is the smell you're bothered about"
Efiok said laughing.

"Not even the space" Kabiru added, laughing.

It was quite a small room and there were only two mats and a lamp sitting at the
corner of the room.

"Wey those international graduates? Una go sleep for mat today" Odafe said
laughing loud.

"Wake the villagers up o, with that runny mouth of yours, they will cut it and use it
to make Okra soup” Eseosa said.

Some of us were tired, actually we all were tired but some were extremely tired.
Kabiru, Ego and Sesinu already leaned on the wall and were asleep.

"Guys can we pray?" Efiok suggested.

Efiok asked Eseosa to pray and we all started laughing. Maybe because she didn’t
look or sound like the prayer type.

"G mama from Warri" Chibike hailed her.

"C'mon our mummy in the Lord" Sesinu said, smiling at her.

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Eseosa was the last person that would want to pray.

"Ohhh una no well o" She said, smiling.

I saw through her roughness. She was a beautiful one, beyond her colored dreads,
nose piercing and multiple ear piercings. After all the whining, she started:

"In...the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth...we no too like the condition wey we dey
so but...we still hail you, we no fit thank...ah...we no fit hail you enough but..." She
said and started crying.

Ego held her shoulders and told her something.

"...we love you Bros J. Abeg guide us, protect us o... because we no even know where
we dey so" She concluded.

We all opened our eyes and looked at her. She hadn't sealed the prayer with the
name of Jesus.

"Why una kon dey...ah sorry...in Jesus name we pray..." She said smiling.

We all said amen.

Halimat cried too, she was such a cry baby. She and Kabiru brought out their mats
and made their prayers. God was all we had left. After so much architecture and
event planning intervention, we were able to organize our sleeping position. Our
luggage took about half of the room. After so much building and demolishing,
Kabiru was able to arrange our boxes and bags in one corner of the room, taking
only a quarter of the room.

"Ladies please pick all pickables now o" Kabiru said, as he pulled the last bag up.

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"My wrapper!" Halimat shouted.

"Please Limat help me bring my earphones from the nude bag beside that bucket"
Sesinu said from the other corner of the room.

Jay and Kabiru finished arranging the luggage and they looked over us like
watchmen and heaved a big sigh. I watched them and realized guys are naturally
selfless. They joined the guys on their mat after checking if the door was locked.

I was looking down a valley of beautiful vegetation. Slightly over a dozen of healthy
maize plants were there, blushing back at the sun and swaying in response to the
rhythm of the wind. The first plant I saw was swaying towards a fast-moving fan
blade and in 2 seconds count, it was cut to pieces. Next, I saw a man with a mower
moving towards a plant to mow it down. After he mowed the plant down, he started
weeping. I looked at the next plant and suddenly, it broke into two. It had seedlings
growing beside it already, so it had a replacement. Suddenly, a whirl wind came and
uprooted two other plants. After about 5 seconds, one of the plants dropped down
from the whirlwind. Then appeared a man with an adire-looking attire with different
currency notes on his attire. The atmosphere changed, more like an eclipse, the
bright sunny beautiful sky becomes dark and gloomy. His hysterical laugher was so
devilish. Misty eyed I looked up to the heavens, echoing the words "It is written that
you give increase, not decrease. Increase not decrease Lord!" I said crying.

I heard birds chirping and goats bleating.

I opened my eyes and all eyes were on me.

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First of all, I was confounded. I just had this same dream again.

What was more perplexing was why everyone was looking at me, more like waiting
for me to wake up.

"Was I in coma?" I asked as I jerked up.

"You bin dey shout increase not decrease na" Odafe said.

"We were worried, only Jay wasn't, he says you're fine" Ego added.

I looked at him and he smiled.

"You both are just so weirdly knitted and admirable too" Eseosa said, smiling.

"I'm sorry for the stress family" I said, covering my eyes.

Halimat poked me "You scared me" she said sulking.

I hugged her tight, she loved me and I do her too.

"Or mama was dreaming about increase in allawee33" Chibike asked, tapping his
index finger on his head.

"True o" Efiok added, laughing.

We laughed again.

"Let's be quiet guys" Sesinu said. Then the fold went quiet.

There was a knock on the door and everybody sat down abruptly. I held back my
laughter. The fact that Sesinu's ‘let's be quiet’ and the knock on the door came
simultaneously was weird and funny.

78
"You guys should check who is at the door na" Sesinu whispered.

"Which guys, which guys?" Odafe said, quietly, sitting even closer to the wall.

"O boy you wan enter the wall" Chibike asked Odafe.

"Abi they want to come and carry us for sacrifice" Kabiru whispered, laughing
quietly.

We all looked at the door, Sesinu was closest to the door. Like she knew what we
were all thinking, she carried her blanket like a pursued kangaroo and flew to the
end of the room. After our 10 seconds of laughter came the awkward silence again.

"Corpers" the voice said. Then the look on everybody's face like "You see, it was Baba
after all".

"Baba is that you?" Jay asked leaning towards the door.

Baba's ‘Yes’ made us continue breathing. People like Halimat were already in coma
and would need life support any second further.

We all stood up, prostrated and knelt down to greet Baba driver. He smiled back at
us and ensured he tapped each and every one of us before sitting. Baba driver should
be in his 70s, he is a bit stricken in age. There was about 60 seconds of silence with
intermittent coughs and sighs as Baba driver stared at us, eye by eye, face by face.

He started speaking in Yoruba "10 years ago, in year 2008, 4 corpers from the NYSC
orientation camp, Ede were posted to the town of Iperindo. They were warned not
to go into the sacred room of power of the Iperindo town located at the ancient
market square. The sacred room of power houses the horsetail of gold which belongs

79
to the founding father of the Iperindo town. The four of them during an attempt to
run away with the horsetail got struck by Sango, the god of thunder and they died.
Only one corpse was found and buried. The town believes the gods were extremely
angry at the other three and took them personally. I am not saying this to scare you
but to advise you to stay away from sacred materials of the village...a word is enough
for the wise" Baba concluded.

Then we could breathe properly, it was like we all held our breath while Baba spoke.

"Chai we don enter am" Odafe said, hitting his hands on his head.

"Enter wetin?...Man like you go dey do like fish" Eseosa said and hissed.

Some of us looked indifferent, others looked lost and the strong ones had energy to
discuss it. Most of us needed time to assimilate what the Baba driver just said.

"Na danger alert they give us na" Odafe said laughing.

"Tah! Na eviction notice o" Ego said, looking like a scared rat.

“There should be no reason for us to be struck my sango if we do not go near the

horsetail of gold right?” I asked Baba.

“Hmmm, my daughter, that was a wise question. Yes, you won’t be touched. But it is
said that corpers find it hard to look away from things like that. I even heard the
Horsetail of gold is worth over 30 million dollars” Baba driver started.

I didn’t understand this man we called ‘Baba driver’. He was advising us to stay away
yet he was giving us points that would inspire us to steal.

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"Well, let me show you the bury of the only corper and where the powerhouse is…"
Baba said.

I looked at Sesinu and Jay and they seem to understand what I was thinking.

“…so you will avoid the place” He concluded.

We all followed him outside the house.

It was morning already and we saw the village clearly than we did when we got there.
The villagers were looking at us in awe as they murmured something to each other.

"Chibike, you no go like pick wife from this place" Odafe teased.

"God forbid!" Eseosa shouted.

We laughed. Eseosa liked Chibike I guess.

"Govodim" 2 girls carrying baskets of yam said, laughing.

They were repeating after Eseosa.

We walked along a narrow path and we stopped along the road as Baba pointed to a
tree.

"That's the place the young man was buried" Baba driver said.

The place was demarcated with sticks and red cloths and an inscription on a plank
read “Òkú èwò kètadínlógbòn”34

81
Baba explained that was the landl they buried trespassers, people who committed
treason or people who committed abominable offences hence that corper's corpse is
the 27th in that village.

Something fell from above while Baba spoke, Halimat removed it from my top. It
was a small red piece of cloth, quite insignificant.

"Trees now bear cloth materials?" Halimat asked, looking up.

Someone was on the tree.

“Kí lò nse bè yen? Ìwo wèrè yí”35 Baba driver said as he picked a stone on the ground.

The mad man jumped down, dancing as he ran away. Baba pursued him till he
disappeared from our sight.

I was too deep in thought to laugh.

“Favorite, you ok?” Jay asked.

I nodded in affirmation but I was not ok. I was actually deep in thought, trying to
connect the dots. I needed to connect Dad and Mum’s dots to the so many
unfolding occurrences. I was tired yet I was bent on finding out why this Baba driver
was acting like this.
Oh that dream! That aweful dream I had this morning. Jay that I always asked
questions wasn’t in my dream so he wouldn’t even understand my questions.
On our way from the bury Baba was showing us, I caught a glimpse of Chibike lost
in thoughts. Could Chibike be contemplating stealing the Horsetail?
“Whats up with this Baba? Holyspirit!” I said within me.
Then I heard “You have been sleeping”

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Felt like those words opened my eyes.
Then the scene where Baba entered the room and tapped each of us flashed before
me. He had a charm on his hand with which he touched us so that when he tells us
about the gold horsetail, we won’t be able to resist the urge to steal it.
Then I heard this hymn again

Christians seek not yet repose

Hear thy guardian angels say
Thou art in the midst of foes
Watch and pray

Ideally, you need to be awake to watch and be fully active to be pray. Makes sense
when the Holyspirit said I was sleeping. It didn’t cross my mind that I needed to
assume my intercessory office, intercede for the kingdom of God and its
establishment in our territory, intercede for the fold, intercede for Jay and intercede
for myself. I didn’t know prayer was the antidote for prayerlessness. It was the
medicine for confusion. And I didn’t know that whenever I was weak, I needed to
pray for strength even in that weakness that I was in.

"Ekaaro o" Ojeniyi said prostrating... “Máàmi ní ki npè yín wá sábà ké wa jeun áàrò”36
He said to Baba.

“Òsé Òjéníyì, a ma kàn si yín láyì pé”37 Baba replied and smiled.

"Wetin e talk?" Ego asked.

"He says his mum said we should come and have breakfast" Jay answered.

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“What could that my dream have meant? Was that money man mammon? Were we
the plants that got destroyed in my dream? Was Chibike the 4 plants that got
destroyed in bush? No, that doesn’t make sense. Or we were going to fall trap of the
god of mammon? Ok, it is making sense. Then we should try not to fall” I thought
to myself.
I forgot that the Holyspirit brought the dream and only He could interpret the
dream. I made wrong conclusions that made me intercede amiss. My reliance on Jay
brought forth that bad habit in me.

"Breakfast of what food? In this village...Tah!" Ego said spitting out into the bush.

“Mama Ibeji38 you need good food o” Efiok said jesting.

"Good food in a village that smells like roasted stick" Ego said angrily.

"But nobody is forcing anybody to eat" Sesinu said, tapping Ego.

"Me I go chop o" Odafe said jumping up.

We followed Ojeniyi and Baba driver back to the village and went to our room first.

"Guys something doesn't seem right" Jay said, looking sternly outside the window.

"I know right! Adejide, remember I told you" Efiok attested.

"Shebi?39 Why would they offer us food???" Ego said, clamping her hands over her
baby bump.

"Why they no go offer us food na...shuuuuu...we no go chop....we go starve...abi

wetin na iya Ibeji...hunger level never reach your pikin for belle? Wetin be the..."
Odafe answered.

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"That's not what I meant Ego, Odafe calm down, leave food first" Jay said.

Jay looked outside the windows and Efiok looked outside the door to see if anyone
was eavesdropping on us.

"Baba was at the door guys" Efiok whispered.

"He walked away immediately I opened the door...and the distance he had walked
shows he moved from this door" Efiok further explained.

Apart from Efiok, Jay, Kabiru, Sesinu and I, others were lost, absolutely without
clue. Ego, Halimat, Chibike, Odafe and Eseosa didn't see or understand anything.

"We got to this room 5 minutes ago, so if Baba has been heavesdropping on us for 5
minutes then he must be getting information from us" Efiok said, gesturing like a
lecturer.

"So?" Halimat asked, looking so lost.

"Baba understands English???" Kabiru shouted.

It dawned on us. There was something fishy about Baba and the fact that he
understood English was the fishy thing. So Baba had been pretending to not
understand English, patiently allowing Jay interpret everything he said to the fold.

"Guys we have to be careful and discreet. Anytime we want to discuss anything

relating to...erm...this, we will write on a sheet of paper rather than talk" Jay said.

"Then what happens to the papers" I asked.

"We burn them?" Ego asked.

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"That's not feasible o, what will we tell Baba we are burning" Efiok asked.

"Guys let's chew them" Chibike suggested.

We all nodded and began.

"Baba said the corpers were posted to Iperindo, there has been no record of
corpers posted to Iperindo going missing, dying or being struck by sango" Efiok
wrote passing it to us.

Sesinu also wrote “Plus if it truly happened, since they were corpers, the media
should have broadcasted it. If not instagram but at least the newspapers”

"When I was in Jss 1, there was a case of missing corp members in Osun state,
Baba might be right" Odafe wrote in response

"It was in Ilesha, the headlines read IIesha missing corpers, I don't think it was
any Iperindo" wrote Eseosa.

"Adesewa your phone!" Kabiru wrote to me.

I handed it over to him and we watched as he checked it up on Google.

He passed the phone to us as we read "4 MISSING ILESHA CORPERS...5th of

April, 2008"

We felt great to have solved a puzzle, at least, a tittle of the entire puzzle. It was now
glaring that Baba driver lied to us. And the fact that he was heavesdropping on us
was questionable too.

“Chai, Odafe your handwriting fine o” Eseosa teased, laughing out loud.

86
Eseosa was always either fight-brewing or fight ready
“Na your papa I take am resemble” Odafe said and winked

There was a knock on the door.

“Oúnje yín tin tùtú o”40 Ojeniyi said from outside.

"Guys our breakfast is getting cold let's go" Jay said.

“À nbò”41 Jay told Ojeniyi.

We chewed and swallowed our papers before we went out. As Ego stood up to wear
her slippers, Chibike asked "Ego you're coming to eat too?"

"Yes, good or bad, delicious or not, poisonous or not... whatever we are given, we eat
together, live together or die together!" Ego said holding her bump as usual.

We were already knitted together and we couldn't stop being one fold. We got to the
front of the house and got the shock of our lives...Mama had prepared a feast for us.
There was egusi soup, pounded yam, roasted bush meat, akara, moimoi, pap, ewedu,
amala, dodo ikire, kokoro, palmwine too and some other meals I didn’t recognise.
Mama herself went about serving us. It was weird because we all had not had good
meals in over two days now and we weren't expecting any.

As Baba driver went inside to drop his buba, Jay told us not to take the palmwine at
all. When Baba driver got back, he poured palmwine into all our cups and gestured
that we drink. Of course, we declined politely, although I caught Halimat eyeing him
seriously. Could you blame her? After breakfast we prostrated and knelt down to
thank Baba Oje, Mama Oje, Ojeniyi, Baba driver and the onlookers for the kind
hospitality.

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Yes onlookers, there were over 3 dozen villagers admiring us as we ate. We met with
Baba driver in our room and asked for the next step of action on how we will get
back to the route that leads to Ede.

Baba driver said he was ready to move anytime we beckoned on him.

"Guys let's move our bags outside, it's time to go" Jay said.

I looked at the red piece of cloth that dropped from the tree and for the 5th time of
trying to throw it away, I felt the same restrain.

"Jay please can I get a bucket of water" I asked him.

Ojeniyi brought a bucket of water and Jay gave it to me. Everyone was at attention
yet everyone was clueless. No one knew why I wanted to wash the piece of cloth
neither did I know too. I pulled out a sachet of hypo and detergent from my box
and I started washing the piece of cloth. It was getting to 5 minutes and the cloth
was still as red as crimson.

Jay collected it from me and scrubbed harder. My hands were weak already and
Halimat helped to stretch my fingers one by one. It was getting to another 5 minutes
and Jay was still washing the piece of cloth. He changed the water to a fresh one and
added more hypo than detergent. I could tell Jay was tired of scrubbing. He handed
it over to Efiok who scrubbed even harder. Efiok had barely scrubbed for 2 minutes
when the colour started changing. From red, it changed to orange, to blue then to
green. Efiok looked at me with this stare of “Did you see this coming?” He scrubbed
harder till his head became full of sweat beads. He rinsed it and flipped it over his
palm.

88
"This green looks like khaki green" Kabiru said.

"Which one be khaki green so?" Ego asked.

"NYSC green, Corper green" Chibike said.

"Shhhh" Sesinu said looking at the door.

Baba could be heavesdropping again.

89
CHAPTER 4: FROM CALM DOWN TO STAY DOWN

So many questions unanswered. So many riddles and puzzles unsolved. We entered

the bus as Baba driver arranged our luggages into the boot. The smell of petrol was
so choking that one will started wondering if a refinery was close by.

"I hope no one is asthmatic" Sesinu asked.

No one answered so I guess we are all fine.

"Baba is our fuel tank leaking?" Ego turned to the back to ask Baba.

Baba driver went to the bonnet to check and said it wasn't leaking.

"But why fuel kan dey smell like dis" Eseosa asked, confused.

"Where is Adejide?" Efiok asked.

He told me he had to do something in about 2 minutes.

In no time, we saw him coming out of the bush path with a keg. He pushed it under
his seat and sat down.

"Adejide where you go now, we don dey..." Sesinu said.

Jay winked at us and gestured to us to be quiet.

We understood. We had a sly in our midst and Baba driver should be kept in the
dark. Baba driver asked if all was set for movement and we affirmed. The villagers
waved at us as we drove out of Iperindo village. Amazing people they were.

90
“Yes he said he has asked for the route to the express way and someone has given
him directions” Jay answered when Efiok asked if we knew where we were headed
now.

We were finally heading to Osu village, very close to Ede the town where our dear
NYSC orientation camp was situated.

We were so glad. At least, we would be serving our country the normal way and not
this forest excursion we have accidentally embarked on. Camp was stressful but I’m
sure not as the past few days have been.

"Those of you that did not brush your teeth before eating Mama's breakfast well
done o" Ego joked.

"Did you? You that you're talking?" Kabiru asked.

"Yes we did" Eseosa answered smiling.

"With that brown water?" Sesinu asked, laughing.

"We used purewater" Eseosa said grinning.

"Whatever ooooo" Chibike said, tearing a piece of meat.

Chibike brought ‘take away’ from the breakfast feast.

"Chibike you no get shame o" Ego said looking at him disgustingly.

"Abeg tear small for me" Eseosa begged.

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Truth be told, that roasted bush meat was the tastiest I'd eaten. Even Ego ended up
eating out of Chibike’s takeaway. Her pregnancy cravings were fluctuating and it
ended up betraying her nutrition ego and social ettiquete.

“I am seeing blood” I uttered.

“Erm, do you change your cycle at will because it just passed yeah?” Jay answered

“No, no, no…” I said, still with my eyes shut.

“Oh wow” Jay said

“Let’s pray, let’s pray” He held my hand.

I was trying to take a nap when I saw a vision. I saw a hill overflowing with blood,
like a river of blood. It was so terrifying tha I opened my eyes. I shut it to sleep and I
saw it again.

Jay held my hands and we started praying.

We were about 1 hour away from Iperindo when our bus stopped. Baba driver
ignited it hundreds of times but it didn't work. Fuel had finished and there were
obviously no filling stations in Iperindo forest. We were all perplexed again cause
the little hope we woke up with that morning got lost again. The very weird thing is
since we left the Iperindo, we have not seen a single person, maybe a farmer or
someone with woods or water on their heads. 1 hour of seeing just trees.

“You are thinking what I am thinking ko?” Kabiru asked.

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“I think we are all thinking it o, it is just really weird” Chibike answered.

Thank God for the 15% battery saved on my phone. Chibike collected my phone
and checked the google map

"Guys we have not even reached the first quarter of the Iperindo-Osu trip" He said.

Baba driver came down from the bus and went forward to pee.

“Guys guys, that keg I brought inside at Iperindo is a petrol keg. I caught Baba driver
leaking out fuel from the fuel tank after breakfast this morning. I traced him to
where he hid the fuel keg and I got it back. It will be pointless if we fill the tank with
this cause it won't take us to Osu town as intended. I suggest we just trek back to
Iperindo, this fuel will be useful for something else" Jay whispered.

“Ah, take us back to do what?” Sesinu asked.

Baba driver was asking an old man coming out of the bush some questions.

"Yes o, to do what?? Forward ever, backward never...let's move forward, at least we

will be closer to where we..." Kabiru whispered in response.

Baba driver had ended his conversation and he was now beside the bus, unknown to
us. That old man is very subtle and sneaky

"You're not serious o" Sesinu said laughing loud.

"I'm serious na" Kabiru said smiling.

“You guys should stop joking around joor. Funny people” Efiok shouted and
laughed.

93
It was our guise to confuse Baba driver. He came down again to check the bonnet.

“Forward or backward?" Jay whispered.

"Forward raise your hand" Efiok added.

Six of us raised our hands.

"Backward raise your hand" the remaining three raised their hands.

"Forward it is then" Efiok told Jay.

“Bàbá kí la ma se báyìí?”42 Jay came down and asked Baba driver.

Baba acted clueless and sad like everything wasn't his plan.

“Mío tì mò o, èyin omo mi”43 Baba said.

Like I knew what was going through Halimat's mind

"I'm not your child o" Halimat whispered and hissed.

"Neither am I" I added.

“Àh…opé o”44 Jay shouted, like he remembered something.

He told Baba a young boy in Iperindo gave him a keg of petrol as a gift. Baba driver's
countenance changed immediately. He reluctantly filled the tank and left the keg
outside.

"Baba where the keg?" Eseosa asked boldly.

“Sorry, I forgot it outside” Baba murmured

94
We were all getting furious.

Baba driver started the bus and we drove forward through the forest, through the
uncertainty, through the deception, through the guise. It was over 2 hours and we
were still driving through the woods. My phone battery level had dropped to 5% and
it was the saddest news ever in the fold. Our only source of sight was dying. It was
1:05 pm when Jay checked the google map again. Iperindo to Osu shouldn't take
more than 1 hour and 30 minutes but Baba driver has been driving from forest to
bush to jungle through mountains and we’ve not seen any reasonable village.

My phone dying was no longer the saddest news but the fact that Baba wasn't
heading to Osu anymore, he had long diverted. We were 2 hours away from
Iperindo and 2 hours to Modakeke. We just became weak.

“Bàbá ibo la wà?”45 I asked, as I teared up.

“Mìí ti e mò”46 Baba said.

It was the most stupid statement a driver could ever make.

Jay started laughing and Efiok joined. Honestly it was funny.

"Wetin he talk?" Ego asked confused.

"He said he does not know" Jay answered, perplexed.

"He no know wetin?" Odafe asked, hastily.

"He doesn't know where we are" Chibike answered, hitting his palms against each
other.

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Ego flew to the front and held Baba’s buba47, not minding if he was driving or not.

"Baba you dey craze?! Ehn???? You no wan reap the fruit of your labour? Na paper
our parents take send us go school? Ehn??? Baba answer me." Ego shouted at him,
furiously.

Baba parked the bus.

"No" Baba said with his shaky voice.

We all looked at each other, confirming with our eyes that Baba understands
English.

"Why you kan dey use our life joke? Why you dey use us tour this jungle? Baba!!!!!! If
I gii you one punch you go run mad...Adejide!!! Tell am for Yoruba" Ego shouted as
she wiped a tear from her eyes.

She was furious and tired. We all were tired. I had cried till I had no will and energy
to cry. Funny how nobody held back Ego when she held Baba's neck until she said
she will punch Baba.

"Ego calm down ko" Kabiru said, as he gently held her arm.

He had to be gentle because Ego was wrath at that time. Aggression can be
transferred. We were in serious and deep shit. Our driver had plans we were not
aware of. Was he kidnapping us or taking us for ritual, nobody could say. I stood up
and hugged Ego who was weeping and shaking. Her tears dripped down my
shoulders and I had to stop my tears too.

96
"Calm down my love. We have to be tactical with this man. He knows what he is
doing. We have to know what we're doing too. Jay knows alot yet he was calm. We
all have to be calm Ego" I whispered into her ears.

