Wolf Light by Yaba Badoe

Author:Yaba Badoe [Badoe, Yaba]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Head of Zeus

17

Adoma

I woke up, pulse racing, Zula’s revelation buzzing in my ears, eyes, heart, my everything. Acknowledging our spirit creatures was all very well but displaying them could be lethal.

For an instant my senses grappled with what I’d experienced that night. Before I could take stock and delve deeper, I sniffed, suspicious of a change in the atmosphere. The hair in my ears bristled, identifying a strange jarring vibration. I sniffed again and as my nostrils inhaled the cloying scent of incense, my heart hammered faster than a starving man pounding fufu. Boom! Boom! The mother of all dangers was upon me! A menace I was familiar with had entered Gran-pa’s house!

Anyone watching would think as I sprang off my sleeping mat that the mat and my cover cloth were on fire. Yet there was no smoke to be seen and no fire to speak of. What convinced me was the smell wafting through the house.

It seeped beneath the doors: the door to the corridor and the one that opened into my grandparents’ bedroom. It meant one thing alone. My mother was home. Whenever she returned to visit us, Sweet Mother, as she insisted I call her, burned incense to rid the house of spirits: evil spirits.

I tied my sleeping cloth around me and ran into the courtyard. I ran to embrace the only creature I knew, apart from Gran-pa, who understood what it was like to be separated from a mother at a tender age. Standing at the bottom of a wizened, old neem tree, I yelled: ‘Milo! Milo! Are you there?’

Milo showed his face and then hid behind one of the tree’s towering boughs. He didn’t enjoy my mother’s visits any more than I did.

‘Come down, Milo,’ I pleaded.

He peeped out again and with a glum expression on his face, shook his head.

‘Coward! You want me to face her alone?’

Gnashing his teeth, Milo produced the screeching noises he makes when he’s scared and wants to terrify those who would prey on him. He had every reason to be wary of my mother. On a previous visit, she’d dared Gran-ma to cook her favourite bush stew, insinuating that what she hankered for most in the world was monkey meat. To make matters worse, to rub pepper in the wound of Milo’s hurt pride and my open-mouthed horror, she found the incident so entertaining she couldn’t stop laughing at us for days.

‘OK,’ I said to Milo. ‘Stay up there if you have to, but the least you can do is come down and greet me.’

As stubborn as a child who’s never had to fill his belly with water to help him sleep, but has been raised to eat jolloff rice his whole life, Milo hissed at me and shook his head.

‘Let’s hope her visit isn’t long, otherwise…’

‘I take it you’re talking about your mother.’ Gran-pa, already dressed for the day, placed a hand on my shoulder. I turned to face him and, linking his fingers in mine, smiled.

His hands were gnarled

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.