"How dare you walk out on elders, are you
mad?" Ocheogo blasted furiously giving her no opportunity to say a word. The other elders looked at her with total despise, with some sounded brusque in disgust.
Uju however, wanted to take her sit on the long upholstered bench which was same as where the elders were sitting. Unknown to her, she had committed another offence, and this time around she got a hostile push from one of the elders.
On the bare floor, she found herself, where the ichies wanted her to stay,
"If you don't know what it means to be show respect to elders, then you will learn it the rough way," he said sternly.
Why wouldn't this old men let her be. Why are they treating her like she stole from them?
She wouldn't dare speak that out, else she would just aggravate the whole issue, rather she paid rapt attention to what they had to say.
"You will swear before the whole villagers tomorrow," that was okay for her if that will exonerate her from all these spurious allegation levelled against her. One of them must have noticed the sigh of relief that came from her, so he had to remind her of the side effect of it, if she were to be found guilty of all accusations.
"You will run mad for seven days and then die, if you are found guilty."
"Yes, I will do all you have said." she bowed in acquiescence as the elders stood to leave. At last she could have back her peace from these mean old men. She was making the wrong celebration, because the elders weren't actually leaving. They were actually going to inspect the whole palace, to make sure it was in order.
They soon came back for her again to see her still where she was, with her long hair covering her face. That long hair was another issue, but what could it be this time around.
One of the men held the hair up and exclaimed,
"Amadioha eh!" others were wondering what he was screaming at with total amazement, as he kept on tossing it like a piece of rag. The man was surprised that noone had noticing what he had noticed,
"So you all are not seeing what I'm seeing, eh?"
"What?" they chorused.
"Where in this world do widows mourn with their long hairs like water spirit?"
"It's true o!"
"But I haven't become his wife before he died," she cried out.
"Shut up, you witch! Whether you like it or not, you must go bald this night."
"Yes!" they chorused.
"Emmm, fellow elders," it was Ocheogo who said in a low tone like something favourable was going to come out from him, "you know its already night and she may get injured. Let's just leave that for the next day." Uju almost couldn't believe that those words were coming from Ocheogo, her oppressor-in-chief. He had just saved her from what could have made her be a laughing stock. She'd already surmised how horrible she would look when she went bald. Akwanwa would laugh her heart out when she sees this.
"Thank you, my elders!" she prostrated in gratitude.
Now, they were about to leave because the night was getting darker. They all stood up sluggishly, like they've been exhausted after a whole day of intense farm work.
"I think I'm tired, I can't be able to move any further. I think we can spend the night here." one of the debilitated men spoke for himself. Ocheogo seemed to have found something repulsive in that statement as he quickly objected to that.
"Spend the night where? Don't you have family you should go to?" he said curtly.
"We will all go together to our homes," the eldest amongst them said. He knew that everything was going to result in a chaos which he wanted to avoid.
"But how are we going to do that by this time of the night?" the first man asked, still worried about their safety.
"Don't worry, you will get an escort amongst the guards."
Now Uju had already fallen asleep, she didn't know what was going on amongst the elderly men. How deep would her sleep have been that she went totally out of consciousness. It must have been as a result of stress and sleepless nights she'd had in the course of Aneke's shocking death. She sat there on the ground leaning her head against the wall, unconscious of what the elders were deliberating.
"Can we all go now, the guards are here," Ocheogo persuaded insistently, clapping his hands to call for their alert and urgency. One would wonder why he was hell-bent on sending them out of the house, but they cared less.
But Ocheogo wasn't looking like he was ready to leave yet as he took his seat back on the upholstered chair.
"Oche, aren't we going again?"
"You all should go to your houses, I'm going to stay here and make sure that she," he pointed at the sleeping princess, "doesn't escape!"
"Then why were you asking us to leave when you are not ready to."
"Is it your business? Are you the one to tell me what happens in my late brother's house?"
"Was it built by him?"
The fierce exchange of words between the two men was escalating, that was when the eldest among them had to come in as a mediator. For the sake of peace, he allowed Ocheogo to remain there with Uju since he actually meant no harm. Ocheogo had already closed his ears to whatever decision they were making as he walked away from their presence.