She nodded and she wrapped her hands round me.

"Baba we are sorry sir, what do you suggest we do now? Let’s just continue our
journey" Jay said as he prostrated.

Baba didn't say a word as he ignited the bus and drove forward.

"If he really did not know the route he would have hesitated as I told him to
continue the journey. He knows what he is doing. We have to outsmart him" Jay
wrote and passed to everyone.

I drew our attention to another worrying observation. Where we were on the map
shows a major road but in reality, it is more or less a bush path, barely wide enough
to take our bus. This means there is no correlation between what google map was
showing us and the route we were on. Our hope of getting to an expressway might
not even exist.

“Guys, anybody we see now, let us just ask them for directions on how we can get to
the expressway or maybe Ibadan or Iwo road. Infact let’s just go back to Lagos
please” Halimat said.

“Maybe he didn’t even ask for direction in the first place. I feel like punching him,
just one punch, his jaw will shift” Chibike whispered to us.

Luckily we saw an old man approaching our bus.

97
CHAPTER 5: THE GASSING OF YAWA

“Baba please park” Sesi said.

“Good afternoon sir” Jay said prostrating to the aged man.

The man looked up and nodded.

“We got lost on our way to Ede sir and we are trying to find our way back sir”

“What…are…you…children…doing…here?” The aged man asked

Fear gripped us.

“Sir?” Jay stuttered

“You…are…in a…wrong…place. Leave here now!” The aged man said and started
walking away.

Jay jumped in as Baba ignited the bus.

Baba reversed speedingly.

We started driving back.

The fact that we didn’t see the aged man again is not even the big deal now, it is the
fact that our eyes just opened. The bush path had skelental bones, animal skin,
horns and other fetish things hanging around. Baba drove a distance before he
spoke to break the silence and confusion.

“We just stepped out of a kidnapper’s den” Baba said.

I might need a shock absorber soon.

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Like the narrow escape from slaughter was not enough…

“Ehhhh” We heard a voice shouting from the place we just left.

“Stop now! We will get you! Stop there” The voices became louder.

Two men on bike with cutlass and dagger

“Ah God” Someone said.

My heart was literally in my mouth. Baba pressed the accelerator furiously. Looking
back, we could see car exhaust and dust rising in the air. May God not allow fuel
finish in a moment like this.

“God please save us, just this once Lord” Sesi cried

“No be just this once o, cause as this yawa dey unfold, e be like say we need
unlimited ‘save’ bundle” Odafe said

“Bro be serious na” Kabiru said

“I’m serious” He retorted

Almost immediately, their bike stopped.

“Baba keep going, baba be fast” Kabiru shouted

“Tiger, how will you tell me fuel finished in this bike?” We heard one of the men
shout.

“Anaconda didn’t refill it…I’m sorry Boss” The second one replied.

They were looking at our bus leave and were so pained.

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“Thank You Jesus! Thank You Jesus!!!” We started shouting.

“So where are we headed now?” Efiok asked

We looked at each other. Baba driver slowed down.

“Ehn Baba! Abeg! Don’t even slow down, just keep firing on sir” Ego begged

“But to where?” Chibike asked, hitting his hands against each other.

“To ask stranger for direction con dey fear me” Eseosa said.

“I know right” I jerked up

We got to a T-junction and we didn’t know what direction to go.

“Baba go left” Someone said

“I think right is the way” Jay said

The ‘Go left’ voices were louder so left we went. After about 5 minutes of journey on
the left route, we saw two boys carrying firewoods by the roadside.

“At least this ones can’t be kidnappers” Halimat said

“But they can be armed robbers” Jay said

I tapped him.

“I know what I’m seeing” He answered me.

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Chibike, Kabiru and Odafe, representatives of Team left came down to speak with
them.

“There is no place called Ibadan or Iwo road around here o” They answered.

“Haaaa” We all exclaimed

Baba driver took over.

“You boys don’t know Ede village too?” He asked them

“Baba, the places you are mentioning does not exist in this place” One of them
answered Baba driver

“How did they even get here?” They asked each other, laughing as they departed.

Chibike, Kabiru and Odafe just stood there, looking like logs of wood.

“Guys, can we leave here immediately?” Jay asked

“You people have come, you’ll be forming ‘I-too-know’, be lying on the Holyspirit.
Where should we leave too?” Odafe answered angrily.

I have been crying since the kidnappers were pursuing us and at this point, I was
drained.

“Esss, come down” One of the two boys said, pointing a gun at Kabiru who was the
last to enter the bus.

If God is trying to avenge the sin of this generation on the 10 of us, maybe he
should just take our lives and allow us to chill with the Patriachs in heaven, cause
this hypertension per minute of this journey is too much.

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“Don’t move! What do you have in your bus?” A voice spoke.

“Sir?” Kabiru stuttered

I heard gunshots.

“Plenty things…Plenty things, Very plenty things” Kabiru stammered.

Apparently, they were more than 2. The others were probably lying in the bush,
waiting for their next prey. I heard many voices jesting and shouting at us. Long
story short, they raided our bus and took our belongings. They blindfolded all of us
except the driver and told him to keep driving.

“Modakeke” Baba answered, shivering.

For the first time, I felt pity for Baba driver.

“Ok, when you drop us at our house, we’ll tell you how you will get to Modakeke”
Another young voice said.

“Thank you sir” We echoed.

“You’re welcome my children. You’ve blessed us with your goods, you deserve to be
shown the way too” He said and laughed.

The confidence for me! These boys are too young for this. Aunty Fola’s son,
Tomiwa, is way older than these boys and he calls me “Aunty Sewa”. These ones
should be prostrating for me, all things being equal. But as things no gree equal nko.
I’m in awe of their confidence. These young armed robbers with tiny voices sound
too fearless for my comprehension.

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“Don’t shoot yourself in the leg o, we own this land, no authorities can catch us.
Either spiritual or physical authorities. That one is for your information” One of
them added.

“Yes sir” We all said.

Call us ‘Agbaya’, that one is your business.

Our journey to Modakeke was quiet. My phone had died at that time and the
scripture that says 'Looking up to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith' made
more sense to all of us at that point. Was the entire drama not enough? At this point
even if Baba diverted to Kano, we would not know. I was now in Jay’s arms
throughout. Trust me I was numb, we were numb, no feelings whatsoever. Nothing
romantic was on anybody's mind. Maybe this would be our last moment on Earth; I
folded myself into his arms the more. At least we know now that we are headed to
Modakeke, may we get there.

"Guys let's play a game" Sesinu suggested, at least to break the sadness.

"Name of name, name of name, name of name that you know" Sesinu sang.

We found strength from the little things and just hoped that, like King Sunny Ade
sang “Iwaju loloko yi nwa wa lo”, Baba driver is really taking us forward to the
intended destination.

So we tore our paper and started. Thankfully, the young armed robbers didn’t carry
all we had. They went through all our boxes and picked what they dimed valuable, at
gun point. Kabiru and Jay were leading with perfect points. Then myself next,

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followed by Halimat and Chike. Sesinu and Ego had the most funny word
suggestions. At letter I, Sesinu wrote 'Iperindo' for name of place. Ego gave Igbo
names for letter E and got zero. It was fun indeed as we exchanged papers and saw
the rubbish some people wrote.

It was 6:15 pm already and we were still driving through the forest, according to the
young armed robber’s description. Then the unexpected happened. Our bus
developed a fault.

I hear when a matter is beyond tears, you do what? You start laughing. We all came
down and stretched our legs. At this point, we have surrendered our lives. Anybody
wey wan use us do asun, mak e show. Cause we no longer saw the point. It felt like
we were trapped in a maze.

“Please who was humming ‘When we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that
will be’ when those guys were raiding us?” Efiok asked.

“Me” Sesi said, sniffling.

She probably now has catarrh. Talking about catarrh and headache, who does not
have among us? We all did.

“Mama, you don wash your hand commot from living thing matter o” Odafe
laughed

“Shut up, I shall not die but live” Sesi retorted, managing to give a smile.

Efiok joined Baba at the bonnet and they started working on bus. It was indeed
unexpected because we spent another 2 hours there fixing the car. We had hoped
that it wasn't a serious mechanical problem when it happened. But when the time

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was getting over an hour, our countenance changed. It felt like we were made for the
jungle, because what is the Tarzan stunt life was pulling on us?

Ego has been having frequent contractions that day. It happened again for the 4th
time and Chibike's hair was the scape goat.

"Uhhhhh" Ego yelled as he dragged Chibike's hair.

"Sorry na" Chibike pleaded for the release of his hair.

Thankfully, we have a medical doctor with us. Sesinu asked everyone to come down
so she could check her.

"Oya you guys should face the bush" Sesinu said as she turned their heads away from
the bus.

"You're not yet close Iya Ibeji, thankfully" Sesinu said smiling at Ego who didn't
return the smile.

“Didn’t you say you are in your second trimester?” Sesinu asked as Ego nodded.
“Hmm, you should not have frequent or prolonged contractions though. Don’t
worry you are fine.” Sesinu added

“Third trimester actually” Ego said quietly

“What????” Sesinu and I shouted.

“It’s just 7 months; I will get an exemption letter from camp and go back
home…that was the plan” Ego started weeping.

What was supposed to be a session of scolding became a session of empathy.

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“Don’t worry, we’ll be out of this mess soon” Kabiru chipped in

"Desewa that baby is closer than we think..." Sesinu whispered in my ears while we
stood at the bonnet, looking at Baba and Efiok work on the bus.

"He or she would come forth 1 month after the third trimester in Jesus name" I said.

Sesinu's amen was loud. Terrible prayer right? But that was the best prayer we could
make. How on Earth would a child come forth into the world in this condition?

At about 8:30 pm the bus got fixed. The guys’ sweaty and smelling body made Ego
throw up about twice. We were in a dilemma no one could fix. It was dark already
and like time flies, 11pm came in no time. We were now at the entrance of
Modakeke village.

"Is that Modakeke village?" Jay asked Baba.

Baba nodded and stopped the bus.

I laughed. How would we know if he was lying? I’ve been laughing lately because I
cannot run mad. Na to dey laugh remain.

“Baba, what’s happening?” Jay asked. Baba parked the car abruptly like he saw
something. Baba was just explaining his worry that the entrance of the village felt
empty when we started hearing a sound.

"Vooooooo...vooooooo" went the terrifying sound.

"Everybody your heads down. Your heads down!" Halimat whispered in fear.

Jay tucked my head into his arms. I could faintly smell his cologne.

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Who has even had time to spray perfume or cologne?

Baba driver turned off the ignition and the front lights.

“Orò ni ò…E ma sorò…E di ojú yín o”48 Baba said from the front.

"It is Oro... don't talk. Keep your eyes closed" Halimat interpreted.

I suddenly remembered when my brother and I went to Aunty Fola's house in

Ikorodu and there was Oro.

I heard Halimat sob. It moved me to tears myself.

What has happened to us? What brought us into this situation in the first place?
Why did we follow that driver? Oh if we hadn't, we would have been burnt. Was this
fate? Why didn't I see this coming? Was this why Dad and Mum were unhappy when
I was leaving? Was I, were we going to die?

Ego's scream brought me back from space.

"Sorry it's my hair" Sesinu whispered.

Ego screamed when something was crawling on her body, thinking it was a snake.
Even the mighty have turned cowards overnight. Ego's contraction started again.
How her body decides to disturb us at awkward moments like this. I was afraid
because pregnant women are usually used for oro festivals like this.

"Sorry sorry sorry" Kabiru whispered as she tapped Ego's shoulders. More than the
fact that the grip of Ego on his shirt could actually strangle him, he was clueless
regarding what to do to relieve her of the pain.

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"Hmmmmm...huuuh" Ego groaned in pain, as silently as possible.

"Ego you have to take it easy o...in Yoruba land, Oro people use pregnant women for
sacrifice o, please be quiet so they won't identify you" Jay whispered.

Ego's quiet sniffing would tell you she was weeping.

"Vooooooo....vooooooo" the sound became closer.

One would think it was right in the bus with us. I started crying and sweating. Jay
wiped my face and my nose. My heart beat was thirty per second. “He that dwell
in…Henceforth let no man trouble…To tread upon serpent and…I will lift up my
eyes to the hills” I couldn’t stick to one scripture. I was literally frog jumping from
scripture to scripture.

A voice started speaking in Yoruba and Baba driver answered. Someone farted at
the back. Kabiru peed in his pants. Ego threw up on herself. The 2 minutes when
the Oro people conversed with our driver while they moved round the bus was the
longest 2 hours of our lives. It was minutes that counted in hours. I felt chills and
had goose bumps that didn’t leave even after they had left.

Gradually the sound reduced. No one spoke for like 10 minutes even after we
couldn’t hear the sound again.

“Have they gone?” Kabiru asked.

No one answered.

“Who will check for us?” Efiok asked, laughing.

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After about 2 minutes of argument which is typical of the fold, the driver
announced that we could put up our heads.

“God I’m still alive?” Sesinu said, panting.

“Chai Chimo” Ego said.

It would have been a joyous after-the-red-sea celebration until Odafe started

breathing heavily. It was loud enough to interrupt the joke about Halimat’s tears.

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CHAPTER 6: MINUS ONE

“I don’t know…it has been hurting since morning” Odafe managed to answer Sesinu
who had laid him on the chair.

This moment was a moment we didn’t see coming. We were fine with being in the
woods together but one of us getting sick? We weren’t prepared for that.

“Where? Here?” Sesinu touched his belly.

“Ouch” Odafe groaned.

I couldn’t help it. My eyes gradually became full of tears. I looked at Halimat, she
was sobbing already. The atmosphere became suddenly tense.

“Odafe!!! Odafe look at me, breathe in and breathe out” Sesinu told him.

“Someone please sit him up” Sesinu said.

Chibike jumped to the back sit and helped Odafe up. For the past 2 days of our
journey together, we have never been this gloomy. Odafe groaned as Sesinu tried to
figure what part of his stomach was hurting.

“What did he eat?” I asked, misty-eyed.

Odafe was barely breathing, his eyes were dim.

“Was it the almond fruit they plucked?” Halimat asked.

“But Ego ate it too” Efiok answered.

“Did you drink palmwine at Iperindo?” Jay asked

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Odafe shook his head slightly. He couldn’t even utter a word anymore.

“Okay” Sesinu sighed as she opened Odafe’s top. His stomach was red.

“Eh God” Eseosa exclaimed.

“We all have to be calm” Sesinu said

“Odafe can you hear me?” She asked.

“Odafe!!” Halimat shouted.

Chibike tapped him on the shoulders. My heart stopped working. I looked outside
the bus so I could hide my tears, I saw the driver beside the window, misty-eyed.
Sesinu checked his pulse and called him again.

“Odafe if you can hear me, answer me…Odafe” Sesinu said.

He didn’t answer.

“Noooooooooooo” Ego cried out.

It felt so surreal.

“No” a voice said.

I heard a voice from Odafe’s body.

“Odafe” Efiok called.

“Yes” Odafe said with a faint smile.

“Brooooooo” Kabiru shouted

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“Wait…so you could hear us all these while?” Jay asked.

“It isn’t that easy to die now” Odafe said with his signature laughter.

No one knew Odafe could speak English that fluently.

“Odafe are you mad?” Eseosa asked with her red face.

We all were terrified yet we couldn’t help but laugh.

“Y’all should clean your tears, we are in this together” Odafe said, hitting Chibike
who still held him.

“Tomorrow morning, you definitely owe us frog jump, 250” Halimat said.

We spent the night laughing and gisting about everything. We intentionally decided
to live in the moment and forget anything that didn’t give happiness. We talked
about our epic encounter with the Oro people and all the childhood tales we heard
about them. We all drank garri and groundnut except Odafe who our doctor
recommended water therapy for. Some of us had slept off. Odafe was asleep as well.
Sesinu and I went back to where he was sleeping to check him. Sesinu pulled up his
blouse to check the redness and we found something else. His belly had increased.
Sesinu looked at me and I didn’t know what to say or what face to give. Sesinu
touched his belly and he groaned.

“Sorry dear” she quickly said.

“What do you think is up Sesinu?” I managed to ask.

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She heaved a big sigh and I just knew things had gone out of hand. Sesinu barely
sighs; she is that strong a woman.

“Honestly, I don’t know what is wrong, medically” She said.

That night for me was the longest. I tried so hard to compile all that had happened
to us in the past few days and I missed mum just tickling me to wake up like the
good old days. Old days indeed, the past few days felt like 20 years ago. The
uncertainty of the journey we had embarked on wasn’t really the scary thing, the
frequency of the unexpected occurrences and the high probability of its continuity
was the scary thing.

I could feel Jay’s gaze on my face as I travelled through my thoughts. The dreadful
thought of not having Jay beside me made me hold his hand tight. It was 15 minutes
past 1 am and I still couldn’t sleep. Jay was sleeping on my shoulders while I
reminisced about home. I indeed missed home. Oh my mum, the joy and laughter
in my world. I wondered what she would probably be thinking at the moment. I
missed all the hugs and tickles from Dad. I missed his smile too. Never would they
have thought that I would be here.

“Who told you?” I heard a voice.

Then it dawned on me that there was a very high probability of my parents already
knowing this dilemma before now.

“I think he is joking” I heard Halimat say.

There was this urgency in her tone that brought me back from dreamland.

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“Odafe wake up” Chibike shouted.

I opened my eyes wide as an owl. I eventually fell asleep, and now that I am awake, I
wish I didn’t sleep. I wish I had checked up on Odafe.

“What happened?” I asked.

No one answered. I jumped 3 seats to the back and pushed someone I didn’t
recognize out of the way just to see Odafe.

“Odafe stop joking with us!!” Ego shouted.

Odafe looked lifeless. I looked for Sesinu among the fold, she was not there.

“Where is Sesinu?” I looked around.

She was outside the bus weeping. It dawned on me. Adesope’s death was a hard pill
to swallow but Odafe’s death was a harder one, probably because of the
circumstances surrounding us. Tears and screams made it more real. Odafe is dead.

The pain of losing a family member, I couldn’t take it in. I shut my heart and didn’t
allow it get real. I didn’t cry, I just stared at the trees beside our bus. I suddenly
started hearing Odafe’s voice in my head, his laughter, his arguments and his jokes.

“Have you checked his pulse?” I jumped to the back seat again.

Jay held me.

“Sweetheart wait, he might still be breathing…Sesinu why are you crying? You didn’t
sign the hipprocratic oath to cry, you signed it to work…Jay why are you not praying?
Lazarus woke up didn’t he?” I started ranting.

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“Halimat, why are you crying? I cannot cry, there is no reason to cry. Odafe is not
dead as far as I am concerned…He is sleeping…can’t you see it?” I struggled in Jay’s
grip.

For 2 hours we all stared at nothing, waiting for Odafe to say “Tada…It is not that
easy to die”.

Eseosa, Ego and Halimat were wailing.

We didn’t know what to do, should we carry him to the village and seek for
supernatural help? Should we bury him?

“No we can’t he is not dead!!!!” I shouted.

No one listened.

26th June 2018, Odafe James Ogheneruno was buried at the entrance of the village
beside a big palm tree, close to a T-junction. I stared at the spot till every detail of
that spot became photographed in my head. Oh I forgot to add that our bus stopped
working. After the Oro guys left, the ignition stopped working. Maybe that was the
punishment for encountering Oro. Or maybe, just maybe, this was the end of all of
us.

We had to leave our bus to go seek for accommodation assistance in the village. We
couldn’t stand staring at Odafe in the soil. I stared at myself and Jay’s corner of the
bus and I knew we would definitely miss that spot. We packed our bags and baggage
as we prepared to go into the village. Our driver suggested that we go to the King’s
house to explain our plight and hopefully get a place to sleep. It was hard leaving the

115
bus behind. We trekked down to the village as the villagers stared at us like we were
aliens.

“Ewa are you okay?” Jay asked.

I nodded. But I wasn’t okay. I strongly still believed Odafe wasn’t dead.

The Oro people we saw had most probably reported to the King about the presence
of strangers in the land, judging by the way they were looking at us. The driver
explained our story to the king and after too many deep Yoruba conversations; the
driver explained to us that the king said he has no facilities to house us.

We were on our way back to the bus, our dear home, when my heart finally
opened…maybe, when I finally opened it.

“Is Odafe really dead?” I asked Jay.

Then the stream of tears started flowing. I don’t make sounds while crying, I just cry.
I sobbed till I couldn’t see. This was the reason I didn’t go to Mum’s friend at
Ibadan. I couldn’t stand to lose anyone. I cried to sleep and woke up to cry till it was
dusk. The guys had managed to turn the bus to an apartment. We had two small
compartments; one part for ladies and the other for the guys and two wooden
benches outside.

“Favorite” Jay held my shoulder.

He brought a bottle of water, toothpaste and toothbrush; I had not brushed or had
my bathe since yesterday.

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I looked away. I really wasn’t interested.

“I would never bathe again…From the day that Odafe died” I kept telling myself
everytime I woke up to cry.

“No I’m not eating” I snapped.

Jay was tired but he barely showed it. He sat beside me and pulled me into his arms.

“Odafe is dead, Jayyyyyy” I managed to say before soaking Jay’s top with tears again.

Everyone now surrounded us and I felt Halimat’s hand on my shoulder. After so

many speeches and encouragements that we all will meet in heaven and all, I
stopped crying.

“We are in this together Adesewa…Please be a man” Kabiru said.

I didn’t know I could still laugh. I laughed so hard till everyone joined.

“I have to be a woman please…Jay doesn’t want another man” I countered.

Night fell already and we were seated round a fire the guys made. I looked around
for the umpteenth time and we were incomplete. Odafe was gone and gone for
good. The driver just got back from the village where he went to speak to the
chieftaincy of the village to accommodate us. Our foods and beverages were running
out already and we couldn’t even purchase anything from the villagers. They were no
phones, no radios and no televisions. The shocking thing was that we did not know
where we were. Our efforts to converse with villagers passing by and to ask them
what route leads to the main road, was futile. It seemed like their Yoruba wasn’t our

117
kind of Yoruba. We had spent the whole evening looking at Efiok’s map. He was a
history major and there is barely any place on the Nigerian map he does not know.

“So you mean where we are is not on the map?” Ego asked, folding her wrapper over
her chest like a typical African woman.

“Yes, it is not here” Efiok answered.

“After we left Iperindo, I’m not sure we got to Modakeke. If we are in Osun state,
then they’d speak Yoruba. These guys are not speaking exact Yoruba”

“True their Yoruba sounds so complicated” Eseosa affirmed

Our bus driver couldn’t converse properly with the villagers, they spoke Yoruba but
it was a completely different one. They didn’t understand us and we didn’t
understand them.

We drank garri again that night as we stared at the woods burning in our bonfire.
They still spent cowries in that village. We had naira notes yet we couldn’t spend it.

“So how many of us will be going tomorrow” Kabiru asked

“Adejide and I” Efiok answered.

“Let me go with you guys” Chibike added.

“No, you and Kabiru stay with the Ladies, you know we don’t trust our driver” Jay
whispered.

My Jay and Efiok were going to look for a route out of this mess.

“So how many days will it take you guys?” Sesinu asked, looking troubled.

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“3 days by God’s grace” Jay and Efiok answered, simultaneously.

It was an unrealistic and foolish step but it had to be taken, we couldn’t live in
whatever village we were in forever. We couldn’t help but blame ourselves for
coming this far without a bearing. Jay and Efiok will go with a big bag of garri which
will be used to trace their steps back to us, incase they get missing on the way.

It was my time of the month and even Jay knows how unbearable it is for me. I left
the fold at the fire while they were playing a game. I just felt something was up and I
had to put things in place for my body. I had lost track of my cycle and boom, it
faithfully appeared. Jay followed me immediately.

“Ewa what’s up” Jay said, as he entered the bus. I gave him my cramp face and he
understood immediately.

“How can you be so cute in pain” He teased.

I have him a big blow, a very big one at that, equal to the magnitude of pain I felt
that time. He brought me boiled water to take my medication. It gradually made me
better. But not for so long.

“Ewa, why are you crying?” Jay asked.

