*Working draft*
Teary Scene:
This scene should make readers cry. At the orphanage, one month is up, Jessica and Edima are trying to console Idara that being an orphan is not so bad, but Idara is too sad, she cannot believe her mother gave her away. Just as the three of them swear a childish swear to always look out for each other, Idara's mother, Inyang Maye Hatta, arrives the orphanage, has a slight face off quarrel with Sister Uduak, and shouts for her daughter. The three friends hear her calling to Idara, and two friends watch as Idara runs to the tightest hug and embrace of her mother who takes her away. She even forgets to say goodbye to the two friends she leaves behind, Jessica and Edima, who encourage themselves, knowing that no mommy or daddy is coming to get them, they hold hands and walk away into the everglades.
In which Edima, Jessica and a surprise mysterious visitor, Sister Uduak Mayen's strange charge from Benin, are having a midnight snack chat in the library, where Jessica shares stolen treats, and tells what she read in history text that morning, about the pre historic creatures, are they the same in the book of .... Where it is written men's hearts will fail them for the things that will come upon the Earth? And Edima thinks maybe, because God divided the firmament from the firmament, and the waters from the waters, so, they must all be hiding in the various divisions, until the appointed day to come out, the armageddon? Fear chases them further into the office in the library when the clock strikes midnight, but the strange surprise visitor, Idara, wants to hear more, like, what types of creatures? And Jessica lists the ones she read about, like the dragons, dynasaurs, leviathan, titans, megalodon, titanoboa---
Edima insists she has seen the titanoboa--- here in Canaan, close to where they fetch water in the forests. She insists, even when Jessica calls her a liar, she tries to tell them of the day she saw it in the silver lake. Idara supports her story with a story of her own. She confides in them, that Sister Uduak Mayen is from one of those dividing firmament places, she thinks they are called realms. That she used to live in Canaan the time it was a kingdom, with Tribe Custodians, that back in that time she was called Mayen, she was the most trusted of the fifteen shield maidens of Canaan, the confidant of the Tribe Custodian, and she has come now, to teach her the old ways of Nsidung and Etoi, just as she came before, to teach her grandmother Kate, and her great grandmother, Idorenyin. One of the things she is teaching her, in this one year holiday, is about the transporter.
The Titanoboa is a spiritual transporter between the realms, it moves sacrificed people that it swallows to serve in other kingdoms, in slavery. It must be controlled always by its master, whose soul is merged with it, who must be a leader of Nsidung. So it exists in Canaan, in the old days, it used to be kept in a sacrificial pitt, to help the Nsidung help the Ekpe, to maintain law and order. The other two girls are amazed at Idara's vast knowledge, but they are discovered by Sister Uduak Mayen herself, who shouts at them, beats them, but flogs Edima mercilessly with her thick waist belt, till the little body of Edima is covered in bleeding bruises and weeping wounds.
Special emphasis on the time of bridge baby event that put the marine kingdom agents to monitor where the baby is; so the orphanage is very much a haunted place, where the witches and marine entities are trying to kill Edima, who has a mission to help save idara and the city. Therefore the little orphan girls experience this haunting, note also that three decendants are together for three weeks as Uduak Mayen has brought idara with Kate's permission to train her and awaken the burning spear. It must be evident the timing, kate is yet alive, the girls are all ten years or eleven years. Note also that, in a dream, a scene can relay events of what happened on the bridge as edima's mom dies on the bridge, covering her baby in prayer, Edima can dream this. Note also that, Uduak Mayen is a conscious and practicing witch who is a very good nun always praised by the reverend mother bit it must be shown in this chapter how at a certain hour when everyone is asleep she goes through her portal to receive instructions on how next to terrorize Edima who she victimizes. Note also the academic study of the children, how Edima says she "thinks" she saw something like a Titanoboa, and show the scene when Sister Uduak Mayen brings idara to the convent and she introduced her to the nuns as her protege or distant relative come for a short visit and holiday. She lies about who idara is. In the orphanage they have rules and even though sister Uduak Mayen wants to quickly initiate her she finds it hard to do because the rules do not allow her to sleep with the child so idara sleeps with the orphan girls and this is how Edima and Jessica get to know her for her short three weeks stay. Note, end chapter by hinting at why the good nun wanted to help Edima escape the convent, how, before her husband killed her, she had given Edima her own copy of the keys to the doors of the orphanage.
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SOLOMON'S BRIDGE {Part II/WORK IN PROGRESS}
General FictionThe Pitch: The Custodian of Canaan is reborn, but so are the major players in the injustice that was done to her, in 1891. This time around, she is the villain. Revenge has never been so sweet, so irresistible, and so utterly confusing. Because come...
