She lay on the soft down that was the floor and looked toward the pink horizon. A flower being came over and observed her solemnly. Numen smiled and introduced herself. The flower being smiled cheerfully as it allowed itself to be attracted closer to her.
“You wouldn’t know what I am looking for, would you?” Numen asked wistfully.
The flower being shook a large number of drops of water off her head causing Numen to laugh.
“What is your name?”
“Lomilayo.”
“Interesting name, I think, and quite explanatory—you belong to the olokun, right?”
“Yes, we look after the flowers on the rivers.”
“Lots of us don’t know what to do with your flowers.”
“Yes.”
There was comfortable silence for a while when Numen called Kadine, telling him they needed to be on their way.
The journey took her all day and she lived on fruits throughout the journey, riding into the encampment when the bells for the close of the evening were sounded. The camp was already lit and Numen asked at the gate where she was being quartered. A young lady rode up to her smiling, and led her through a long series of mountains and into very tall buildings. The place shimmered in evening lights. Her escort told her that she had accommodation on the fifth flight of steps up a Mountain staircase that seemed to stretch away into the sky.
Numen followed happily knowing she was at the end of her journey. She looked forward to her base training as Adura had explained. She had been told that her guide Suuru will be expecting her at the ninth hour.
Now finally in her room, she unpacked and went in to shower. She heard the soft music of the sounds of nature. The constant hum of the level and the activity as white clad ladies moved silently but purposefully around.
A small blink of light indicated that someone was at the door and without saying anything her mind scanned the visitor at the end of the light source and she asked the visitor to enter. Numen stood amazed at the figure that swept in. Hair the texture of blazing flames and skin a crystal white, and she had the bluest eyes Numen had ever seen.
Those eyes were amused as she rested in the middle of the room and flames flicked all around her
“Hello, my name is Stellar, with an ‘r’ if you don’t mind.”
Numen laughed, “I am sure I don’t mind.”
“Kaseaun asked me to be your guide on this level and I am to take you around. Have you eaten?”
“I was just thinking of it.”
“I am not allowed to take you to the restaurant, but I told Iwa to send your food up. She said you indicated a preference for fruits as you came in.”
“That was kind of her,” Numen replied, and moved to a covered table that had baskets of fruits in them.
She asked Stellar to join her but the lady told her that she had eaten. “I am actually curious to make the acquaintance of an Earth traveler. How is that place?”
Numen laughed. “It will take several incarnations to tell you.”
“I guess so. When Akoda passed by, we learned a lot about what he was going to do and we all hoped he would succeed in his mission. I hear it was just as bad as Ela’s preparation.”
Numen nodded
Stellar smiled. “I have received quite a lot of instructions when I do calculations in placing them. Pretty interesting combinations sometimes.”
Numen grew interested. “What do you do?”
Stellar laughed. “I am part of those who do combinations. Which part of the universe depends on the placement of the cosmos, the stellar rays at the particular time, what will be where, and what time the threads will be maturing. Calculations my dear from the colors and threads we receive for the incarnating spirit. What will be due and what must be cleared out. Every fine thread must be taken into consideration.”
“I see. That is why you were asked to guide me. I have been asking questions about a seeming undeserved death.”
“The woman who got clubbed to death down there, I take it?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm, one minute.” Stellar said, and from her pocket she brought out a tablet and touched figures in it. She was silent for a while as Numen saw the pictures of the woman who had been brought into her hospital. She watched the scene replay itself and then she saw inside a crystal sheet of water what had been before the woman incarnated. How she was a soldier and had clubbed a small boy to its death. Numen became horrified and sickened. She had compassion in her eyes when she looked into Stellar’s.
There was no need to ask anymore, only to send a prayer of help for both of them. Stellar inclined her head and told her that she was being expected in the red room and promptly turned on her heels and left.
The opening door brought Ife awake and she blinked as the assistant knocked softly at the table to attract her attention.
Her assistant, a small pretty woman that Ife guessed would be in her forties, always had a merry glint in her eyes and was ever helpful. Ife smiled respectfully asking what was needed. She was informed that there was a woman with a young girl in the ante room waiting to see her.
Ife thanked her and walked into the ante-room and the young girl stood up to respectfully kneel to greet. Ife immediately saw Raingirl just off the right shoulder of the girl and she remembered instantly. So this is Raingirl’s replacement. She kept her thoughts hidden from the woman and girl and invited them to a small section of the ante room. She made small chat with the woman and requested that they should feel free to say whatever they wanted to discuss.
The woman was nervous as she untied her head gear several times but the young girl lost patience and blurted out to Ife that she would like to be a doctor just like Ife and would like to come and stay in the palace so she could be an apprentice. Ife laughed outright and in the same tone of amusement congratulated the girl for having such big dreams. She questioned the girl about her subjects and advised her to always pay close attention to her studies. Then she remembered that the young girl was going to be taken to a town far away so she turned to the woman and asked why.
The woman nervously explained that the girl had to be taken to an aunt so they could raise funds for the girl’s education. Ife was touched and silently planned to ask for the Lion’s help.
