The Mystery Fire
That night, Buffalo made consultations with a weird oracle in his courtyard. This type of oracle had the power of feeling the pulse of certain forces in the spirit realm and Buffalo wanted some information about a nocturnal meeting he was about to attend.
"Do you think I should attend the meeting or not?" He asked the oracle.
"You can attend and everything will be well at the meeting," the oracle declared.
"Oracle, you have never failed me before. You have just confirmed that I should go on this visit. As you already know I have been summoned by the powers that be in this terrain and I ask my ancestors to go with me. This trip is part of my requirements and what I should do. Do not let contrary forces work against me," pleaded Buffalo as he poured libation on the oracle.
"I will not crash land during my flight," He prayed.
Buffalo stepped out of the house and surveyed the dark neighborhood. There was no one in sight. Only the sounds of crickets and birds were heard. Suddenly, Buffalo began to transform. His face changed slightly but he was still recognizable. He then began to grow wings and some feathers. Some supernatural forces lifted him up from the ground and made him to fly into the dark night.
Buffalo was a strange wizard who was human during the day and something else at night. No ordinary person knew his antics and activities at night. He flew over the city observing everything that went on beneath as he flew towards the direction where he was being expected that night. Many people had retired to bed in their homes. Those who had not slept were watching the late night shows on the television. They had eyes but they could not decipher what was going on outside, above the roofs of their homes. Buffalo's eyes roved the buildings below as he flew desperately towards the nocturnal meeting where he was being expected. Buffalo flapped his wings and slowed down the speed at which he flew like an aircraft as his legs landed on the tree like a bird. The landing was an amazing feat that caused a thunderous uproar amongst other personalities that had human faces and features of birds on the tree in the compound of Kabana's estate where John and Hain lived. Other creatures that met on the tree began to sing;
"Father of human birds has come
Welcome father of birds
We are happy to see you
But you came late
And you must pay a fine"
When these four creatures finished the song, Buffalo looked at them, cleared his throat.
He apologized for coming late. But the creatures insisted that Buffalo must pay the fine at another gathering. He agreed and they asked him to preside over the meeting. He made a very short speech after which a woman spoke and told the group why they were summoned.
"We are here because of one of those young filthy rich young men that find it difficult to respect people in the society. This particular one lives in this city of Freedomtown and we have to teach him a lesson very quickly before he develops wings to make him feel that he can compete feather to feather with us," said the woman.
"Who is this fellow?" Asked another woman.
"His name is Amanda and I know he has just seen our President in the nocturnal club over the theft that took place in his company. He is damn arrogant and we have to clip his wings," the woman said.
"It is true that this man has been seeing me over the theft that took place in his organization but we have not concluded the investigation and he will still come to me," said Buffalo.
"Then you can hit him on behalf of our people," said a female voice.
"That's why I have not wholeheartedly solved the mystery surrounding the robbery in his company. Something told me in the spirit that I should not give all the assistance that was required to him. Now, I know why I kept having this unusual feeling that was pulling me back from helping him fully," Buffalo told the gathering.
A decision was finally made concerning Amanda and the meeting ended. The creatures greeted each other and took off like aircrafts and went in different directions all over the city like they were going to launch missiles on enemy positions down below. Buffalo went on a yet another surveillance to view the exact location of Cough 2000 International Inc.
He saw everything that went on below clearly, including the night guards who watched the company after the burglary took place. But the guards were not aware of what was going on below the clouds over their heads. None of them had supernatural spiritual eyes to detect such activities in the air. They just sat below and puffed from the cigarettes that were in between their fingers. The way Buffalo flew over the city; he avoided colliding with the skyscrapers.
Finally, he landed inside the company with other creatures that had just flown out of the tree with him met him.
They had a mission in the company. One of the birds whose face was not clearly seen walked towards an electricity socket on the wall of one the rooms at the back of the company and picked a candlestick. Another creature brought a box of matches and took a stick from it.
