Chapter 4 4th Chapter

She dashed inside the house and came back with a small rectangular box where he always kept his stuff. Carefully, he inhaled some and then gave it back for her to keep. She obeyed. Kaija looked at her in admiration. She was gracefully built with all the adequate features of African beauty. He had loved her for her blithering beauty and her good virtues; her kindness, love, submissiveness and hardworking characters always set her apart from other women that he could have preferred to marry. To Kaija, she was a woman like no other; an embodiment of a true African woman.

Kaija went inside his hut to rest. He normally took a rest before supper. Mauda eased up a bit. It wouldn't take long before her daughter arrived. She thought. She bustled about in the compound as she crossed her fingers for her daughter's return before Kaija's next calling.

"Where is she? what was taking her so long?" She asked herself. Mauda's heart was etched with distress. Darkness was closing in yet Tina hadn't returned. This foretold disaster. The danger was looming around. Mauda searched around near and far as the neighbours' compounds for her daughter. There wasn't any sight of her. She walked back home in terror and anguish. Her face was horrid.

"It won't take long before Kaija wakes up and asks for his daughter. What will I say then? That I have caned her, and because of that, she has fled away from home? I wouldn't dare say that. My husband won't give me the least chance to explain myself."

Mauda returns and finds Kaija waiting for her as she had predicted. He glared sternly at her. His face was alarming. The nerves on the left side of his neck were stiffly stretched. The furrows appeared on his forehead. He didn't like any of the family members outside, especially after the sunset. This was the tradition. Mauda's knees knocked and her legs faltered. She advanced sluggishly towards her husband in total submission.

"Where's she?" He rasped ruefully as he clenched his teeth in anger. Mauda gave no response. She knelt as tears streamed down her face uncontrollably. Kaija waited impatiently for an immediate answer. She was dumb. She gasped and trembled feverishly. Her husband was running out of patience. He folded his hands into fists and motioned towards his wife. Mauda knew she was in for great trouble. She knew her husband too well. In such circumstances, his anger superseded any sort of wildness. Once she was in his grip, she wouldn't be able to escape his wrath. Once, he had punched her face and she had lost her front tooth because she forgot to boil water to wash his feet. She couldn't stand to lose another tooth or an eye for that matter. She jumped off, stretched her limbs and retreated and then ran away from him as fast as she could. She could still hear his roaring in the distance,

"You can't come back without her. I will cut you into pieces and throw them to the dogs to devour or else I discard my manhood."

"Serves you right, Mauda. We shall see. The worst is yet to come." Shooca said scornfully as her heart raptured with joy.

Soocha, Kaija's second wife had been watching and sneering at Mauda staring fixedly at her with malice. She had always been envious of Mauda because of the fair treatment her husband always bestowed on her. Kaija turned his face and their eyes met. She cowered and hurried inside her hut as her heart exulted with joy. He stormed inside the hut and sat near the fire raging with fury, his red bulging eyes fixed on the door.

Soocha pulls a stool and composes herself near the fireplace. The few coals of fire turn gloom as they flicker some light in the half-lit room. She gazes in the hearth for some time and gives a roguish smile to replenish her thoughts.

"Like this flickering coal of fire, Mauda, your happiness and pride will come to an end soon," She muttered and pouted in anger. Her mind was clouded with treacherous thoughts.

"Let's see if you'll still be pampered by Kaija. By the time I am done with you, you won't be able to spell your name."

She chuckles mysteriously and ground her teeth in anger.

Neelima, Tina's younger sister walks to her mother's side and watches her closely, her forehead wrinkled. She licks her little finger which has become thin and shrunken because it's always soaked in her mouth.

Shooca wriggled her bottom on the stool and let out an awful gas that swam in Neelima's nose.

"That's for you, Mauda, foolish woman! Complement it with your present troubles."

She said and chuckled in mirth, her heart full of malice and envy. She was her arch enemy and was bent on boosting Mauda's downfall.

"Mama, are you Ok? Or has Jumli entered your belly? You are not at ease." Neelima asks, reflecting on the latter's usual joke; that when Juli, the wandering snake enters one's belly, they go crazy. Shooca glares at her indignantly, wrenches her hand and hauls her down.

"Hey, watch your mouth. Why are you standing over me as if you are my bodyguard, hmm? she asked and wrinkled her nose and shifted her gaze to the ceiling and kept pattering her right foot on the ground.

"Ouch!" Neelima groans with a grimace on her face.

"Mama, my arm!" she says and tears glisten in her eyes." With tenderness, she dabs her wrist which Shooca had forcibly gripped and left a mark.

"Mama,"

"Aye," She answered and waited. Neelima was scared to ask the question that had been twitching her lips for some time now. Shooca gave her a hard stare and compelling her in a clipped tone said,

"Have you now become a night dancer?"

"No, mama, why?"Neelima asked with googled eyes as an implication of her ignorance.

"Haven't you heard that they are the mediators of the devil? They roam around the night swinging their dry naked buttocks and wriggling their waists wrapped with dry banana leaves, their tails dangling between their legs as they invite evil and calamity in lives of good men?"

"No, mama," she replied. Her voice shook as she spoke. Her mother's story was beginning to have a profound effect on her. Soocha, however, didn't notice it and she resumed,

"That if they want to torment your life, they will call your name just once and if you answer it, they will throw an arm of a dead body and you die or you become mad."

Neelima peered outside. The day had already ushered in darkness and she caught sight of the grotesque objects in the dark which she imagined to be one of those horrible night dancers in the story. Her heart thumped faster. In a moment she heard the chirping of crickets and mistook it for someone's whistle. Rapidly she jumps onto Soocha's laps.

The small stool where the latter had sat cross-legged lost balance perhaps due to Nelima's additional weight and the two fell with a thump.

"Neelima!" Shooca screamed, her legs flying in the air.

"What has come over you? Ouch, my bottom hurts. This is all your fault."

Neelima quickly leapt off the ground and stood in the corner. "Mama, I was scared.

Soocha broke into a gale of laughter as she flicked off the dust from her legs.

"What scared you, night dancers?"

"Yes, mama."

"Ok, come here. There aren't any night dancers around. Tell me why you had called me earlier." She said closing the door. Neelima trotted towards her and sat close. She peeks at her and lowered her face and started,

"Is mama Tina going to find my sister? Do you think the latter will win the game?"

Hearing this, Shooca's anger returned. She twisted her head and turned to her, "Which game? Shooca asks, looking at her daughter indignantly. Neelima smirked. With enthusiasm, she started, "Mama, don't you know the game of hiding and seek? My friends and I always play it at the village stream. The winner always shows up last."

She said excitedly and blew into the hearth, making the few remaining coals glow with light.