COMING HOME

Chapter 26

~~Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and he went his way.
                                  John 4:50(NKJV)~~

The morning sun beamed peeping through the clouds as the cocks took their respective places to sound their call. The fog cleared as she got closer to home and unusual of her, she didn't stop to greet the neighbors.

Her sandals slapped against the rag at the entrance of the house to remove the sand hidden under them.

The whole house stood still when she entered. Fifteen eyes stared at her, most of whom, worried about her disappearance.

'Good morning everybody, I'll get set.' She made her way to the bedroom. Akin's body laid wrapped with different pieces of clothes ready to enter the ground. Pa Solomon's words came flashing back to her. "Don't give up on Akin yet." Those words didn't make any sense especially for a boy that had been dead for more than twenty hours. Her hands shook as she quickly took the cup of water and rinsed her mouth. She would bath later.

Mrs Ade and the rest of the family entered the room one after the other to say their goodbyes. Pastor Dare walked inside the room with two boys, one was his son and the other unknown to Tobi.

'Let us pray!' She stood close to them. Maybe Pa Solomon was right? The voice of the pastor held so much emotions. It might be a sign that something could happen.

Mrs Ade reduced to tears as two people entered with a wooden coffin.

'Amen!' She mumbled the word hoping it coincidence at the appropriate time.

'Mrs Ade, are you ready to put him into the coffin?' Somewhere along the prayer, Tobi had watched Mrs Ade slip away. She'd left her body and the only sign of life was the movements in her chest. 'Mrs Ade?' Pastor Dare reached for her and gave her shoulder a light pat. She turned slowly to face them giving a weak nod.

'Yes.'

The men strolled to the opposite ends to be able to put the body inside the coffin.

'I don't think we should bury him!' Tobi wanted to faint as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she didn't know why they came out. 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean it.' The men went for his shoulders and legs again. 'I don't think we should bury him!' This time, Mrs Ade looked at her.

'Tobi?'

'Please forgive me, I don't know why I keep saying these things. I promise, I'll hold my lips.'

The whole room fell silent, Pastor Dare motioned her forward. 'But it's okay, you seem to have more things to say.' She shook her head in the negative. 'Well young lady, I think you do.'

Without thinking she blurted what Pa Solomon told him earlier. 'The old man I sit with at the hill told me not to give up on Akin yet. I honestly don't know what he means, I don't even believe in...' She straightened pulling on her skirt.

'So, you think we should pray for him?'

She shook her head but Pastor Dare and Mr Ade had already started to sing praises to God. Sighing, she shifted back to lean against the wall. It was bad enough that the boy died and now, she was giving them false hope because of some silly statement she heard.

She closed her eyes not wanting to see the end result when she felt her hand being gripped. Mrs Ade was pulling her closer to Akin.

'I'm really so sorry Mrs Ade, I shouldn't have said anything.' She whispered to her ears.

'It's okay. Just pray for him. You might be right.'

She closed her eyes again to pray and remembered the words she said yesterday and opened her mouth to repeat them. Her lips moved and she knew she's saying something but she could not recognise the words and she could not stop them. To her amazement, the words that came out were like she was speaking a tribal language she'd never spoken before and the words were like music to her ears.

Tobi released the hold of Mrs Ade's hand and moved closer to Akin until she was close enough to touch him and laid her hands on his shoulder. 'Wake up Akin, your mummy is here.' The voices around her watered down, she gently tugged his shoulder oblivious to her surrounding. She flung her hand away from his body as she felt his body vibrate. Mrs Ade was by her side less than a second to hold his unmoving body.

'God, I just saw his body move, please, don't do this to me, I can't bear it.' The pitch of her voice climbed silencing the praying pastor and everyone else. 'You woke Tabitha up, wake Akin up! I won't bear it, I saw his body move!' She'd been leaning close to his face, her tears dropped onto his decaying face. Again the body moved under her hand. 'Dear God, please, please, please...'

Tobi stood expecting her prayers to fall on deaf ears. They must have both gone crazy to believe that he'd wake up. She looked around her, Mr Ade was already by his wife's side but pastor Dare stood at a corner pensive.

She had to get out of this room, something was happening to her and she needed out. She twirled again to Mrs Ade hoping that the men had put the body in the coffin but instead, a loud nauseaus cough came out from the mouth of the body, Akin turned to face the wall and continued coughing.

The room was a mixture of shock, fear and surprise. They take hurried steps to him singing and shouting praises to the Most High. Mrs Ade has almost finished reaping the wrappers from his body to hug him.

Tobi's hair all over her body are on ends. When she manages to reach him, she is sitting up and as soon as he saw her, he drew her into his embrace.

They take turns to see if he's really alive. The other children gather round the entrance of the door to see the cause of the noise. Mrs Ade has hugged Tobi singing her praises.

More people troop into the room to co firm the news.

They take they boy outside where the women gather to sing and dance in their dialect. Akin sits receiving the bowl of food handed to him.

Tobi sat on the bed Akin had been on. Her head spins as she recalls the last hour. It's impossible. The dead comes back to life. How did that even happen? Her lips shake and she stops pretending released the tears that gathered at her eyes opening her mouth occasionally to take in air. 'Why is this happening to me?'

Mrs Ade raced for her to put her into her embrace before releasing her to sit down. 'You know, when my husband brought you home that night I wasn't the happiest person in the world. I made up my mind that as soon as you were up the next day I was sending you away until I heard a voice that said, "That's one more soul for you. Will you turn back my child?" Since you've been with us, I've understood why God kept you here. Thank you Tobi! Thank you for everything you've done for us. You might think I did you a favour but you've done the biggest things for us.' She pulled her for another embrace.

'Can you excuse me?' She didn't wait for a reply when she left the house running as far as she could away from the house.

I didn't spend so much time on the edit, I hope you can forgive me. I've been kind of busy. We're almost coming to the end of this book. Whew! Thanks so far for reading. God bless you.