They lit the candle and placed it on a wooden box to burn away. When this had been done, the creatures flew out of the company into the darkness. The candle burnt out later without the knowledge of the guards. The fire gradually began to consume the wooden structure that it was placed on slowly until it began a huge fire. The glowing fire attracted the guards who raced to make phone calls to the fire brigade department, Amanda's house, and the police. Everyone rushed to the scene, they carried water from everywhere and struggled to put out the fire, but it was to late. The entire factory area had been razed to the ground. Amanda wept profusely with some of his staff that had heard about the fire outbreak.
The following morning, the news was everywhere that Cough 2000 International Inc had been razed to the ground by a mystery fire. No one knew how the fire started and all the newspapers on the newsstand carried the story on their front pages. Agama, one of the men that stole with Whirlwind bought a copy of the newspaper as he walked towards Buffalo's house.
He was attracted by another story about the investigation that the police said they had conducted on the burglary of the same company that had been razed to the ground by a mysterious fire outbreak. However, as he walked on towards the house of Buffalo what was more paramount in his mind was the private discussion he had with the priest. The discussion centered on a visa application that Agama had sought to travel abroad. Agama had told Buffalo about it and he was curious when Buffalo told him that many years ago people could travel anywhere they wanted through supernatural means without a visa. Agama informed Buffalo that he was tired of robbing people and would like to travel to a foreign country, only if he could get a visa but regretted that he may not meet the visa requirements to any of the countries that he loved to visit.
Besides, he also explained that he was confiding in Buffalo and that if Whirlwind his boss knew about it, he would think that he was deserting him to divulge his secrets and that was dangerous. Buffalo however promised him that he would get a powerful medicine that would make him walk through security checks at the airports undetected by immigration and custom officers to any country he wanted to visit. Agama was very happy and he decided to visit Buffalo when Whirlwind was not there so that he could collect the talisman to make him invisible at the airport. When he got to Buffalo's house, he met him looking normal and refreshed as if he was not the one that engaged in nocturnal trip few hours earlier before the fire in Cough 2000 International Inc. started. They greeted each other and sat down to work on the medicine.
"There is no where that I want to travel to all over the world that I cannot visit. I do not need a visa. Who is the policeman officer that will stop me? Show me the immigration and the custom that will stop me? Have you seen a bird that asked for a visa before traveling?" He asked.
"No. I have not seen anyone," answered Agama ignorantly.
He truly did not understand the question and what Buffalo meant.
"My friend I will help you as long as you are ready and you are positive that I can help you," said Buffalo.
"I am positive and I believe you can help me. That is why I have come back. But please keep the secret and I will pay all the required fees," Agama said.
"I will help you," Buffalo promised.
He later asked Agama to chant after him these words; "I will travel without hindrance
Nothing hinders the bird as it flies in the sky. Everywhere I go let those who want to stop my movements look the other way."
He gave him an alligator pepper and asked him to grind it with his teeth. Agama complied.
"The day you want to travel, when you get to the airport, chant the incantations and raise your right leg. No immigration or customs officer will see you because of this spell that I have put on your body," said Buffalo.
"You mean that with my right leg suspended I will be invincible?" Asked Agama.
"Exactly! The spell I gave you is what our ancestors used during the ancient times when they were at the battlefield. Whenever the war became tough and they wanted to escape they would use the spell. But people should not be scared when using it because if people get scared, the spell can land them on different places that are not intended. Like trees, roof tops and so on," said Buffalo.
"This is very amazing," said Agama.
"Yes. It's very amazing but do not have fear because the only problem with this spell is fear. I remember the case of an ancient warrior that used the spell at the battlefield. When the war became very tough for him he thought of escaping from the war front. As he was giving commands to the spell to carry him away, he raised his legs but that was the first time he was using it. He was really not sure of what to do so he was afraid. Before he could give the proper instruction that the spell should carry him to his house, the damn thing landed him on a big tree from where he later descended,"counseled Buffalo.
