THE STRANGE PROPOSAL(SHORT STORY)
Part 1
©Franca Uwuigiaren
I sat outside in my white short sleeve shirt pressing my phone when I heard the gate suddenly opened. I raised my head and saw a very beautiful lady approaching. She was tall and fair in complexion, and her beauty was like nothing I had ever seen before. My mouth was open as I stared at her.
As she came nearer, I noticed her hairdo. It was shuku style beautifully decorated with cowries. I wondered why cowries. This beautiful lady soon stood before me with a beautiful smile on her lips. Her b*****s were covered by the white cloth she tied around her chest, exposing her flat stomach.
The white wrapper around her waist was far above her knees, exposing her curves and well-shaped legs.
I could feel she wasn’t an ordinary person. She wedge so much power and I found myself lost in her eyes as she stood boldly and gallantly before me.
“Good day,” I greeted first.
She smiled, baring her white teeth and the dimples on her cheeks were captivating. My eyes quickly travelled all over her, and I noticed she wore white beads on her lovely neck, waist, ankles, and wrists.
She was barefooted and I noticed also that water formed where she stood.
“Amazing day to you too.” She greeted smiling.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“Not really…no one can actually help me but I came to help you. You found favour before me that’s why I am here to bless you.”
“Really? So how do you propose to help me…not as if I need help any way.”
She laughed and stopped just as she started.
“Marry me,” she said.
I looked stupidly at her.
“You said what?” I asked.
“I said marry me. I can make you wealthy. Whatever you want, I can give you… cars, houses, everything…”
“No… I can’t!” I replied.
“You will not regret marrying me. I will pamper you and ensure you lack nothing,” she said.
“I don’t know you. You can’t just barge into the compound asking me to marry you,” I said angry by now.
“I’m a Queen… goddess…in my kingdom. The sea is my home. You can call me river, sea, or water goddess,” she replied.
A great fear descended upon me. It dawned on me that I was talking face to face with a Mami water.
I could see she was so full of pride. How could this woman in white leave her kingdom to come ask me to marry her? Are there no other men out there, she could meet?
“But..but…I can’t marry you. I don’t need anything from you….”
“Shut up! You must marry me!” She said almost shrieking.
“Tah! I’m married to a human being. I can’t marry a goddess…no. My wife is around… there are other men out there.” I said.
“You’re the one I chose and you must marry me.” she said.
“How can I marry a river goddess? I reject it and i won’t…”
I had not finished when she got angry. Her eyes began to flash red, a sign of rage. I saw burning flames in her eyes as she got angry. She yelled and and a great wind began to blow.
There was a shaking in the compound as she continued asking me to marry her.
“Please leave me alone” I yelled.
She gave me a terrible slap and I fell from the chair I was sitting and I began to shout until I woke up.
Realizing that I was on the floor and not on the bed, I stood up immediately in surprise.
Settling on the bed, i glanced briefly at my sleeping wife and murmured:
“River goddess ke! God forbid! What kind of dream is this? I reject this dream.”
I could feel a burning sensation on my left cheek so I touched my face and rubbed it gently to ease the pain I feel there. It was the spot I received the terrible slap from the river goddess.
“What kind of dream is this?” I murmured as I tapped my wife to wake up.
Yawning, Oroma sat up and asked why I wasn’t sleeping.
“I had a terrible dream,” I said.
She stared at me for a moment.
“Is it why you’re sweating like this?
“It’s enough to sweat, my dear,” I said then narrated the dream to her, and she began to laugh.
“Why are you laughing?” I asked perplexed.
“I’m laughing because the dream is funny, na. Sebi, you told me the other time that my shakara is too much, that you will marry a second wife to take care of you. Now a beautiful woman came proposing marriage to you, and you’re doing shakara,” she said still laughing.
“It was only a joke, na… how can I marry a second wife when I have a beautiful wife… and a great cook?” I said.
She giggled.
“She said she is a goddess in her kingdom. Marry her and she will give you money, ooo. At least, you will be able to finish your house that’s taking you a century to complete,” she said.
I could see Oroma was being mischievous this morning.
