Part 43

Soldier Gani and the five other military men arrived at the village market a little later in the day to see that the traders had only just begun to sell their wares and thus were too busy to allow any intrusion without a custom. To the military men, it was a routine patrol, but to the tradesmen and women it was almost an intrusion.

Part 42

The Sage was always a welcomed guest at Madam Jolie’s home. Madam Jolie as was her custom, liked to be known to be close friends with men of importance in her village and the Sage was no exception, to her advances.

Part 41

The village dwellers of this village were people known for their habit of being interested in other people’s issues, so much so that men and women visited each other with the sole objective of exchanging news and gossip about what was transpiring in the other villages. At one time it was a common pastime to meet at the communal family square by moonlight to listen to the tales and anecdotes told by the Sage or any elder that may have had something to tell by way, for example, of tales from other villages. It was this way, the village dwellers got news from other villages, besides traveling to those other villages by themselves.

Part 40

This went down badly with Madam Jolie. Her sentiment was that she was a very important person in the village, so she should get her requests granted. For this reason as well as for the reason her child’s father was a titled man of first class emissary. The sentiments most young women had, in Madam Jolie’s village about entering into a relationship with titled men was that it was a thing to covet; to be attached to a chief of first class emissary. But  it also depended on how wealthy the chief was and the kinds or amounts of respect he garnered amongst village dwellers.

Part 39

‘‘I knew you would come early, but I did not expect you will be this early and without Abani for that matter, maybe you should not have left without her,’’ she said.

‘‘I was afraid you would be out for one of those government meetings, I was told the Sage and the chief are meeting the government men today at the king’s palace.’’

‘‘No, not the king’s palace. The village square. My new land and money is yet to get to my hands. The government is just making promises they would not keep.’’

Ibinabo answered,’’there is a reason for this, they are making great sums of money from these companies, so there is no way they would help you.’’

Part 38

Madam Jolie Jolie was a pretty middle-aged woman: old enough to be Ibinabo’s elder sister. She was unmarried but not childless. Her son was a child she had had when she was in her very early twenties for a chief who was only too married to three wives, to marry her. But he had made sure she was well off, without marrying him. As a rule Ibinabo would often offer to help whenever she arrived at meal times at Madam Jolie Jolie’s home because she knows she would be partaking in the meals as well. So it was only natural she helped with the preparation. Madam Jolie’s son was obedient that morning. He was the one in the said kitchen. Outside by the kitchen’s doorway was Madam Jolie Jolie, on a small seat picking melon seeds from a green plastic bowl rested on a brown tray. Her hands were smooth and youthful. Her nails were painted pink and her hair had been combed into an afro. Her black beautiful facial skin glistened in the hot sun. she had a small facial mark on her right cheek, given her as when she was a child

Part 37

Ibinabo appeared to have arrived at the time the negotiations ended. She picked up the pestle that was lying on the hardened mud caked floor on the corridor to Madam Jolie’s kitchen. The kitchen to the building was an extension of the main building. It was a small doorless hut constructed with corrugated zinc sheets, built to keep most of the sun and rain away. Ibinabo placed the pestle, she had picked up, against the wall of the detached hut. The smell of kerosene burning with hot flames on the stoves had become apparent. Madam Jolie had not gone out yet as earlier anticipated. The corrugated sheets that were the walls of the kitchen were rusty brown, and black from the smoke that bellowed from the firewood Madam Jolie had once used to prepare her meals.