Called by the Damned by Jali Henry

Author:Jali Henry [Henry, Jali]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jali Henry

Father Lekota lived on the other side of the village. As she walked she waved at a couple of neighbourhood children who were playing hopscotch outside their house. She recognised them from Sunday school. Their grandmother sat in a rickety wooden chair watching them play. Naledi knew the old woman’s eyes had long since given up. Her stomach sank with guilt as she realised how thankful she felt that her red ringed eyes wouldn’t be seen. She didn’t want the village gossip mill to be activated. Ever since she had started her sangoma training, people already talked about her in hushed tones as she walked past. Some of the villagers even made the sign of the cross on their chest when she was near.

Reaching Father Lekota’s house she knocked on the door. He opened it and gave a wide smile when he recognised her. The smile immediately dropped as he evidently noticed her red ringed eyes and the urgency of her demeanour.

“Naledi - is everything alright?”

“Yes Father. Can I come in please?”

“Of course, right this way.” He beckoned for her to follow him to his front room. It was the simple living room of a man with neither a wife nor children. White painted walls were adorned by a wooden cross on one side and a fading black and white family picture on the other side. Naledi glanced at this and saw that it had been taken when he was much younger. On the wall to the side of her was a circular mirror, which Naledi couldn’t help but glance in. As she did so she caught a flash of her red-ringed eyes and saw a blush spread across her cheeks.

“Can I get you something to drink?” he asked.

“No thanks, I’m fine”

Father Lekota nodded. “Please…” he gestured for Naledi to sit down on an armchair opposite the sofa on which he sat.

“What troubles you my child?”

Naledi took a deep breath and plunged right in. “I think I need an exorcism.”

Father Lekota’s eyebrows rose. “And what makes you think this?”

Naledi bit her lip. She wasn’t yet ready to divulge everything. In any case, the old man would never believe her so she started small. “I have these red ringed eyes and I just… I don’t feel myself. I’m having strange thoughts.”

Okay that last part is an outright lie but I think I can fake the symptoms of possession easily enough to get an exorcism performed.

“What kind of thoughts”

“Disturbing… unclean… thoughts that are obsessive and arise as if from nowhere. I’m hearing voices…. Not like the kind of voices I heard during my ithwasa, these are new and sound evil.” Naledi studied him, trying to gauge how well her performance was landing.

Father Lekota looked at her for several minutes without talking as he rubbed his grey stubbled chin. Naledi could tell he was reading her and she had a terrible feeling she’d blown it with the last comment about the ithwasa. Perhaps he would think this was just a symptom of her mental illness and send her away.

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