I was crying because of a lot of things. I was tired of all that was happening. We
escaped fire explosion, followed a weird driver for safety, probably escaped some
cultists, slept over in a village, encountered Oro, lost Odafe and now we are stuck in
a land that does not exist on the map.

Ok, the actual reason was that Jay was leaving. I am honestly happy it is for the
common good but it just felt like I couldn’t breathe well. My cramps increased

119
through the night as I thought about the possibility of Jay and Efiok not coming
back. It was a strange land that did not exist on the Nigerian map, how sure are we
of the traditions and culture of these lands. I slept off thinking about these.

I woke up to another bad news. Jay and Efiok left before I woke up. Yes that was the
bad news.I didn’t get to say goodbye.

He told Halimat to tell me he couldn’t watch himself leave me if I were awake. I was
furious and angry. Halimat handed the letter he wrote to me and left me to read it.
The palm bench we constructed beside the bus has been my spot since we got to
Modakeke. Chibike and Kabiru were roasting yam that morning and as hungry as I
was, I was too angry to salivate. I was waiting for Jay to come back so I will hang him
inside that fire and roast him. I’m so pained! I miss him so much already.

I opened the letter and I read his words “I LOVE YOU Ewa. I am right beside you
always. See you soon”. I smiled. Surprisingly, my heart fluttered. I smiled so hard
cause it did feel like he was right beside me.

“Sister Favor abi it is Favorite, this one that you are smiling, has Adejide proposed?”
Eseosa asked.

Nothing should better happen to this man that mesmerizes me. Jay has the right
words for the right time and at the right place.

“I would probably not roast him, I will just punch him, that’s cool? Yes it is” I
thought to myself as I moved to join our breakfast buffet.

“You stole the yam?” I asked, surprised.

“Not really, we just went to harvest it” Kabiru answered.

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“Kabiru!!” I exclaimed.

“Yes mummy” He answered, laughing mischievously.

“When did you plant yam that you are harvesting it?” I asked, giving him a stern
look.

“Guys, please let us come together, I am sorry, just for one minute” I called on
Sesinu who was brushing her teeth and Chibike who went into the bus to bring 2
sachets of water. We have been managing water since we left the Iwo road. We were
running out already, only a bag of water was left.

“Guys we are in a strange land…no, we are stuck in a strange land where we don’t
understand their principles, traditions and culture. We can’t be treading like
indigenes, we are strangers, the king couldn’t even let us stay, what happens if
tomorrow, they ask us to leave where we are, how would we move the bus, who will
carry the bus, our mini home. Odafe…Odafe is dead…we couldn’t say what exactly
killed him, maybe it was the fruits he plucked days ago. And all you can think of is
how you will be eating yam and egg. Shouldn’t we go steal eggs too to balance the
equation?” I said.

Everyone suddenly became sober. Halimat created a food timetable with our
remaining beverages and foods and we had kilishi and garri for lunch. We all agreed
to eat once a day, only lunch. Only Ego ate three times.

We had vigil that night and prayed for a breakthrough. The breakthough we
specifically prayed for didn’t show up. We wanted Jay and Efiok to come back with

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the good news that they have found a route out of this mess. But what we ordered
was not what we got served. The king had prepared an accommodation for us in his
palace. We didn’t even know if to rejoice when we heard the good news. We told
the King emissaries that we will join them soon. By evening that day, we moved our
luggage to the palace. The king had given us a room.

It was night 2 since Jay left and I feel completely incomplete. I stood at the entrance
of the village every 2 hours on the third day. I was there at 6 am, 8 am, 10 am, 12
noon, 2 pm, 4 pm, and another 6 pm. And I became really anxious.

“Calm down Adesewa, It is not yet 3 days, don’t worry, he will be back” Halimat
kept saying.

I looked at my wristwatch, it was 8:15 pm, and mosquitoes had bitten me so much
that my body ached. Now everyone was standing with me at the entrance where our
bus spoilt. We were almost giving up when we saw two men running towards us. We
became heartbroken when we found out they were villagers.

My heart began to race. I couldn’t help but think something had happened to them.
It was about to rain and it was getting breezy. It suddenly became windy and
everyone started heading to their houses. I could hear echoes as the thunder gave
intermittent announcement of the heavy downpour ahead.

“I think we should go inside Adesewa” Chibike suggested.

“Yes staying outside under the rain isn’t nice” Eseosa said nicely.

I heard but I didn’t say anything. If I spoke at that minute, those words would have
been brutal.

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Ego came to my side, held my hand and said “Ewa, he will be back soon, you have to
keep yourself safe for him”.

Then I spoke.

“Thank you Ego…I also think we should we go inside…And I know that staying
outside in the rain isn’t nice…I am also fully aware that they would be back soon…so
I should go inside to make merry, gist, laugh and sleep like a babe, right? Has it even
crossed to your mind to ask what condition these guys are currently in?” I started
talking.

The rain had started pouring heavily and we were soaked in no time.

“Have they been killed? Have they entered into a trap? Have they been kidnapped??
Are they being held hostage under this same heavy rain you are running from? To
what end??? For whose interest? For you…you Chibike…you Ego…you Sesinu…you
Kabiru…you Eseosa…you Halimat…and Odafe” I said as I wiped off water from my
face

“Ubuntu…I am because we are…If they are in pain, if they are uncomfortable, if they
are drenched under this rain then…I will be” I concluded my speech and was glad
my tears were not visible cause of the rain.

I didn’t even look back, I wasn’t interested in knowing who left or who didn’t, I had
fixed my gaze on the entrance of the village and I won’t go back until Jay and Efiok
got back. The rain had stopped and we were shivering. Eseosa was sleeping on
Chibike’s laps and Sesinu made herself a pillow for Ego to lay her head. Kabiru and
Halimat stood beside me gisting about something I wasn’t listening to. My

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wristwatch told me it was 9 pm yet it wasn’t late to me, I was sleeping here regardless
of what happens. Literally, my eyes started closing, I began to doze off.

“They are here…they are here” Ego shouted. I jerked back to life like I was burned
with fire.

Then I saw my Jay and Efiok running towards us. I ran as fast as my leg could carry
me through the forest mist into Jay’s arms. I didn’t just feel on top of the world
because Jay carried me up like an infant, I was literally on top of the world. I was
screaming and beaming with smiles. We spent the rest of the night listening to how
they kept going round circles, coming back to where they left, how they escaped
some old men carrying sacrifice and all other weird stories. I spent my night staring
at Jay as much as I could. I kept thanking God for bringing him back safely. I have
combed his hair like 1 million times, cut his nails and anointed him. I didn’t allow
him leave my side throughout that night. We also explained how the miracle we
didn’t pray for came by and how we got this 5 star hotel as compared to our bus
apartment.

We started learning how to blend with the villagers, the village culture and other
traditions. The palace guards and maids became our friends. Jay, Eseosa and I
figured we could pick one or two from the villagers’ Yoruba. Actually, they explained
to us the twist in their own Yoruba. Jay and I knew there was a reason God brought
us here. He told me what God told him on his way back from his trip together with
Efiok. The palace cooks taught us how to make some dishes while the guys were

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always with the palace guards, talking about wars and the likes. In the evenings we
sat under the tree beside our room to sing, gist and rub minds.

Thankfully, our driver was not the communication intermediary between the fold
and the villagers. We would have been sold by now. We were gradually enjoying the
village life yet we couldn’t stop asking the question “Would we stay here forever?”

It just did not make sense that we were supposed to be at NYSC orientation camp
and here we are still camping but not the way we should.

I was having issues understanding why God has brought us to a strange land. Not
like I was confused, but it just wasn’t making sense to start praying and preaching in
a land where their traditions are unbelievable.

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CHAPTER 7 : THE BOOK OF REVELATION

It was another morning in the palace, we had our morning devotion and continued
with our daily activities. The guys and the driver went to the bus everyday trying all
they could to repair it while the ladies stayed and cleaned the room.

Deep inside I was unhappy, I couldn’t pray like I used to and I could just feel
cobwebs in my secret place. It was really hard setting time apart with God in a
situation like that.

Jay is such a good prophetic covering though. Every night, I’d wake up to hear him
praying. It feels good to have an intercessor. The thing is it didn’t hit me that I was
babying away my prophetic destiny.

“Guys, something is up” Kabiru said quietly, as he joined us on the mat under the
tree.

“The mad man we saw at Iperindo?” Ego asked.

“Yes. The same mad man” Kabiru answered.

The distance from Iperindo to Modakeke is no short distance, even by bus. The
major issue is I am suspecting we are not even at Modakeke. Baba said we are at
Modakeke but what they speak here isn’t Yoruba.

“This is serious o” Eseosa exclaimed.

“That is not even the serious thing. The serious thing is that I noticed something
weird on him” Kabiru started.

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We all fastened our gazes on Kabiru like students waiting to hear ‘You passed’ or
‘You failed’.

“Wait, where exactly did you see him” Sesinu asked again, trying to clear her doubts.

“On my way from the stream” Kabiru answered.

“Oh ok” Sesinu replied

“He had a yellow mark at the back of his ear. More like he painted the back of his
ear yellow” Kabiru explained.

We all stared around to see if he was around.

“Why should he have painted the back of his ear yellow?” Efiok asked, trying to
figure out the new puzzle.

We all fell into deep thoughts while trying to understand if the mad man had
anything to do with the situation we were in.

“The red piece of leaf” Sesinu shouted.

Then it dawned on us that the mad man purposely dropped the red leaf which
happened to be a NYSC khaki material to pass a message across to us.

“Then why did he paint the back of his ear yellow?” Chibike asked.

“Or…he painted himself black?!” Jay asked.

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The dots were now connecting. The mad man could have painted himself black to
disguise himself. But it was hard trying to understand what message a madman
would want to pass across to us. What was even harder was communicating with an
unknown mad man in a strange land.

That evening, we decided to look for the mad man while pretending to take a stroll.
Jay, Kabiru, Sesinu and I took the path to the stream while Eseosa, Chibike, Efiok,
Ego and Halimat took the path at the entrance of the village. We really didn’t know
why but we just have to be wise. We greeted a few villagers as Jay and I held hands
like we were in a serious love conversation. Our trek of about 30 minutes was
becoming a punishment as we didn’t see the mad man’s breaklight.

We met Kabiru and Sesinu at a T junction

“Seen him yet?” Sesinu asked, panting heavily.

“Not yet” We answered.

We were almost turning back when we saw the mad man run out of the bush.

“Esssss wait” Kabiru quietly called.

It was weird telling a mad man to wait, wait for what exactly?

To our surprise, the mad man turned back and pointed to the direction he just left.
We ran to the route and started searching for clues.

“Could he have written something on a leaf?” Sesinu asked.

“Maybe on a tree” I suggested.

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Then we started searching the trees, looking for anything written in English or
whatever language. This search will greatly clear our doubts. The number of charms
and pieces of red cloth that I have sighted, I feel like a Babalawo already.

“Ewa” Jay called me.

Jay found a tree with something written on it “OS/84/2234”

“What does it mean?” I asked.

“I really don’t know but I’ve seen something like this online. It’s…erm…state
number? No! State…state something. I know it’s a number given to corp members”

“Seems we are making headway” I said

We were about turning back to leave when we heard Baba driver’s voice. Truly this
man has something up his sleeve. Was he trailing us or something?

I had not gathered my thoughts when Jay kissed me.

It was the most unexpected event of my life after this pre-NYSC misplacement that
we are currently in. I didn’t hold back, it was beautiful indeed.

We stopped kissing then he hugged me and said “I’m sorry”.

“Is this some kind of joke? You kissed me and you are apologizing” I thought to
myself as I saw Baba driver, Kabiru and Halimat head back to the village.

“I didn’t plan to but I had to. I had to cover the number with your head. I didn’t
want Baba to see what we saw, it was the only vital information we had and we

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couldn’t lose it. The mad man’s life would probably be endangered too. It was the
only option we had to disguise” He explained, feeling remorseful.

I nodded my head in agreement as we made our way into the village. We were
humming the numbers in song so we won’t forget. We got back to the palace and we
joined the conversation Baba was having with the fold. Kabiru winked at us and we
understood he initiated the conversation to distract Baba from questioning us about
our stroll or anything. We joined them under the tree and listened to Baba’s talk.
Baba was talking to us about an artifact that has been missing for decades. It was
hard pronouncing at first until Baba helped us.

What was weird about his tale was that he kept emphasizing the monetary reward of
the artifact. He has been speaking to us in Yoruba but shot himself in the leg when
he said the worth of the artifact in dollars. We all pretended we didn’t hear that part
and continued playing along with him.

That night was going to be a long family meeting. We had pounded yam for dinner
and we bid the maids and guards goodnight after which we proceeded to the king’s
quarters to say our goodnight. We always said our goodnights to the king and chiefs
before we retire for the day. Na real kingdom o. Little wonder we used to sing
“Good morning Jesus, Good morning Lord”.

“If truly there is a king in your heart, you will dim it fit to greet him as you would if
a king was in your house. He is the king that rules over every king you know” The
Holyspirit said to me.

“Hmmmn, rhema” I said

“What did you say?” Ego asked me

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“No no no, I was talking to myself” I answered.

I didn’t know I said that out.

“Is the door locked” Efiok asked

“Yes I locked it” Chibike answered.

Our conversation was slow because we were not speaking, we were writing. Efiok
explained that according to History which is his major, there is a very high possibility
of an actual artifact of that worth being missing. The common question we all had
that night was why Baba would be emphasizing the worth.

“Is he trying to use us to get the artifact?” Ego asked on her sheet of paper.

Talk about ‘Question for thought’. Before sleeping that night, we concluded that
Kabiru and Jay will be in charge of fetching water for us so as to communicate with
the mad man while the rest of us will give Baba attention and engage him in
conversations so he doesn’t get a chance to trail Kabiru and Jay. We planned to
pretend to be interest in the artifact because it seemed to us like that was Baba’s aim
in the whole journey. Following Baba tribal, staying at his In-law’s place, pretending
not to understand English, stalking us, talking about the monetary value of the
artifact, his cunny countenance, it felt like that was his motive.

I was in a fight with someone who didn’t know I was fighting with him. He kissed
me, made me vulnerable and apologized. Why on earth did he apologize? Not like I
didn’t understand but I hated the fact that I was first vulnerable.

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“What’s up Ewa?” Jay asked, sitting beside me as I watched the palace children play.

“Nothing” I replied, without looking at him.

He smiled. The rest always became history; his smile was the magic for every conflict.

The next morning, we proceeded with our plans. At night, we had our meeting and
heard feedback from Kabiru and Jay.

“He said our driver should not be trusted and that he is an evil man” Jay wrote.

“So you mean the mad man wrote in English?” Halimat wrote.

“Yes he did, he is a literate man, I wonder what would have made him disguise”
Kabiru replied.

“The more reason why we have to keep his identity as discreet as possible” Chibike
added.

After series of hiding at the back of trees to write, the mad man scheduled a meeting
with us for the next 2 nights.

“He has a partner?” Ego wrote.

“Like a wife kinda partner?” Sesinu added.

“No, like an accomplice, he says she will be coming from a far village” Jay explained.

We couldn’t fathom why the mad man trailed us all the way and was ready to travel
hours to bring his accomplice to meet us. I sensed an exposition we probably were
not ready for.

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 

That night for me was not funny. I was troubled and depressed. It’s been 7 days
since we got lost and I couldn’t boast of a dialogue with my Father anymore. So
many things had happened in 7 days that I didn’t see coming. What tops the list is
the fact this isn’t the me I’ve always known. This is not Adesewa Grace Adekoya. I
remembered mum smiling at me when I told her the state I was posted to even
before seeing the posting letter.

“What could be wrong?” I thought out loud.

“Hmmmm?” Halimat asked.

Our heads were placed on the same pillow made of clothes in a tied wrapper.

“Nothing dear. Sleep tight” I said.

“Sleep tight where?” Eseosa asked, laughing.

“In this Minus 5 star hotel” Ego joked.

I was always too tired to pray, even before sleeping. I forgot that prayer itself is the
remedy for tiredness, prayer is strength in itself.

Another thing I didn’t understand was why I became suddenly attracted to Jay. I
have always been but this one feels different. It feels like a desire to want to be
hugged and kissed.

“Am I backsliding?” I thought.

“Probably not, it is just normal hormonal flunctuation” I replied myself

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Little did I know that the devil only needed an inch to take a mile.

I was always the last person to wake up, perhaps, because I was always the last to
sleep. I woke up to find Jay beside me, staring into the wall.

“Are you praying for me Ewa” Jay asked.

In my head I was like “Ahn ahn…Uncle hug this sleeping beauty jare…Do you lack
sensitivity that much?”

I nodded even when I knew I wasn’t praying for him.

“Please keep praying for me” He added.

He held my hands into his and started telling me what God told him. He said God
wanted us to use this opportunity to propagate the gospel. I was just listening; I
wasn’t grabbing anything from what he was saying. My hand was in his and it just
felt like it was the first time. I removed my hand and sat up.

“What’s wrong Ewa?” He asked compassionately.

I couldn’t explain how I was feeling. It felt inappropriate for me to say, a whole
mother-of-many-nations.

“Are you sure you are fine?” He asked again.

I nodded.

My heart kept screaming “Something is wrong, everything is wrong”.

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I was weak and I needed help. Jay who I would have asked to pray for and with me
was asking if I was praying for him. And I lied. I was even already committing heart
fornication. I was gradually turning into a sinner.

One will wonder why I didn’t ask the Holyspirit for help. Well…I felt He knew
already and He should come to the rescue.

Throughout the day we couldn’t help but anticipate the meeting with the mad man.
It was getting dark already and we couldn’t wait for Jay and Kabiru to sneak the mad
man and his partner into the room; the mad man and his mad woman, as Chibike
jokingly says. A big risk this will be. We were really praying we don’t get caught.
“Cause if they catch us and ban us from this village, we’ll follow the track of George
of the Jungle o, Efiok of the jungle, Sesi of the jungle” I joked.

We had our dinner on time and bid our palace friends and Baba goodnight. Kabiru
and Jay sneaked outside to bring in our guests and the rest of us were seated in the
room, full of fear, tension and questions.

My own question was this: “Why did fate choose to feature us in this artifact
drama?”

I am tired already. It seems like this drama won’t end.

“They won’t get caught dear, calm down” Efiok replied Ego who was pacing the
room with her baby bump.

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The door opened as the four of them quietly walked in. The smell of the mad man’s
madness was too real to be doubted not until he greeted us and said “Good
evening”.

The face of his accomplice looked familiar.

“I knew it was them” She said, smiling.

Her tribal marks contradicted her fluent English.

“The girl’s mother?!” Eseosa exclaimed.

She was the mother of the baby girl we saved during the explosion.

“Yes, I am IniJesu’s mum. My name is Hannah” She said with a bright grin.

We introduced ourselves to them and were surprised when they told us their names.
The mad man was David and the girl’s mum was Hannah.

Hannah sighed “Hmmm, where do we start from?”

“Start from anywhere” We echoed.

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CHAPTER 8: IMPLICATION BY INVITATION

We were four young corp members; Myself, David, Grace and Michael. It has
been 10 years since we lost Grace and Michael. Our 10 months of National service
at Ilesha, Osun state was the most trying yet interesting time of our lives. We were
happy to have met lots of great people but we were perplexed about how life after
service will turn out.

It was 1st of April, 2008, 3 days to the day of our Passing Out Parade (POP) when
we took a trip to the historical site of Erin Ijesha in Osun state. Our trip to Erin
Ijesha water fall was luxurious as far as our pockets were concerned. Grace and I
made our picnic meals and snacks. We all contributed a tangible amount of our
NYSC savings for this trip as it was going to be our last trip or outing together.
Grace who was 8 months pregnant for Michael was to go back to Portharcout,
David resided in Abuja with his parents, Michael stayed in Ibadan with his Uncle
while I was excited to return to Agege, my base in Lagos.

So we got to Erin Ijesha at noon and we followed the tour guide through the hills,
to the foot of the water fall where he explained the history of the founder, the
waterfall and the culture of the people of Erin Ijesha. After taking pictures and
making videos we made our way to the picnic huts situated close to the waterfall. I
remember how we saw a woman seated under the hut, staring at the waterfall.
One would think the waterfall had a connection with the tears flowing from her
eyes. She was profusely crying. After asking for permission to join her on the
table and getting unconsciously ignored, we sat down and brought out our coolers
of Jollof rice and fried rice. I remember that Michael was still making a joke about
the last time we had Jollof rice and fried rice and the next time we probably will

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when the woman greeted us. We answered her as we tried to fathom why her eyes
were so red. Not like we didn’t know it was from tears but what could have made
her look so weak and pale. She wore very expensive attire and looked chubby too
but there was this inner weakness and sadness.

We enjoyed our meals as the breeze from the waterfall gave us this wonderful post-
lunch relaxation. I looked at Grace and I knew she knew what I was thinking.

‘What will happen to us after today?’ Grace finally asked.

‘Guys, we will be fine’ David answered, pretending to be unbothered.

‘We will be fine Grace’ Michael held his pregnant girlfriend who was already
sulking.

She was pregnant for a guy who she wasn’t engaged to, her fiancé stays in
Portharcourt and she just could not take in the indignation that would come
from her parents when they finally find out that she was pregnant and worse of it,
to a guy they didn’t know of. So she planned to elope with Michael to Ibadan, at
least until she is delivered of her baby.

David who was an Ibo prince lost his dad 2 months before our POP, and he was
struggling to deal with the fact that he would be a king soon. He had told us he
wanted to run away if he gets any money. He intentionally cut off getting money
from home because he didn’t want to be entangled with the throne. But still, after
all the suffering, it seemed like he would still be entangled because crayfish doesn’t
have to plan to bend, condition will bend it. We all have lost tangible portion of
weight and we were all begging David to become the king. We even looked
chubbier in our pre-NYSC pictures than we were during our POP. At least, if one

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of us becomes a king, we’ll all become king’s friends. Also, apart from the fact that
the gods might hunt David, he had lost the most weight among us, he might as
well disappear any moment after our POP. He used to be a chubby cute yellow
pawpaw. In just 2 months of not getting money from the royal family, he lost
weight drastically.

My parents’ residence at Agege collapsed the week before our POP and the family
was squatting at a step-aunty’s house. I honestly didn’t want to go home, I could
feel the heat of hell from that house already. Aunty Foluke has alays been a force
to reckon with in the entire family, living with her might be tantamount to living
in hell. Michael had been a run-away boy right from time. He schooled in Delta
state and had not been home since he got admission to the university. He was the
most rugged, he always told us he would do anything to escape poverty. The
woman watched us as we consoled ourselves and laughed over our uncertainties.

“Do you need help?” The woman asked. Never were we expecting such question
from a stranger, a weeping stranger. Our conversation with Mrs Odegbami was
worth it. She explained how her course mate and herself ran away with a real
artifact at the Erin Ijesha waterfall 10 years ago. She said it was too long a story to
tell but she would like to help our finances by giving us the artifact. She said she
would make a trip to the Erin Ijesha from Efon alaaye with the artifact the next
day. We lodged at the guest house at Erin Ijesha and we couldn’t sleep through
the night. We spent the night wishing and praying it was true. I remember Grace
saying we should lie to Mrs Odegbami that we would be turning in the artifact to
the State government to make her feel we are patriotic. We had to be careful
because it felt like a set up. We kept fantasizing what we would use the money to
do. Grace and Michael did not let us hear word from the tale of their Dubai

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relocation. I told everyone how I wanted to move my parents to Ikoyi and David
on the other hand explained how he would build an automobile city. Little did we
know that our dreams would never come true.

We barely slept through the night. Mrs Odegbami’s call that informed us of her
presence was the greatest call of our lives. Our eyes had never ever beheld such
wealth. The gold felt realer and richer than what we saw in movies and read in
books. Trying to hide our excitement, we explained that we might end up giving it
to the government. I remember her voice “Whichever way, make sure it earns you
something, fame or money”. She gave us her address in a village at Efon alaaye
and bid us farewell forever. It was the best moment of our lives as we came back to
Ilesha.

