Chapter Two: I Am Not A Witch

The jugs of palm wine were still full, the seats were empty, and the tables didn’t need to be wiped because there were no palm wine spillages to clean. Only two men, Banji and Yemi, were seated in the middle of the room, playing ‘ayo,’ while laughing and insulting each other. It seemed that Aunty Shade’s customers had done a meeting and agreed not to show up that day and the day before.

 

“Where is everybody?” she asked as soon as Shade joined her in the stall.

 

“I don’t know,” Shade lied. 

 

The whole town was going to get free palm wine for the rest of the week in celebration of Prince Adeyeri’s birthday. To reveal the truth meant telling Tade where to find the Prince.

 

“This is old wine, so it doesn’t matter. We are trying to get rid of it anyway. I will restock fresh ones this evening. Hopefully, the tappers will show up. From tomorrow, the customers will start trooping back in.” 

 

“More wine,” Banji requested, raising his hand.

 

Shade carried a jug in the corner and thrust it at Tade. “Customers shouldn’t be asking you for more wine. You should anticipate their needs and fill their cups as soon as it is empty. That is how we make more sales.”

 

Tade rushed quickly to Banji’s side and filled his cup to the brim. He was too distracted by the game to bother about who was serving him, but when the corner of his eyes caught Tade’s hips, he couldn’t help but look fully in her direction. Yemi was about to rebuke Banji for being distracted, but when he looked in the direction his friend was staring at, he too was struck by Tade’s beauty. The best word to describe her was gorgeous.

 

In Iludoyin, women plait their hair in three common styles; shuku, koroba, and kojusoko. This lady braided her hair in strands and had tiny beads scattered across it, like a princess. Shade noticed the men’s expressions and swore under her breath. She had planned to make Tade loosen the hair and do something regular, but kept forgetting. The hair was a statement; anyone would notice it immediately.

 

“You are… You are… You are…” Banji stuttered, searching for the right words.

 

“Beautiful?” Tade completed for him, smiling.

 

Banji smiled back and scratched his head. “Err… Yes. For a girl, you are bold. I like it.”

 

“What do you mean, for a girl? Are the maidens in this kingdom shy?”

 

Her Yoruba was heavily accented, and from her questions, Banji instantly knew that she was not from Iludoyin. 

 

Shade knew the exact moment he came to the realisation and hoped to distract him. “Tade, leave the men to enjoy their drink in peace.”

 

Tade carried the jug and walked away, but Banji couldn’t stop looking at her.

 

“You are from the East?” he called out as though he was throwing an accusation.

 

“If you say so,” she returned, and walked out of the stall, and out of  his view.

 

With Tade gone, Banji turned his focus to the game, only to find that Yemi had been cheating. He slapped his hand away.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“Playing the game while your eyes are wandering,” he replied cheekily.

 

“You cannot even cheat with decency,” Banji stated, glaring softly at his friend.

 

Yemi ignored the look and tried to make another move as he responded “What do you want from the Igbo girl?” Banji scattered the game, refusing to let Yemi play. “Haa! Why nau? I was winning.”

 

Banji ignored him, and glanced back at Tade, who had walked back into the stall. “She is not Igbo, but she is also not from around here either.” Banji’s eye caught Shade’s eye as if searching for clues, but she smiled sheepishly instead. 

 

“She is from here,” she said quickly, making Banji raise his eyebrows in question. He knew she was lying.

 

“Whatever you say,” Yemi said, already re-arranging the seeds of the ‘ayo’ for another round. 

 

Banji was however still curious about the beautiful lady that had suddenly joined his hideout palm wine stall. “How come she doesn’t speak our language well?”

 

“Oh! She speaks very well!” Shade tried to sound convincing, but noticed that it wasn’t working when Banji scoffed and focused back on his game. This could really get out of hand if she did not curb it. She looked around to see if anyone was within earshot, then moved closer to the men. “Okay, you are right. She just got back from a place a little far away from here, but she is one of us, and I don’t want her to be noticed…”

 

Yemi laughed, interrupting Shade. “You really think that is possible?” he asked in a slightly mocking tone, “And please, look at her closely before you answer the question,” he added, drinking half of his palm wine.

