The Mystery Hand
Dupe threw her arms open at Fernando Po to welcome him. Both of them held on to each other. They were lost for a moment as they looked into each other's eyes. Fernando Po bent down slightly to kiss her lips but suddenly had a slap on his face. He was dazed.
"What is this? What have I done? Why did you slap me?' he asked.
"I did not slap you," she answered worriedly.
Dupe too had seen the strange hand that came from somewhere above their heads and slapped Fernando Po. She could not believe it. But from her past experiences she knew it was possibly the kind of strange things that shattered her previous relationships that was at play.
"I am sorry, these spirits are at work again. They don't want to leave me alone,"
she pleaded with him.
He bent his head to kiss her lips, but found out that another head emerged strangely from somewhere near the walls and bit his lips.
"O God, what have I done?" He asked.
"Why did you bite me like that?"
"I did not bite you," she pleaded again.
The head disappeared but was waiting somewhere on the wall as if to bite him again if he ever attempted to kiss her lips.
Even though she did not bite him, he could feel the injury of this bite on his lips and blood coming out from his lips.
He then stood up without a word and walked away back into his room. Dupe felt guilty and she knew that her problems of scaring men despite her beauty had not really left her after three men had died mysteriously .She wished she could talk to Fernando Po about it afterwards, but he really was not in the mood. As Fernando Po settled inside the pigeonhole room to sleep, he heard a buzzing sound like that of a bee. While he trying to understand what was going on, there was a crack on the wall and a hefty looking man emerged from the crack. The sight was scaring and Fernando Po wanted to run out. But the door was locked .He could not imagine how this fearful fellow could come out into the room from a cracked wall before dawn. He thought the best thing was to wait and be ready for the worst. In his mind, he remembered a proverb that says that; it is the death on the battlefield that kills the warrior while the swimmer dies in the waters. What if the man that came out of the wall chase him and catches up with him if he decides to run? He asked reasonably wondering if he would ever be able to escape from the hands of the strange man. Though Fernando Po was a strange man in behavior to the people of Keloke village, he however found himself face to face with a weird apparition.
"What are you up to in this place? Asked the man from the wall
"I am living in this house. This is my room," Fernando Po answered with a terrified voice.
"I do not care about that. I care about Dupe. If you do not know, I gave you the bite on the cheek when you wanted to kiss her," said the man from the wall.
"Why did you do that and who are you?" Asked Fernando Po. He was scared.
"I am Dupe's wife from heaven and I am very jealous. No man on earth should marry her," he volunteered.
"Where do you live," asked Fernando Po.
"I live in heaven," he answered.
"But we live on earth and there is no union between inhabitants of heaven and the people of the earth," said Fernando Po.
"That is what you think. But I have come to warn you. If you love your live, desist from her. Have you not been told about what happened to men who wanted to marry her before?" he asked
"I have been told," he answered.
"So you want to behave like the man who met the buffalo at the river bed and thought the animal died over drunken with water," said the man from the wall.
"Now, I command you whips to come out of the wall and do what you know best on this man," ordered the man from the wall.
Within the twinkle of an eye, twelve men holding canes came out of the wall from all directions. Fernando Po's eyes roved and just could not locate directly on any of them in particular. The men began to thrash his body with whips and he began to cry running all over the place.
When the men felt he had had enough and they were satisfied, they disappeared into the wall.
"Whips on the body of the stubborn man. I hope you have learnt a lesson? ," Asked the man from the wall as he too disappeared.
Now completely overwhelmed with fear, Fernando Po did not realize the time he began to apologize to the man from the wall.
"If you do not desist now, I will show you the road where her previous suitors have followed," he warned with finality as he disappeared back into the wall.
Fernando Po opened his mouth wide with amazement. He could no longer go back to bed. The events of this night had really been bizarre and frightening. He thought that if he went back to sleep something else might happen and it might claim his life. His mind began to wonder about those experiences. First he was bitten while trying to kiss Dupe and now another man came out from the wall and gave him a stern warning to desist from having any relationship with her. How do you explain all these?
While all these problems were bothering him, Fernando Po suddenly remembered a gourd given to him by his father before he died many years ago. His father had told him that any time he was in trouble and does not have immediate answer to the problems he should take an alligator pepper from the gourd and put it in his mouth. He should crush the pepper and begin to speak into eat saying;
"Let the spirit of my ancestors unravel this mystery before me."
Fernando Po followed the instructions as laid down by his father.
Just as he put the alligator pepper in his mouth, a small mat emerged from a corner in the room.
"Sit on me," the mat ordered him
Though terrified, he sat on this mat. The mat lifted him up and carried him like a bird through the clouds. They journeyed through the winds and subsequently landed somewhere up in heaven. It was as if they were attending a celebration. The mat spoke in a strange voice. The mat said that Fernando Po should keep quiet and just watch the unfolding events.
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