Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 2
“Travel home to your father this minute. When you get home, ask him about your calabash”.
Chukwudi got to his village that night.
Everyone ( especially his father) was very surprised to see him.
They’d spoken earlier that day and nothing about his coming home had been mentioned.
This was the first time in ten years Chukwudi is visiting home.
.
The next morning, Chukwudi gave his father the question the “Man of God” had sent him with.
His father’s reaction to his question sent shivers down Chukwudi’s spine.
The old man smiled, unend.
“Chukwudi my son, have I ever called you all these years while you were in the city, to ask you for money?”
“No papa”.
“This is because I know you don’t have. I know you can’t have. There is no way you can have my son, there is absolutely no way, so I don’t bother to ask”.
Chukwudi was shocked to his bones, on hearing this.
.
His father beckoned on him, as he led the way into the back of their thatched hut.
At the back of the hut, Chukwudi was pointed towards lined up calabashes.
“What are these papa?” Chukwudi asked.
“Every calabash here represents each of my children”.
Huh?
“What is it meant for papa?” Chukwudi asked again, confused.
“Its a covenant our ancestor have had with their oracle, Chukwudi. A ritual my grand father inherited from his father. One that has been passed down to me. A ritual we perform till date”.
The old man walked towards the calabashes and picked one up.
“This particular one belongs to you, it is your calabash, Chukwudi. The other ones belong Okechukwu, Chidinma and the rest of your siblings. The instruction is that, on no condition must it be left dry of palm oil, else, your lives will remain as dry. No one is allowed to buy this palm oil with their own money to do this ritual on whoever’s behalf and since you and your siblings have refused to come back home all these years, I knew hardship for all of you, was inevitable”.
Chukwudi stood there with his mouth agape.
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
The couldn’t believe the nonsense of it.
He couldn’t believe all the hardship he’d undergone the last ten years had been as a result of a hundred naira palm oil ritual he’d had no idea of its significance in his life.
He made sure he took note of the calabash his father had pointed him to, for later.
.
He came right back after his father had retired for the night, took the calabash that’d been pointed as his, and fled the village that night.
His intent, to run with it to that “Man of God” for help.
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