Eka’s story - Season 1 - Episode 23

Episode 5 years ago

Eka’s story - Season 1 - Episode 23

“…I cursed your star so that the days of your life may be filled with sorrows. But I can see clearly that the one whom you call upon is mighty. He reversed my words and brought me to this pitiable condition. If I had my life to live again, I would follow the path on which you walk now. Please Ekaette forgive me.” The words of Faustina tingled the ears that heard them.


Both the policemen and the elderly men in the room were pissed off by the wickedness which she confessed to. “Wouldn’t it be better to put a bullet in this woman’s head and end all this sordid drama? Please young girl, what exactly did you do to this woman to warrant such act of wickedness from her against you?” asked the officer in charge of the police squad in the room. Eka lifted her hands and said, “Sir, I have only met this woman twice in all my life. The third time I saw her was from a distance. I have done no wrong against her at any time in my life. When I moved into this compound, she was the first person I met and believe me; she was very nice to me and even helped me to dispose of my unwanted clothes. After that day, the next time I saw her and greeted her, she did not answer me. Later I figured out that my prayers were disturbing her. I did not know that she had gone at length to destroy my life.”


“Thank your God that you know how to prayer. Everyday people die mysteriously; some of the deaths are so shocking that no matter how apathetic you are to spiritual things, you would know that some evil force was behind them. If not for God, maybe your case would have been like that,” said the police officer. “Oga police, what do we do now? If we leave at this moment the young men outside will pounce on this woman and possibly even on her husband. You have to consider taking her to the police,” said Mr. Paul Eze. “I have not heard of the police arresting a witch before. I’m not sure we want to take her to the station. It is better she dies here.” “If you won’t take her to the station, then you will have to wait till she dies. If the angry mob outside break into the place to kill her, would that not amount to a crime? I think it is best you take her to the station or wait for her to die,” Dr. Gerry said while glancing at the clock on the wall. He did not tell his boss at work that he would not be at work that day; he was itching to go get ready and leave for work. While the policemen and the elderly men of the street deliberated on what to do, Dr. Gerry led Eka and Simbi back to his flat.



From what they had seen of Faustina they knew that she was history, it would be only a matter of time before the cold hands of death would snuff out the breath in her lungs. Dr. Gerry dashed into the bathroom for a quick bath while Eka went into the kitchen to package the food he will take to work. Simbi feeling tired from the exhaustion of long spell of prayers dragged herself into Eka’s room to nap. Eka was in the mood of celebration when she shouts began to ring out from the Ehkiosu’s flat. Something was going on in there. Having packed Dr. Gerry’s food, Eka, who was thinking of going to nap along with Simbi, ran to Faustina’s apartment. When the policemen saw her, they opened the door to her. The sight Ekaette met in the flat left her wishing she had not gone to see what was happening in there. Faustina’s skin had suddenly grown very dark as though she had been burnt by fire, her eyes had for no obvious reason bulged out, while her tongue pulled out of her mouth and dragged on the floor as though a snake was slithering out of her mouth as the throes of death took hold of her. Eka shut her eyes and dashed toward the door. At the door she met Simbi try to get the attention of those inside to open the door for her. Eka opened the door and said to Simbi, “Simbi, you don’t want to see what has become of Faustina. The image will remain with you all your life. Believe me you don’t want to see her.”
Simbi would have none of that. She ran into the flat to see for herself what had happened to Faustina. When she set her eyes on Faustina, she wished she had listened to Eka. It was as though Faustina was disintegrating on the floor. At this time the police did not care if the angry mob outside came in or not. To protect Mr. Ekhiosu, they took him to their van and left him with two police officers. The others went back to the flat to make sure that those who went in to see what had become of the witch did not steal anything from the flat. When Dr. Gerry was ready to leave for work, Eka and Simbi warned him not to bother going to see Faustina, but he was stubborn about that. “I won’t miss for anything the chance to see the end of the woman who gave us heat for days and kept us awake since last night,” said Dr. Gerry as he went into the flat to see what made people run out of the flat in a haste spitting. Dr. Gerry being a medical doctor was not moved as much as the other people were. He actually took picture of the remains of Faustina and left for work. He looked forward to show the image to Christy and Ema and narrate to them how Eka and Simbi prayed the witch to death.

While crowds gathered to feast their eyes on Fautina, Eka and Simbi turned their attention to girly chats. One enemy had been taken down; it was time to goof off with gossip. “ Eheh! Simbi tell me, what is happening in the street? Have my parents begun a widespread search for me?” “Eka that is not what I want to talk about now. Please tell me, this Dr. Gerry, how did you find him? He is a nice man!” “Simbi God simply dropped him from heaven to wipe my tears. Do you know that till now he has not for once harassed me for sex? I feel so comfortable around him as though I was his sister. In fact there have been many times I felt like I was still on the spot my mother left me after they had beaten me up, and that soon I will wake up and realize that this was all a dream.” “Eka, this is not a dream. I am in it with you. May I ask please, does Dr. Gerry have a younger brother? It will be nice to meet him.” “Hahaha! I thought you spared not thoughts for love and men Simbi?” “There are things that force you to think about love and men, and what you have right now is certainly one of them.” “Maybe you should start praying for the right man; you know God will bring him.” “Eka, isn’t it too early for that. Maybe I am sounding this way because I am around you. I guess once I get home my life will return to my regular routine, prayer, church work, home chores and my academic aspirations. There won’t be time for love and men.”

“Well Simbi, your case is different from mine. You have parents who want you to go to school and have a life. All I have now is God and Dr. Gerry. You know how young I was when I began to hawk to support my parents with taking care of our family. My life has been very hard, but I thank God that in some corners of it there are silver linings like Dr. Gerry. I think you should perish thoughts about men and go for your career. You know that if my life had taken the normal course, I wouldn’t be living with a man right now.” “Eka my point is this, I love what you have and I wish I was in your shoes. Seriously I didn’t know that the breed of men like Dr. Gerry still walked our earth.” Eka smiled at Simbi and said, “Be careful what you wish for, what I have right now may look lovely, but the path to it is full of pains and sorrows. I doubt I will ever walk through our street without being overwhelmed with shame. I still remember being dragged out naked into the street by my parents.” “Huh…your parents… please don’t bring them up now…” “Tell me what is going on with them now?” “They are looking for children. Your father wants your mother to lay children like eggs for him. They ask after you from anybody who passes in front of their apartment. I feel for your mother, your father might remarry to have children…”