SOLOMON'S BRIDGE {Part I}

SOLOMON *11*

Diary of Justice Hall, pg. 311

Evil never sleeps. The kingdom of darkness are continually taking council against the just; the destinies of souls can be thwarted by the interference of wicked men and women already in the employ of principalities and powers in high places, but in the long run, the righteous shall always prevail...

********************

1891: What Happened Before

Solomon Effiong Of Etoi

Solomon was born a good boy who loved his mother very much. At age three, he used to touch her cheeks and say, "I 'ov you mummmm-" and she'd laugh that tinkling sound that rang and rang throughout the pulsing halls of his little beating heart. His mother was the most beautiful woman on earth, with green eyes, long golden hair and butter milk skin. She was a mulatto, the daughter of a prince of Madagascar.

One day, when he was five years old, his father told him to sit at the head of his canoe. Even at that age, he knew it was a very special canoe, it routinely carried secret things out to sea and always came back empty.

Solomon's father served the ancient marine demon, Itu. As the first and most fervent of all devotees, Solomon's father was also called, Itu. Before Itu becomes a secret religion binding all devotee generations to one name, Itu is a self proclaimed general of all the Canaan seas, west of Alkebulan, who already lived on Earth as the fallen, in a wraith to near formless state, for... more than fifteen centuries. Itu's evil avatars were plenty, varying in size and baseness, his personal familiar, however, is only one, the Titanoboa, whose task it is to steal the glories of men and women through sinful sexual perversions, to give to Itu, to eat, and live on. Solomon's father was Itu's best high priest, being a man
who loved wickedness; he did not spare his own lineage in the perpetuation of it. To this end, he'd married seven women prior, though none were alive anymore. Each and every first son of his, who opened the womb and was presented to him, was tried in the perpetuation of his wickedness, then passed through the fire when found wanting, until, the coming of the chosen one.

Solomon's mother did not know that her baby boy was the chosen one. She would cover his eyes anytime he wanted to look at the secret things, but the day his father told him to enter the canoe, was different. His watchful mother was far from him, at the front of their large mud hut, suddenly occupied with plaiting the hairy heads of a few little girls who arrived at the same time his father did. It was his mother's work, to plait the hair of the women in the village. His father then  found him playing in their backyard.

The backyard was Solomon's favourite place, because it seemed to be the doorway to the ocean. The mighty waves rose, rolled and roared all through the night, crashing against the cliffs to their left and right, foaming in ripples whenever it came closer to kiss his feet. His father yanked him away from his sea shells and told him... he would meet the general of the Atlantic that day. He could discern the importance of such a personality; in fact, he would've been excited about going out to sea with his father for the first time, had it not been for his mother's running figure, trying to catch the canoe as they drifted out beyond her reach, beyond her tears, and her agonized wails, "N-no!!! Not my son!!! Don't take my son!!!"

He knew something was wrong because his father only laughed. He saw her kneeling figure get even smaller, as her screams grew faint, and then his eyes landed on the pile of secret things, heaped in the middle of the canoe, separating him from his father, who had since ceased paddling. An awkwardly twisted, mangled body of a female child lay lifeless at the bottom of the pile. He turned his face to look away, and his father laughed again, telling him he would follow the path of seven brothers before him if he did not retrieve the sword. Solomon! His father called him sternly, look at me. He did, but now he was trembling in fear. It was cold and windy, and he couldn't see his mother anymore. He couldn't see their mud hut anymore. He couldn't see the cliffs and the hills anymore. All about them was water.