• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17

Chapter 18

The journey back to Oride was mostly uneventful, the sobbing voice returned but I was in no mood to chase ghosts. 

It was just before dusk on the fifty sixth day since the ill-fated town hall meeting that led to our peril when we finally came to see the familiar sight of Oride at a distance.

There was no moon that night, everywhere was eerily quiet; even the crickets had fallen silent. But for the lights from the windows; the whole town could be mistaken for abandoned. 

Our journey from Iriju had taken much longer than our journey to. Most of the men in our company had been badly injured in the fighting and I was one of the few fully bodied men.

The large number of injuries also meant that we had to pass the much longer formal trade route as opposed to the Llende shortcut. Our journey home was sullen, with only a few words spoken throughout. 

We met our town in the same sullen mood. I strut gently in the direction of my house. The air was clean and refreshing compared to the acrid smell of death that I had gotten used to at Iriju. I was glad to be home. 

I turned a familiar corner and headed down towards my little house. A lonely flame burnt at the edge of a window. Ashti must be awake I thought to myself as I suddenly felt chills up my spine; I took a deep breath and bundled on. 

The door was locked from the inside. I rattled on the door but it only gave a familiar dull raffia tattle. A wary voice from the inside replied from a distance

“Who are you? What do you want at this time?” 

I replied with my name. I heard excited shuffling of feet in the direction of the door that got louder and faster every passing second. She swung the door open and threw herself on me. What surprised the most was that started crying on my chest. Well that was unexpected.

I managed to cajole her into going back into the house; I could feel my chest getting soaked in her tears. Unexpectedly, I started crying too, our bodies still locked in embrace… Suddenly! Out of the eerie silence of the night that seemed disturbed only by our muffed sobs, I heard a high pitched cry pierce the silence. I felt weak in my knees.

My hands fondled her belly and felt no protrusion. 

“Is it? Is it? Am I? Am I?”

 I asked, feeling my face burst into an enormous smile and my heart race with joy… She simply nodded and led me by my hand towards our room. I must admit, not even in the face of the armies of Iriju was I so scared. 

By the time we entered the room; the baby was squealing softly; the sound crawled up my spine and made me feel weak. Even without setting my eyes on it; I already loved it more than anything in the world. It lay in a chair at the side of the bed. It was kicking as if in discomfort.

Ashti picked up the baby and placed it in my arms. It was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. I turned and looked at Ashti, a big grin was on her face as I fumbled around trying to hold on to my restive child. 

“Is it a boy or a girl?” I asked. 

“A girl” she replied. 

“Does she have a name yet?” 

“No” she replied. 

In Iju culture, father always named the child; except the father was dead. The mother had to wait for one month for an absentee father before naming her child.

“She looks exactly like my mother” I noticed 

“Mama must be so proud”. 

I smiled and glared in her direction. She looked away; ill at ease. 

“What is wrong” I asked. 

She didn’t reply and merely covered her mouth and started sobbing. Mother died merely two days after I left; she died heartbroken; too broken to be fixed. Ashti had put to bed in my family compound just sixteen days before my arrival.

She soon fled from the compound and had returned home without the consent of the women of the compound. Since she returned, I was told that she had shut herself in, not allowed anyone in and had probably been crying ever since. 

She had not expected me back. Our journey had taken too long. At first, Ashti looked defeated and shocked when I told her of her brothers’ fates. She then got violent and started punching, scratching and biting me 

“You promised” she yelled “You didn’t have to, but you did”

She shrieked in between sobs. She then collapsed on the floor and sobbed away. I held on tightly to the baby; who also seemed to be screaming at me. I sat down, rest her head on my chest and tried to gently rock the baby to sleep. 

Hot tears fell out of my eyes as I remembered the faces of the many dead I had seen. So much loss! So much emptiness!! They had fallen with Iriju.