"You see, I don't trust this man, he has a plan that he doesn't want us to know about." the man who had argued with Ocheogo made alight his suspicion but it was waved aside by his colleagues.
Soon they all left the door though reluctantly. They, except the eldest, couldn't help their staring at Uju why they walked out of the door. She was such an epitome of beauty even when her eyes was shut when sleeping.
They banged the door behind them so hard such in a way that Uju was woken up. She was excited that the elders had all left, those curmudgeons were the toughest in the world to deal with but what should she do?
She kept up like she had been forced to wake. She thought she had heard a loud noise. How deep she must have slept all these while.
She gently crawled to the door and had her peep on the gate, the last person to have gone past the gate were one of the guards whom they've went with. Did all guards in the palace left at once?
That was improper but she didn't care that much. At least she got her relief that all of the elders were gone. She happily locked the door with all hope that none of them would be there to disturb her for the night. She would be able to have a peaceful night sleep only if the haunting thought of the oath-taking day wouldn't cause her insomnia. Not that she was scared of swearing publicly but what troubled her most was the procedure involved in carrying out this task. She was to drink the water used to wash Aneke's corpse. That was very disgusting to even think of, talk more of carrying out such task. She felt like she was going to puke at every thought of that. Only if she could make an appeal for such task to be changed but it would seem like she was indirectly pleading guilty of her offence.
She was sweating like she had ran several miles, the lamp burner was flaring its flame into the air causing more heat. She had to let loose her wrappers, but not entirely, so that she could catch a little air into her body. She would have to put the heat generating burner off because it was at the moment of no use, she could help herself in the dark, walking to her room.
While she was about to make her move she began hearing someone's footstep, coming gently out of her room. She was initialy spooked by the petrifying thought that the footstep might be that of a ghost but on a second thought, she decided to wait patiently for the unknown person to show his or her face. It better not be Akwanwa because that had been her suspicion. Akwanwa, of lately, had been disturbing her peace telling her of her intension to ascend the throne.
Which throne was she talking about? Did she meant the same throne that stood vacant before her? Akwanwa must be a chronic joker. She wouldn't be surprised if she was the one coming with intention to startle her, but_ it would be a failed attempt.
The one whom Uju had in mind was totally becoming different from who she was seeing. The person approaching the sitting room was a man, not a lady as she had surmised.
She shut her eyes immediately pretending as if she were asleep. She squinted her eyes and was shocked at her discovery. To her disbelief, it was Ocheogo, the troublesome one. She thought all the elders had left at the same time, why had Ocheogo been lurking in the dark room. Who knew what evil he had in mind against her.
She suddenly lost her sleep even though her eyes were shut like she were asleep. She would pretentiously watch every move he makes so that she wouldn't be swept away by Ocheogo's legerdemain unawares.
Ocheogo came close to find Uju sleeping. She had been in that same recumbent position he had saw her for quite a long time. How could she lay in such place when she had her room inside.
He went closer to where she was not knowing what exactly he was thinking at that moment. Uju's bare smooth skin was enough to attract him, but he was stunned to see what would have almost drove him crazy. Uju had forgotten to tie back the wrapper which she had left loose for the sake of recieving some air in her body. Ocheogo lost control of his action as he kept getting closer. A peep would lead him to see her brèasts through the open spot of her wrapper. Everything he'd seen so far excited him so much that he couldn't even think straight.
Aneke would have been the happiest man in the world if death hadn't snatched him away from the living, he thought to himself. How would he be able to put himself in the place of the deceased. He would have been devicing some plans to marry her, but what if she doesn't agree. Moreover, she was already condemned to die only if she was found guilty. But_ he cared less about that at the moment, all he would do was to get her pregnant first by all means, and when he was successful with that, she wouldn't need to be told twice to marry her baby's father.
As for his wife, she had to get acquainted to accomodating a co-wife, even if he would go contrary to their pre-marital agreement.
Oh, he was just thinking too much, wasn't it time for him to get into full action?
Gently he was advancing to see for himself what a beautiful woman was made of. He made sure he was discreet as possible so as not to wake the sleeping princess.