We were 2 days away from our POP and we spent our days planning a perfect
escape route without anyone knowing about the gold. We had planned to move
with the artifact on the day after our POP as planned. Grace, Michael, David and
I had packed our bags to leave, glad that we didn’t just earn ourselves a certificate,
we had earned ourselves a lifetime fortune. Saying farewell to our colleagues and
friends during the POP ceremony was emotional yet we were excited and thankful
to God for smiling on us.

On our way back from POP, we saw dozens of army vehicles parked along the
road. Soldiers were at Ikire village searching houses vigorously. Unconcerned
about the exercise, we got to our lodge to commence our life changing journey.
Life changing indeed! I remember how we entered the lodge and Semilore was
telling us that the Federal government was looking for an artifact from Ile ife. I
was perplexed as I called to inform Grace and Michael who were still in town for

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their last hangout in Oshogbo. David remember how you told me to calm down
700 times and I couldn’t help but cry. It felt like the overnight castle we had built
crashed down in 2 seconds. It seemed Grace and Michael teleported to our lodge.
They were dejected by the news and even devastated by the atmosphere in the
village. Soldiers were all over the place.

Michael and David summoned courage and informed us that we would be eloping
that night. I was to disguise the artifact as a baby bump as we make our way
through the forest to the express way which was about 1 hour away from our
Lodge by car. Yes it was damn heavy but we had no choice cause the soldiers
might want to search our bags. The towncrier had announced that the village was
on lock down for that day and he added that it was an order from above, the
government. We had this fear that were about to be nabbed. We had so many
questions. “Was this some sort of contraband?” “Did Mrs Odegbami set us up?”
“Should we throw it into the bush and feign ignorance?” “What would become of
us after today without the gold artifact?” were the questions bombarding our
heads that we couldn’t utter.

One of the baffling things was that the soldiers roaming our villages in search of
this artifact weren’t in the normal Nigerian army uniform; it felt like it was an
illegal search ordered from above. However, the order they say was from the
government and uniform or no uniform, we will be punished if caught. We
searched the internet with Michael’s phone and we didn’t see a thing about an
actual artifact going missing. David and Michael summoned courage that we move
as soon as dusk is over so we could travel through the night. We had called Grace’s
sister who stayed at Ibadan to come over to a bus stop close to Ikoyi along Iwo
road.

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We had it all planned yet we were sore afraid. I remember my dear Grace saying
“My baby cannot be born a criminal’s child. I think we should just drop this
artifact”. I could not but agree with her. We were going to hustle and make it in
life. This is nothing compared to rotting in jail for an artifact whose source we
didn’t know. The guys insisted. We packed our bags and sneaked into the forest.
Michael carried Grace’s bags, she really wasn’t in the best situation to take such
trips. As we made our way through the bus path, we tiptoed in fear.

Saying this kind of impromptu goodbye to a village where we spent 10 months was
emotional. We didn’t say goodbye to our housemates: Kemi, Chidera, Dupe and
John.

Ìyá Elêko49, my osun state mother, Ìyá alákárà50, my 5 star hotel restauranteur and
the towncrier who was my most loyal gist partner. We had walked till our knees
ached. The ache wasn’t the big deal. Every attempt to suggest a break was
countered by our very selves advising to not take chances. Nature had its way and
Grace’s water broke. What a moment to come forth darling! We stopped our trek
as Grace fell into labor. I was sore scared, my friend was going into labour and I
coudn’t help. All I could say was “Baby wait for just few hours, you can’t come
now”. Grace insisted we continued moving since we had started the trip and so all
our efforts won’t be in vain. I collected a few baggages from Michael while David
carried the others. Michael had to carry Grace as she was gradually finding it
difficult to walk.

Once a snake crept over my leg, I couldn’t shout. I was a towncrier in the house
whenever I saw a cockroach. Truly you never know how strong you are until a
situation calls for it.

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The chirping of birds at night felt different as we got to the last junction before we
hit the express. Our delight knew no bounds as strength fell on us afresh. We
marched on as though we just left the village. I smelt rain and the cool breeze blew
harder. In Michael words “Showers of blessings are about to fall”. Suddenly, we
started hearing the sound of a helicopter blade, fast approaching. Michael placed
Grace under a tree and guarded her. David and I had dropped the baggage as well
and we couldn’t even heave a proper sigh cause of the feeling that rummaged us.
Grace kept whispering that we should keep moving.

At that point, we had no choice but to keep moving. We didn’t come that far to
surrender. The helicopter kept searching through the woods as we kept walking.
As we kept running, the lights followed us. The “Stop! Stop now!!” was so loud,
echoing from the helicopter heavens to the forest earth. Then we looked ahead
and saw a car, packed at a designated spot, it was Grace’s sister and we were about
to be rich for life. Gullible us, we didn’t even think of the fact that we would still
be nabbed even after getting into the car. Yet, we had joy! I remember the echoes
of “Stop or we will shoot” and I remember Grace’s voice “Let us keep moving”

The first gunshot, Grace groaned. The second gunshot, Michael went down with
Grace in his arms. The thunder strike didn’t allow my scream rend the heavens
even as David covered my mouth from shouting. He carried Michael and Grace
under a nearby tree. I couldn’t move. I was blank. I just stared at the spot where
Grace was lying down. “She is pregnant for crying out loud” was all I screamed in
my head. I remember David pulling me away frsom the forest path to the tree. I
pulled Grace to myself shouting into her ears as loud as I could. I didn’t care if we
would have been caught. My best friend was not answering me with her tiny voice

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was all I cared about at that moment. The bullet went down through her shoulder
and for the first time in my life, I saw someone physically covered in blood.

I turned to Michael and saw David covering Michael’s eyes. Michael had been
confirmed dead. I begged them to stay with us. I pleaded that they should hang on
so we go to Dubai together like we planned. David’s hands on my shoulder made
it feel realer, our comrades were gone. We wouldn’t get the chance to name
Grace’s baby. Grace had promised to name her baby girl “Olatomiwa” meaning
“Wealth came to me” yesterday. The light from the helicopter was stayed right on
us under the tree. Finally we would be going to prison I thought.

David whispered to me “Let us go!” as he dragged me west ward, then I knew it

wasn’t over. My fake baby bump was all that mattered now. The helicopter kept
moving with us and the same dreadful words echoed “Stop or I shoot!” I was
ready to die if need be, Grace died, Michael died, so I can.

Then it started raining heavily, the trees were swaying like they were about to fall.
The wind was so heavy that I could barely hear David. David asked if I could stay
on a tree for a while. Unable to refuse any suggestion at that moment, David
helped me to a branch of the tree. David reassured me that he was with me so I
should not be afraid but I should stay put right on that tree. Never in my life
would I have imagined sitting on a tree, at night. I looked at my wrist for the first
time since Grace and Michael passed away. I tilted my wrist away from the tree
branch’s shadow so I could see what time it was. Like the moon was a torch light,
it shone on my watch and I realized how much time we had spent in the woods
running. I sat on a pretty comfortable branch, feeling tall like a tree for the first
time in my life. I looked down and saw David running to the other end of the

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path, swaying to the rhythm of the wind. He had told me he was going to find a
place to hide. Initially, it didn’t click when he said he was to hide until I saw
flashlights rummaging the woods, running fast towards him. I wasn’t scared of the
fact that our most cherished gold artifact was with David but the possibility of him
being killed was my fear.

As I silently prayed, I carefully watched as David disappeared from my sight. In 30

seconds, they came around, searching vigorously. I held my breath and cleaned
my tears multiple times. The rain had started falling heavily and the helicopter
had long stopped roaming over us. The most quiet and uncertain moment of my
life was on that tree. The searchers passed and for over an hour, I still couldn’t
move an inch. I just felt they could be hiding.

I couldn’t come down, because I wouldn’t be able to go up myself. I couldn’t find

sleep either. It was over 4 hours and I couldn’t see David anywhere. I had
whispered David’s name hundreds of times and there was no response. The mixed
feeling I had was in between “Is David dead?” and “Did he carry the gold away?”

I wept till I had no strength. For how long exactly would I keep living on this tree.
On it I slept, on it I peed, on it I stared, on it I breathed. On the second night, I
heard David’s voice from beneath the tree and I almost fell off the tree in
excitement. The past few hours without a comrade was hell. He walked towards
the tree and I could barely recognize him. David had hid himself in a nearby
swamp. For over 24 hours, I lived on a tree while David stayed in a swamp, all for
an artifact. All for an artifact whose source we didn’t know.

David and I had contemplated dropping it somewhere and running away. Not
after we saw a poster on the floor. Posters carrying our pictures were all over the

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place already, with the tag “Wanted”. Yet the reality of us being convicted for ever
and not having anything to show for the crime wasn’t interesting. David went
back to the swamp after describing the place to me. Our conversations were always
at midnights as soldiers kept rummaging that route since it was the most reliable
search source they had. David had just left to his black abode when I heard a
groaning some metres away from my tree. I called out to David. The groaning was
faint yet familiar. David helped me down the tree as we sneaked ourselves to check
whose groaning it was. Well, I was right, it was Grace. Grace was alive. She looked
as haggard as we looked except for David whose haggardness was top notch.

Grace brought forth a baby girl on the 4th of April 2008. She gave up the ghost
immediately after she brought forth the baby. I was confused and happy yet sad
and scared. What was I to do with a new born baby in such insurgent situation? I
named her INIJESU meaning “Jesus’ possession” after series of events confirming
that she is truly Jesus’. The little girl I stopped you to help me find during the
explosion is IniJesu. IniJesu didn’t weep one bit as I wrapped her in David’s
swampy blouse. We had dropped our luggages along the road days ago and the
task force and soldiers had taken everything as evidences, maybe.

David helped me up the tree and joined me there. We just sat there, staring at the
moon. IniJesu was asleep. I had tapped her to be sure she had not died. Why on
earth would a beautiful baby like this come forth in such a condition? I saw Grace
in her and it just made me swear to lay down my life to groom her. David and I
had series of arguments on that tree. We argued on everything. “How can we get
out of the condition” “Why should we keep the baby” “Won’t the baby hinder
us” “How long would we stay here” “What is the solution”. I wanted to keep
IniJesu at all cost, even if it meant dying. I just would not leave or abandon her.

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Tired of my unrepentant opinion, David gave a suggestion I finally agreed to. We
were to move back into the village as new persons. David stole charcoal from a
nearby farm and painted himself black. The handsome fair CDS president was
nothing to behold. He was to disguise as a mad man until we find a perfect way
out. At least that was better than staying in the woods. It’s been 5 days in the most
uncomfortable condition. My end of the bargain was cruel. I had to disguise as a
sojourner in the village. I had to live a life of disguise till a way out showed up.
Morever I was ready to do anything for IniJesu. David made tribal marks on my
cheeks to make me look different and after that pain, I became stronger to do
anything for IniJesu. We hid IniJesu in a bush path for 2 days as we headed to the
village for greener pastures. I told her I would come back for her even if I would
be going to jail. I told her to be a good girl as her mother always told me every
morning while we departed to work. Like she heard me, Baby Ini smiled
everytime I spoke. David had not slept on a bed for the past 10 years and I who
have been sleeping on a bed is married to a young village hunter, Akanji. A
condition I would have sworn I’d never be in. To cut the very long story short,
here we are, the renowned village mad man and the famous village Pap vendor.

David and I have been communicating in adulterated English since we got back to
the village. We exchanged B for P, D for T, O for U, S for Z, W for V and H for
R. We knew someone in the village understood our initial plot to escape and we
couldn’t take chances by speaking in English. “Rov iz IniJesu?” “Vhat iz dhe
ubtade” we often exchanged for “How is IniJesu” “What is the update?”

At times we held short meetings on my way to the stream on very few occasions.
David met me on my way from the farm a week ago to tell me he met some young
adults and he sensed danger. We didn’t know who the mole was but we suspect

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someone and our suspicion was strong. Your driver was our suspect. He came to
our village for the first time the evening before we tried to escape and from our
colleagues we heard he came to the lodge and asked questions. They said they
thought he was a government official. Our suspicion is that he informed the
government about the artifact or he had a secret gang that had been looking for it.
When David told me he saw this same man and overheard his conversation with
you guys, I suddenly felt the surge of fear I felt years ago. He said you guys are
young prospective corp members and as I can see you have so much life in you
and so long a life to live. I have said a lot for one day. David and I have come to let
you know that you have to be on your toes in dealing with him. Your driver was
the driver that drove us from Erin Ijesha to Ilesha and we are sure he is the reason
we are in this predicament. Guys, be vigilant, be wise and be on your toes.

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CHAPTER 9: WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?

We had just heard the most shocking story of the year and we were thrown in deep
thoughts. David and Hannah went back that night and we all kept vigil as we tried
to analyze the situation. I was so clueless and cranky, well, we all were. I was finding
it hard to fellowship with God and it was affecting my emotions generally. That
night was longer than usual as we stared hard at the ceiling of the room, we all
couldn’t sleep.

The gong of the towncrier and the palace commandant’s knock woke us up that
morning.

“What is it again?” Chibike asked as he went to the door.

We all walked to the front of the palace with our sleepy eyes and drooled mouths to
meet a large crowd of villagers who had just woken up as well. It was an emergency
call and tension filled the atmosphere. Jay’s grip of my hand didn’t give me so much
secured feeling as the village chief priest walked into the palace compound.

Halimat asked “What is happening Desewa?”

“I wish I knew o” I replied as I squeezed her hand into mine.

Almost immediately, the king came out with a gloomy face and I could tell
something was wrong. That was the second worse day of my life.

“Somebody has trespassed into Ilé Òrìsà51 and has touched the sacred ring. The
person is a female! An abomination! A female should not for any reason enter Ilé
Òrìsà. It is an abomination! The consequence is that the person must be beheaded”
the chief priest announced.

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Jay interpreted to the fold.

It was unbelievable. I had watched a scene where someone was beheaded in the
movie ‘EFUNSETAN ANIWURA’, I never would have believed it if someone told
me I would witness one. And never would I have believed that it would be a member
of my fold.

“Whosoever entered Ilé Òrìsà last night should step out now…so the heart of the
gods can be appeased. Don’t anger the gods of Ilubiri” the chief priest added.

I saw mothers holding their chests with compassion of motherhood. I held tight to
Jay and Halimat, I was confident of the innocence of my fold members. He yelled
those words again and the echoes filled the air. I looked at Ego who was directly at
my back; I could feel her baby bump at my waist. The chief priest walked up to the
piece of red cloth hung beside the palace and began reciting incantations. I never
knew the things we watched in Yoruba movies are real. The atmosphere smelt evil
and very funny birds started hovering over the palace. Almost like the incantations
were for Halimat, she started shaking.

“Halimat, what is wrong?” I held her at her back as I prevented her from falling.

She held her head like it was about to explode and her eyes became bloodshot.

“Desewa” She said faintly.

Confused as to what connection the incantation had with Halimat, I asked “Limat,
what’s wrong, talk to me”

“I didn’t go there, it wasn’t me, it was a dream. It wasn’t intentional, It was a trance”
Halimat said weeping profusely.

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Immediately the chief priest started reciting the incantation, Halimat remembered
she sleep-walked into Ilé Òrìsà last night. We had joked about her bad sleepwalking
habit some days ago.

“Halimat, you didn’t do it” Eseosa shouted.

The palace guards had surrounded us at that time and were ready to cease Halimat. I
was confused. Jay and Chibike were explaining to them that she didn’t do it
intentionally, some women were wailing, others were gossiping, the chief priest was
still chanting, birds were chirping, goats were bleating and the clouds gathered.

“Halimat listen to me, you didn’t do it” I told her.

“I did but it was unconscious, I remember now” She cried.

A hand pulled me up and threw me away. The body guard carried Halimat and took
her to the beheading stand. I shouted “NO” yet it was like to one heard me.

“Chibike leave me” I struggled away from his grip. I ran to join Jay who was
prostrated in front of the king.

“Long live o King, she didn’t do it intentionally. She was sleeping…she was sleep
walking sir…your children shall live long” I started explaining to the king.

Coming close to him, I realized he had large pores on his face. Quite irritating, yet I
would touch his face just for Halimat to be freed. I looked back and saw the whole
villagers on their knees begging. Hope smeared through my heart as I looked at
Halimat’s cute face in her hijab. She really does not deserve to die.

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“There is nothing we can do, the gods have spoken” the king said and went into his
chamber. I passed out.

Halimat Abdulrahman was beheaded on the 4th of July 2018. Who would have
thought that the chubby friend I made few weeks ago would be beheaded in an
unknown village. I couldn’t leave her bury for days. Jay carries me to the room after I
have fallen asleep at the bury. I sat there and conversed with her. It is hard to believe
but I heard her giggles and we laughed hard. Only Jay didn’t agree that I was not
mad. Most often than not, I’d run back to the bury whenever I realized Jay had
carried me back to the room. The last conversation we had, Halimat told me to
forget about her. She bid me goodbye and I didn’t hear from her again.

It was just unfair. Everything became unbearable. It was getting scarier than we
thought. Odafe and Halimat are gone and we the remnant were thankful for life
because we did not know who would be next. We were gradually losing the will to
live.

“Do you need anything?” Jay whispered to me as I stared at the execution stand.

I was too weak to answer. It has been 3 days since Halimat was beheaded and I still
could not get over the blood and her screams. Jay and I have not had conversations
since then. I was too broken to love. Too many what ifs were running through my
head and the scariest is “What if Adejide goes next?”

“Are you fine Ewa?” He added

“Jay, you have to understand that I am weak. I am too weak to…See, Adejide can you
just give me space or something. Am I fine? Really? Can’t you see how fine I look??
Right? Jay…I just want to breathe” I ranted till I started crying.

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The Jay I know would never leave even if I rain curses on him. He hugged me faster
than usual and more slowly he wiped my tears with his sweater. The sweater made
me tear up even more. That sweater was pure white when we left for the car park, it
was already carton brown and it showed how much we have suffered. My surname
“Adekoya” didn’t reject this suffering at all.

“I will be here with you every step of the way” He said over and over again.

I was trying to be strong alone when in my best friend God has deposited so much
strength for me. I suddenly remembered my Mum’s words “Listen to him”. Yet I was
not told or I didn’t know that no one is capable to take the place of the Holyspirit.
Husband? Mother? Spiritual father? Spiritual mentor? No one!

We took our first long walk after the series of horrible events in a long while.

“Ewa, I think we have to seek the face of God” Jay said immediately he sat down.

“For what?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

At this point, we were not in the same book, neither were we on the same page.

The feeling of extreme attraction came back again. I have never felt attracted to Jay
like this in my entire life. Something was up and I knew it was wrong. I hated myself
cause to think that after the grieve in the fold, I was still feeling and thinking that
way.

“Ewa…Ewa” Jay tapped me.

“Yes I am with you…You said we need to pray?” I answered.

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“Yes, God has brought us to this unknown land that is known to him for a reason”
Jay started explaining.

“He would have us win souls for him and I perceive we have to start with ourselves”.
“You and I…are you saying I am unsaved?” I asked in confusion.

“No Ewa, I mean the fold. Salvation needs to start with us” He further explained.

I just wanted to be in his embrace and nothing he was saying made sense to be at
that point.

“Let us pray Ewa” He stood up

“Can we fix our prayer for this evening instead, I have this serious headache” I
explained to him.

I knew I was his weakness and he would do anything to make me comfortable. So

we couldn’t pray. Surprisingly, we kept postponing our prayer.

Eseosa and I were learning to make mats together with the palace maids when she
told me quietly “Adesewa, I am pregnant”

“You are pregnant? How? When? Where?” I asked as I dropped the weave on my
hand.

“What is how na?” Eseosa asked.

“I know how but…but…why? I don’t mean to ask these questions but when…I mean
when did you find out you are pregnant?” I asked perplexed.

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“A week ago, I can just feel it, I can just tell. Please Adesewa pray along with me. I
love Chibike and I want to give him a perfect child” Eseosa pleaded.

I was confused. Who gets pregnant in a place like this? Who gets excited over
pregnancy outside wedlock? A perfect child? In an imperfect land?

“Ok darling. I think you should speak to Sesinu though. You know she is a doctor
and she knows all these pregnancy stuff” I said to her.

Another emergency meeting was called in the palace and Halimat’s death came
haunting me again. This time around it was for a different cause.

“7 youths?” Efiok asked.

The ripple effect of the sacred ring Halimat touched has caused chaos in the village
and rumor has it that the village has never recorded such high number of
abominable deaths. In the past few days, a father has slept with his daughter, a lady
got pregnant for her brother, a young guy killed his widowed mother and according
to the tradition of the land, such persons must be killed. 7 youths were needed to
take a trip to the evil forest to look for the ring. I was about asking “What is my
business?” when it dawned on me that it was entirely our business. We were the
strangers in the land and in the first place, one of us caused the dilemma we were all
in.

“A meeting will hold at the Youth leader’s house this evening to deliberate on who
and who will be going for us” the king announced and entered the chamber.
Villagers departed in twos and threes seriously dissecting the information while the
older women expressed sympathy for the youths.

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“Òrìsà òkè ò ní jé kó mú mi”52 a young lady said.

That noon, we all sat down in our room trying to fathom all that has happened to us
in such a short while and the irreversible consequences attached to this
circumstance.

“You won’t go right?” I asked Jay.

“None of us will go” Ego refuted.

Jay gave his signature smile but with a twist this time. It was a tired smile, a weak
tired smile. In no time a palace guard came to tell us it was time and we left for the
youth leader’s house.

At this point, I missed everything about my parents. I remember resuming at the

University of Toronto and how my parents stayed with me for like a week before
going back to Nigeria.

“Don’t worry I’m here” Jay held my hand and said quietly.

“We need 2 people from you guys to come with us to the evil forest” the youth
leader started.

“2?” Jay asked.

“If you think because you are wearing different clothes so you are any different from
us, you are joking. I am sure your friend used those colored clothes you wear to
cover her face when she entered the sacred room. Who caused all the mess we are
currently in? Please 2 people from your people should volunteer, period” He said.

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Then roared the evil laughter from the crowd that made me shed tears. I should
have known and kept my tears for the more important surprise cause when it hit me,
I didn’t have any more tears.

Kabiru and Jay volunteered to go. I didn’t speak to him till we got to our room that
night. It was the next night when they were about departing I summoned the
courage to speak. He had begged me and pleaded with me to speak to him but I just
didn’t know what to say or better put, I just couldn’t say it well.

“Why?” I asked with my hoarse voice.

I have not said a word for over 24 hours. He tried mustering something that
sounded like “Sorry”.

“Ok” I said, swinging my head back and forth as tears rolled down my eyes.

“He will come back soon” Sesinu said to me for the umpteenth time.

We had another meeting with David and Hannah. The conclusion of the meeting
was that they were expecting a letter from Mrs Odegbami explaining how it all
started. David, Hannah, Grace and Michael didn’t ask questions when the artifact
was offered to them 10 years ago. We have heard David and Hannah’s account and
we needed to hear from their predecessors. We needed to understand the root of the
whole thing so we can know where to head. We spent our third meeting listening to
David read out the content of Mrs Odegbami’s message to us.

“Only God sabi wetin we fit hear now” Eseosa said after heaving a big sigh.

“I know right” Sesinu and Ego said simultaneously

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CHAPTER 10: BEYOND 6, WE HAVE MORE THAN 7

It gives me pleasure to write to you yet I am saddened you got implicated into this
either by natural or manmade means. My name is Bukola, a half-baked graduate
of History from the University of Lagos, Akoka. It all started on the 6th of
September 1998 when we took our final year field trip to Erin Ijesha. Samuel and
Ifeanyi, my coursemates, had called my attention to their hypothesis and
contemplation that the Gold artifact of Oduduwa that is currently at the British
Museum might be fake. We carried out our research and figured out that the
original Gold artifact was still somewhere in the Yoruba land.

From our in-depth research, we gathered that in 1140 AD, some people from Ile-
ife migrated to Ijesha, Erin Ijesha precisely. These people were led by Aluka, the
only female grandchild of Oduduwa. We deduced from our research that after
Oduduwa had shared all his inheritance to his male grandchildren, he reserved his
most priced inheritance which is the gold head for Aluka. After the dispersal of
Oduduwa’s grandchildren to establish their kingdoms in other regions, Aluka
who founded Erin Ijesha kept the Gold head as a secret for herself. Aluka was said
to have turned to the waterfall after she had blessed the people of Erin Ijesha on a
rainy day. Samuel, Ifeanyi and I concluded that the gold artifact was still lying
around the Erin Ijesha waterfall and we made an assumption that it was on the
top of the waterfall.

