PATHS OF DARKNESS

A deafening sound cracked the silence of the night, scattering once gay women into frenzied directions and everywhere there was a chaos of fast moving bodies, mashed tomatoes, trampled bread and spilt oil. Then... silence.

Kainene waited patiently under the safety of the half fallen trunk of a palm tree. And when a woman in the distance cursed loudly, something indistinct about cowards and fighting from the sky, she saw her cue and came out - in search of the items she had hurriedly hidden behind some bushes.

When she saw that half of it was gone, she ground her teeth in frustration. She had spent all she had and now even the milk she had purchased for baby was gone. She thought about Olanna and her fretting attitude, and then Odenigbo, who she was sure would pretend that anxiety over her whereabout never crossed his mind.

It was time to get going. She weaved her way in the bush path along side four other women, whom it seemed had an alike purpose. In the distance, the earth groaned and was silent and the night lit up in flashes. When suddenly Kainene felt something on her leg. She screamed. The other women came to her and found that she had been bitten by a snake one of them proclaimed Echi Eteka. She moaned in pain and the women stood around her clueless. Then when the earth groaned closer, they fled - abandoning Kainene, her items and the night to their fate.

Image source : Cliqq magazine