THE UNKNOWN HANDS (EPISODE TWENTY- EIGHT)

STORY SERIES  

…Tortoise was poised to win the coveted prize and position. After ruminating for a while on what to do, he had an idea. He knew no animal could ever attempt drinking hot water…”

“Can he drink hot water” one little girl interrupted.  The others quickly reprimanded her and I continued.

“So he invited all the animals including the lion himself to open land and boasted that he would drink a very hot water. On the appointed day, all the animals gathered and were waiting patiently to see how tortoise would perform his miracle. At one side of the place, a pot containing water was on fire. When later the water was boiled, and it was time for tortoise to act. He put the pot down from the fire and poured the water into a calabash…”

“And he drank it”? Another child snapped.

“Let him finish before you know what happened, idiot” another shouted, I continued

After pouring the hot water into the calabash, he went round each of the animals showing them how hot the water was. Before he could finish going round all the animals present, the water was already cold and he drank it calmly while the unsuspecting animals simply watched him. They all applauded and he got all the gifts promised by Lion, the king. This is the end of my story. If I lied, may my leg bend….”

I proved the story to be true with my leg not bending. The children were, however, far from being satisfied.

“Tell us more stories”, many of them pleaded with me and they would not even give me a breathing space. That night I told them two other stories, one about why the tortoise shell is rough and the other, why the tortoise nose id long, before I retired to my room.

It was on the next day that I was able to do a real survey of my new abode and to make new findings. I discovered the place to be quite bigger than I had thought with banana trees covering the whole surrounding. Funny enough, I woke up that morning to find some visitors waiting for me outside the hut. They were the children I had told stories the previous night now eager to have me tell them more. Not even when I had explained that it was a taboo to tell folktales in the morning did they leave, and it was only later they started to shuffle reluctantly towards their various huts. It was also that morning that my host briefed me on the job he would want to engage me in. in the course of listening to him, I gathered that he was preparing to give his eldest daughter, Abeje, in marriage. The preparations had begun and that morning we were to work on the yam farm. At a time, he asked me the kind of work I could do. I thanked him and explained that the only work I had not tried all my life, was harvesting of palm fruits which required climbing palm trees. I knew I could cope with all other works. The man smiled and told me that he himself had never engaged in such work before. Nevertheless, he told me that, at the appointed time, I might only be needed to assist in moving harvested palm-fruits to the “eku” where palm oil was processed.

Later, I accompanied him to the bush to check his traps. We were lucky to come back to the hut with two big grasscutters. The man explained that my arrival had brought him good fortune.

“I cannot remember when last I got two big animals like these at a go”, he said, beating one of the animals in the belly with his cutlass.

He also exposed some of the attitude of women to me. He said the only way to be in their good book was to return to the hut with animals as the ones I was carrying.

“Without that, some of them will not even bid you welcome and their complain throughout that day will not allow you any rest”.

On getting to the hut, the animals were handed to the woman while we headed straight for the yam farm having sharpened our cutlasses well. As we went, the man started to let me into some of his life-history. I realized that every man has his own tales of woes, where the shoes pinch. One wonders why the world is like that, why no man exist without his own trouble and why it is that no matter how long a foetus decides to stay in heaven, it will still meet its own share of burden when it eventually arrives?

My host had also lost his father at a tender age but in his own case, he was lucky that his father had a younger brother who took him on until he was old enough to fend for himself. His problem only started later when he was trying to find his feet and he was met with stiff opposition almost everywhere he went until he arrived at Ogodo, his family land where he worked relentlessly until he was made the Baale after the death of the former one.

The man also had two grown up sons whom he told me were residing in another village. He gave their names as Ajibade and Bameke and confided in me that he had sent messages to them to come and assist him, and they would soon join us.

“I purposely sent them to another village to settle and make their own impact” he told me.

We had barely begun work on the large farm when I noticed the arrival of two men whom I guessed were the man’s children. I also noticed the expression of surprise on their faces even after the Chief has explained who I was to them…to be continued on Tuesday.

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