The Other Side of Insanity (Short Fiction)
This may be the craziest story I've written so far. I can't even remember what I was thinking about when I wrote it.
Enjoy!
They say I’m mad, and my madness come from the gods, because I defiled them and brought shame to our land. They point accusing fingers at me, snickering and whispering to themselves, thinking I do not understand what they are doing. They avoid the closest path to the stream; they don’t mind taking the long slippery path, because no one wants to be seen close to the person who committed sacrilege. No one wants to attract the wrath of the gods.
They say I’ve lost my mind, but they are wrong. I know exactly who I am and why I roam the bush paths. I know why the spirits won’t let me live in my hut or sleep on my bed anymore, and I know the reason they always give me battered cloths to wear and rotten things to eat. I wake every morning by the stream, stiff from cold with handfuls of sand in my mouth, the remnants of the sand they feed me in my dreams. But I know why I’m like this, why the spirits keep chasing me with a long whip, why they keep laughing at me in false mockery whenever they wish to torment me.
“Afam bu Afam.”
That was how I said it in the dialect of my people the day I went for oath taking at the shrine, and that was my offense. What have I done wrong? I only told them my name.
A grown man putting his manhood into the mouth of a girl child is not a new thing in Achara. Ikem do it whenever he wishes and gets away with it. Chima do it too. It’s only me, Afamefula who get stuck in things like this. I’m the dump fool who doesn’t know how to manipulate the gods and get away. Ikem call me naïve all the time, but I never take it to heart until now.
And this is my recompense. This is my painful reward for being stupid. I’m now mad because I refused to visit the village chief priest before the oath taking day to appease the gods for what I’ve done. I now hide behind the carpet grasses that line the wide streets of Achara, throwing stones at women and children because I have nothing to offer, because I’ve lost my mind.
Yes, I’m beginning to believe it and it’s Ikem’s fault.
“Akunna is the right one. I’ve done it with her before. She won’t tell a soul, trust me,” he had said to me that faithful night, under the moonless sky. And when Akunna later opened her wide mouth and vomited every detail to her mother, Ikem failed to spell it out to me.
I always pride myself to be the wise son of my father, one who doesn’t make unnecessary mistakes, one who doesn’t take unplanned risks. Who would believe that I’m like this because of that thing between a girl’s legs? Who would believe it’s that same thing that made me forget Akunna is an Osu, an outcast, the daughter of the gods, and no one messes with her and goes free? That same thing also made me forget that Ikem is an Osu too, and there’s a huge difference between an Osu and a true son of the land.
But these things no longer matter, because I’m going to die anyway. The gods first make you mad before they kill you.
First published here https://www.storried.com/the-other-side-of-insanity/
This was a really complex story but very well written and acutely thought provoking.
Thanks for reading.
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