Read Part 7 here
She wakes in full flight panic. She struggles but realises she’s tightly bound. The air is hot and she can barely breathe within the space. Her heart hits her rib cage, so hard she can hear the vibrations. Her eyes feel numb as if there are ice cubes in them. The rolling movement stops. Ojuola knows she is in the boot of a car. She hears footsteps and the creaking sound of the boot popping open as a gush of air hits her face.
“Please…what did I do? Please, I’m sorry…” she begs in her confused state.
She can hear Nat’s cheeky laughter and Ireti whispering something inaudible to him. They drag her along. She feels the sharp pricks from twigs and elephant grasses on her legs.
“They are taking me into a forest,” her sense of her surroundings kicks in. She stops struggling with them and follows them quietly like a sick cow to the slaughter slab.
“My son, you’re welcome,” a frail voice greets. It belongs to an old man hunched over some calabashes, his long dreadlocks almost obscuring his face.
“Here is your gift Baba Di,” Nat says, a hint of pleasure in his voice. Ireti does not make a sound.
Ojuola shivers as she feels the old man approach. He yanks off the blindfold on her eyes. He laughs a strange deep throated laughter that startles her. Nat coughs uncomfortably.
“What’s wrong Baba Di?”
Baba Di stops laughing and clears his throat. He spits sputum and grinds it under his bare foot.
“The girl is blind, yet you cover her eyes.”
Nat begins to laugh and nudges Ireti to join him. She lets out something more like a whimper. Ojuola feels his sinewy hand on her shoulder as she is pulled down into a sitting position.
“Can we go now?” Ireti asks, tense.
Baba Di stirs a calabash of concoction and shakes his head. He seems to have forgotten his guests as he adds gunpowder and other ingredients into another calabash by his side. Ireti freezes on the spot. Nat tries to look unfazed but his eyes give away his trepidation.
“Hiaa!” Baba Di shouts.
Ireti and Nat fall over each other in their bid to escape. Their legs entangle in the undergrowth around the alcove. Ojuola does not move. She just sits and listens and sniffs at the air. Baba Di ignores the terrified couple as he moves to stand in front of Ojuola.
“Baba Di gave you perfect protection. I accept no gifts with stain. Return and get me a perfect gift.”
Ireti reaches out to grab Ojuola’s hand but Baba Di stops her with his fixed red-rimmed eyes stayed on her. She steps backward into the wall of Nat’s body.
“Say something…”she whispers hotly to him.
Nat finds his voice and promises to return with the perfect gift. Baba Di is back at his calabashes and ignores them. Ireti looks at Ojuola, regret lingering in her eyes.
“Ojuola, we’ll come back for you…”
Ojuola disregards Ireti’s empty promise. She wraps her arms around herself and rocks to the gentle swirling breeze from the trees in the forest. She stops her motions in shock as a growing red patch appears in the midst of her darkness.
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