THE UNKNOWN HANDS (EPISODE THIRTY- FIVE)

..I was at sea trying to find adequate trying to find adequate explanation to all these probing questions. I had thought that my crawling was to last for a brief moment before I would get to the supposed ice river but I was wrong I crawled and crawled and all

through, it was as if there was no night and all was day. I couldn't reckon the number of days I had been crawling. Sometimes, I got so tired that I slept like a mad man. This happened after I had covered a very long distance. At times too, I was troubled by serious hunger. Apart from the roasted yam I had found miraculously at the beginning of my stay in this region and the water I also got afterwards, I was almost starving to death but for the few fruits I was lucky to find. It was even surprising finding them since there was no visible tree around  and the possibility that they would have been brought there by animals was ruled out since none of them was found around.

However, in all my pains, I did not despair. I knew everything happening to me was as a result of what I personally determined, for which nobody should be blamed. I had been warned, even before I set my foot on the path leading to the forest that no man had been known to come here and go back alive. An old man had even informed me about a powerful hunter who had come here never to return, yet, I still out of my own volition, put myself into the task. And now that an unknown voice had dictated what I was to do, which had almost rendered every part of my body system useless. I just had to accept my fate like that. The voice had been announcing that I was heading to Eshinrin, the heaven, alternative. Who could ever ascertain what that meant? Perhaps, it was the abode of my dead parents whose thoughts had never left me, not even for a second, ever since the cold hands of death snatched them one after the other from me.

The thoughts of meeting my parents again brought some fresh energy into me. I remembered that my mother had usually told me to cultivate the attitude of perseverance no matter the condition I was under, that tough times don’t last while tough people do. I was however beginning to do a critical review of that saying for if in actual sense, it is true that tough time is only for a while. My condition and my stay in this region had proved the contrary. What was more? I had almost been reduced to a mere skeleton by acute hunger alone. Besides, rashes and all sorts of skin diseases had colonized my whole body. Yet, I remained in the same position like a snake, battling for survival. Even though I knew I was the cause of my own condition which perhaps must have been responsible for the negation of that saying in my case. I still believed it might not really be accurate to say that tough tines don't last.

I was still pondering over this issue when at a spot, looking a bit ahead of me, I saw an object. I moved closer and to my surprise it was a human skeleton, laying just the way I was with its face to the ground. Very close to it was what I discovered to be a double barrel gun, almost buried in the ground. The site provoked a fresh set of thoughts in me. The pertinent question was how did he get there? Could it be that he had also attempted what I was passing through but had found the pains too unbearable and had given up, or could it be the skeleton of a ghost? But what about the gun which seemed to have been there for years? Were ghosts known to carry guns or do they even experience death? There were so many unanswered questions on my mind and the inly conclusion I came to was that if that skeleton belonged to a fellow human being, who had been forced to give up at that spot, I must forge ahead and achieve what he had failed to achieve. And if in the end I could not make it, the next person to attempt what we had both attempted would also see my skeleton on the spot where I would give up.

My conclusion notwithstanding, my thoughts about what I had seen persisted. What was his mission? Was he only on a wrong adventure or could it be that he had suffered my kind of I'll treatment in the human society and had been forced to take the unusual decision as I did? What did he hope to achieve with his gun? Could it mean he was merely looking for game? Had he also been to the forest of wild animals where I had almost been torn into pieces by that lion?

I was still plagued by those different questions when I discovered that the weather was becoming colder and colder. Then, surprisingly I came across the first tree ever. It was the most gigantic tree I had ever seen, about the size of one thousand trees put together. it was when I got there that I discovered that the voice that had been coming again and again were now very loud as if they were coming from it. Again I saw leaves flying in their millions away from this mysterious tree and at once I knew it was from it all the leaves that covered the whole place came from. I was also lucky to find different kinds of nutritious fruits near it and I was invigorated once I had taken some of them and I crawled on.

Later I came into a darkness I least expected since from the moment I got to that region it had been day throughout. I wanted to turn back but there was no opportunity as there seemed to be a force behind my movement. At times, I was weighed down while sometimes I felt like a feather and crawled on as quickly as I could. Now the sky was totally invincible and I could not see the front at all. Meanwhile the weather had reached almost a freezing point and I was beginning to realize that death was gradually imminent when I suddenly discovered that I had landed inside a very cold sea. It took me by surprise and caught me unawares. I tried to balance myself to see if I could attempt some swimming that was the last thing I could remember for that moment. I could not tell how I got to the other side of the very cold river where the weather was now quite bright compared with the former murky one. I was left with no doubt that it was a real ice river. Again, I looked up and noticed that arrows were no longer where to be found any longer.

I got up and walked away slowly from the bank of the river. The only thing I noticed was that although the place was a very thick forest, the place was as silent as a grave yard. Not even a single bird could be seen in the air. After a while, I came to a tiny path where on one side I saw a bold inscription on a large leaf that read: “ESHINRIN, THE HEAVEN ALTERNATIVE… WHERE LAUGHTER IS GREATLY DISLIKED…”

I read those words over and over again and looked around to see if anyone was watching me. I was greatly perturbed by the overwhelming silence and I began to think over the inscription I realized that even if I had not been warned not to laugh, there wasn’t any funny thing around to provoke any laughter in me. My fears were already too heightened to remember any joy that would bring any smile to my face. Even if there was anything to cause such, I would have still kept the natural state of my face since there was nobody beside me who could share in such joy. Or could it be normal for a man who was all alone by himself to just start laughing? If he did, will all his joys not be taking another dimension? To me I knew my case was too serious now and laughing was completely out of the way….To be continued on Thursday.

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