Alacrimia | √

Chapter Ten

Eniiyi gulped nervous energy and futilely tried to disappear into the folds of her grandmother's wrapper. What had she done wrong? And why was it so serious as request the attendance of every pair of eyes in the village?

'Grandma,' she whispered, keeping her gaze focused on the space between the ground and where the assembly was, 'I swear, I didn't do anything. Believe me.'

There was a slight break in her grandmother's movement, other than that she made no indication of having heard the young girl.

The escort stopped in front of the platform where the high chairs were and prostrated flat on the floor in greeting to the group of six elders decorating the furniture. A dark-faced man sat separately from them farther to the side and he so very much looked like it was all he could do from stomping down and beheading the girl.

'Here they are, Baale, elders; the possessed child and her grandmother.'

Eniiyi almost spit out blood at that statement. What on Earth were these barbarians on about?

Grandma bowed her head slightly and greeted the council. She couldn't kneel down to them since there were some that were younger than her amongst them. She pulled Eniiyi forward. The young girl had now regained her composure and stared at the elders in a non-chalant manner.

One of the men - the oldest - turned to the angry man. 'Baale, can we carry on?'

'Do,' came the curt reply, with a look of contempt. Then he turned to glare at Eniiyi and the girl glared back. Old decorated bull!

'Very well then, we shall knife the matter straight in the chest.' All eyes turned to the girl.

'Eniiyi, child of Makanjuola, do you hear us?'

Eniiyi did a mental eye roll but answered. Even she was not too dumb to not know she was in a serious, although mysterious, situation. 'I can.'

'Is it true that you forecast the death of Miss Bewaji, the daughter of the village chief four days ago?'

Eniiyi frowned, surprised. 'No, I didn't. Who is that?'

The elders glanced amongst themselves and the angry man snorted.

'Who did you forecast their death?' an elder threw back.

'I . . . do you mean the woman from Abuja?' Eniiyi eyes went wide and she palmed her cheeks in horror. 'She's dead? She eventually died?' She gasped.

'She's only pretending to be innocent,' a voice from the crowd hollered.

'Don't let the witch ensnare you in her evil webs,' another shouted.

A wave of murmur rolled turbulently around the building at this as the people vented their opinions.

'What can cause this kind of disrespect?' the angry man whom Eniiyi had hypothesized to be the village chief said.

The noise stopped instantly as people murmured their apologies.

'Elders, with all due respect o, you're wasting your time, kódà, you're wasting my time too and the time of the people. That girl killed my only daughter and she should be banished from this land.' He ended with a tone of finality.

'Baale, we can't do things like that, have patience, sir.'

The baale looked highly offended by this but was stopped from talking back by the arrival of two young servants who came to whisper into his ear.

'Someone has been sent to the family members in Abuja to report the death. Hopefully he'll get there by tomorrow and they can come home and let us start the funeral rites.' The baale said whisperingly, suddenly looking sad remembering he would have to do the funeral rites for his child who died before him.