THE ELEPHANT WOMAN Episode 4 – Stories of My life
I was very worried. I was afraid she was going to lose the baby. However, as God would have it, the delivery was safe. It was a baby girl and she bore a striking resemblance to her mum. She was very beautiful and I felt so happy and lucky to have her. The midwives who attended to her delivery were surprised at the strength Iris portrayed. They said they had never met a woman with so much strength before. If only they really knew who she was.
We named the child Praise. She brough new happiness to the home. However, there were times that I had noticed a distant look in Iris’ eyes. Sometimes she would become moody for days on end. I pretended not to know the reason. However, deep inside me, I knew I had forced her into a life she wasn’t prepared for. That was why I was so happy that we now have a child who would serve as a distraction to her.
Praise was growing up to be a great little girl. However, I was afraid that she must have inherited some of her mother’s qualities. This was because she expressed rare development and intelligence for her age. She was a witch’s daughter, no doubt about that. This could explain some of the strange things I was observing about her. For example, before she was a year old, she could already walk and talk perfectly. She was very strong and always wanted me to be around her. She was also so much in love with nature.
There was a day I was having a little conversation with her and I was really dumfounded by her replies. I was singing a song to her, using her name. A Christian song.
“Praise, Praise, Praise, Praise the Lord
Praise His Holy name, Hallelujah” I sang.
I was just singing a song but she quickly noticed her name which was Praise, was in the song. So, she sang her own version, using my name. Her own sounded like this:
“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy the Lord
Daddy’s Holy name…” She sang.
I burst out laughing. She laughed too. Her intelligence and smartness gave me joy and gave me hope too that she won’t be a witch like her mum. She was just a child though but I have heard of child witches. I know of a story of a child that was initiated into a cult where you were given the powers to resurrect after you die. When you die, about a day or two later, you leave your grave and come back home. You are kept in a secret room and after a while, you are given money and sent away to another country to go live a fresh live as a human again.
You can either be initiated into this cult while you are a child or when you are already much older. The downside of this initiation was that it got complicated when you die as a baby. This is because you will resurrect but won’t be able to take care of yourself because of your age.
This particular child was initiated as soon as she was born and died a week later. Since the charm was already in her, she resurrected and became frustrated. There was no one to take care of her and she herself didn’t even know what was happening to her. She just found herself somewhere in the forest, crying. A woman that was coming from her farm, saw her and thinking it was a normal baby, felt pity for her and took her home. She carried the baby on her back. When they got home, she tried to remove the baby from her back but she couldn’t. The baby had gotten stuck.
The whole village gathered and tried to free her from the baby to no avail. Then and only then did they realize it was an evil baby. They had no choice but to cut free the baby. Since the baby was stuck to the woman’s skin, part of her flesh too had to be cut off to free the baby. You can imagine the pains she went through. The poor baby cried and cried as she was being cut off. Finally, she stopped crying because she died, again. The woman took many months to recover. I shuddered when I thought of that story and prayed my baby would grow up normally and our lives would continue to be normal. However, that was not to be. Fate had decreed otherwise.
Iris and I had had five children now. Two boys and three beautiful girls. Life was going well for us. The children were growing strong and healthy and they all displayed extraordinary intelligence in school and at home. Iris, up until now still had no idea that I was the one who stole her skin. Every now and then, I would go to my bush hut and look at the skin. Sometimes I would clean, oil and sun it before hiding it again. I was hoping she never found out. I was also sure she would never find out. Many times, I had thought of destroying the skin once and for all. However, I was afraid. I was afraid that some harm might come to her if the skin was destroyed, so, I kept the skin. A mistake I would later regret.
I had resumed my elephant hunting. I had never met the elephant women again, but I did kill lots of other elephants and sold the tusks to ivory buyers. This was an illegal business and I was sure to run into trouble with the law someday. Each time I brought elephant meat home, Iris would refuse to eat or cook it. I had to cook it for myself and the kids. When the kids ate it, they developed serious allergic reactions so I decided to stop bringing it home.
My small family of me, Iris and our kids were doing great. We were also happy, but little did we know that our happiness had evoked the jealousy of the village people. The decided to set me up.
THE ELEPHANT WOMAN Episode 5 – Stories of My life
One day, I had just come back from hunting when I was told the police were at my home looking for me. My wife, Iris was scared. Very scared. I wondered why the police were looking for me. However, I suspected it had to do with my hunting business. I quickly freshened up and went to the village center to see if I could meet any of them. I didn’t. The village had no police post. They had come from the neighbouring town to look for me.