As excited as our coursemates were to take a trip to Erin Ijesha, Samuel, Ifeanyi
and I knew we had a very serious mission to complete. We planned to search the
fall top in 1 hour and if we found the gold head, I would use it as a baby bump as
I had disguised to have been pregnant 2 months before our field trip. We got to

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Erin Ijesha waterfall by 10 am and followed the tour guide who gave us a brief
history of Erin Ijesha and explained the Dos and Donts of the waterfall.
Determined to get what we wanted, we moved to the top of the waterfall as we
appreciated nature and the sight of the fall from the top. The waterfall had a very
steep slope and only the strong could go beyond a certain height.

Samuel, Ifeanyi, myself and two of our coursemates were the only ones who made
it to the top of the waterfall. Afraid of any further movement, Sarah and Segun
backed out and went down to meet our other classmates who were having lunch.
Immediately, we noticed we were out of sight of the tour guides, we ran upward
through the only route on the waterfall. The only hint we had was in J.K
Fadugba’s book “Ogo Aluka”.

It seemed like Pa J.K Fadugba knew a thing or two about the original gold head.
The proverb says “Ni Ila oorun, laari ojo, ni orita meje, ibi ti igi alara funfun gbe wa, ibe
ni ogo Aluka sunsi” meaning “At sun rise, in the afternoon, at the 7 T-junctions,
where the white skinned tree is, that is where the glory of Aluka lies”. The middle
of the day should be 12 noon. Sun rises at the east. A 7 T-junction was one we
have never seen before. A white skinned tree was rare but it should exist.
Although J.K Fadugba’s book was fictional, it seemed to be a piece in our puzzle.

We searched around until we found the perfect marking using our map and
compass. We started looking for the 7 T-junction till about 2 minutes to 12. We
found it after counting severally to be sure we were at the right spot. We looked
around and we found a pure white tree, too blemish less to be a tree. We dug
under the tree and found the gold artifact. We were so excited about our treasure.

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We walked back to the junction and started looking for how to go back to the foot
of the water fall. We didn’t know which of the 7 routes we were supposed to take.

Then reality dawned on us, we were stuck at the top of the waterfall. We walked
back through the route that seemed like the one we came from yet we came back
to the tree from which we found the gold artifact. I remember we saw an old
woman who gave us a description that even confused us the more. We became
scared and angry that we didn’t make accurate calculations as to how to get back
from the heist. In my presence, Ifeanyi disappeared. The tour guides had told us
to be watchful and to avoid touching any red plants on the waterfall. By mistake,
Ifeanyi’s leg touched one red plant and he disappeared. Once bitten twice shy,
Samuel and I roamed the whole forest at the top of the waterfall carefully yet in
vain as night fell.

For the first time in a long while, I didn’t sleep through the night. Samuel and I
had our eyes wide opened all night. Immediately, the day broke we started
walking to no destination yet with the hope that we would find our way. We
trekked and walked our lives out yet it felt like we were walking in cycles. We were
actually walking in cycles. Thankfully, the gods probably permitted us to find our
way. We walked to a steep slope that looked like the other side of the Erin Ijesha
Mountain. The side of the mountain we took had staircases so the one we found
had to be the other side.

On getting down to the next village, we saw armed men with pictures circulating
and asking if they saw people like us. Judging from their army uniform, they were
sent by the government. We were confused as to why we were wanted. Was the
gold artifact a government property and why are we being sought after? If it was

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the government’s, why was it hidden? Why were we the first person to find it since
1140 A.D.? Unsure of where to head to, we hid ourselves in the bush for hours.
Luckily for us, we found a bus conveying cows, probably to the north. Not like we
knew where we were talk less of where the truck could be headed. We risked our
lives and entered the truck, tucking ourselves carefully beside the cows’ foot.

The driver’s radio blared loud as we travelled between towns laced with grasslands
and hills. Samuel and I had a bit of fresh air since we started the heist, although
not entirely fresh because of the cow dunk but it was refreshing. We were out of
Erin Ijesha. The air at the waterfall forest was dense. Our joy was cut short as we
heard from the radio the announcement that 2 students of Unilag went missing in
Osun state and whosoever finds them should surrender them to the government.
Knowing fully well that the radio is a versatile information tool, we knew we
would be nabbed in no time. Perplexed at why the government would go all out
for just 2 missing students. The word “Surrender” didn’t depicted care, it
depicted punishment. Samuel’s eyes said it all, he was as confused as I was.

Our truck stopped and we stood up to check what stopped us. There was a Police
check point ahead and we had about 4 cars before us. The police officers searched
each car vigorously. Within seconds, we jumped down and ran into a nearby
bush. Refusing to look back despite the commands to stop, we ran quickly into
the forest. The truck driver’s voice echoed through the express way, shouting
“Barawo”53 and alerting the police officers. In no time, we were being trailed. We
kept running amidst the gunshots, from farm to farm, from ridge to ridge, by
passing a few villagers with pots of water and fire wood. We ran carelessly and
furiously. I had given the artifact to Samuel to carry. It was quite heavy for me.
Plus I was extremely tired already.

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The very last thing I remember was that we fell into a trap. A big mass of net fell
on us and that was the last memory we had. Then we woke up in an old man’s
house. Afraid yet glad it wasn’t in those soldiers hands, I realized the man was a
hunter. He was dressed like one. He was dressing up Samuel’s wounds when I
woke up. Baba Odegbami whose antelope traps caught us took us in and nursed
our bruises. Surprised at such kindness yet perplexed at what price this would go
for, even more shocked at why our gold artifact was shining across the room.

Baba Odegbami was an old man, a childless widower, an indigene of Efon alaaye.
We explained our ordeal to Baba Odegbami and he promised to keep us safe till
the search is over. With his aged body, Baba fetched our bathing water for us,
created a portion of his hut for us to bathe and prepared our meals for us. Baba
Odegbami was indeed an angel.

On the second night, the chiefs of the village came to ask Baba if he saw some
youths pass by, Baba denied. Surprised at why he lied despite the fact that he had
been preaching the gospel of Christ to us, he said “He didn’t see us pass by” but
rather “He caught us on his expenditure”. One faithful morning, 3 days after
Baba Odegbami found us, Baba ran into the room informing us that some armed
men had taken over the village, looking for us with our pictures. Baba helped us
into a secret hangout on his ceiling and told us to hide there till the storm is over.
I remember him helping Samuel and I up the ceiling that day. Before leaving the
room, he turned and looked at us and said “God be with you”. That was the last
thing Baba said to us.

He came back and sat on his chair beside the water pot pretending to be asleep.
The soldiers stormed into the house asking if he found us or knew of our

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whereabout. Baba feigned ignorance and asked ‘Who?”. The soldiers showed Baba
our picture and Baba told them “If you find them here, you can take them”. A
dark tall soldier slapped Baba because he didn’t give them a direct answer.
Holding Samuel who was ready to surrender to avoid the further torture of Baba
was hard. Baba had told us not to come down for any reason, until the storm was
over. They searched the obviously small room and did not find us. They were
about leaving when the captain stepped on a strange metal.

My earring! I knew we were done for and my tears couldn’t but flow down. I can
still hear the soldier’s voice asking “Where are they?” “I said where they are?” For
the second time, Baba answered “If you find them…” Baba did not finish his
statement before he was shot. It was so surreal, I still cannot believe it. I tried so
hard to reduce the tears from my eyes and at least to reduce the volume of my
crying as I sniffled. My tears flowed down and dropped on the head of a soldier
standing underneath us. The dried palm fronds that Baba used to construct the
hideout couldn’t stop my tears. I thought my end had finally come even as the
soldier looked up.

Then a miracle happened. A heavy rainfall started immediately. A miracle within

3 seconds was unbelievable as the soldier looked down and gave an order that they
search the room over again. If not for the rain miracle, I won’t be here. If not for
the rain, the soldiers would have searched the ceiling and found us because there
was no explanation for water dropping from a hut roof on a very sunny day.

The rain stopped almost immediately they left after aggressively searching the hut.
Villagers had gathered at the front of the house as some of them trooped in to see
Baba in a pool of blood. I couldn’t hold my tears as I started weeping. Unafraid of

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the villagers giving us away to the soldiers, Samuel and I jumped down and held
Baba, of course, trying to see if we can wake him up. The villagers were surprised
at how well Baba concealed us and they assured us of our safety. Baba was the
oldest kindest man in the village and they took it as though our safety was Baba’s
last wish.

Few days after Baba was buried, the village chief priest took us to the evil forest for
initiation of safety. We were there for 2 weeks as the safety initiation would make
us look triple our ages hence we would be able to leave the village and continue
with our lives but we will be looking older. I was 23 years old then and I have
looked 69 since the initiation. We were told that even when we age 150, we would
still look same. It was on the eve of our departure from the village that it dawned
on us that our families in the city would most probably not accept us looking like
this. How would I be able to convince Iya Bukky that this old woman is her
daughter. Moreover, Baba had no child and he selflessly gave his life for us. Then
we decided to keep living in the village as children of Odegbami. So I became
Bukola Odegbami and Samuel became Samuel Odegbami. Samuel continued
Baba’s hunting profession and I became a meat trader in Efon alaaye. My first
child was named after Baba; Odebiyi Ajani Odegbami. We deeply miss the city yet
we are indebted to Baba Ajani Odegbami who saved our lives and made us his
children.

We have not had the need to convert the artifact to money as we are comfortable
as we are. I met Hannah and her friends at Erin Ijesha waterfall when I went there
for the annual memorial of Ifeanyi. I have stylishly asked around to know if

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Ifeanyi came back but the responses were futile. Hannah and David are willing to
get you the artifact whenever you find your way to the city. The village you are in
‘ILUBIRI’ is an ancient village that is lagging behind in civilization; reason for
their unrefined Yoruba language, cowry currency and archaic dress sense.
However, I don’t understand how you have not found your way out. David and
Hannah told me about how y’all keep coming back to where you started from
whenever David tries to lead you out of the village. Surprisingly, David and
Hannah go in and out of Ilubiri. At least, they have come to get this letter from
Efon Alaaye and will be reading this to you in Ilubiri. I however do not
understand why you are trapped in Ilubiri. Samuel and I are at Efon Alaaye
because of our commitment to Baba Odegbami and our physical distortion.
Hannah and David cannot leave their village either because they are wanted by the
Government. Unlike us, their faces will betray them. I hope you won’t become
wanted too. If you like, I can send the original artifact to you through David
whenever you find your way out of Ilubiri. Samuel has created a fake artifact, an
exact replica of the original artifact. He has spent the past 15 years creating it. So
in case there is need for you to give it up to the Government or authorities, you
will submit the one he created and keep the original one. David, Hannah, Samuel
and I hope this suffering you are going through ends soon and that the way out of
Ilubiri opens unto you!

-Bukola Odegbami-Akogun and Samuel Odegbami

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CHAPTER 11: FROM A SIGH TO A SEIZURE

“So where is the real artifact now” Chibike asked.

“It is still with…” David started.

“I honestly do not think we should be asking this kind of question. So we get to

know where it is, feel the urge to look for it and deepen the shit we are already in?
Please no further questions. Hannah and David, thank you so much. Our major
hunger now is freedom, how do we get ourselves out of this village?” Efiok asked.

It just didn’t make sense. David comes to us at Ilubiri expressly but we can’t go out?
Someone should please make it make sense. Is there a mark on us or something that
prevents us from finding our way? It feels like we are trapped in a maze.

For the umpteenth time, I wish mummy would walk into this room and tickle me up
from this dream, this is horror. I know I will get the beating of my life for ignoring
her option of going back to Ibadan before the explosion, but I definitely don’t mind.

My life after Jay left for the evil forest was something else. A lot has certainly
happened since the beginning of this journey. My Halimat is gone and Jay literally
just walked out of my life. Efiok and Chibike being the only guys in the fold have
been taking their responsibilities serious. Funny how we didn’t notice how good a
leader Efiok was, maybe cause Jay has been around. The anger I had towards Jay was
growing and in fact was outgrowing the love we once shared. You can say I took it
too far. But I don’t know how you will choose to leave a woman you love to go on a

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search or hunt. But then I didn’t realize how bitter and junky I was become.
Truthfully, the farther you go away from the Spirit, the closer you are to the flesh.

“So guys, you are telling me we will spend the rest of our lives here?” Chibike
started, sounding so pissed.

“Because I don’t understand how we have become complacent and comfortable

here. Have we forgotten where we are from? We have dreams and careers to grow
man!! Odafe is gone! Halimat is gone!…” He paused to pant

“It could be any of us next” He added

I usually would have said “God forbid’ but at this rate, if God can just take me to
where Halimat is and we laugh so hard together once again. It’ll be nice and
beautiful. Halimat was one of the sweetest friends I’ve met, the sweetest actually.

“Adesewa why are you smiling? Really???” Chibike shouted

“No ooo” I tried denying it.

Sesinu gave me a ‘Why were you smiling in a serious conversation’ look.

I apologised. There was no way I could explain that I was fantasizing about seeing
Halimat again.

“But we have tried all we could” Efiok chipped in

“Ok, Chibike what do you suggest we do?” I managed to ask

“You you better just shut up. Shebi you were blushing and smiling before? Ah…I’ve
never suffered like this in my entire life”

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One could hear his voice shaking. I thought they said guys don’t cry.

“See my back! Mosquitoes have finished my back…Last night I just started weeping”
He opened his top and turned his back for us to see.

Then my dam of tears came running down. I remember someone weeping last night
when I went to pee.

“This was not what we were few weeks back. Who has bewitched us and why have
we decided to stay bewitched! Guys let’s wake up and find a way” He ended his
speech.

The silence that permeated the atmosphere! I’m sure Chibike knows we have
exhausted all the escape options that we had. He most probably just wanted to rant
and vent his anger and that’s cool.

“Efiok transferred aggression last night. Chibike did his own this morning. My own
will be tonight…Y’all watch out!!” Ego screamed jokingly.

We all laughed.

“It’s not even funny” Chibike said with a slight smile on his face.

In no time, Efiok became really close to me and I was becoming fond of him. There
was this Jay vibe he had and guess what? But with an extra sauce, an extra sauce I
previously didn’t notice. I was definitely not crazy, I was just foolish. That I was a
virgin didn’t make me wise. Foolish virgins allow their oil run out. Virginity isn’t
wisdom. Wisdom is keeping your lamp burning till the end.

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“Woe unto you if you fall when you are alone” my supposed partner left me to save
the world, I should be the world to him, isn’t it? Alot of thoughts clouded my mind
and Efiok had the right words to stop me from drowning. I didn’t know he, Efiok,
was going to be the beginning of my woes.

It has been 2 weeks since Jay left and I have told myself I will wait till forever just to
see him again. “But for every Vashti there is an Esther” the lie the devil told me that
I listened to. Efiok and I started our prayer sessions. We prayed every evening. Then
I realized Efiok was the Babátúndé54 of Jay.

Then came a rainy afternoon, Sesinu ran to Efiok and I in the room

“Desewa, Ego is in labour”

I sprang up as fast as I could and ran after Sesinu.

We were both running so fast, against the wind and flood. I got to the palace room
and Ego looked exhausted.

“Ego I am here” I said, as I held her hand as tight as I could.

She looked at me and I saw the tiredness. This surely wasn’t what her husband
bargained for.

“You’ll be fine babe. You are doing so well. You are such a strong…welldone my
love…your baby will be here soon, ok?” I was saying too much as I panicked.

“What’s up?” I whispered to Sesinu who seemed to not have the situation under
control.

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She winked at me and gave this sad grin that has still not left my head. I know
Sesinu very well, her medical and spiritual prowess! For her to have called me, then
she had probably lost faith and stamina.

Ego gave birth to a baby boy that rainy day and died after labor, 24th of July 2018.
Sesinu had told me to go call the palace nurse when I heard them shouting “Ego”.
Maybe if I had not sat down in the rain, if I had not started mourning, maybe Ego
wouldn’t have died. Maybe if I had implemented my faith a little, maybe!. The sight
of Ego few seconds to her death was exhiliarating to be honest.

It was indeed another rude shock!

I dragged my feet back to the room and saw Ego lying helplessly in Eseosa’s arms.
First it was Odafe, then Halimat, now it is Ego.

The fear from Eseosa’s face said it all.

“Don’t worry we would have left here by then” I managed to encourage her.

“Adesewa, how far? Do you mind praying for a few minutes?” Sesinu tapped me

“I wanted to sleep o, maybe later” I brushed her off.

I just wasn’t feeling like it.

“Adesewaaaa” Sesinu called my name like my mum would

“Maaaaa” I answered, like I would have answered my mum

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“You know I’ve been taking care of Chidi and it’s been exhausting” I tried
explaining

It is not just that the prayer will and vibe wasn’t there, taking care of a new born
requires diligence. Putting meals in place for the fold, ensuring our room is clean
and well organized, making sure everyone is fine…It’s my ministry.

I had barely started sleeping when I heard “Martha Martha, you are worried and
upset about many things, but only one thing is needed”

I woke up.

It was a dream.

“It doesn’t matter, we can always warm the stew again na” I heard Eseosa’s voice.

Seems Eseosa and someone were in an argument. I rushed out, law and order has to
be kept under my jurisdiction.

Job 3:25 says “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which
I was afraid of is come unto me” Sesinu said while she anchored the morning
devotion.

“Looking at the timeline of events summarized in this chapter, we see that Job saw a
glimpse of the tragedy, infact it made him afraid. This will make us ask “What do
you do with the nudges of the Spirit in your heart?”

“You nod it out of your heart” Chibike joked.

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We all laughed.

“Thank you Chibike. As Chibike said, you nod it out with prayers. When Job
started getting signals of this tragedy, we should ask what he did with that
information, with such deep divine intel. You don’t just sit wallowing in fear,
trembling at the thought of what you should come against in the name of the Lord
of hosts. We receive help in Jesus name”

“Amen” We all said.

“Any questions?” Sesinu asked finally.

The look on our faces like “Please let us go and eat our cocoyam”

We were famished.

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CHAPTER 12: A FALL FROM GRACE TO THE THRONE OF GRACE

Chinua Achebe must have gotten the inspiration from Things Fall Apart from my
current situation. Things cannot even fall anymore apart because they are apart
already. My period has been 5 days late and the sad news is this is the first time ever.
Nothing is ever in time like my period. But I don’t know what has happened.
Probably the entire stress and the hormonal flunctuation my head has been telling
me.

That’s by the way. Chidi has been…

NO IT IS NOT! IT IS NOT BY THE WAY! IT IS IN THE WAY!! I am literally

freaking out!!!!

Chidi has been growing so fast, smiling like his mother is right with him, oblivious
of what happened while he came to the world. I had promised myself that as long as
I live, Chidi would never have a reason to feel the void of Ego.

I have started counting down to Jay’s home coming. 1 month they told us, 1 month
we will wait. 3 days left. I have pebbles in my bag. I have counted 28 pebbles for 28
days. 2 days to the arrival day of the youths from the evil forest, the thought of being
pregnant started crossing my mind. I would have been as shocked as you are but I
couldn’t have been because yeah, I knew what happened. I was about to enter the
great depression that history wrote about and I can’t imagine. If only this was
conception by the Holyspirit but it was not. I can’t biologically or spiritually tell who
fathers the child growing in me.

Yes I know!!!! It just happened.

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I feel like a disgrace to myself, my parents, God and the Kingdom I represent. My
world was finally crumbling and I could feel it. The disgust I felt for Efiok when I
found out I was pregnant was from the pit of hell. I just really prayed it was Jay’s.

“I honestly hope the child isn’t Efiok’s because Jay is well deserving of me than
anyone else” I said to myself.

Then the start of my depression!

“Deserving of who? You? You are not worth anything anymore superwoman” the
voice rang in my head.

I lost my balance and motivation for anything. I have been pleading with God for
mercy and I could tell some doors have been shut. The Holyspirit has not spoken to
me in the past few days. Truth be told, I had not been attentive to the Holyspirit and
it has cost me everything. I have cried and cried and cried and cried till the fold
became aware of the reason for my tears. Eseosa was glad to have a partner but I was
sad to have failed as a gatekeeper. I was light that should have liberated souls yet I
was as dark as anything else.

The day the Youths were to come back was here already. The village hosted a feast at
the king’s palace to welcome the warriors. The drama, dance and cheering of the
villagers were not cutting it for me. I was patiently waiting to see Jay again, at least a
ray of joy in this depression will go a long way.

“Can someone give a better explanation for why Jay is not here????” I said holding
the youth leader’s charm-laced red jacket.

I almost ran mad.

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Kabiru and Adejide died in the forest. They said he died by accident, he slipped
down a cliff and hit his head.

“Gibberish!!!!! Gibberish and absolute gibberish!!” I shouted, flinging Sesi’s hands

off my shoulders.

I think I passed out.

Like I knew it was going to happen when Jay was leaving. I was angry because I
didn’t say anything to him before he left. I became a half, the worse one because my
better half left already. Depression couldn’t have ever been more depressing. I was
depressed for weeks. I started contemplating suicide. I kept asking “How” and
“Why”. To make matters worse, I got to realize I was pregnant for real. Talk about a
laughing stock to the kingdom of God.

“Cause really I’m a joke” I laughed

“Adesewa, you are not a joke, you are a general. Listen to me, the blood of Jes…”
Sesi started

I turned to the wall “A pregnant general really? Stop lying abeg” I laughed loud.

One of us always stayed with me because they fear that I’ll do something stupid,
hang myself or jump into Obiri river. Well, I was planning to.

“You can’t enter into the evil forest like that! The evil forest is accessible only on the
gods’ request. So forget about anyone that didn’t come back” The chief priest told
us.

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I brought out the knife under my jacket. Like the fold knew what I was about doing,
they held me down before I could stab him.

“Baba kò ní da fun yín!!!”55 I pounced on him.

“No wait, leave me…Can’t you hear the rubbish he is spewing…Whatever y’all did
with my Jay, walai, I’m coming for y’all, you guys just watch out”

I realized Efiok was holding me.

“Efiok!!!!! Get your hands off me…You fornicator” I screamed

“And you…” I turned to the Chief priest

“…watch out for me, y’all will be swimming in blood cause…if my Jay really doesn’t
come back, if he doesn’t come back?!” I pushed Sesi out of the way.

“Eewo òrìsà”56 I heard the Chief priest say

“Tell your evil forest to vomit the father of my child before God will punish you and
your òrìsà” I screamed and slammed the wooden door.

Didn’t the bible say the violent taketh it by force.

“I will have mercy on who I will have mercy on. Daughter I will have mercy on you”.
I turned back and hissed at whoever said that. It felt like a joke because I had not
heard God speak in weeks so I didn’t think it was God speaking to me.

Hours have rolled into days and days into weeks and if my count is correct, it’s been
21 days since Jay didn’t return; 7 dark weeks without Adejide Michael Folawe.

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Worst weeks of my life! Living under closed heavens! Not having Jay around! The
reality that he might never be around! The lost connection with my Father!!!!

I had honestly given up on being shown mercy.

I heard the voice again “I will have mercy on who I will have mercy on. Daughter I
will have mercy on you”.

“God this can’t be you, do you know what I have done” I said in my heart, shaking
my head and looking at my feet as the tears came down.

Of course I know God knows my thoughts but I have never experienced an accurate
and direct communication like this.

“I know and I have chosen to be merciful to you” the voice added.

I broke down in tears and wept. It was too overwhelming to comprehend. My

filthiness, my inconsistency, my stains magnified in the lens of his holiness yet all
wiped off by His mercies.

Then Isaiah 54 verse 7 came to me “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but
with great mercies will I gather thee”.

I felt the presence of God mightily again and it marked the launch of a new phase
for me. I started spending time with God. He told me about how he was goin to
make a woman wondered at. He told me the purpose of the diversion from the very
beginning and how the entire journey was a call to purpose. I was also told that I will
lose the baby I was carrying and the fact that IniJesu will be the bridge to our escape
from this village. And when the Holyspirit told me that I was meant to be a
gatekeeper and an intercessor in the fold, rather I was distracted, complacent and

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lazy, I wept like a child. Realizing that Odafe, Halimat, Ego, Kabiru and Jay wouldn’t
have died if I had taken my intercessory role serious broke me.