She turned to the girl with a smile. “By the way, what is your name, my young lady?”
“Lomilayo.”
“I see, so I may start thinking of you as Dr. Lomilayo, right?”
The young girl laughed and Ife stood still in surprise for Lomilayo’s laugh was like very distant thunder. And she remembered that the flower being she had met on her journey had called herself by that very name. Ife was very intrigued.
She stared at the young girl in wonder and she remembered her own early years when she did not understand even herself. Is this being aware of who she is? she asked herself, but she only smiled at the girl and told the mother that Lomilayo was to be allowed to see her at all times whenever she wanted.
The mother thanked her with awe while Lomilayo took that invitation as natural looking round the room with curiosity.
Chapter Seven
“You can’t turn his offer down, Kabiyesi.”
“You seem to have a very short memory, my friend,” Babatunde snapped.
She gave Yomi a stern look as his eyebrows knit in annoyance.
Yomi laughed and gave the check in his hand a close inspection, and looked up at his friend. They were in the palace and Yomi had come to explain the donation to the king of sixteen million naira. It was a huge amount of money and Babatunde had been very shocked when he asked who the donor was and was told it was Prince Adewunmi. That was what had started the argument because Babatunde had simply rejected the amount and Yomi was trying to persuade him to have a rethink.
Babatunde was still mystified. He remembered the last visit when Adewunmi had come to him secretly asking for forgiveness. He had insisted that there were no hard feelings. “A man is entitled to search for the highest goal
in life and I have no hard feelings. I may not have agreed with your tactics but you are actually free from me.” Those were the words he had told him and he was reading those same words in the letter attached to the check:
“My Kabiyesi, the gods did not show us in detail what the templates of our life were going to look like. I have lived up till this time preparing myself as a king and determined to show to the village what they had missed as king in the manner with which I was going to rule. I had held you in tolerant contempt imagining that you could not possibly know anything about royalty and what it takes. However to my public cost and disgrace, the gods I had held in healthy contempt decided to turn the table on me and showed me that the person I thought the least of, had the power to snuff my life out as a right. I am writing this because I had made several angry attempts to do the honorable thing and open the calabash. But I could not in the long run. A woman came to me in dreams and asked me why I want to continually be foolish. She said I could have redemption if I accept the calabash of service. Please accept this check—it is my apology and help towards what you want to do for the time. It is not going to meet all your needs for the town (you said we were not to refer to it as a village again). So I am making my own contribution and penance for attempting to subvert the will of the people. Remember you said, “A man is entitled to search for the highest goal in life and I have no hard feelings. I may not have agreed with your tactics but you are actually free from me”. Well let me claim that freedom freely, my King. With your permission I will reach you from time to time through this medium so we both know that I will keep the sanctity of this transaction in gratitude to Olodumare to whom I have also pledged my support for your kingship.”
Babatunde looked up from the letter and sighed. Yomi had given him the letter before showing him the check. There was silence for a while as they stared at each other.
“What now?” Babatunde asked.
“I will—”
Babatunde interrupted him and requested that the money should be lodged in a fund for the town and he explained that he would set up a finance committee to administer it. Suddenly Babatunde felt some relief, as his voice lightened. He explained he wanted a few of the princes to be part of the finance committee and that the fund was to be made known to the community. His voice picked up with enthusiasm as he suddenly saw a way out of accepting the money.
“Please ensure that the money is clean, Yomi, before you set up the fund, okay? I don’t want to find out later it was dirty or blood money, okay?”
“I understand what you mean, Kabiyesi. I will follow due diligence.”
Babatunde relaxed and smiled. “How is your wife?”
Yomi stared. “Wife? I am not married yet.”
Babatunde said, “I know but you did say something about marrying Josephine if I remember right.”
Yomi turned somber. “I did not realize there was so many bridges and rivers to cross before she can be my wife, Kabiyesi.”
“I see, but you must be sure of your readiness to cross or swim through those rivers, my friend,” Babatunde counseled.
Babatunde sensed Yomi wanted to say something but was not sure if he had permission to say it. So he smiled and said, “You are my friend, Yomi, took a while before I could call another male a friend. I understand what worries you. Unlike Princess, I do not immediately see your thoughts. You are not sure if maybe Josephine is truly free of her feelings for me. I think she never knew what she felt truly except that men were becoming a nuisance in her life, me included. I had eyes, mind and soul only for Princess.”
Yomi gave out a long sigh. “Sometimes I wonder if I am meant to have a wife. Always just before I decided something always happens.”
“Nothing has happened yet to Josephine. Wura was a childhood thing before your heart had truly decided,” Babatunde said.
Yomi appeared cheerier. “It is a relief that I can come to you, Kabiyesi.”
“Same here, my friend, you had better set about that fund and by the way, how is your son Kunle, have you heard from him?”
Yomi’s face softened and he explained that his son was doing fine and might just come home for holidays. He expressed the longing that Kunle and Josephine might meet each other. The talk ended on that happy note.
