The Quest For Meat: Short Story

"Lend me your spade", Udeme yelled at Akpan with a desperate voice, as if using it that early morning depended on his success in life. Akpan, a curious hunter, who knows that a young man is not desperate for a spade in the morning for nothing, noded as if in agreement to give. But instead, Udeme's request was greeted with questions. "What do you want to use it for? Is the hole genuine? Any footprint?"

In Atang village, it was common to see young men digging holes to catch bush animals like Gophers, Aardvarks, Chipmunks and Wombats. Even Akpan was an expert in digging out burrowing animals. Thus, he quickly suspected Udeme's urgency and eagerness to get a spade that early, as it wasn't a farming period.
All Udeme could assure his colleague was how new the hole is especially by looking at the sand the occupying animal brought out. "I'm sure there's something breathing in there", he whispered, as if not to scare it away.

Akpan didn't waste time in bring out his favourite spade and followed Udeme to see the hole. It was in Udeme's uncle farm, Udofa's farm. Udofa was known to be very strict especially in matters pertaining to his farm, as he usually don't allow plenty feet in there, except they are coming to help in farming. So, Akpan asked Udeme to check if his uncle is not around while he inspected the hole.

They were lucky that Udofa was out early to visit his wife, Uyai, who just gave birth to their second son and nursing the baby in her parent's house in Utang village.

" There's no sign of anything inside, but I suspect Gopher because of how the hole is dug", Akpan asserted, as Udeme returned from peeping on his uncle. But Udeme was bent on digging, so they both started doing what they knew best.

The process was strategic by Udeme guiding an alternative hole at the opposite end, while Akpan did the digging at the other end. There was expectation in the air as the duo anticipated a good meal that day.

After 20 minutes digging, Akpan noticed a strange movement and told Udeme that it could be a snake. The eager Udeme encouraged him to keep digging and not be negatively conclusive. So the process continued, but Akpan, based on experience was extra careful.

He was about touching it, but he was sharp to notice the head wrapped inside, gosh! It was a snake!

All efforts were lost as they both ran for their lives.

@greatness96

Photos gotten from here