“Oroma, she introduced herself as a water goddess…is she not what’s referred to as Mami water… queen of the coast,” I said. “Is her kind not in the water? She should marry from her kind abeg.”
My wife became serious and took my hands on hers.
“Don’t mind me Obiama. I am just joking with you. What you had is just a mere dream and nothing more dear. I know how you have been fantasizing about owning fleeting cars and big houses… then your threat about having a second wife that day we had a misunderstanding… it could be the reason why the dream came. Some dreams are rubbish… useless and shouldn’t be given a second thought.” she said.
“Hmmm!”
“What’s hmmm?”she asked
“Cheek my face if you can see the print of her palm there?” I said turning my left cheek to her”
She looked all over my face and caress it with her hand.
“Nothing! Your face is smooth and…it was just a dream.”
“She slapped me. I mean ‘hot pepper slap’
“It’s just a dream Obiama. Don’t allow it spoil your day. Push that rubbish dream behind you and look forward to beautiful things happening today in our lives” she said.
“It’s alright!”
Oroma soon glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was almost 4:30 a.m.
“Ahhh! It’s almost dawn. Let me go and prepare something for you before you go to work then I will start bathing the children to prepare them for school,” she said.
She jumped out of the bed and rushed out of the bedroom. I stood up and went straight to the bathroom.
During breakfast, my thought was still on the dream. It was too vivid for me and it scares me to be having such dream.
Even when I drove to work, my mind was still on the dream. What connection do I have with the river goddess? God abeg oo. The burning flames I saw in her eyes scared me then the slap.
During lunch break, I called my mom and told her of the dream. She laughed and told me that I am lucky.
“Lucky? How?” I asked.
“You’re lucky. All my life, it’s the worship of the river goddess we know. It’s just that you children of nowadays don’t want to do that,” she said.
“Mama, I disconnect myself from any worship of water, in the name of Jesus. Nothing connects me with darkness. I’m light… Obiama, your son, is a child of God,” I told her.
“You’re on your own. You entered Lagos and started proclaiming that you’re a Christian. Well, you are on your own. You forgot how we used to do it when you were with us. Ask your Father and grandma… you all are already dedicated to the goddess of the river. If she is requesting for marriage in exchange for wealth… well, I see nothing wrong in it. It’s a rare privilege,” she said.
I was just speechless at what my mother was saying.
“Are you still there, Obiama?” she asked.
“Mama, I am here,” I replied.
“You said she was angry.”
“Yes!”
“Hmmm! It’s a dangerous thing for the river goddess to be angry with anyone. If I were you, I will come home so that sacrifice can be done to appease her. Please come home, let’s do something to appease her, and when she comes to you again, just say YES to her proposal,” she said.
“God forbid! Appease who? Over my dead body. I’m a child of God. I am not travelling from here to River State to begin to practice such fetish things.”
“Be deceiving yourself Obiama. I didn’t give birth to many of you and even you, will not like her rage.”
“I will never appease any river goddess. I’m a strong believer of God. The bible says we shouldn’t worship or bow before any other god except God Almighty. Mama I can’t do that.”
“You’re too stubborn. Just like your father.” She exclaimed and hung up.
When the call ended, I sighed deeply. I remembered when I was younger, my parents would go to the river every time to thank the river goddess when someone in the family achieve something new.
Every new year, along with our parents and my father’s mother, we would go to the river and offer thanksgiving offering to the goddess for the success of the previous year and all the blessings enjoyed.
Then the new year will be committed into the goddess hands to bless the family and business.
In doing this, everyone’s name would be mentioned, including those not available at the time of the sacrifice or thanksgiving.
Each time I see large body of water, it scares me so I fear going there. I go to the river only in the company of my family. There’s no time my parents are not offering one sacrifice to the goddess especially when one is sick or things are not moving well.
When I graduated from the university, my family was jubilant. I remembered how they danced and celebrated that the first son of the family was now a graduate. The next grandma would do was rush to the market to buy items for sacrifice to thank the river goddess.
The following day, those available all went with her to the river to thank the goddess. One after the other, they told the goddess their desires for me.
Papa scooped the water and poured on my head. I hated the whole thing but kept mute because my family believe in the worship of the river so much.