The next day, I went to the nearest town for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted to get some bullets for my gun. Secondly, I wanted to see the corrupt police commissioner who had supplied me with the gun. I wanted to ask him why his boys were after me. Iris wasn’t happy about me leaving. She begged me to stay but I had to go. It was really important.
Four hours later, I was at the police station, talking with the commissioner.
“You have to be careful.” The commissioner said. “Your village people were here to report that you have been involved in the illegal sale of ivory.”
“I know, officer.” I responded. “You know this is my source of livelihood. You have to protect me. You know how it is between us. Your share is always ready and available.”
“I understand. However, you still need to be extra careful. If it gets too bad, I might not be able to protect you. Your village people are jealous of you. I am sure it’s because of that beautiful wife of yours.” The commissioner warned.
“Thank you, boss. I will be extra careful.” I said.
A while later, I left the police station and headed to the market where I was able to meet an illegal bullet dealer. I bought my bullets from him and headed back to the village. When I got back to the village, I gave the whole thing a good thought. I replayed everything the commissioner had said to me in my head. I was asking myself why people would be so selfish and wicked as to want to set me up. I thought of abandoning the elephant hunting business. However, I decided that was out of the question.
The magic to hunt elephants was given to my grandfather by a white man. Yes, you won’t believe it, but it is true. Never underestimate the white man. That was during the colonial days. My grandfather was a friend with this white man and the white man taught him a lot about black magic, including how to hunt elephants safely. When the white man was about to leave Africa, he warned him to discard the magic and make sure he didn’t pass it to his sons. My grandpa didn’t adhere to his warnings. There were rumours in the village that even when the white man had gone back to his country, he still appeared to my grandpa secretly.
Now, it was thanks to the hunting business that I was able to secure my wife, my beautiful wife, Iris. So, how could I possibly abandon the trade now. My children were growing big and I had no other source of livelihood to take care of them. I was very worried. Nevertheless, it is said that once a man starts raising his family, he doesn’t think of himself alone when he is making a decision. He has to think of his family too. This is because whatever decision he makes, directly affects his family. For the sake of my wife and children, I decided that I would stop elephant hunting. However, I decided that I would make one last trip into the bush and that would be the last.
The next day, I headed to the forest. I trekked the whole day but could not find a single elephant to shoot. I couldn’t even see any other animal. It was such a bad day for me. Towards evening, I decided to go home and call it a day. I was about to go home when a thought came to me. I thought to myself. Why don’t I go and hunt in the national park? Of course, it is a protected reserve which was guarded by the law and patrolled by armed guards. However, the guards would have been gone back to their station since it’s already getting to evening. I could sneak in, shoot a few elephants, collect their tusks and go back to the village unnoticed. I decided I would take the risk.
I got into the national park and was immediately confronted by almost thirty elephants. The elephants, which were not used to being hunted because they were in the national park, smelled danger and charged at me. I immediately activated my magic and disappeared. I became invisible to them and in my invisible state, I opened fire and shot fifteen of them. They dropped dead and the rest escaped. I quickly got to work. I unsheathed my well sharpened machete and started the gruesome work of harvesting their tusks. Fifteen elephants meant thirty tusks. That would bring enough money to start another line of business and abandon this risky trade.
It was almost dark when I finished harvesting the tusks. I put them in a large bag and took them to my bush hut. I would have loved to go home immediately. However, the bag was too heavy that was why I had to drop some of the tusks at my bush hut and take just a little home that evening. I got home in one piece and told Iris about how adventurous my day was. She was really worried about me and was very thankful to God when I told her I had quit hunting.
We slept safely that night. Little did we know that, that was our last peaceful night in a very long time. Early next morning, around 5:00 AM, I heard a loud bang on my door. At first, I thought it was a dream, but the knocking persisted. I went to open the door and froze immediately. It was a policeman. I quickly shut the door in his face and ran back inside. I was just in my undershorts, but there was no time to dress up. I ran to the back door, hoping to make a quick escape. But as soon as I opened the back door, I discovered that my house had been surrounded by almost twenty policemen.
THE ELEPHANT WOMAN Episode 6 – Stories of My life
I ran back into the house and told my wife what had happened. She was devastated. She understood the gravity of the situation immediately and knew that was the end of the road for us. I went into my children’s room and they were all still sleeping peacefully. I wanted to take one last look at them before going out to face whatever was going to befall me. I tried to activate my disappearing magic and it worked. I would have escaped unseen. However, they had already seen me and knew I was home. If I didn’t surrender myself, they would take my wife. I would rather die than see Iris in the hands of any policemen.
