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Continued
My father was swift. I didn’t need to say much. He understood and in minutes he was dressed and leaving.

Two hours later, he was back and trailing behind him was a stout woman designed like a man. She looked like God had changed his mind and made her a woman at the last minute. My father motioned to me
“Let’s go to your house” he said

I got up and followed them half running only because my father’s hand was restraining me.
“Her fee is two chickens and two shillings. I have the two shillings. We will take the chickens from your house” he whispered to me

My chickens! For the first time today I thought of them. I had not fed them today. Throughout the journey back home I prayed silently that at least two out of my ten chickens would survive till I got home. When we finally got to the road leading to my house I let go

of my father’s hand and I ran. I felt like I had fallen in love with running. I liked the way the wind blew in my face as I ran.
The chickens were alive. Ikem had fed them. My ikem was indeed a good man. He didn’t deserve to have a wife who spoke to voices in her head.

He didn’t deserve a mad wife. I selected two of the biggest chickens and I took it out to my father.
Nwanyi Affa looked around with her nose up in the air like the air offended her.
“Bring the boy”

She sounded like a man. I dashed into the house and oh! Ikem was clutching our lifeless son looking out the window in disbelief. I snatched the boy from him and ran out before he could say anything.
“Here he is” I shouted out to her. Presenting my son to her

like Jesus was presented in the temple hoping and praying for a miracle.
“Drop him he can walk” she shouted back
At that moment Chinualum began to cry and scream like he was begin tortured.

Nwanyi Affa snatched him from me and set him on his foot. My son as beautiful as his father went silent. Then, she began to dance and sing and dance again. She began to encircle him with nzu marks. Chinua, my son with his head bowed, dripping in guilt like a child who had been

caught in his mother’s pot with a piece of meat in his hand. He wouldn’t want to look up because he didn’t want to see the sky. He wanted the earth to open up and swallow him whole.
“Have they not treated you well? Why have you chosen to treat them this way?”she quizzed him

Chinua led us with an apologetic look. We walked and walked. Chinua was leading us in a circle.
“Aaahhhh” Nwanyi Affa had become impatient. She was screaming now and my boy fell to his knees crying.
“Please forgive me Mama. Papa please”

I wanted to run to him an envelope him in my arms and sing to him till he slept but she rebuked me.
“They will forgive you when you show it to us”
He got up and led us back into the compound and stood at a barren ukwa tree at the entrance, his eyes sad and graven like a man

a man about to lose great wealth.
“Ikemafuna Nwamadi, get me a hoe”
My Ikem in his confusion looked like he couldn’t understand the common tongue anymore so I practiced my new hobby. I ran into the house and got the hoe and then Nwanyi Affa began to dig and my son began to cry.

“Mama I wanted to stay but they wouldn’t let me. I didn’t mean to hurt you. Biko I am sorry”
Then Nwanyi Affa began to dance and my child fell to the ground shaking. It seemed like she had killed my child. Again, I wanted to run to him but my father stopped me.
“Bring me fire

This time my Ikem could hear, he brought a lighted wood and Nwanyi Affa uncovered an object from the spot she had been digging and she set it on fire then she sang and danced and sang some more. She brought a knife from her medicine bag and beheaded one of the chickens.

It flapped and screamed. Life is indeed precious. Even my chicken didn’t want to die. I wondered if it’s mother could have fought for it the way I had fought for my son. There was dull ache in my breasts. My son was still lifeless on the floor.

She poured the blood of the chicken into the spot she had uncovered the object then she put the head of the chicken into the hole and covered it up. Then she handed me the headless chicken.
“Woman,take this chicken, cook with it make sure he eats it all.

Not at once but make sure he eats it all alone”. She put her knife back in her bag took her two shillings and left.
As you sit here with me today holding my hand listening to me tell you the story of how I wrestled the devil for my son. Your father.