30/12/2025
When I was a child, I could remember my mother crying so hard as she cradled me and my younger brother in her warm bosom until her pains somehow seeped into us and we would cry alongside her.
Even though I was too little to understand what is going on around her, I could feel the palpable hatred emitting from her siblings who grilled her each day with hateful words.
When I was seven, I came back from school one day to see my uncle's wife bullying and driving my mother out of the kitchen.
The woman who's far younger in age slapped her hard across the cheek while tugging on her wrapper in an effort to loosen it and that's when I lost it and leapt on her like a tigress.
"Leave my mother alone! I'll kill you with my hands if you don't let go now!" I screeched like a wild cat.
My uncle easily picked me out from her body and savagely dealt me some blows until I collapsed on the ground like a ragdoll.
"You're raising a mad hound in our father's compound Beatrice!
Aren't you supposed to live with your children in your husband's house?
Why did you bring them back here to suffocate us after the death of your husband?
You've overstayed and the familiarity is beginning to breed contempt.
Go away with your fatherless children!
Return them to the place where they rightfully belongs." He roared.
His words stuck in my subconscious and I began to pressure my mother day in and out to return us to our father's house.
"We cannot go back there Elizabeth!
It brings back lots of unpleasant memories and besides, the house suddenly became haunted ever since your father died.
I do not want to endanger your lives by throwing you in the midst of the battles going on amongst your paternal uncle's.
They might wipe us away over the tussle to inherit the properties which your father left behind."
Mama's logic were valid enough but I secretly yearned for the day in which we'll finally pitch our tent with my father's people.
The opportunity eventually came and we were forcibly recalled to my father's compound when my maternal grandmother died and my uncle's couldn't accommodate us anymore.
We were coldly welcomed home by my father's brothers who allotted a room to us in the large house which my father built before his death.
On the first night we spent in the house, my mother could not sleep and loitered around as if waiting for something.
I was equally je**ed to consciousness when I heard the sound of a heavy footstep trudging the top of the zinc until it stopped directly above the room which we occupied.
We huddled together in fright when something which seemed like a metal began to hit the zinc in a desperate effort to break through and get to us.
The noise continued unabatedly and when we thought that whatever it was has succeeded, our cries intermingled with that of the rooster which suddenly crowed, announcing the approach of a new dawn and the entire noises died down.
My mother was hysteric the next morning and told me that it was actually the strange occurrences which drove her away from the house in the first place.
My brother climbed the roof to investigate the impact of the blow and came down to inform us that everything was perfectly in place.
Mama bade me to prepare our breakfast and strolled out with my brother to greet some old acquaintances.
I was alone in the kitchen when the door slammed noisily and I heard the sound of a footstep pattering on the passage.
"Mama, are you back already?" I called and ran out to check but did not see anybody.
When I returned to the kitchen, I saw a silhouette of a man standing beside the stove but the image dissipated immediately and a bolt of goosebumps instantly covered my skin.
And so the strange occurrences continued and keeps getting worst by the day until the last straw which broke the camels back.
Mama was bathing in the bathroom one afternoon when she suddenly screamed and ran out naked.
I quickly covered her up with a wrapper for she fell on the ground shivering badly.
"It's your father Lizzy! I saw him and he tried to pin me to the wall with a javelin."
"That's impossible mama! How can you even say such a thing?" I reprimanded.
Mama was right after all for when we investigated the walls of the bathroom, we saw a deep hole made by the javelin which tried to kill our mother.
At this point, we took our case outside, to the kinsmen who told us to momentarily vacate the house pending on when something is done to placate the distraught spirit wallowing around the house.
Many spiritualist were invited to the house but each ran while predicting that the spirit which roamed around the house was vicious.
I was sleeping at night in the house where we temporarily lodged when a man who's the exact replica of my brother appeared and tapped me on the shoulder.
"Elizabeth my daughter, help me please!
I'm lost and restless and the people from the other side could not accept me.
Help me to settle down!
Tell them to do the needful." He pleaded.
My mother broke down in tears when I narrated the dream to her and went ahead to disclose that my father died in a foreign country and his body was never brought home.
She told us that the family was only informed that he drowned in a boat accident and his body was never recovered.
His brothers immediately plunged into warfare as they fought for the ownership of his properties without thinking in the line of performing a befitting funeral rite on his behalf.
My mother ran from pillar to post and with the help of some kind people, a funeral rite was organized for my father who died more than a decade ago.
After the burial ceremony, mama invited our pastor who prayed and anointed the house before we confidently returned home.
We waited for the bizarre occurrences but the house grew silent and peaceful.
That night, my father appeared to me once again in the dream and was dancing around happily.
He waved and nodded happily at me before crossing over to a wide gulf where the forest and trees looked enchanted.
We lived happily ever in the house and even when we left home to pursue our destiny, my mother who stayed alone never complained of any abnormal occurrence in the house.
Sometimes, the little things we take for granted matters a lot in the spirit realm.
Life is a deep mystery and the living cannot unravel these mysteries until we crossed over to the other side.
Lead a good life and allow the Almighty God to direct your affairs.
God bless you!
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