 

As if she did not know what Yemi implied, Shade looked back at Tade as she cleaned the serving table, and sighed. She was going to have a long conversation with her about how she needed to stay hidden, but if she was being honest with herself, she couldn’t think of the best way.

 

“By the way, this palm wine doesn’t taste fresh. That is why I don’t like coming here,” Yemi complained.

 

“I thought I was the only one that noticed,” Banji added, and took a sip from his wine as though to re-confirm. 

 

“We will get fresh palm wine today. Come again tomorrow, and we will surprise you,” Tade chipped in.

 

Shade blinked at her to shut up before she put them in trouble. Everyone knew that all the tappers were carrying their palm wine to the palace, and until the celebrations were over, there was no guarantee that they would get anything. To prove her wrong, she heard the sound of the palm wine tapper’s bell, and immediately, her son, Dele, rushed into the stall to carry two small kegs. He was only eight years old, but you would think he was thirteen with the way he was devoted to assisting his single mother.

 

“The market is open, maami,” he said, and Shade took a bigger drum to follow him.

 

“This is a miracle, Tade. How did you know?”

 

Tade frowned slightly at her Aunt’s question and enthusiasm. “You said they were coming.”

 

Shade caught herself quickly. She had said so, but it was to quell Tade’s many questions. “I did?” she asked dismissively then continued. “Anyway, the stall is all yours for now. Not a lot of people will come today, so you should easily be able to manage the orders. Keep selling and smiling, but less talking. In fact, no talking.”

 

Tade grinned, wondering why her Aunt was being over-protective. Many twenty-three year olds like her were already in their husband’s homes.

 

“This will be your first time handling sales, but the prices are very straightforward, so don’t worry. One cup of palm wine is…”

 

“Two cowries,” Tade supplied, interrupting her Aunt. “And one cowrie discount on every two cups,” she finished, excited to show her prowess. She had studied her Aunt that morning and crammed the pricing.

 

“Is there anything you do not know?” Shade sighed.

 

The girl was not only beautiful, but brilliant too. How did one hide such a girl? she thought, before leaving. She had barely left when Banji abandoned the game that he just restarted with Yemi to sit with her. 

 

“Hi beautiful!” he said, and Tade grinned mischievously. “I don’t take you as the ‘follow instructions to the letter’ type, so forget everything your Aunty said about not talking, and let us get to know each other.” Tade grinned again, not responding. “Is that how it’s going to be?” Banji asked, trying to make her talk. “I am quite influential around here, you may want to keep me as your friend.” 

 

“I have a message to be delivered to the Prince personally. Can your influence arrange a meeting?” Tade asked, not seeing the point in beating around the bush. Only one mission made her leave her newly found faith, and she was not going to dance to her Aunt’s tune at the expense of fulfilling the mission.

 

This man will connect you with Prince Adeyeri.

 

Tade believed the thought instantly, and though Banji tried to keep a straight face, she did not doubt that he knew the Prince.

 

“He is your friend,” she declared, searching his face.

 

Her declaration caught him off guard. “How do you know?”

 

Tade smiled. He had given himself away. “Will you deliver a message to him for me?” she asked, mission mode activated.

 

“You can tell him yourself when he shows up today,” he declared, and lifted his palm wine calabash to his lips for a long drink.

 

Tade’s eyes widened in shock. “The Prince comes here?” 

 

Banji rolled his eyes in irritation. All the girls always preferred Adeyeri, no matter how hard he tried. “The Prince doesn’t come here, but he will today. You can join the list of five hundred women who flock around him, claiming to be in love and give him whatever message you have for him,” he said, and went back to his game, but Yemi was no longer interested. 

 

He rose, and motioned to Banji to leave with him. “I don’t do well around witches.”

 

Banji laughed. “She is intuitive, I will give her that.”

 

“In my books, only witches are that precise with their intuition.” 

 

“I am not a witch,” Tade interjected.

 

“Whatever you say,” Yemi called out, while Banji laughed as though he found the assumption funny.