Two weeks later, at a general meeting called T’omode T’agba, which meant young and old, Oba Adeolu announced that a fund was being set up for the town. He said he was going to make a proclamation to refer to the town as a town and no more a village. He invited everyone to be an active member of the development project he was setting up. It was an exciting meeting as the community responded to the call by Kabiyesi. A name was decided for the development union and a day set aside for a formal launching.
Later that evening, Ife received a letter from the First lady of the State asking her to formally be a member of her pet project…Lavender Women. Ife chuckled at the name but said nothing. Babatunde walked in and stroked her cheek with his horse tail and she slapped it away.
“What is a Lavender Woman?” she asked him.
Babatunde gave her a sharp look. “A girl was found murdered on the highway and she was painted in the color of indigo.”
Ife drew in her breath sharply in horror and handed over the letter in her hand for her husband to read.
Babatunde read through quickly and frowned. “I think there must be a mistake somewhere. Babamogba told me about this at a meeting of the Ifa circle last night.”
“Indigo is not the same color as Lavender is it?” Ife asked, as she felt her skin rise in goose bumps.
“Kind of close if you ask me,” Babatunde murmured quietly, watching the television but by the look of his eyes Ife knew he was not seeing it. A misty appeared and Ife was shocked, wondering if Babatunde had seen it. He however gave no indication and counseled her to watch her thoughts if and when she attends the meeting with the First Lady.
Ife signaled to the misty to come closer and wondered if she could converse with it. It had been a long time since she had seen one and she felt nostalgic.
She was also distracted by the information Babatunde had just given her. In recent months there had been consistent news about the rising boldness of cult groups. It was strange because she had assumed that cults were student groups from institutions of higher learning but she had been worried when it appeared that the cultists were now bold enough to recruit young secondary students into their negative activities, and motor park touts had also become members making it so bad that the press had started writing about it.
She mentioned this now to Babatunde wondering if he might consider calling the young persons in the town together and have a small talk with them.
When Spatako died in the accident she had naively assumed that it would be the end of roughness in the town but she had been hearing a lot about a fellow called “Agbari” (meaning skull in a literal form but actually such a word was used for anyone who liked to play the smart wise cracker or a scammer these days). He seemed to have made money from some shady sources and was in the habit of flaunting his many different exotic cars in town. She had learned from Tinu that even the annual opaoguru did not call him out.
Agbari seemed to have become a kind of role model for the youth and they had come to the palace to ask him to be formally declared their leader. She remembered the last fund raising that had been held in the town and grimaced. Agbari had driven in in a Bentley no less. Tinu had said it was bad manners driving into the town hall premises with so many young touts dressed in the same color of Adire with Agbari.
“Did you have that talk with Agbari?” she now asked Babatunde.
“I did it differently, Princess, I gave him an assignment to bring me fifty young entrepreneurs who will start the dairy business with him.”
“What?”
“When you want to be sure of your meat, you ask the cat to watch the mouse.”
“Or ask the fox to watch the chicken pen, eh,” Ife replied, and laughed.
There was tensi
on in the air as communities were worried about the rising rate of ritualists who were becoming bolder and more aggressive. Babatunde had called an emergency meeting of the inner Ifa circle demanding to know of anyone that was involved in such rituals. He warned that he was not going to accept such acts within his domain.
~~~
The circle of Ifa watched him warily but were quiet. Babamogba was more than quiet. He kept up a muttering dirge while the meeting lasted. Later he told Babatunde that he knew the girl by the roadside and said the indigo color splashed on the girl was meant to indicate that the king had used the girl. It was a very ancient system of identifying a victim and he was the only one who knew of it.
Babatunde stared at Babamogba in horror. “You mean someone killed that girl and planned to pass it off as me?”
Babamogba fell silent, shaking his head and staring straight ahead. After a while he sighed and gave Babatunde a soft look that Babatunde interpreted as not boding well for the perpetrators. “I am on watch, Kabiyesi, and I am asking you to be quiet about this for a while. I intend to consult Ifa and check what is happening.”
Babatunde voice turned grim, “I am going to do my own investigation too—what are you doing about the girl?”
“She was taken to the forest and we buried her quietly while doing some pacifying rites for the spirit of the girl.”
“When do you think we can expect an answer?”
“I am going to be at the grove of the lion tonight, Kabiyesi. Keep the fires alight for me will you?”
As he spoke, Sasa appeared and nodded at Babatunde but there was a strange gleam in his normally deep blue eyes. Babatunde was startled and was not sure if Babamogba saw Sasa, but he wondered no longer when he saw Babamogba give Sasa a deep bow and turned to Babatunde, but it was not Babamogba anymore but the old man with the beaded slippers.
Babatunde sat down abruptly in his shock. The Old man tapped him gently on the shoulder and heat coursed down his spine from that touch.
“The way Olodumare planned it, we were supposed to experience the worlds consciously and simultaneously, so this would not have been a surprise to you, my son.”
Numen! Page 6
