THAT night, Eric could not sleep for a long time. He kept rolling from one end of the noisy spring iron bed to the other, thinking of what Ubaka had told him earlier that day. So, Ubaka now had a girlfriend! Eric had never had any. Apart from what Uncle Sam said about it being a sin, there was this fear that always came up within him each time he tried to talk to a girl. He recalled vividly what happened when he newly assumed the position of the senior prefect of the school and many girls, especially those in SS-2, were trying to get his attention. He sent a junior student to call one of the girls. But his heart was beating so fast and he was so afraid of what to tell her that he walked away as he saw her coming. Not even when the girl came the nest day to honour his call. Eric merely apologised to her and told her there must have been a mistake somewhere because it was another girl he had sent for.
So, Ubaka now had a girlfriend!
‘And do you want one yourself?’ a part of him suddenly asked.
‘No, no!’ the other part hurriedly replied.
‘But why?’ the first part was insistent. ‘Why don’t you want a girlfriend? Look at Ubaka. Despite his big words, he is no match for you. You are more intelligent than him; you are older than him. And yet, he has a girlfriend and you don’t. Is it fair?’
‘Uncle Sam says it’s a sin to have a girlfriend.’
‘What does he know? Many boys in Believers Church of God have girlfriends. Ubaka even knows them and their girlfriends. You heard him say so, didn’t you?’
‘I say I will not have any girlfriend! Get thee behind me Satan!’
To counter the disturbing thoughts, Eric did as he always did when confronted with issues that refused to leave his mind: he counted from one to hundred over and over again. He was still doing this when sleep came to his rescue.
But it was to wander in the horrible and eerie land of nightmare. He found himself in the jungle part of Owa river, the main river that ran through Obodo-Uku community. A naked lady was bathing before him in the river. She was very fair and beautiful and had long hair reaching down to almost her waist. Eric, who had never seen the naked body of an adult woman, was mesmerized at the sight of all the curves.
‘I am Oshiomo,’ she kept telling Eric. ‘I am Oshiomo, the new girl from Asaba.’
What she was saying was very strange and somewhat mystical, for Oshiomo was the name of the powerful river goddess that controlled most of the rivers of the Niger delta tributaries.
‘I am Oshiomo,’ she was still saying. ‘I am Oshiomo, the new girl from Asaba.’
Eric suddenly noticed that the water was coming up his legs and had even gone up to his waist. He tried to move back towards the bank of the river but realised he could not do that. An invisible chain had pinned him down and the more he struggled to free himself, the more he kept going under. The water was now almost up to his chest.
Now terrified, Eric turned to the bathing woman for help but froze at what he saw. She was no longer the beauty he had earlier seen. She had now turned into a monster with big unnatural teeth, a drooping tongue and a pair of malevolent eyes that were cast wickedly on him.
‘Help! Help!’ Eric shouted, turning his face towards the river bank to see if there was anyone nearby to rescue him from the monster. That was when he discovered a crowd had suddenly gathered at the bank of the river and was watching the unfolding drama. Ubaka was among those in the crowd. He was pointing at Eric and the monster and talking excitedly to those near him. Even Uncle Sam and Aunt Celina, his fiancée, were there too. Uncle Sam was looking sorrowfully at him while Aunt Celina was leaning on him and crying. And then, from the crowd, a file of uniformed officers – Eric could not tell whether they were soldiers or police officers – came out and began to aim their guns at him as if it was a firing squad and he was the target.
The water was now almost up to his neck. Caught between the monster and the gun-wielding officers, Eric was horrified and did not know what to do. And then, bang!-bang!-bang! The officers had begun to shoot.
‘Help!’ Eric screamed. ‘H-e-e-e-e-e-l-p!’
He woke up with the scream still on his lips. His body was covered with sweat and his heart was pounding so furiously that it was as if it would burst at any moment. Still shaking, he got up from the bed and looked round the room, trying to convince himself it was all a dream and he was not actually at the bank of Owa river.
Nne Ejime (or Mama Twins) had heard her son’s screams. She got up from her bed, took up the local lantern lamp and made her way to his room. Eric was still seated on the bed, trying to shake off the effect of the nightmare.
‘What is it?’ Nne Ejime asked.
‘It was a nightmare,’ he replied. ‘I had a terrible nightmare.’
She slowly lifted the lamp up to the raffia ceiling above. ‘Sweep off all those cobwebs. I have always told you to make sure there are no cobwebs on the ceiling before you sleep under it but you will never hear. They make one have bad dreams.’
She stood by the door while he took a nearby broom and swept away the cobwebs. When she was satisfied that the job had been done, Nne Ejime told him to lie back on the bed and then went back to her own room. Eric waited until she had gone back and there was no sound coming from her room. Then he quietly stood up, zipped open his portmanteau bag and brought out his leather-cover Bible. It was a present Uncle Sam had given him some years back. He opened to Psalm 23 and began to read: ‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…’ He read the entire chapter again and again until he slept off.
Adapted from the novel, Why Are We So Dark?
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