I also got to know that Sesinu had been interceding for me years before we met,
years before now. What a woman! Most importantly, God told me about the
salavation and revival that will break forth through us. He said specifically that He
wants to light up Ilubiri village through us.

“Glory to God…Glorrryyyyy to God” Sesinu kept shouting when I explained

everything to her.

She hugged me so tight that I was reminded of my mum and Jay. So we started
praying and interceding for the people of Ilubiri, that they come into the knowledge
of Christ, that they become delivered from the demonic reign in the village.

Eseosa and Chibike got saved and baptized in the Holyghost and we encouraged
Efiok to seek restitution. We had prayer walks round the village every night, for 21
days. We fasted almost everyday and it felt like we coudltn stop praying.

In no time, we started getting feedbacks on our prayer. Strange occurrences started

happening. It all started with the palace when the king called us.

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CHAPTER 13: GENTLEMEN, SHALL WE?

“What do you guys do to your room that makes it hot? The pots of water behind
your walls boil up according to what the palace staffs said” He started.

We smiled and Efiok spoke for us “Long live o king. We are not physically heating
up our room o King. Jesus our King came to this world to baptize you, me, us with
Holyghost and with fire so the reason for the heat” Efiok said as I interpreted to the
king and his chiefs in Yoruba.

We all affirmed with nods and smiles.

“Who is Jesus?” The king innocently asked.

“He is the king of kings” Sesinu answered.

The king sat up on his throne.

“You mean there is a king over all the kings?” The king asked, looking confused.

“Yes sir” we answered.

“Abomination!!!!” one of the chiefs exclaimed.

“Calm down chief, you mean there is a king above the Olubadan of Ibadan?”
Another chief asked.
“Yes sir” I answered
“No way! But He can’t be over the Ooni of Ife o, abi?” The king asked with so much
seriousness
“He is the King above all kings Kabiesi” I answered

“Can’t you hear the nonsense you are saying?” The Iyalode asked.

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The air became tensed and fearful. We were very much aware that you don’t bite the
finger that feeds you but we had gotten the revelation of our identity and nothing
was fit to derail us as Paul wrote in Romans 8 verses 38 and 39.

“Wait, you mean there is a king that is reigning above me, Oba Igbatunde, the
Onibiri of Ilubiri land?” the King asked again

His voice was roaring.

Fearlessly, we affirmed.

“Yes sir” We all echoed.

We were asked to leave the Palace in 5 days if we still insist on downgrading their
king. They insisted that we were mad and that there is no king greater than the even
the Ooni of Ife.

We entered our room and started another retreat, dry fast for the 5 days. We
charged up ourselves for hours and we never got weary. Eseosa was the one
breastfeeding Baby Chidi and so we really had no stress. I was in charge of his
hygiene and Sesinu was in charge of carrying him all day.

On the 3rd day, Chibike was on his way from the stream when a lame man passed by
him and became healed. The man ran to the palace, shouting, dancing and singing.
A large crowd gathered in front of the palace to felicitate with Ajadi alaro and to
know what straightened his legs. The noise was so much that we all had to rush out.
I carried Chidi who was sleeping along with me. Sesinu had been on trance for the
past 2 hours so we had to leave her. It was a regular occurrence for her. We call her
the Trance Woman.

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 

“That is him! That was the man that healed me” The man shouted as we joined the
crowd.

Everybody turned to look at us and judging from the way we looked, unlike their
priest, they were surprised.

I heard within my spirit “Back Chidi. Get a wrapper and back him”.

I went inside and got a wrapper. Sesinu was back from trance but she was still
praying. When I got outside, Chibike was already explaining “…the Great physician
by whose stripes we are healed made you whole. It wasn’t me”.

“Who is the great physician” The Chief priest asked.

“The King of kings” Chibike answered.

The furiousness on the face of the king was unexplainable.

“The same King of kings is a physician? Hope these children are not lying to us or
taking us for fools” A chief asked.

Suddenly someone raised a song in the crowd

“Bi mo ba fowokan ise ti aso re, bi mo ba fowokan, ise ti aso re, bi mo ba fowokan, ise ti aso
re, ara mi yo yagada, aramiyoyagada”57

It was a prophetic deliverance song sung by the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC).
The Holyspirit through Chibike had asked us to sing that song on the first day of
our retreat. I was surpised that someone from among the fetish people of Ilubiri

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could know the song. What was more shocking was how the entire village started
singing it as well.

The Holyspirit and doings!!!!

Chibike who never spoke Yoruba spoke Yoruba to the villagers and even sang the
song fluently. A little boy started drumming with his calabash and people started
clapping. The Holyspirit made Himself evident and people started getting healed.
God had told us not to lay hands on anyone so we just moved about in the crowd
praying in the Holyghost.

The king, the chiefs, the priests, they didn’t understand how their people knew our
song. The king stormed into his chamber angrily, the chiefs followed him as well.
Took me time to realize Iyalode was still there. She was weeping. I could only smile,
I was happy for her.

We were not surprised when we were summoned by the king that evening. The king
ordered for us to be imprisoned for the next two days before we would be asked to
leave the village. For a moment I was confused, why would you imprison us before
you send us away? Proverbs 21 verse 1 came to mind and answered my question.

Deep inside of us, we knew that was not all about the evangelism and revival that
was supposed to take place. And for a moment I missed Jay badly. He prophesied
this before it played out. He saw this coming and even prayed for it. I remember him
every single minute. For a moment I pleaded with God to keep Jay’s baby that I was
carrying, that was all left of him. I imagined having a mini Jay in my hands. I have
been wearing Jay’s favorite shirt ever since the youths came back from the evil forest.

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We were taken to the prison court that night. I wasn’t scared, I was glad. We were
excited, even Baby Chidi gave extra grins that night. We prayed through the night
and studied the bible. The Holyspirit doesn’t resist an atmosphere fertile for Him,
He visited us. That was our second day in prison and the last day before we are
exiled from the village.

There were sudden fast movements outside the window, like people were running
helter skelter.

“What is going on?” I asked as Chibike peeped outside the small prison window.

“It is time that our King be glorified” Sesinu answered.

We started praying and suddenly we had a small opening at the door. Amope, one
of the palace staff, a cook and a friend of the fold sneaked in to break the news.

“Ègbón58 the people of Ibokun are about to invade our town” She started weeping
and sweating profusely.

“Calm down Amope” Efiok said

“I lost my entire family to the last one 20 years and they are here again. Our villagers
ran back home to break this news to us…” She paused and gasped.

“…Aunty Sesinu you said your king, no, our king of kings is able to deliver and safe
right?” She asked.

Wahala for who no sabi the God him dey preach o.

I nodded my head without doubt.

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Efiok had told us of a dream he had in which we were dressed in military uniforms,
including Baby Chidi. We felt the time was here. Sesinu backed Baby Chidi as we
left the room, praying in the Holyghost.
“Have you inquired of Me?” I heard a voice.
“Who heard what I heard?” Eseosa asked.
“You did too?” Efiok asked.
By the mercies of God, the Holyspirit communicated to us that it was not time yet.
“Egbon Efiok, don’t do this to us, please, let your God fight for us” Amope said,
weeping
“Amope, our God did not tell us to go yet. And he said that there will be no killings.
So don’t worry. Stay in the palace and hold your peace” Sesinu said.
“Ahhh It is because you are not an indigene that is why you are speaking like
this…these people have wiped out an entire generation in the time of…” Amope
started
“Amope!!” Chibike shouted
“How many times do we want to teach you faith? We are not speaking like anything.
Our Father is the one that speaks, we only relay and act” Chibike said.
Amope wiped her tears.

“I didn’t ask you people to let your guards down” I heard again
“Is it just me?” Sesinu asked.
“No, I heard same. We are not to let our guards down” Efiok answered.
It dawned on us that what we heard was not a call to retreat but a call to prepare and
refill ourselves to refire. It was so easy to misunderstand or jump into conclusions
when the Holyspirit speaks. So we went back inside, girded our lions and started
praying.

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We stayed in His presence till dawn then God spoke again “The people of Ibogun
will come again at the same time they did yesterday”

We had barely started taking our nap that morning when a loud bang came from the
door. It was Amope.
“Àmòpe kílódé?”59 I asked.
“How do I have faith like you people?” She started asking
“Is that why you wanted to destroy our door?” Efiok joked.
“Those people didn’t enter our village o. Despite the noise and clashing of swords
that we heard, we just didn’t see them. This has never happened before!” Amope
said, joyfully.
“That’s how the Lord of hosts rolls” Eseosa shouted.


It was night fall already and as the Lord said, the battle noise arose again. Villagers
stated running helter skelter. Before Amope got to our room, we were already
outside. We walked past the village shrine where about 20 middle aged men and
women were chanting incantation and invoking spirits, dressed in so many
decorations. Amope had given us directions to the other entrance of the village from
which the Ibogun warriors were coming from. People running and shutting their
doors were staring at us and wondering why we were moving against the wind.

We arranged ourselves horizontally, end to end of the village entrance and

continued praying in the Holyghost. Scriptures upon scriptures, prophecies upon
prophecies, we continued praying. A drop of fear smeared my heart as we started
hearing their war chants, they were close.

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“They are here” Eseosa said.

“The new kingdom recruits” Chibike added.

We jumped for joy, the joy no one could explain, it was an estactic feeling. We felt
like fishers of men. The gunshots we heard seemed to sound like applause from the
heavens.

“Who are these ones?” The lead warrior roared.

He seemed intoxicated or better put possessed by a spirit. Well, we were also

possessed by a Spirit, the Holyspirit. We had not been given the spirit of fear, but of
power, love and sound mind.

“We are the sons of God” Efiok answered, swinging his legs, like a child

For some seconds I felt like God was going to sly us cause what is this breeziness we
were exhibiting.

They roared in laughter and fired gunshots into the air. The lead warrior started
chanting incantation and invoking spirits.

“Mr man, calm down and stop shouting” Chibike spoke.

They were shocked.

A tall dreadful man from among their warriors walked to Chibike and started
sniffling on him, like a dog. He went back.

“We have not come to kill you, we are just here to be your friends, and introduce
you to our Friend as well” He added.

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The lead warrior walked close to Chibike and looked him in the eyes and continued
chanting his incantations.

“Shut up in the name of Jesus” Chibike.

He went quiet. They looked at themselves, wondering what was going on.

“Who are you calling on?” Chibike asked

“Oribirigangbuje” He answered, looking confused.

He didn’t understand why he was having a conversation with Chibike. Only the
name of Jesus can turn a roaring lion into a puppy.

“Have you seen him before?” Chibike asked

The lead warrior said no.

“You can’t see him, that’s because he doesn’t exist. There is but only one true
God…” Chibike said and paused.

We heard some sounds from the bush. We were surrounded. For the first time in
my life, I saw bows and arrows, stringed and ready to be shot.

“Chai I just knew God might sly us o but it’s all good, we will discuss when we get to
heaven” I thought to myself, as I wiped a sweat bead from my forehead.

“So as I was saying…” Chibike continued, ignoring the archers.

I was shocked. That wasn’t Chibike speaking, the Holyspirit had possessed him

“There is but only one true God…and His name is Jesus!!!!!” He continued.

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One of the warriors started praying loudly in the Holyghost, shaking seriously. We
looked at ourselves. Another warrior who tried to hold him up fell down as well,
praying in the Holyghost.

As though a cloud of strength was brought upon us, we received strength in our
inner man. The lead warrior turned and attempted going to put his warriors in
order.

“Don’t go yet sir, you’re my target…” Chibike tapped him

In my mind, I was like “Why does Chibike like wahala like this”

He continued “You know the bible says ‘I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of
the flock shall be scattered abroad. But the Lord says He will ignite you, and the
sheep of the flock shall be set on fire”

Now, the lead warrior sat down on the floor.

The archers were confused.

“What shall we say to these things?” I whispered

“Their boss is being taught at the feet of Jesus” Efiok answered with a smile.

Chibike continued “So let’s start with the person you were calling on, I can’t
remember his name…”

“Oribirigangbuje” He answered, quietly.

The other warriors and archers were now moving close to us to hear what Chibike
was saying.

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“Yes that name, have you met him before?” Chibike asked

“No” They all answered.

“Ok, you see that name that saved your warriors just now, the name of Jesus…”

One of the archers screamed and started shouting “Jesus”. He fell down on his
knees, crawling, crying and shouting “Jesus”.

“Sheep of flock no wait for shepherd o, these ones don dey spread abroad” Eseosa
said.

“So that name that I just mentioned, that name of Jesus…” Chibike amplified.

At this point, I understood what God was doing.

Two of the warriors went down on their knees. Sesinu went over to them and
started speaking to them. The ones listening to Chibike were listening with rapt
attention.

The rest of us were pacing around, praying and decreeing. One of the warriors
whispered to the lead warrior.

“Ah” the lead warrior exclaimed.

“What is the problem?” Chibike asked.

He heaved a big sigh “We are just recruits of the Ibogun army, my junior just told
me that the actual battalion is coming already”

In no time, we started hearing loud dreadful chants. The sound was coming close
and became louder.

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As the song “Agbara esu da nibi ti Jesu gbe joba…” crossed my mind, one of the
warriors started singing it. The atmosphere changed and became charged.

We arranged ourselves horizontally at the entrance of the village, like we did when it
was just the fold. Now it was with the warriors, the fetish warriors of Ibogun. Some
of them couldn’t stand, others were slain, some couldn’t open their eyes, others were
crying and groaning.

And when the actual battalion appeared, one needed to tell us that we were in for it.

Huge men, armed with charms and weapon, looking very furious.

“All this gragra no concern Jesus” I said to myself.

A young warrior walked out from among us and faced the battalion

“It is written, that at the name of Jesus every knee must bow…” He said with his tiny
voice

This young boy was speaking to about 30 huge warriors who were staring at us and
waiting for the “Fire them” order from their boss.

“…and every tongue must confess that Jesus is Lord and King, and He reigns and
dominates over all things”

Suddenly, like the sound of a rushing ocean wave, the power of God fell mightily on
us. I fell down on my knees praying in the Holyghost and oblivious of the
environment.

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CHAPTER 14: THE REAL CALL-UP LETTER

“Your mother is at Oríókè60 Aramoko. Write her a letter and send Inijesu there in
disguise to meet her. Your last assignments here are about to be completed” said the
old man to me in Yoruba.

I woke up to see Chidi fondling with my hair. He was growing fast and his cheeks
are unexplainably big now. I often asked why he was getting fat on another woman’s
breast milk.

I sent a message to Hannah through Amope the palace cook:

“Please tell Mummy IniJesu that a lot has been happening at our end here. Inform
her that I received a word from God that my mother is at Oríókè Aramoko and as
you confirmed the last time we spoke that God had told us that IniJesu will be the
bridge to our exit from this village. We trust the Holyspirit to give you strength and
wisdom”

We had our bible study every 1 pm, in front our room. At times, we have some
villagers join us in the study. No pulpit, no microphones, no pastor yet a church was
birthed.

“…that you might have life abundantly” Chibike said.

We just finished the bible study for the day when we got some visitors.

“This garri won’t be enough for me o, I have built capacity” Efiok joked.

Garri baptism as we call it has to be our favorite option for lunch. Garri with cold
stream water that Amope has stored in the drum for us is heaven. Groundnut from

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the palace kitchen is the best in that village and even anywhere. Amope serves us
some of the king’s delicacies sometimes and really Obama no chop pass this one.
We just blessed our meal when we heard “Ekásàn o”61

“Ekásàn ma” we responded.

Two middle aged women approached us and started “Àwa omo egbé ejeda la ní ka wá
kîyín o. Yèyé wa si ni tí e bá ráyè, ke yojú ke wá kí won, kó dá wón ní o se Pàtàkì”

“We the members of Ejeda group have come to greet you. We see the tremendous
things you are doing in the village. Our head says if you have the time, you should
come and see her, in fact she says it is important”

We laughed so hard that we spilled our garri on the floor. It’s the confidence for me.

“Madam, we don’t have the time o, we don’t have time for all this” I answered.

The two woman started this hysterical laughter that made Chidi cry and fret.

“The head of Ejeda has summoned you and you refused?” One said.

“A child does not know herb, he says it is flower” the other said laughing.

The first one started speaking and was interrupted by Sesinu.

“When you get to your mother or boss, tell her that we have made you fishers of
men and make sure she becomes a fisher of men too”.

They looked at each other.

“Fishers of men?” One asked.

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“Fishers of men” the other responded.

They turned immediately and left without biding goodbye.

“Please bring me a bowl of water” Eseosa requested.

I just knew something was wrong. Chidi isn’t a baby that frets so often. I sensed
something happened when those witches laughed. Eseosa prayed on the bowl of
water for about 15 minutes, pacing to and fro. I had never seen a 3 weeks old baby
under deliverance. Eseosa sprinkled the water on Chidi and my baby Chidi let out a
loud cry. After some minutes of prayer, he stopped crying and looked calm again.

We just started our garri baptism when the visitors came in again. This time, I
clutched Chidi to my chest. Whatsoever demon would possess him has to possess
me first.

“Ògá mi62, we told her what you said and she said abomination, we told her she has
no choice because we didn’t have a choice too and she became furious…” One
started.

“Please how do we give our life to Christ and where do we start fishing men from?
My mind is telling me that it is not from the stream” The other added. Chibike
started the salvation package with them and they gave their life to Christ.

Later that evening, I met Amope and she gave me Hannah’s response.

“She said the news about the great things God is doing through you and your fold
has reached them there at Iperindo. She said that Baba driver has been making plots

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there and that David has been trailing him. She said you should please be on your
toes and they will be on theirs too. She said IniJesu will disguise through the bush to
Aramoko which is about 20 km away from here. She said IniJesu told her that a man
has been stalking her for the past few days and the description IniJesu gave; she
suspects it is Baba driver. She said IniJesu is a creative actress, and that she would
dress her up as an old woman or a pregnant woman or a disabled so she can go
through villages to Aramoko unnoticed. She sends her greetings to everyone in the
fold” Amope told us.

The past week has been amazing yet tedious. It has been amazing most especially
because of the salvation of the warriors of Ibogun village. And it has been tedious
because the heart of king of Ilubiri village has been hardened. We were back to the
prison we left. On the day the Ibogun warriors gave their lives to Christ we were
released from the prison. 4 days later, just like Pharoah, the king commanded that
we be put back into the prison.

“The gods dey get mood swings?” Eseosa said, jokingly.

Going back to the prison was the sweetest and freest bondage ever. We were happier
and more fulfilled because a task had been completed. I remember the head of
Ibogun warriors telling us “If I want to tell you anything, I will tell the Holyspirit to
tell you”. Sesinu and I gave them our bibles so they could know more about their
Lover. I had to keep Jay’s own. They begged us to come over to their village to stay
with them. Eseosa told them to tell Jesus so He can give us a go ahead to leave Ilubiri
village to Ibogun village.

Eseosa was just 1 month gone and I don’t know if it was the baby bump or her
naturally big stomach or the bush meat she was always eating. Her stomach was

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already protruding. On my case, I have been begging God for mercy so I can keep
this one seed of Jay that I have but I have gotten no response. And I know when my
Father’s silence means no. Capital NO. Not WAIT like it was when Jay and I hadn’t
gotten into a relationship.

Our release from the prison 2 days after was not a surprise. The young queen was
about to put to bed after 15 months of pregnancy and she had been in labor for 4
days.

“The king has called for you” The prison guard said as he flung the door open.

“Kábíèsí ooo”63 We said as we prostrated and knelt down to greet him.

He didn’t even thank or welcome us.

“My wife, the second queen has been pregnant for 15 months and she is currently in
labor. She has been in labor for the past 4 days. What can we do?” He started.

“Have you consulted your priests and traditional herbalists your highness?” Sesinu
asked.

It was an honest question. The king stared into her eyes for some seconds and bent
his head shamefully. Maybe he realized how much he needed these mosquitoes he
had put in prison.

“Your highness, what do you want us to do?” Sesinu asked.

“Please help my wife, help us, there is barely any breath in her” He answered with
every sense of plea.

“Kábíèsí you are the one that will heal your wife” Sesinu started.

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Surprised and unwilling to be a god, the king refuted

“I can’t heal her o. I am not Obàtálá64 or Òsun65. I don’t have the power to heal her”

“Kábíèsí, we know you are not, neither are we. But if you can accept our King of
kings as your Lord, you will be able to heal her. Our king while he was on earth
healed a mad man, rose a man from the dead and even healed a woman with an
issue of blood. And the word of God says He has a name that is above every other
name that at the name of Jesus…” Sesinu continued.

We heard a scream from the king’s chamber and on first thought we thought it was
the second queen going into labor. It was the first queen, the power of God fell
mightily on her and she confessed to witchcraft. Eseosa and Efiok went to minister
to her as Sesinu continued her conversation with the King who was more particular
about his second wife at the verge of death.

“That at the name of Jesus, every knee must bow and every tongue must confess that
Jesus is Lord. Kabiesi, you will carry that same power if you allow him to be king
over you” Sesinu concluded.

The king got saved in the presence of his chiefs and denounced service to other
gods. Like I knew he just did that for the sake of his queen’s healing, his declaration
on his queen didn’t work. More perplexed than he was, he came into the palace to
meet us again

“The ones from God, I commanded her as you told me to but she did not put to
bed” He lamented.

“Kabiesi, you have not yet accepted Jesus” Chibike told him, smiling.

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Ashamed that he has been caught, he started

“But…but how can I? How can I allow another king rule me? Kò bájé láye Olúgbón, Kò
bájé láye arèsà66. And it seems this your God is holy and powerful. My children, I
have committed too many atrocities. Your God will strike me if I get close to Him”
He explained.

After evangelizing to him, the king gave his life to Christ, genuinely. He wept like a
child so much that the chiefs started asking what we did to make their king sob.
They didn’t know that salvation was turn by turn. It will soon reach them. The
young queen put to bed at the command from the king’s mouth in the name of
Jesus.

The news of IniJesu’s death hit me really hard. I felt I had seen it all, I had lost too
many things on this journey and I felt no further losses will hurt me but here I was
hurting.

“She said she was raped on her way from Aramoko after delivering the message to
your mum” Amope said, weeping profusely.

“Her final words were ‘Help is coming. The battle is over’” Amope said and broke
down, wailing.

We were downcasted but we did not mourn as those who do not have hope. The
song “When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be…” gave
strenghth and hope to us in those days.

Eseosa couldn’t help but tremble.

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“Am I going to have this baby? IniJesu was a child outside wedlock, she is gone. You
couldn’t have your baby as well Adesewa. Will God make me carry a child in vain?”
Eseosa conversed with Sesinu and I.

Giving a response to that question was hard. Sesinu had grace for maternal and
infant ministry so she answered Eseosa.

Me I was just there.

“Jay was my ministry” I thought to myself and laughed.

We lay on our mats that night. Face to the roof whose part was revealing the stars
and the sky.

“God said there is one more salvation before we leave” Efiok said.

“We are leaving?” Eseosa asked, sulking.

It was funny how we now loved the village we once hated and we didn’t want to
leave anymore. We laughed about the mixed feeling we were having.

“I have been seeing our driver in the dream too frequently and it seems like we have
to speak to him” Eseosa said.

Then it dawned on us that Baba driver needed the salvation we were going about
preaching.

“Wow, what God can take away from you ehn. The vengeance I was planning for
Baba driver ehn. I was going to embark on a revenge mission for the sake of Odafe,
Halimat, Kabiru, Ego and Adejide, although that was before I became saved”
Chibike said.

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“Only He can absolutely heal us of every hurt” I added.

“I don’t think this is for me” Baba driver said the next morning when we started a
conversation with him.

In his rebellious and angry demeanor like a lion’s, we could still see a cute sweet
puppy.

“Christ is for everyone sir” Chibike chipped in.

After about 10 minutes of saying ‘Jesus loves you’ and ‘You are not too bad for him’,
baba started his story.

