The Devil Wears Okrika

Chapter 10

"Hmmmm....aaaaaaaaahh.....hmmmmmm....haaaaaaa"
Osi looked cynical as the dibia wailed like a man in pain and stared hard at pieces of stones and cowries on the ground.
The dibia arrived at the compound just before night fall wrapped up in a white material with some kind of white powdered substance painted on his body. A young boy of about thirteen accompanied him carrying a folded mat and some other strange items and Osi couldn't help but wonder about the young lad. The boy looked strikingly farmiliar and he wondered how someone so young could be in this kind of life already. He whispered his thoughts to pastor Bartholomew who replied him with a look that conveyed 'silence would be very much appreciated'

Immediately the boy spread the mat on the floor and the dibia got down to business.
It was a taboo to be in the midst of women so the women had since left before the dibia arrived.

Osi wished he could leave too but Pastor Bartholomew had adviced him they wait till night.

Stevenson on the other hand looked on; he was intrigued by what was unfolding before his eyes and wished he had a note pad and pen or his camera. He would have to rely on memory. This was priceless information for his book.

"Yeeeee....ooooooo......aaaaaaaa" the dibia wailed some more then threw a bunch of cowries on the floor and studied it intensely after which he asked for a bowl of water.
Pa Kenneth directed the boy to a keg and the boy proceeded to fill the bowl.

The leaders all looked on eagerly with hope and anticipation on their faces, this was it: they were going to know who the devil was.

"mamaseimamaseimamaseimamaseimamakoosai!!!"
More silence
"Askentelebarabaralewa!!!!"
The dibia looked away from the bowl and nodded to the young boy who spoke in Igbo:
"This demon is just like wind...it is like the breeze...One can not catch the breeze with a net..."
"mamaseimamasamamakosa...mamakosmamasei!!"
"Just as one can not see the back of his head with his eyes...this demon can not be seen"
The young boy intepreted again. He seemed to be the only one who could inteprete the dibia's words which to Osi sounded like gibberish and like a lyric from a Michael Jackson song.

"This is no man....it's a spirit...we need to appease the spirit, the gods require a sacrifice..."

.·.·.·.·.·
Osi was already in a foul mood when he finally got home. He had just witnessed something that troubled his spirit greatly.
Pastor Bartholomew had advised him "forget about the boy, forget about the whole incantation, sadly some things can never change"

When he got home, he met the deacon on his high horse as usual "we are leaving first thing tomorrow morning" the deacon announced.
"Leaving...leaving where?"
"Back to PortHarcourt of course...this crusade is a failure, although it's not entirely your fault"
Osi was not in the mood for this, he felt dirty from all what his eyes had seen today, from the dead body then the traditional exercise that had taken place with the dibia.
He went straight to bed without uttering a word.

.·.·.·.·.·
The reverend's call woke him up around 2 in the morning. He struggled to open his eyes, trying to locate the phone and hitting someone (maybe Gregory) in the face.

"H-hello"
"Osi...you were sleeping"
Osi knew what was coming next and so he said it along with the reverend "men ought to pray always and not faint...I know it sir, but yesterday was really overwhelming"
"Yes...the deacon left some disturbing messages for me. Why don't you tell me everything that's going on?"

.·.·.·.·.·
It was almost 3 when Osi ended the call. Talking to the Reverend always seemed to calm him down, he felt energized again as he got up from the bed, he couldn't sleep again. He knew what he had to do: pray...pray and plan!

.·.·.·.·.·
Morning

"Oga I don't want to go...I'd come back" Samuel assured Osi as he carried the deacon's bags outside.