The first employment I got was in Rivers, my state but I rejected it because I know that if I make the mistake of settling there, I will have not peace. My family will be calling me for one sacrifice or the other.
Even here in Lagos, any time I mistakenly call mama or grandma that I am sick or any member of the family is not feeling well, she would suggest we all come home so that we could drink the water from the river. For this reason, I have not travelled home for a long time.
If I make a mistake of travelling home, the next thing my parents would do is ask me to accompany them to the river. There they would thank the river for bringing their son safely home and my returning to Lagos will be committed to the river.
Their believe in the goddess is so strong.
One incident I never forgot was the chicken I reared for the purpose of celebrating Easter. I had fed the chicken so much that it became fat and big.
It was that chicken that my parents woke up one morning and decided to take to the river as sacrifice. I remembered how I wept when my chicken was chosen among other chickens.
“Take Wokoma’s chicken and leave mine” I cried that morning.
“Your brother’s own is not as big as yours. The river goddess deserves the best” grandma told me.
“Then the river goddess should go to the market and buy her own and leave my chicken alone.” I cried still.
Grandma shook her head.
“You’re so disrespectful to the goddess. When we get to the river , you must apologize to the goddess” she said “…or I will throw you inside the river”
My father tried to console me with promises to get more chicks for me to rear but I wasn’t carried away by his promise. What if after rearing those chicks and they decides to sacrifice them to the river goddess again?
When we got to the river, grandma forced me to apologize. I hated the river goddess and apologizing only fueled my anger and hatred towards the river.
My father never fulfilled his promise of purchasing more chicks and I lost interest in rearing them.
Back to reality. I busied myself throughout and tried to forget about the dream and what my mom said. God knows I will not leave Lagos to Rivers just to appease one goddess.
A few weeks later, I had another terrible dream. In that dream, I got a call from a lady telling me I was going to lose my job on a certain date.
“God forbid!” I said to her.
“We will see about that.”she said firmly.
“Hello, hello,” I said until I opened my eyes.
I quickly woke my wife up and told her the dream, and she was worried.
“Obiama, i don’t like this dream one bit.”
“Don’t worry, I am not going to lose my job. I know how I suffered before I got this bank job, and I will not fold my hands and allow such a dream to manifest into reality. God forbid!” I assured her.
Even as I assured her, I really have no idea of what to do.
When I got to work that morning, I called Damian a colleague of mine aside and confided in him. He didn’t show one bit of worry but said he knows a strong man of God who will pray for me and I will not be having terrible dreams again. He assured me that after the man of God prays for me, no evil force will tamper with my job. I was glad and relief. He promised to take me to see the pastor that weekend.
I returned from work and told my wife what Damian said.
“We can as well meet our pastor and explain to him” my wife suggested.
“Which pastor? I can’t meet him. I have not been active in the church for a very long time. I didn’t contribute in any of the church projects and I am sure he is not happy with me.” I explained.
“You’re right! Maybe that was why he didn’t pick my call the other time I needed his prayers.” Oroma said.
“And he didn’t call back despite my several calls too. Thank God it wasn’t a life threatening issue, that’s how the pastor would have abandoned you. That’s another reason why I stopped going to the church entirely and since we stopped no one came asking after us” I said angrily.
“Let’s forget about the pastor and his church. We will look for another church to attend but this time we will try and be active” she said but I only nodded my head.
I made up my mind to follow Damian to see his pastor. Weekend soon came, I visited Damian in his house, and as promised, he took me to see this man of God in his church.
We were ushered into the pastor’s office. The man of God welcomed us and specially greeted Damian before inviting us to take our seats. Just as we were seated, he said:
“Anything I tell you here in this church office, better believe. I hear directly from God. If you don’t receive answers from this place, know that I am not a prophet called from my mother’s womb.”
Hearing such from a man of God gladdened my heart. I didn’t want to meet fake prophets claiming to be real child of God. I wanted someone who would tell me exactly what God was saying concerning my matter.
Well I was impressed by what he said and I nodded my head like Agama lizard and smiling sheepishly as I listened to the pastor narrating some of the testimonies from some people.