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CHAPTER 15: THE ‘UN’ BEFORE EVERY ‘KNOWN’

My name is Adekunle Akintimeyin, a petroleum engineer. It all started when I

was an undergraduate at Ahmed Bello University where I met Maryam Shuiabu,
the winner of the MBGN 1970.

I was in a love relationship with Maryam who happened to be my first love and we
had marriage in view. I was just an average young Yoruba guy from the south west
in love with a wealthy daughter of a business tycoon from the north. Maryam had
made sacrifices that I still don’t think I would ever be able to make for her and she
kept showing how much she loved me. We had planned to meet her parents after
my final defense and I had been praying for it to go as smoothly as possible. Oh
how anxious I was then. It was in my final year I told Maryam Shuiabu about the
“ALUKA SECRET”.

The Aluka secret is a generational secret that tells the location of the most sacred
artifact of the Yoruba land “ORADÉWUROÒDUA” which is the crowned gold
head of Oduduwa. From the fore fathers to my grand father, to my father and to
me, the secret has been kept within the confines of the Akintimeyin Lineage. Like
Samson to Delilah, I told Maryam the secret and I was unremorseful because she
was worth every truth and secret.

Few weeks to my project defense, Maryam came to my hostel sobbing. While

crying uncontrollably, she broke the worse news of my life to me. Maryam had
been bethroned to another man, Abubakar Salisu, a young commissioner in Kano
state. For weeks, I couldn’t wrap my head round the thought. I loved her and she
loved me with all of her heart. I wasn’t sad because of the Aluka secret but the fact
that I was not going to get married to Maryam. Her introduction ceremony was

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on the day of my project defense and I couldn’t understand fully why all these had
to happen to me. Maryam was ready to elope with me to wherever I wanted to go
to. I was ready too yet unwilling because it didn’t feel right. Oh Maryam was in
love with me and I knew it because she was ready to leave all for me.

On getting back to the Lagos for my National Youth Service, I tried to move on
with my life as Maryam was now Mrs Maryam Shuaibu-Salisu. 2 years after,
Abubakar Salisu became the president of the Federal republic of Nigeria and my
dear Maryam the first lady. I was genuinely happy for Maryam for her life had
turned out better than if she were to be with me. Yet, deep down I was sad and
depressed. I was in love with a woman I cannot love absolutely; she is wife to
another man, and not just any man, the president of the nation. For 3 years,
Maryam kept writting letters upon letters to me which I tried hard to not reply.
Her best friend, Aisha wrote to me about how much of a mess Maryam had
become because she wasn’t with me. She also added how Maryam always tortured
the president by bringing up my name at every conversation and how she never
allowed the president to be intimate with her. That phase of my life was hard
because I felt helpless. It was hard breaking the chords of love I had created with
Maryam. Maryam was perfect. Fortunately for me, I meet Olubunmi, an auditor
at the Lagos State University. My fiancé, Olubunmi, helped me discover ways to
deal with my past and the hurt. She birthed a new me.

I became better as I shed off my past. I got married to my new heartthrob and I
became healed and whole like nothing ever happened. Olubunmi gave birth to a
set of twins exactly 9 months after our wedding and my joy multiplied. Although
the scar from Maryam still opened up at times but my healing, Olubunmi, was
always there for me. 4 years later, I received a call that my wife was involved in an

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accident on her way from her office. I received this shocking news first then a
more shocking one thereafter. Almost immediately, I received Aisha’s letter that
Abubakar was planning to implicate me. I kept wondering what kind of
implication Aisha meant as I drove to Lagos University Teaching Hospital,
Surulere. I entered the private ward where my wife was and I found in her a knife.
She was bleeding and almost lifeless, I was too speechless to do anything as I drew
her towards myself.

In no time, police officers came in, announcing that I was under arrest. I couldn’t
say a word, I was dumbfounded. I just lost my new best friend of 8 years and was
falsely accused of killing her. I was handcuffed immediately and taken to the
police station. All I could hear was “He killed his wife” “All these men sef ehn”.
Then I couldn’t hold it in and I started crying. I wept like a baby and couldn’t say
a word. The only thing I told the DPO was “I didn’t kill my wife”. My phone rang
all through those days as friends, families and colleagues were calling to know
what really happened. After 3 weeks of trials, I was sentenced to death by hanging.
It was too much a battle for me to fight. I was too weak to fight back.

On that fateful Tuesday the van dropped myself and other convicts at the
execution field. I looked at the crowd and saw Femi and Yemi standing by, and
then I wished I fought. I wished I said more and defended myself in court, but
what would I have said to convince the judge who was also obeying the higher
authorities. They were just 5 year old and had lost their mother already.

We were tied to the pole and were made to recite a pledge of forgiveness. I just
couldn’t fathom why love was dangerous and hurtful. I heard gunshots. I smelt
blood and death. I was the 2nd to the last convict and as far as I am concerned, I

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had died. It was few seconds to my turn when the commander received a call and
gave an order for my execution to be skipped. I was confused yet grateful for an
opportunity to live, happy yet shocked and inquisitive about the price that was
paid for my ransom, considering who President Abubakar Salisu was.

I received Aisha’s letter the next day where she explained what Maryam did for my
release. She divulged the Aluka secret to Abubakar Salisu considering the fact that
he loved money than love. In Aisha’s letter to me, she said Maryam promised
Abubakar that the divulgement of the secret would greatly break me, even than
death. For the first time, Maryam went on her knees to beg her husband of 9 years
just for my freedom. It broke me.

Aisha pleaded with me to speak to Maryam at least once since the past 8 years. She
said since the execution order was passed, Maryam had turned into a shadow of
herself as she had not had her bathe or had anything for 2 weeks. Two days after
my release, there was an eclipse that lasted for 1 hour, the first of its kind in
history. According to the Aluka history, a strange occurrence from the heavens
would happen on the day the Aluka artifact is found by any human. I was not
shocked because Aisha had told me about Maryam’s divulgement of the Aluka
secret and Abubakar’s zeal and hunger to get hold of it. I could feel the sadness
and disappointment of my fore fathers on me that day.

It was the 4th day after my release and I got another letter from Aisha explaining
that the president is furious with Maryam. The armed men he sent to Erin Ijesha
waterfall did not find the artifact and he was furious with Maryam and me for
joking with him. I couldn’t explain what happened cause an eclipse happened

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which signified that the artifact had been found. I was only left to ponder on the
questions “Who found the artifact?” “Who carried the artifact?”

At that point, it felt strongly like I was going back to the execution field and it
made me want to flee. I looked at Femi and Yemi who were asleep and I just
couldn’t leave them, they were the only thing about Olubunmi that I had left.
They meant the world to me. The headlines on the newspaper that day read “3
geography students go missing at Erin Ijesha, Osun state” gave me a hint that the
artifact had fallen into the wrong hands. Maybe a better hand than Abubakar’s
undeserving hand. On coming back from the newspaper stand at the bus-stop, I
met 3 executive men at my house with an order from the Aso rock. Abubakar had
summoned me and I had to leave Femi and Yemi with Mama Titi, our neighbor.
Beyond Abubakar’s need to enjoy his wife’s love alone is the greed for the 20
trillion dollar worth of gold. That was the worth of the fake artifact at the British
Musuem, the original will worth way more.

It was my first time of meeting Abubakar in person and most importantly of

visiting the Aso rock. I knew this meeting was that of negotiation or punishment
and I was ready for both. As I was escorted to the president’s quarter, I craved to
see Maryam. I could just smell her. It felt like 10 years came back to the present.
Like my wishes came through, I saw her running around looking for someone. I
knew it was me and seeing her would aggravate issues. I requested to be taken to a
restroom urgently so she couldn’t see him. I heard her shouting “I just heard his
voice…he says ‘Oluwa pelumi’ when he sneezes…he just sneezed...Kunle where are
you?” I heard her wailing.

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I couldn’t help my tears as they flowed. I remembered Femi, Yemi and Olubunmi
I swore to preserve my family first, above anyone. On getting to the front of
Abubakar, he gave this annoying grin of fulfillment. He was watching Maryam’s
display on the TV in his room. He was happy seeing two lovers who were unable
to love due to circumstances. He was the circumstance. Despite his fulfillment, he
was still greedy that his wife was in love with his rival hence he came up with an
everlasting punishment for me. That same punishment turned me into what I am
now. I am currently serving that punishment. The punishment was that at all cost,
I should look for the artifact if I wanted my children to live. Abubakar showed me
the video of my children on a farm land with their hands and legs tied. Without
choice, I agreed to Abubakar terms. These children were all I had. I agreed to look
for an artifact whose whereabout I no longer knew. In my quest to find the
artifact, I ventured into driving. I plyed Osun state with the hope that one day I
would get a lead to the stolen artifact. One day, my forefathers smiled on me, I
was the one that carried some corpers who had the artifact from Ijesha to Ilesha.

They unknowingly divulged some information in the cab and I informed

Abubakar immediately. Despite that, Abubakar’s boys couldn’t get the artifact.
Children, I have soiled my hands with the blood of the innocent. For everyone
that died among you, it was my unlucky fate that made it happen. I became a
monster in no time. I became a criminal because of love. If God forgives me, then
God is unjust.

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CHAPTER 16: THE SUNRISE AT MIDNIGHT

Baba driver gave his life to Christ and became saved on the 8th of October 2018. The
man who brought us into this mess was strategically placed on our journey so he
could get the message of Christ. At dinner that night, under our favorite tree which
the villagers call “Jesus’ tree”, we reminisced about all that happened.

“So you mean all these stress and mess was so Baba driver could receive salvation?”
Eseosa asked.

“I know right!” Efiok nodded.

“But guys, what if we are in 2025 already” I joked.

We all laughed.

“I have been counting it” Chibike tucked his hand into his pocket and brought out
leaves of different color, size and freshness.

“I have been keeping a leaf per day, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 12, 16…” He counted.

“Guy you still know maths? You are smart o. I can’t even remember my age” Efiok
joked.

“106” Everybody shouted.

Knowing well that we have heard accurately that we were going to leave the village
the next day, we enjoyed our last dinner; roasted cocoyam, palm oil, salt and bush
meat. We had no escape route or plan yet we knew that if our Father had said we
will leave, then we will.

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“I hope y’all have packed your bags” Sesinu reminded us.

I removed the top, shirts and slippers I promised Amope, Ajoke and Ewatomi from
my bag and kept them apart. The villagers loved our clothes so much that they
drooled over them each time we spread them out. We packed our bags that night
and that of Kabiru, Ego, Odafe, Halimat and my beloved Jay.

It was barely dawn when we had a loud knock on our door.

“That should be Amope” Sesinu said, half asleep.

“They are here!!!” Amope shouted at the door, knocking vigorously.

“Amope? What happened?” Efiok asked, as he opened the door.

“They are…they are here…The ones that will…they brought that kind of house that
brought all of you here…that white house that is at the entrance of the village…”
Amope said fidgeting.

We were confused.

“They brought plenty of it, and they all look like you people…they…” Amope
continued.

“A bus?” Chibike shouted.

“I don’t know o but they are outside, I know they have come for you” Amope said as
she led us outside.

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“It has been over 2 months since the explosion happened at Iwo road and we just
found the village where the corp members that were missing are residing. Are they
alive, follow us at JTC TV” we could hear as we walked outside.

Cameras were clicking and lights were all over. Helicopters hovering over us and
villagers running into hiding thinking the gods were angry because they chose Jesus.

“The gods have vexed” I heard one woman say as she ran shamelessly with her
calabash.

It was 2 months and 2 weeks already. A clean top, a device, a pen, the smell of a
cologne, a neatly cut hair, fluent English and much more were the things we had
missed. It was weird seeing, touching and smelling those things. We spent the early
hours of that day answering questions in interviews.

“Dear heroes, y’all are scheduled to leave this evening, we will wait for you to
prepare and get ready, ok?” Mr Scott, a BBC representative said.

“Can we make a request?” Sesinu asked during the interview.

“We would like the clothes and properties of Odafe, Halimat, Ego, Kabiru and Jay
to be kept as artifacts at the Nigeria National Museum. And 5 major NYSC camps in
Nigeria must be named after the five of them. Also, Halimat’s documentary till her
time of death must be premiered on the BBC. This is the best and only thing you
can do for us” Sesinu concluded.

Personnels from Discovery channel, Air TV and Channels TV had made their way
to the swamp where David hid the artifact to fetch it. And we could see how much
they cherished it because it was guarded by armed men. They cherished the fake one

208
Samuel made from decades of blacksmith expertise. Amope had sent for Hannah
and David and by noon, Bukola and Samuel arrived in the village.

It was great seeing our patriarchs. Patriachs indeed! The ones who suffered before us
and brought us into this mess, the mess turned message. It would have been perfect
if Jay was here. I sobbed in the room and refused to come out. I came with a man,
my fiancée, my husband-to-be and now I would be going empty handed?

“No Lord! No!!! I” I kept saying as I wept.

Eseosa had begged me and she was tired of begging me to stop crying. I even slept off
in my tears when I heard my name.

“Adesewa, you have a call” Eseosa said to me

“How can I have a call?” I thought to myself as I opened my eyes and sat up, my
cloth was wet with tears.

“Daughter” the voice on the other side said.

“Mum? Dad?” I sobbed so much that I couldn’t speak.

I was speaking to my parents after weeks.

“Where is Adejide?” Mummy innocently asked.

“Mum!!!” I started the part two of my sobbing.

I had to put off the phone to sob well and after some minutes they called back.

“Have you spoken to your Father?” Mum asked.

209
I shook my head with so much weakness and said no.

“Now go do that” Dad said.

“We will call back later” They said.

I genuinely spoke to God and begged him. All I heard was “Patience”, and not “He
will come back”. You know when “Kabiosi” becomes a reality and not just a title you
call God, that was it.

My parents called back.

“The Lord told us and we pleaded for mercy but he said His plan was going to stand
regardless” Dad said.

“So that was why you both were weeping, sobbing, praying and bidding me that deep
goodbye?” I asked, laughing.

“Yes daughter” Dad started

“And we are so proud of you” Mum added.

“I was meant to leave Oríókè Aramoko the week before, the Lord told me to tarry
there. I didn’t know how the linkage will happen but the Lord said he’ll connect us.
When IniJesu walked up to me on the mountain and told me she was from Aunty
Adesewa, I almost passed out. Thank God for Uncle Tade in the US, after IniJesu
relayed the message to me, I explained to him and since he works with UNESCO,
he drafted out a plan for your escape. I don’t know how it went indepthly but he will
tell you when you see him” Mum explained.

210
It was 2 hours to our departure and the Holyspirit kept saying “Patience”. Chibike
came to call Eseosa and I from the room that we had visitors. The village children
had gathered to do a cultural presentation for us and it was such a beautiful thing to
behold. I sobbed all through. I sobbed because never would I have thought that my
life would be used for God and for humanity. I just wanted my life to myself and Jay,
but here we are. The cultural dance was so funny and interesting. The TV channels
will definitely have enough interesting contents to go home with.

We had packed our bags into the bus and we were ready to move. We took our last
walk round the village to reminisce on the memories we shared. The tree where we
saw David for the first time, the stream, the farms, the huts, the landscape, the place
where my first miracle happened, the spot where Halimat was beheaded and where
Odafe was buried. The villagers couldn’t stop gifting us farm produce, beads and
clothes. It was a beautiful ending.

We entered the bus and looked at the village for the last time. The king, the chiefs,
the palace maid, the bodyguards and the entire village were in front of the palace,
waving at us, I couldn’t hold back my tears.

“I am still a cry baby Jay” I said to myself.

We had left the village and travelled quite a distance when the Holyspirit said again
“Patience”.

“Excuse me driver, can I come down please? I forgot something” I said as I made my
way to the door.

“But we packed everything ma” our bus coordinator said.

211
The entire bus convoy had to stop and of course, the fold came down with me.

“Adesewa, what did you forget?” Eseosa asked.

“I saw Jay just now” I said, breathing heavily.

I had walked so fast, I didn’t know if I was walking or running.

Chibike grabbed me “Sewa!!! Snap out of it!!!!!”

“No! I know what I saw! I know what the Holyspirit told me” I shouted.

We ran back to the village, walking around, searching for Jay. We couldn’t even
reply the “What happened?” that the villagers were asking. It was over 1 hour and we
had searched 3 times.

“Where exactly did you see him?” Efiok asked, sweating profusely.

“In your pocket” I joked angrily.

We all laughed.

“Let us go Adesewa. It has been over 1 hour” Eseosa suggested.

“No! The Holyspirit told me that…” I started speaking. Then we heard a sniffle.

We ran towards the bush path and traced the sound.

And we saw the most shocking thing. We saw Jay!!! It felt like a dream. He was there,
pointing a gun at Baba driver.

“Baba, you put our lives in danger, you are a kidnapper and a ritualist, you deserve
to be...”

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“Adejide” I called out “Please drop the gun”

“Shut up!!! Ewa shut up!!!!!!! You couldn’t wait for me! You couldn’t tarry with me!
How did your wedding with Efiok go?” Jay shouted, crying profusely.

“Bro” Efiok said, shivering.

“Tani bro e?67 Brocolli or Bromate?” Jay asked and then burst into laughter.

“Oya, it is ok, my legs are hurting, cut cut!” said Baba driver who was on his knees.

I was so confused. In fact, we were all confused.

“What’s going on” Chibike asked, perplexed.

Just immediately we left, Jay found his way from the evil forest to the village and was
told we had left. He found Baba who was sobbing under a tree. Baba refused to join
us because he felt unworthy still. We didn’t even figure out we had left someone
behind. He and Baba sat down and had a long conversation. After they had lost
hope, they saw us running about looking for someone and hid themselves so they
could put up a show.

“Look at you, be using your life to play drama o, what if we had left you again?”
Sesinu asked, jokingly.

“Well, our lives are actually scripts written and lead by the Holyspirit. Remember,
we are nothing but pencils in the hands of the creator. And you won’t leave me
because my wife won’t leave since the Holyspirit didn’t ask her to” Jay said.

I was blushing so hard.

213
“Holyspirit dey lead script?” Chibike asked.

“Lead as in the ink of a pencil” Baba chipped in.

Jay and Baba shoke hands and laughed.

Truly, our lives are scripts lead by the Holyspirit. He scribbles, draws, sketches,
paints and writes as He wills. And as we have always heard from WALE ADENUGA
PRODUCTIONS, we are nothing but pencils in the hands of our creator.

214
THE END

215
MAYBE NOT!

216
CHAPTER 17: DÉJÀ VU

“Adesewa, you have a call” I heard someone’s voice

Wait! What?

“Hmmmn?” I managed to say as I opened my eyes

“Your mum and dad” Eseosa answered

I was confused!

“Where is Jay?” I asked, misty-eyed.

Just a “He stepped out” or a “He is with the guys” or a “I think he is outside” will
solve this puzzle or maybe relieve this pain building up in my heart.

“Jay? Where is he???” Eseosa asked, as the phone dropped from her hand. She was
shocked as well.

My heart broke into irrecoverable pieces. I was furious and mad!

“It was a dream! It was a dream!!” I kept shouting till I couldn’t shout anymore.

The fold was now in the room, of course, trying to pacify me.

“I didn’t mention Jay o. She woke up and was asking of him” Eseosa answered,
feeling guilty that she woke me up in the first place.

I almost ran mad! So the peace and joy I just felt, the voice of my Jay that I just
heard was in a dream?

217
“Mummy, Adesewa doesn’t want to talk to anyone ma. She is just staring at us…Yes
ma…I think she had a dream and she…” Eseosa said as she walked out of the room
to have a conversation with my parents.

“Is there… an actual…an actual dream land?” I managed to say.

“Adesewa! Adesewa you have to calm down” Sesinu tried to hold my hands

For Sesinu to start crying, then I probably looked really pitiful.

I gently removed her hand from mine. Only Jay should! No one else should. I did
think I was fine. I thought I had gotten over him. Why would God do this to me?
Bring back someone in my dream and he is not here? Or he is somewhere around?

“He is around” I jerked up, like I just received a revelation.

“Why are you crying Sesinu”

“Efiok, why are you looking like this? I believe God showed me this revelation to
lead me to where he is. My Jay is around” I said, smiling.

“Don’t worry I’m not mad” I said as I walked towards the door.

“Why are you guys not coming along? Y’all are ungrateful to the Holyspirit for giving
me such a powerful…” I started my TEDtalk.

Chibike brings out a top.

“Ok? Whose top is…” I said breezily.

Then I froze!

218
Blood stained army green top! Jay’s army green top!

“Adese…adesewa, a young hunter found…found this with his dog on his trip…like
on his…his expenditure. It seems like it is…” Chibike stuttered.

I went down to the floor. I actually couldn’t can68.

“Ok. Ok! Ok!! Ok!” I said, nodding my head, repeating the same word.

You will think I would be sobbing. I couldn’t sob. I lay right there on the floor and
slept.

“Adesewa, are you ok?” Someone asked

“Hmmm, I am” I said and slept off.

I was so determined to go back to where I last saw Jay, yes the dream land. And I
swore never to come back.

“Please no one! No one should wake me up” I said, with my eyes closed.

I could hear someone’s faint stifle.

I had barely slept when I had a loud knock on our door.

“That should be Amope” Sesinu said.

“They are here!!!” Amope shouted at the door, knocking vigorously.

“Amope? What happened?” Efiok asked, as he opened the door.

219
“They are…they are here…The ones that will…they brought that kind of house that
brought all of you here…that white house that is at the entrance of the village…”
Amope said fidgeting.

We were confused but I was not. This was literally my dream playing out.

“They brought plenty of it, and they all look like you people…they…” Amope
continued.

“A bus?” Chibike shouted.

“I don’t know o but they are outside, I know they have come for you” Amope said as
she led us outside.

“It has been over 2 months since the explosion happened at Iwo road and we just
found the village where the corp members that were missing are residing. Are they
alive, follow us at JTC TV” we could hear as we walked outside.

Cameras were clicking and lights were all over. Helicopters hovering over us and
villagers running into hiding thinking the gods were angry because they chose Jesus.

“The gods have vexed” I heard the same woman say the same thing as she ran
shamelessly with her calabash.

“Dear heroes, y’all are scheduled to leave this evening, we will wait for you to
prepare and get ready, ok?” Mr Scott, the same BBC representative said.

“Can we make a request?” Sesinu asked during the interview.

“We would like the clothes and properties of Odafe, Halimat, Ego, Kabiru and Jay
to be kept as artifacts at the Nigeria National Museum. And 5 major NYSC camps in

220
Nigeria must be named after the five of them. Also, Halimat’s documentary till her
time of death must be premiered on the BBC. This is the best and only thing you
can do for us” Sesinu concluded.

I was just staring at everyone. Waiting for everyone to do all the jamboree and
possibly fastforward everything happening to the point where I will come down and
see Baba and Jay.

“God please let this dream come to pass” I kept saying as I slept off.

Eseosa woke me up “Adesewa, you have a call”

Everything was following the dream. My heart screamed ‘Gloryyyyyyy’. I could

remember my dream vividly so I acted exactly the way it happened so I will end up
seeing Jay in real life.

“Daughter” the voice on the other side said.

“Mum? Dad?” I said, as I tried to start crying.

“Where is Adejide?” Mummy innocently asked.

“Mum!!!” I started the part two of my sobbing.

I was meant to act the sobbing but it got me for real.

I had to put off the phone to sob well and after some minutes they called back.

“Have you spoken to your Father?” Mum asked.

I wanted to tell them what God revealed to me about me meeting Jay again but I had
to follow the script my dream gave me.

221
I shook my head and said no.

“Now go do that” Dad said.

“We will call back later” They said.

I genuinely spoke to God and begged him to bring the dream to reality.

My parents called back.

“The Lord told us and we pleaded for mercy but he said His plan was going to stand
regardless” Dad said.

“So that was why you both were weeping, sobbing, praying and bidding me that deep
goodbye?” I asked, laughing.

“Yes daughter” Dad started

“And we are so proud of you” Mum added.

“I was meant to leave Oríókè Aramoko the week before, the Lord told me to tarry
there. I didn’t know how the linkage will happen but the Lord said he’ll connect us.
When IniJesu walked up to me on the mountain and told me she was from Aunty
Adesewa, I almost passed out. Thank God for Uncle Tade in the US, after IniJesu
relayed the message to me, I explained to him and since he works with UNESCO,
he drafted out a plan for your escape. I don’t know how it went indepthly but he will
tell you when you see him” Mum explained.

