THE VICTIM’S PLOT

Happy new month guys. Welcome to July. I really missed this space and I have been busy trying so hard to finish up so many stories at the same time. Thank you for the past reads as we hope to keep dropping great stories that’ll leave you fixated and calm. So please allow us to introduce to you our story for the month THE VICTIM’S PLOT. Please do enjoy the read, ensure you like, SUBSCRIBE, leave comments and also share with friends. Thank you

Two market days had passed and I didn’t notice any sign. Jahyamma still looked normal and was consuming lots of pap, and his suckling attitude was unlike babies I have helped nurse. Was this normal? Or was he eating his last meals so quickly? I was getting weird thoughts and crazy assumptions, at some points I forgot he was just a baby.
But the wise one was clear on his warnings, how come there was no sign of convulsion? I looked closely at him, paying close attention to his eyes, they seemed normal and he was smiling, even all through the night. Something must be wrong.
I ran out to meet mother where she sat selecting beans.
“Mother the baby looks fine” I’m sure my anxiety had started to get on her nerves
“Ugo that baby is a witch. The earlier you hasten to Agham river to drop him, the better for all of us” she picked her words calmly so that every syllable made sense.
“But why should we believe the midwife?” I beckoned
“Should we believe you then?” She replied almost immediately looking straight into my face.
“Agwagom gi, go and throw that evil away. That child isn’t my grandchild, your real child will come when the gods say so” her words were really hurtful.
“Remember what the wise one said. Remember the tone and the strong warnings he gave to us if we allowed the child to die in our home. Please say your final prayers, cry if you may, and then head to the river before the sun sets”
I was disoriented, I was torn in pieces. After searching for thirteen years for a child, how will I tell Ikedi that the child we bore wasn’t meant to survive. How?
I had kept the truth from him thinking the claims about Jayamma being a cursed child was false, and now Ikedi has gotten used to the child. How then do I begin to make him see the real picture?
I dashed back into the house, grabbed Jahyamma, abandoning his clothings and made for the river. As I walked through the bush paths avoiding careless eyes, I started to think of the days leading to his birth. How I almost bled to death and how the delivery lasted into the nights. I thought of the soreness after and the pains I had to go through before being able to walk.
I wasn’t sure I could stand loosing this child. I wasn’t sure I was ready to face the pain of having to watch my first born be taken into a river I dreaded all my life. I cried my heart as I hastened my steps. Sights of women returning from the market only reminded me of the imminent sunset and the fear of running mad started to dawn on me. I felt weak. I felt dead inside, I knew I would die after this.
I stared at my baby, my first born. I looked at him as he slept in my shakky hands. I wonder what his future would have been like. I had hoped he’d be a palm wine tapper, so he can climb high up to look through the forests and tell me how the world looked on the other side. Ikedi my husband was too lazy to even lift a knife to slice oranges, I wouldn’t dare ask him to climb up a palm tree to my pleasure.
“What if I never bear a child again? What if I never bear a son? What if I die from the pains of mourning Jayamma?”
As many thoughts crowded my mind, I finally had time to stop and look around. I couldn’t recognize anywhere here. I had been running for so long and was lost in thought that I didn’t realize I had passed our boundary and two more into Umuamadi. The air here was fresh and smelt different, not filled with smokes rising from burning pots stuffed with palm fruits and hot casava. I could feel the calmness and the cool breeze. I could hear children playing in a distance and the laughter was different from the ones we had back at home.
I was lost, far away from home, but somehow I felt at home.
I felt peace and deep down I felt hope. I had a feeling the prophesies wouldn’t reach us here. I somehow was convinced that he had a better chance of survival than back there, a place where he had been rejected at birth. Here I know he’ll have a real family and would grow up to be a great boy.
I calmly wrapped Jayamma with one of my wrappers, ensured he was fully covered and I laid him down in front of his father’s house. Okafia will just have to take responsibility for his son until I come back for him. I’ll just have to muster courage to tell Ikedi that I followed the warnings of the wise one and threw the baby into the river. I’m sure he’ll understand after I tell him that it was his fornication with my mother that brought the curse upon the child. I also need to find money to pay Ogboshishi the wise one, he did a good job lying to mother, I hope the gods doesn’t sack him for doing my job