“You’re not going to leave here the same way you came.” He said.
“Amen” I said.
“The God of Abraham will answer you.”
“Amen!” I and Damian chorused.
“Now, tell me what brought you to me.” He said.
As I opened my mouth to speak, he asked me to stop.
“Thank you Jesus. Thank you for showing this young man mercy.”
He looked at me directly and said firmly.
“God is set to deliver you today. I mean today. Today is your day of deliverance.”
“Amen!” I chorused.
“Don’t bother telling me anything. I told you I hear directly from God. A woman who claimed to be a river goddess is threatening you.” He said. I nodded frantically.
I was taken by surprise that I didn’t tell him anything yet he knows what the problem is.
“Don’t worry… she’s not going to succeed in your life. Thank God you rejected her wealth. Such blessings will make you a prisoner and it will add sorrow to your life. It’s only God’s blessings that you will enjoy without sorrow. By right, you are not supposed to be in this country. Canada is your destination, but powers from your father’s house are fighting your destiny. If you don’t take the bull by the horns, you will drown.” He finished.
“So… so what should… I… do?” I asked stammering.
I was worried. Why would my destination be Canada and I am still here in Nigeria. Not as if the salary I receive from the bank is worth my effort and qualification.
“Spiritual work! Your parents dedicated you to different juju and rivers they worship, and this dedication has opened you up for demonic attacks. As you are now, you are accessible by evil forces. Until you break free from their clutches, you will not progress in life. Until the marks of access are removed from your body, you will continue to move in circles. If spiritual work is not done today being Saturday, you will lose your job by Monday.”
“God forbid!” I exclaimed forcefully.
“It will happen if you delay.”he said seriously.
“Tell him what to do man of God” Damian told him.
The pastor went on to tell me I must pay certain amount of money for his service charge. Well I glanced at Damian who pretended not to see my worried face.
“If you don’t have the money, I can lend you then you pay me back month end” he suggested.
“Don’t worry, I can sort this out. Though it was an exorbitant fee but I made a transfer to the pastor’s bank account.
As soon as he received notification for the payment, he stood up and asked me to follow him to the back of the church, and I did. There’s a little path behind the church, and according to what he explained, only a few people are permitted there.
“I do spiritual work here for politicians and big mummies and daddies of Lagos. People even come from different states to seek after my work.” He boasted. “They have tasted my work and seen the difference. When I finish handling your case, you will come back to me for more solutions and even refer people to me.”
Was I impressed? He was saying exactly what I wanted to hear.
I nodded and followed him behind. When we got there, he asked me to undress and, before I could blink my eyes, there was a bucket of brown water and black soap before me.
“I want you to bathe… and as you do so… begin to tell yourself that you will never lose your job. That instead, you will be promoted. Tonight… I will carry out some spiritual exercises concerning your matter.”
I nodded as I undressed before him.
The next thing I saw was a staff on his hand. I knew immediately that this is not a true pastor as he claimed. It was not as if he moved or went somewhere to get the staff. It just appeared in his hand like the bucket of water and soap. I became afraid.
On the staff was the head of an animal. I couldn’t say the type of animal because I had never seen such before.
“Kiss this,” he instructed.
I hesitated.
“Kiss this and live,” he repeated, and I knew I made a mistake by coming to such a place. I reluctantly kissed the animal head with my eyes closed, then proceeded to bathe with the black soap.
Again, a black pot appeared on his hand and I shrink in fear.
“Relax! This is what I do to help people like you fight wickedness. I am called for this job.”
I forced a smile and try to hide my fear.
“There are seven kolanuts and twenty one alligator pepper here. This pot itself is a charm for protection. Put it under the bed. No one should go close to it or tamper with the content.” he instructed. “This will fight against any power or evil that wants you to lose your job.”
He got a black nylon from an old unused plastic bucket and placed the clay pot inside before handing it to me.
When we returned to his office, he reassured me again that the remaining spiritual work would be carried out at night by himself alone.
“Your life is preserved. Your job is safe. Very soon, opportunity would be presented to you to travel out of Nigeria.” He said.
He prayed for me then gave some prophecies to Damian before we left his office.
To be continued…
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