Uju, at this time noticed some exposure of some part of her body, so she cunningly turned facing the wall and on the process, covering her whole body with the clothing.
Ocheogo cringed in disappointment but it was not the time to relinquish all hope no matter what. He found in profuse perspiration, still burning in excitement. Now it seemed his escapade was getting intricate, hence he would have to act with his hands.
He drew closer with his hand shaking like he was with pneumonia.
He was about undoing her clothing before someone barged into the living room. He jumped from where he was, energetically and landed on the couch, pretending also to be deep asleep.
He made a squint to see who was at the door at such time of the night, only to see a dark and average height with an oval-shaped head figure, staring into the open air in perplexity. Ocheogo went apoplectic with rage seeing that it was just a poor wretched gatekeeper that had totally disrupt the plan that he had taken so much time to put together. He felt like killing him at the spot. Why would a common gate keeper barge into the main living room without knocking. That would be the issue he would have to hold him accountable for.
Remorse was written all over the face of the poor gatekeeper as he muttered to the old angered man.
"I'm sorry!" he managed to apologize, and then turning his back to leave. Ocheogo followed him until they went outside the building to his chamber. He gripped his throat firmly with his two hands almost wanting to smother the breathe in him.
"How dare you barge into my chambers without knocking at the door," he said sternly.
"I thought it was only Uju that was inside the room, so I came to check on her to know if she was safe. I didn't know you were in with her. Amadioha is my witness!" he begged him with his voice almost sounding like his breathe was smothered. Ocheogo took his hands off his throat lest he strangles him to death.
"Oh, you even call her by her name, and you even come visiting her in the night," he went even more aggressively holding him on his throat once again like he was going to strangle him, "Now tell me, are you having any secret affair with her?" he said that with mixed feeling of anger and jealousy.
"NO o o, how could I do such, is that possible?"
"Shut up your mouth, you worthless and wretched man! Everything is possible as far as this matter is concerned." he said with weird chagrin, with more creases engraven on his already wrinkling face, "Now tell me why you call her by her name and enter her room at your own will," he threatened to kill him at the spot if he lied to him.
"Uju is very friendly to us, she did for we her messengers what no queen had ever done. She cook with foodstuffs made for the king and gives us to eat. We go to her directly anytime we needed anything from her," he raised his right hand up to affirm his solemnity, "that's the whole truth."
It didn't matter to Ocheogo if he said the truth or not, all he was concerned about was to look for a way to keep him off duty post, so that he would be left alone with Uju.
"I don't care about whatever you two are up to," he said curtly, "I have a task for you that you must perform this night."
"Anything at all!"
Ocheogo smiled to himself, and that wasn't a friendly smile at all. Even though he hadn't said anything yet the gatekeeper had strong suspicion that he was up to something evil. He hated everything about this man. Konaso, as strict he was, was way better than this man. He wondered why the gods had decided to make it so, that he would take over as the king of the land which he had little or no experience of.
"I sent three guards to see off the elders and they might be on their way back from errand. I want you to send them a message to keep guard over my family."
What an errand that was. At such time of the night, someone could be so heartless to send his fellow human on an errand. What if he there are witches lurking in the dark to attack him? What if he went away and didn't return? He wouldn't risk his life in such a journey, he would have to tell the curmudgeon to his face that he wasn't going to risk his life into doing a task that will be life-threatening. There was much more worth working for than to die for being docile.
Not more or less than he expected, he got a resounding slap as a reward for his excuse. This man would be really worse than Konaso, the traits were evident.
Ocheogo was really a dictator, and a cruel one for that matter. He always jostle for anything he wants, using anybody at his disposal, whether the victim was hurt or not. He gripped his throat firmly,
"Of what use would your worthless life be to you when I ascend the throne of Abodioga, and pronounce a death sentence of hanging on your stinking body?" he said cruelly. The poor gatekeeper had to give his earlier refusal a second thought, because it was very glaring that he would automatically be at his disposal when he would be crowned the new king according to tradition. He had no choice than to obey him now and be in good term with him during his kingship.
He acquiesced reluctantly and then headed towards the gate, with sad face. What would he do when he was left with only one option or death.
TBC TOMORROW AT 11AM