I said goodbye to my wife, kissed her tenderly and handed over myself to the police. I was handcuffed and dragged away. My wife was inconsolable. She wept desperately as I was being taken away. I was roughly dumped in the police van. I went to the window of the van to take a last look of Iris. She was still crying and some neighbours who had been woken by the commotion were consoling her.
The police driver started the car and we left. I was deeply sad all through our journey to the neighbouring town where I was going to be locked up. I thought of my children and wondered if I was ever going to see them again. For sure, I knew my wife would visit me, but how about my children. I was very worried and depressed. My first daughter was already a teenager. She needed all my care and guidance. Here I was being taken to prison. Just yesterday, I was with my family, in my home and now all was lost.
We arrived our destination some four hours later. Though the police didn’t bother me all through the journey, every bit of it was still a great torture to me. I was dragged out of the van as soon as the car stopped and taken to a large cell where I had to await trial. The room was really big and was designed to hold about forty inmates. However, a quick count revealed that there were about two hundred inmates in there.
I was shown a little corner to sit and asked to be a good boy. I sat in the corner and tried to get myself accustomed to the new environment. I could still hardly believe the sudden turn of events. I could not believe I was in jail. I could not believe I was going to spend many months and who knows, many years away from my wife and children. I closed my eyes and for the first time in a long while, I wept bitterly.
A thought came to me to escape. But my family would be in trouble. I hoped and hoped that there would be a way my spirit could leave me and join my wife and children, even if my body remained here. I badly, very badly wanted to be with them. I had heard of stories where people are able to separate their bodies from the souls and make contact in the spiritual realm. I wish I had those powers.
I had spent two weeks now in jail. My case hadn’t been called up yet. I was miserably waiting to be judged and sentenced so I could begin serving my time. I had not been able to make contact with Iris or any other member of my family all this while. I had however, made a new friend in jail. A fellow inmate. He was the boss of the cell and our friendship actually started on a bad footing. He had sent for me and intended to impose his will on me. I had resisted. He had sent his boys to make inquiries about me. He had later been told that I was an elephant hunter. He had gotten scared and had decided to become my friend.
“Why are you looking so downcast?” He asked me one hot afternoon.
“I am miserable man, I miss my family, especially my beautiful wife.”
“Oh, it’s because of a woman you are in this mood?” He asked, smiling.
“Not just any woman bro. She’s, my wife. You need to see her. She’s an angel. If you were me, you would feel same.”
“I understand. I felt the same way when I was newly incarcerated. I have been here for ten years and I have another ten years to stay here.” He said.
“What?!” I almost screamed. “That long?”
“Yes, that long. I killed someone who attempted to steal my land. I let my anger get the better part of me. Now I am paying.” He lamented.
“How about your family?” I asked.
“I heard my wife remarried long ago. My children, I hear, are doing well. None of them visit me. I have been abandoned.” He said, sadly.
I felt sad and I was afraid too. I was thinking to myself. What if my wife remarries too? God forbid. I will look for every means to escape and deal with both of them. But killing them will land me back to jail, maybe forever. I prayed it didn’t come to that. The boss of our cell asked me how I met my wife and I narrated the whole thing to him. He was shocked beyond words. He told me he had heard stories of spiritual wives and husband before but had not expected to meet someone who had actually married one.
He told me a story of a man who loved his wife so much that they agreed that they would be together for better and for worst. However, the man died not long after that. He was terribly sick and passed away. Before he died, he instructed his wife to put her used pant in his coffin before he was buried. The foolish wife obeyed and did as the man had instructed. That pant now served as a link between him and his wife. There should be no connection between the living and the dead. A month later, the man was removed from the mortuary and taken to his village for burial. That same evening, after he had been buried, the mourners were in his living room with his wife when the man appeared. Only his wife could see him. She screamed and took to her heels but people thought she was mad because they could see nothing. The man ran after her in his invisible form and touched her, then vanished. She fell sick and died a week later.
I was frightened but I assured him that my wife was normal and up until now hasn’t given me any reason to be afraid of her.
I was very pleased the next day when a prison guard told me there was someone from the village to see me. I actually jumped with excitement. I was handcuffed and led out to meet him. He was my uncle. I hugged him intimately and asked about my wife and kids. He said they were all good in health but they were miserable because of my absence. He brought me some raw food and some money to take care of myself. He said my wife had sent the money. When I asked him where my wife got money to send to me, he said my wife told him she visited my bush hut and discovered some money I had stashed away.
“My bush hut!!!” I exclaimed, loudly. That was where her elephant skin was hidden.
#OpraDre THE ELEPHANT WOMAN
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