"Thank you very much. If I can use this spell to travel abroad, I will be very grateful to you and I will never forget you. I am very tired of this unpredictable job and I want to get out of this city to another country far away. But my friends said that it is easier for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle than to get a visa," said Agama.
Now confident that he already has a spell that would make him pass through the airport unnoticed, Agama thanked the priest and left his house.
Three days later, Hain was returning home when he saw that their street was full of people screaming, yelling, and smiling. He wondered what was happening. Knowing fully well that there was never a dull moment in the area, he heard that the unusual had happened again on this strange street. When he got closer to his house, he could hear the discussions clearly and he deciphered what had really happened.
"Muffin, Monika's Father Number One" has hit Magun and he was electrocuted on top of the woman!" The people discussed loudly.
The man's name was Muffin. But people called his full identification with the name of his daughter, Monika who was the first child hence the number one in front of her name. To identify the real Muffin, people called everything about this man including the name and the position of his daughter in the family. So, they called him, Muffin Monika's Father Number One. He, it was that hit a strange disease, is it really a disease? A phenomena known as Magun, meaning "Do Not Climb." It is a kind of Thunderbolt found in some communities and used to curb infidelity.
Husbands put the charm on some wayward women when they are suspected of cheating on the man. When Magun is put on a woman, any man that attempts to sleep with the woman is electrocuted.
There are many types of this strange medicine which science has not been able to unravel. Some scientists and medical doctors argue that the seizures and tumbling may be due to previous health related problems associated with fits or cardiac arrest. There is a type of attack that made victims to convulse. Another type made people to act like sufferers of epilepsy. The one that people gossiped about on that street that day was the type that made people to crow like cocks when they are hit. That was the exact type that struck Muffin Monika's Father Number One.
"How did the Magun attack him?" Hain asked a known face as he walked on.
"I was just working on my car when I suddenly heard someone screaming that he wanted to crow. It sounded unbelievable at first. My mind was not on Magun. In thought this fellow was crazy and was joking with someone. But I heard loudly the second time about three minutes after when the voice screamed again;" I will crow!" Then I knew something was happening. I then rushed to the place. I saw the woman as she was trying to run away. I have never witnessed this kind of a thing before. Crowing in broad daylight? I knew if he was allowed to crow the third time he would die, so I covered his mouth with a pillow and sat on it because my father had told me in the past when I was young that that was the way to suppress people with Chicken Magun from crowing," said one of the neighbors.
The man felt better after but many still felt that he needed to go for medical checkup to find out if he sustained injury when he was bouncing of from the bed as he was crowing. The ambulance of the medical team that was to take him came for him. It was the same time that Buffalo rode in his Mercedes Benz car across the street. He saw the huge crowd that had come to witness the man that had been hit by Magun but he did not really know what was going on.
"What is happening here? Is it robbery?" Buffalo asked one of the boys who stood by the side of the road watching the events.
" No. It's not. Someone has hit Magun and they are about to take him to the hospital," replied the teenager.
"Magun! And they want to take him to a modern hospital? What do they know about Magun in modern medicine? They will only give the man analgesics and aspirin tablets. They cannot detect his problem under the X-ray machine or microscope. It is spiritual and it is we herbal priests that have the training to deal with it. Well, if the man loves himself, when he returns from the hospital let him visit the native doctor or my herbal sanctuary," said Buffalo as he cruised away from the scene. Throughout that day the story of the man that crowed was on the lips of everyone in the neighborhood. The following day, the newspapers had carried the story about the man that crowed and everyone was surprised that the media had quickly picked that kind of development in the city.
Headlines such as: "MAN CROWS LIKE A COCK, PERVERT CROWS IN FREEDOMTOWN, "DON'T CLIMB" MAKES MAN TO CROW" were used by the newspapers. The whole city was agog with the story. Even the spot where the incident happened became a kind of tourist's center. People rushed there to see where the couple reportedly crowed like cocks.
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