222
It was 2 hours to our departure and I was so happy and impatient. Everything was
happening exactly. Chibike came to call Eseosa and I from the room that we had
visitors. The village children had gathered to do a cultural presentation for us and it
was such a beautiful thing to behold. I beamed with smiles all through.

We had packed our bags into the bus and we were ready to move. We took our last
walk round the village to reminisce on the memories we shared. I made sure I wore
the exact top I wore in the dream. Even as we took our last stroll, I maintained the
left side of the bush path, as it was in my dream.

We entered the bus and looked at the village for the last time. The king, the chiefs,
the palace maid, the bodyguards and the entire village were in front of the palace,
waving at us. I was getting anxious.

“What if it doesn’t play out like my dream” I said to myself.

We had left the village and travelled quite a distance when the Holyspirit said again
“Patience”. I was elated! The Holyspirit spoke at the same place as it was in my
dream.

“Excuse me driver, can I come down please? I forgot something” I said as I made my
way to the door.

“But we packed everything ma” our bus coordinator said.

“Please I know what I am saying, excuse me please” I said as I jumped down from
the bus

The entire bus convoy had to stop and of course, the fold came down with me.

223
I was so glad they came down cause it was a confirmation of the prophetic revelation
I had in my dream.

“Adesewa, what did you forget?” Eseosa asked.

“I saw Jay just now” I said, breathing heavily.

I had walked so fast, I didn’t know if I was walking or running.

Chibike grabbed me “Sewa!!! Snap out of it!!!!!”

“No! I know what I saw! I know what the Holyspirit told me” I shouted.

We ran back to the village, walking around, searching for Jay. We couldn’t even
reply the “What happened?” that the villagers were asking. It was over 1 hour and we
had searched 3 times.

“Where exactly did you see him?” Efiok asked, sweating profusely.

“In your pocket” I joked angrily and deliberately.

The script has to be followed to the latter.

We all laughed.

“Let us go Adesewa. It has been over 1 hour” Eseosa suggested.

“No! The Holyspirit told me that…” I started speaking. Then we heard a sniffle. My
heart leaped for joy and I couldn’t hold back my tears.

We ran towards the bush path and traced the sound.

224
“Please the last time, I heard it again, the bible says we should not be weary in
welldoing” I begged them.

“Adesewa, this is the fifth time you’ve heard a sniffle and we’ve literally gone round
the village. Can we go already? Listen to me Adesewa. If the Lord told you to be
patient, then you should be. Let us go home darling.” Sesinu said, putting her hands
on my shoulders.

‘Let us go home’ was so relieving to hear. 9th of October 2018, we left Ilubiri. It still
remains a mystery how we found our way. We had tried leaving many times and it
was an impossibile thing. Although we had a company larger than David and
Hannah this time, however, it was possible God didn’t want us to leave the village at
the time we were seeking escape.

24th of June to 9th of October 2018. A lot happened.

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CHAPTER 18: TILL NOTHING DO US PART

“Adesewa I know Adejide was God’s will for…” My mum started again.

“Mum!!!! Mum! I have told you, God said not to use ‘Was’ for Jay” I retorted

“Adesewa Grace Adekoya! Listen to me! I know God too! I knew Him before you
came to this world! And although I can attest to the depth of your relationship with
Him, I beg to say that is not God. God will not tell you to not move forward. God
will not tell you to not let bygones be…”

“Iya Ibeji! My Jay is not bygone! Mummy, Daddy, will you sit still and allow me tell
you that Adesope is bygone”

The tears I’d fought back for the past 5 minutes of this conversation started flowing.

Oh maybe I shouldn’t have reminded them of Adesope’s death.

“My husband! My husband, can you hear what your daughter is telling me!” My
mum yelled.

“Mummy I’m sorry” I managed to say.

I was hurt as well. I just reminded myself that 2 of the most important men in my
life are not with me. That hurts!

“Adesewa” My dad’s baritone voice came through.

“Sir?” I sniffled.

“It has been 8 years, 8 years my baby girl.” Dad started

226
“I understand how you feel Adesewa. You are one strong woman the world is not
ready for. I mean, look at you, a professor at the age of 28. I am still in awe of how
you managed to pull through PhD with the pain in your heart. We are very proud of
you daughter…

At this point, I was already soaked in tears. Why did Jay have to leave me? How
perfect would it have been if he was here.

“…It’s just that we would love you to blossom maritally too. There are quite a
number of suitors, eligible suitors around…” Dad added

“Eligible gidi69” My mum took over the conversation.

“Very eligible o, Pastor (Mrs) Ugochi has spoken to me about the intentions of her
son. Dr Olanrewaju’s son came to see me yesterday too, lórí òrò e nóòni o70. Dr
Andrew Òyìnbó at Johns Hopkins Teaching Hospital that you told us is on your
matter too, that one has even paid for our summer trip to Maldives, he is really
serious. Pastor Femi, the youth pastor from our Abuja region never fails to ask of
you since you left for the United States. Even Chief Durojaye…”

“That paid for the stadium, stage and light during Revival Fire Crusade in
Abeokuta” She turned to Dad

“…hello…hello…this network ehn…hello Adesewa, can you hear me?”

“Yes mum…” I replied

“Yes! He, his wife and his son were here last week, all because of you. Ehn ehn, that
reminds me, this popular gospel singer that sang “God of grace”, he started
attending the headquarters and he is such…” Mummy continued.

227
“Ok mum I’ve heard” I said

The list was getting too long and it wasn’t looking like it’ll end anytime soon.

“So I’m talking too much abi?” She asked

I managed to laugh.

“Should I be sincere? Yes you were but I get your point. A call actually came from
Chibike. I didn’t tell you, Eseosa put to bed this morning” I said

My mum can scream for America and Africa combined.

“That’s great news. Congratulations. Wow. God is good. That should be their 5th
child right?” My mum asked.

“No, 6th” I answered

Before she goes “That could have been you too”, I had to start a different
conversation.

“Thank you mummy. So I might be coming to Nigeria soon” I chipped in

“My baby is coming home” I could see her dancing.

“I actually won’t be coming home” I laughed

“I have to be at Eseosa and Chibike’s baby’s naming ceremony. Then Chidi will be
graduating from Primary school next week as well...”

“Wow, so fast?” Mum and Dad said simultaneously

“I know right, he got promoted about twice I think” I explained

228
“And also, Efiok’s birthday is next week and his wife is planning a surprise for him,
she was hoping I’d come around. Then Sesinu’s surprise bridal shower that we’ve
been planning, it’s also next week”

“How about Baba driver’s wedding?” Dad asked

“Oh yeah, that’s in two weeks so I should be in Nigeria for 2 weeks” I answered.

“I asked them to send the aso-ebi, gele and fila for both Sesi’s wedding and Baba
driver’s wedding to the house, did you get them?”

“Yes we did” Mum replied.

Baba driver was finally getting married to the love of his life. The year after we left
the village, President Abubakar died of brain cancer. Maryam Shuiabu was finally
free to be with the husband of her youth. Maryam Shuiabu has to be the most
beautiful black woman in the world. Her light skin carefully wrapped in her hijab
and her teeth beaming with smiles. She is indeed an epitome of beauty. Watching
her and Baba driver at that age being so in love is a movie I kept replaying in my
head after I left Nigeria.

“Latest mother in town” I said as I dragged my box passed the immigration check
point.

I could hear Eseosa giggle. We went ahead to gist about the entire labor experience
and for the umpteenth time, I was terrified. We laughed so hard.

“I should be boarding in 30 minutes” I said to her

229
“So Sesinu doesn’t know you’re coming to Nigeria?” Eseosa asked, laughing

“She doesn’t have the slightest idea” I said as I moved my box out of the way.

“But ehn, Sesinu’s spiritual antenna though! I can be 80% certain that she knows”
Eseosa said

That was who Sesinu was. She literally sees everything coming.

“By the way babe, did God tell you you won’t be going back to the U.S” Eseosa
asked

I was literally dumbfounded.

“Babe, I heard that some days ago” I answered her.

“The Spirit is one” We said simultaneously

I had sent all I had to the charity and given my housemates the other things they’d
like to have.

“Have you told your parents?” Eseosa asked

“No o, I don’t even know how to. Mum is still on my neck for marriage, she doesn’t
want to accept what God told me concerning Jay. Then I will now tell her that God
wants me to stay back in Nigeria? She’ll tear me apart.” I explained.

“I can understand her though. We’ll pray about it. No qualms. You go come my
place when you land?” Eseosa asked.

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“Hmmmn, not immediately. I’d like to lodge at Eko hotels first then visit Jay’s
parents and my parents later, maybe after a day or two. After that I’ll commence my
serial visits to you guys.” I explained.

“Flight 24B6 please check…”

“Ok babe, I have to go now. Talk to your later…Love you too” I said and hung up.

My flight back to Nigeria was pretty smooth. Of course the heat as soon as you land
at Muritala Muhammed Airport hits different. Call my country Microwave, cause
what is this!!!

As I got into my hotel room, I heard in my Spirit “Young lady, shall we?”

I had been praying and waiting for a word from God since He told me I won’t be
going back to the United States. And God had not said anthing to me about it.
Should I apply as a lecturer to the prestigious Adegoke Festus University in Abuja?
Should I start a business? I’ve heard nothing. Then I step into the hotel room and I
hear “Young lady, shall we?”

“Young lady shall we?” I heard even more clearly

“Yes boss” I said in my heart.

“Call Fred and pray for him”

I screamed!

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“Yes I’m fine, thank you, I got a surprise call, thanks for checking in” I said with my
blood shot eyes.

The hotel manager and a security officer had come to check up on me.

Fred! Fred!! Fred!!!

Once Jay mistakenly spelt ‘Fried’ as ‘Fred’ I went under a panic attack.

My twin brother Adesope was murdered by his friend, Fred. We were in secondary
school I remember. That was the darkest phase of my life, prior to life without Jay.
Adesope and Fred were that perfect friendship model at St. Stephen’s High School,
Ikeja. The tragic event that ended my brother’s life and their friendship made the
headlines that year.

“Is this the ‘shall we’ you said we should ‘shall’?” I asked the Holyspirit.

I got no response. Of course that was it. That was the “Shall we?” I just knew that
sentence “Young lady, shall we?” was loaded. It sounded like we were about to
embark on a journey. It was a journey indeed. I thought I had forgiven Fred, I didn’t
know his name and memory was still traumatic to me.

“Ah, Holyspirit, I can’t o”

“You will. You are a son, you are led by the Spirit” I heard clearly. Those words
broke me.

I lay on the floor and wept. I wept till I slept off.

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Coming back home was so needed. I honestly had fun in the past 2 weeks. Baby
Efe’s naming ceremony, Sesinu’s bridal shower and wedding ceremony, my visit to
Badagry beach courtesy of Sesinu’s family, Chidi’s graduation ceremony, Baba driver
and Mama Maryam’s wedding ceremony, Experience at Tafawa Balewa square,
Christmas carol rehearsals at my parents’ church, being hosted by Jay’s parents and
being in my mum’s embrace again. Although I miss my colleaugues, friends, and
power circle in Texas but being here in my country, my Nigeria, my very own
Lagos…was so therapeutic.

My sisters, Eseosa and Sesinu, organized a ladies hangout/ farewell party for me at
the beach and it was so good reminiscing about the journey that brought us all
together again. We remembered how Odafe and Eseosa fought all through the
journey before reality hit us. Sesi brought the Gbagaun book and we laughed till we
fell off our chairs. “Who remembered how Ego held Baba driver’s neck and changed
it for him?” Eseosa asked. It was such a sad remembrance because we were not
complete. We stared at the only picture we had together. The one we took right
before the explosion happened. It was an experience I’d live to tell my
greatgrandchildren.

“Madam call Fred” I heard the Holyspirit say again as I was sipping down my chilled
coconut water.

No day has passed without me getting this prompt from the Holyspirit. It was easier
shying away and ignoring the Holyspirit than calling Fred, it is like death sentence.
Apart from the fact that forgiveness can be hard, the memory of Fred is infuriating
and might brew vengeance in me.

“Adesewa, call Fred” I heard again.

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I ignored.

“Yes, my flight is by 11pm tomorrow” I answered to Sesinu’s question.

“Are you sure about this?” Sesinu asked passionately

“No she’s not” Eseosa answered, staring at me like I offended her.

“Haba” I turned to look at them.

“I perceive that God wants you to do something and you’re disobeying Him” Sesinu
said.

I heaved a big sigh. That’s the annoying thing about having Spirit-aligned friends.
You can’t just disobey or stray in peace.

“Call Fred and pray for him” I heard the Holyspirit say again.

“Ok guys, I’m coming” I said as I step outside the hut.

“You’re not going to jump into the oshin right?” Eseosa joked and laughed.

“Haba, how many souls I don win?” I answered as I switched on my phone, walking
east towards the beach bar.

I had not forgotten Fred’s number. We were like triplets. He, Adesope and I were so
close. I trembled and cried profusely as I dialed his number.

“The number you are calling cannot be reached” the network said.

I had not used this Nigerian line for the passed 2 years and there was massive influx
of text messages and voice mails.

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‘MTN’

‘Access bank’

‘Favorite’s Jay’

‘Dr Bamiwo’

‘Favourite’s Jay’

‘Health Insurance’

‘My boss’

‘07021963820’

‘Favourite’s Jay’

‘FCMB’

‘Aunty Yemi’

‘Favourite’s Jay’

“Wait what?!!?”

“A text message from Jay?” I staggered

My heart started racing. I blinked uncontrollably.

I scrolled back through my inbox and saw series of text messages from “Favorite’s
Jay”

My heart skipped several beats, I thought I was dying.

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“My Jay! My Jay!!” My heart started shouting.

I looked at the number very well to crosscheck if it was truly Jay. Yes it was my Jay.

“Oh God…” My phone slipped off my hands.

My hands were sweating profusely. I was shaking. My heart was beating

uncontrollably fast. I was seriously perspiring.

“It’s the beach for crying out loud. Breeze is not reaching me here” My heart cried.

Jay had sent me series of text messages.

“Where was I?” I asked myself

I opened the first message.

“Hey Favorite, it’s Jay. I have missed you. I hope this message
meets…svdhjpgvoiruhnmlsdogtfccvhjbnz9w8ydgetdyegdbsjdncmxcpdoifjuhuyfhvb…”

Everywhere became dark.

“Please is this real life?” I asked for the umptheenth time.

I had passed out.

I’m sure Sesinu and Eseosa must have thought I tried hurting myself. Although I
had slapped myself to be sure it wasn’t a dream.

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“Jay is alive?” I asked, with water and tears dripping off my face. Water cause I had
rinsed my face severally to be sure it wasn’t a dream and tears because my emotions
were bursting.

Sesinu’s husband; James, Chibike, Baba Driver, Efiok, my parents and Jay’s parents
had arrived. Everyone was taking extra care of me, they probably didn’t want me to
go into another shock from joy overflow or worst case scenario incase if the message
was a prank. Amazingly so, the message came in on the day I arrived Nigeria.

We enroute Osun state and I couldn’t stop reading Jay’s text messages all through
the journey.

Text message 1

“Hey Favorite, it’s Jay. I have missed you. I hope this message meets you well. I first
would like to apologise for what transpired between us before I left. I am very
thankful to God for His redeeming grace. Adesewa Grace Adekoya, my favorite
person in the world. Who would have thought that I’d ever live a day without you by
my side? This is the point where you’d typically scream “Where have you been?” and
push my shoulders. Oh Adesewa I miss you. Adesewa while we were in the evil
forest, I fell down from a cliff and that was the last thing I remembered before an
encounter that I had”

Text message 2

“In the encounter, I was told “You cannot come in yet. Go back to that village,
establish my kingdom there. Don’t tell your wife yet, you will bail out, you love her
that much to put her first. Yet, the work ahead is massive. I will use her and others
to lay the foundation, go ahead and build on it. That village is your Place of Primary

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Assignment. Your wife will join you much later, she needs to pass a test, I will
preserve her for you, just be focused. This is your test””

Text message 3

“Adesewa, it was indeed the hardest test of my entire life. I saw you, my favorite, I
saw you as you paced up and down the village on that day. That was the final lap of
my test and I was this close to bailing out. The word of God kept coming to me in
your voice “You are led by the Spirit Jay, you are spirit-led!” as you always say. It’s
been 8 years without you yet with you. Thank you for praying for me Adesewa.
Never has a week passed in the past 8 years without me having a dream of you laying
hands on my head and praying over me. You are a woman of faith Ewa.”

Text message 4

“Quick recap for her royal majesty, from what God is doing here at Ilubiri village.
We have our missionaries and evangelists in about 32 countries. Before Kabiesi died,
he headed the missionary team at Abu Dhabi. Do you remember Ojeniyi, Baba
driver’s in-law, he is my co-labourer and assistant here, he is currently heading the
regional headquarters at Ibogun. Amope, our dearest sister is another revivalist
setting North Korea on fire”

Text message 5

“I cannot put the past 80 years into a text. It’s been 8 years but really it seemed like
80 years. This is just to brief you since the Holyspirit just finally granted my request
to speak to you for the past 8 years. Adesewa, I miss you. This is the point where you
sob and sniffle. I can literally smell you as I type this. I can’t wait to see you Ewa.
And yes, it’s high time we brought forth ‘Ezekiel’ and ‘Elizabeth’, long over due.

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This is the point where you giggle, I know you that well. “WILL YOU MARRY
ME?””

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THE END

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FOR REAL!

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THANK YOU FOR READING!

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 APPENDIX

1. Orí íyá àwon bàbá e lò nbá wí= A Yoruba parlance used by Yoruba mothers,
meaning ‘You must be referring to the forefathers of your father’
2. Ekaaro= Good morning
3. Oko mi= A Yoruba word of endearment frequently used by Yoruba mothers,
meaning ‘My husband’
4. Akara= A Nigerian snack sometimes referred to as ‘Fried bean cake’
5. Gba-èkó: Gbèèko= A Yoruba parlance used to describe the state of being a well-
trained chid, meaning ‘Properly home trained’
6. Abeg= Please
7. Na= A random Nigerian word giving emphasis to a sentence
8. Kasala aff burst= A random Nigerian parlance meaning ‘Trouble has ruptured’
9. Ofada rice= A variety of unpolished rice from South-west Nigeria
10. Orísírísi la ma ma rí ní NYSC yí o = A Yoruba parlance depicting shock and
wonderment, meaning ‘We will keep seeing funny wonders in this NYSC’
11. Élèyí tó sorí bìí dòdò= An insultive Yoruba parlance describing someone in an
insultive manner, meaning ‘This one whose head looks like fried plantain’
12. E jé kí orí yín pe o = A Yoruba parlance depicting warning, meaning ‘Let your
head be sane’
13. Eseosa ò gbádùn o = A Yoruba sentence eulogizing one’s ability to fight, meaning
Eseosa is not sane
14. Ashàwó onírànù = An insultive Yoruba parlance, meaning Filthy prostitute
15. Over sabi= A Nigerian parlance describing someone who overdoes things
16. Ko?= An Hausa word, meaning “Right?”
17. Of the greatest gbagba, of the greatest gbogbo= An eulogy for Nigerian students

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18. Ahn ahn= A Nigerian exclamatory word
19. Oshey= A Yoruba word frequently used to hail someone
20. Dòdò ìkirè= A snack made with ripened plantain from Ikire town
21. Unclé e jòór, e bá mi wá omo mí...Aùntí e jòór = Uncle please, help me look for my
child…Aunty please
22. Àbí= A Nigerian parlance used for confirmation, meaning “Yes”or “Right”
23. Esè gan: Thank you very much
24. Kí l’orúko e? = What is your name?
25. Mama Ejima = An ibo word, meaning ‘Mother of twins’
26. Njé o mò ìtàn ‘Aó merin joba’? = Do you know the story of ‘ao merin joba?’
27. ‘Aó merin joba’= A Yoruba tale of how a coronation was set up in disguise to kill
the Elephant
28. Egba owó àlàáfíà yín, e má gba owó òsì= Go through the left side, don’t go through
the right side
29. Egbàmí o= Help me o
30. Orí ìyá mi ò= The creator of my mother
31. Gbagaun= A Nigerian parlance describing the sound of a bell and used when one
makes a verbal mistake.
32. Olóde= Village security guards
33. Alawee= A Nigerian word used by corp members, meaning ‘Allowance’ or ‘Salary’
34. Òkú èwò kètadínlógbòn= The 27th abominable dead
35. Kí lò nse bè yen? Ìwo wèrè yí= What are you doing there? You this mad man
36. Máàmi ní ki npè yín wá sábà ké wa jeun áàrò= Mother asked me to call y’all to the
compound that you should come and eat breakfast

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37. Òsé Òjéníyì, a ma kàn si yín láyì pé= Thank you Ojeniyi, we will be with you in a
moment
38. Mama Ibeji= An Yoruba word, meaning ‘Mother of twins’
39. Shebi= A Nigerian word used to ask questions, meaning “Right?”
40. Oúnje yín tin tùtú o= Your food is getting cold
41. À nbò= We are coming
42. Bàbá kí la ma se báyìí?= Baba, what are we going to do now?
43. Mío tì mò o, èyin omo mi= I don’t even know, my children
44. Àh…opé o= Oh thank goodness
45. Bàbá ibo la wà?= Baba, where are we?
46. Mìí ti e mò o= I don’t even know
47. Buba= A Yoruba word for ‘Top or blouse’
48. Orò ni ò…E ma sorò…E di ojú yín o= It’s Oro…Don’t talk…Close your eyes
49. Ìyá Elêko= A female pap seller
50. Ìyá alákárà= A female bean cake seller
51. Ilé Òrìsà= A Yoruba word meaning ‘Sacred house of the gods’
52. Òrìsà òkè ò ní jé kó mú mi= The gods of the heaven will not let me be chosen
53. Barawo= A Hausa word meaning Thief
54. Babátúndé= A Yoruba name for male meaning ‘Father came back again’
55. Baba kò ní da fun yín= Baba, it shall not be well with you
56. Eewo òrìsà= A Yoruba exclamatory word used when an insult is passed to the
gods, meaning ‘Abomination of the gods’
57. Bí mo bá fowó kàn ìsé ti aso re, Bí mo bá fowó kàn ìsé ti aso re, Bí mo bá fowó kàn ìsé ti
aso re, ara mí yo yá gàdá, ara mí yo yá gàdá= If I touch the hem of his garment, if I

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 touch the hem of his garment, if I touch the hem of his garment, my body will
be made whole, my body will be made whole.
58. Ègbón= Elder brother or elder sister
59. Àmòpe kílódé?= Amope what is wrong?
60. Oríókè= Prayer mountain
61. Ekásàn= Good afternoon
62. Ògá mi= My boss
63. Kábíèsí= A Yoruba word used for kings, meaning ‘He who no one questions’
64. Obàtálá= A god of Yoruba origin
65. Òsun= A goddess of Yoruba origin
66. Kò bájé láye Olúgbón, Kò bájé láye arèsà= It didn’t go haywire in the times of
Olugbon, It didn’t go haywire in the times of Aresa [A Yoruba saying
portraying the trackrecord of one’s predecessors]
67. Tani Bro e?= Who is your bro?
68. I actually couldn’t can= A Nigerian parlance meaning, Unable to comprehend
69. Gidi!= Really!
70. Lórí òrò e nóòni o= Still on your matter
71. Òyìnbó= A white

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ÌRÌNÀJÒ

The journey

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Temitope Sevezun Toyon is a writer; a novelist, a screenwriter and a run-away poet.
ÌRÌNÀJÒ is her debut novel. She runs a blog where she drops write-ups
intermittently. She is a Christian and she believes Christ should find expression in
everything a believer does. She hails from Badagry, Lagos state, a place she calls “The
Coconut Side”. She enjoys singing, cooking and watching the sun set.

Instagram: @teaseasato
Whatsapp: 07067729266
Blog: https://scrollsoflife125851150.wordpress.com/
Email: [email protected], [email protected]

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