 

Shade could not believe her luck. None of her fellow palm wine sellers expected to restock today, so they were not available to bid for the current available supply. Soon, there would be no more free palm wine at the palace, and people would come running back. She had to be ready for them, and so for a brief moment, she forgot her concerns about Tade.

 

“Walk faster,” she called out to Dele. They had to be the first to receive supply just in case the stock was limited.

 

As soon as they got to the bush path, a hand pulled her behind the trees, and before she could scream, the hand covered her mouth. Fear gripped her, but only for a moment as she recognised the familiar face of her abductor.

 

“Maami!” Dele screamed as soon as he noticed that his mother was no longer behind him.

 

“Keep going, Dele. Make sure nobody gets there before us, I will join you soon,” Shade said, and he ran off to do her bidding.

 

As soon as she was sure that he had gone and couldn’t hear them, she faced her abductor, Chief Tadeyanju.

 

“We can’t be seen together like this. What were you thinking, waylaying me?” she asked him, annoyed.

 

“No one can see us,” Tadeyanju countered.

 

Shade looked around, lacking Tadeyanju’s confidence. “The forest tells.”

 

He waved her comment away. “How is my daughter doing?”

Shade sighed, wishing she could get out of this arrangement. “You shouldn’t have sent for Tadeyeri. There is no place for her here.”

 

Tadeyanju nodded, refusing to acknowledge that she might be right. He was concerned too, but believed his plan was the best solution. “Right here, where no one expects her to be, is truly the safest. When they go to the East to bring her home, they won’t find her.”

“Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to change her destiny?”

 

“Destiny has been unkind to me,” he stated, his voice edgy. “I have accepted my role in King Adeyanju’s life, but why does my daughter also have to be Tadeyeri to the Prince of the land?”

“It is tradition.” 

 

Tadeyanju scoffed in irritation. “Shade, don’t criticise my plan. All I need you to do is to keep that girl in your stall and teach her the trade. Help her become one of us .”

 

“That is exactly what I am doing, but still, I am afraid!”

“You have nothing to fear.”

 

“You and I both know that is not true. We have everything to fear.” Chief Tadeyanju was about to respond, but she cut him off. “ I have to go.” 

Without waiting for a response, she darted off to catch up with her son.

 

It was two hours after Banji and Yemi left, but Aunty Shade was not back yet. Tade had waited in anticipation, hoping the Prince would show up as Banji had said, but she saw no one. She tried to keep herself busy by cleaning the stall and washing the calabashes, still, the Prince didn’t show up. Spending the time, just watching and waiting, irked Tade. It was not in her character to just sit still and do nothing.

 

When her Aunty had told her that she would work with her at the palm wine stall, she had been excited. A place where a lot of men gathered and drank leisurely was a good place to get information that gave her access to the Prince, and she had not been wrong. 

But still, the Prince had not come. 

 

She wondered if she should just ask for directions to the palace and announce to the guards that she had an important message for him, but even as the thought formed, she knew they would not grant a commoner like her access to the monarchy. The best they would do was to take a message, but there was no guarantee that it would reach him. Worse than denying the Prince of her message was the fear that the warning she planned to deliver would fall in the hands of the culprit.

 

Time is not on your side. Don’t miss your chance to save the Prince.

 

Tade sighed.

The weight of this responsibility was sometimes crippling, but ever since she could remember, there was a boy in her dreams. He did not look or sound like any of the boys that she grew up with in Nnewi. With him, she felt a mysterious connection. She felt everything he felt. If the boy got sick, she would see it in a dream and begin to have a headache herself. Sometimes, she would randomly fall and break her shoulder without being in any situation that should have warranted a fall. It felt as though she was taking the fall for someone else, protecting him, and for a long time, she had been disturbed, haunted and tormented.

 

Tade never knew her father, mother, or any of her siblings. It seemed as though her memory from birth till she was six years old was completely wiped out. She had grown up with a tired old woman, Mama Nkechi, acting as her helper, running errands, and keeping the woman company. She sensed that if she discussed her fears with Mama Nkechi, she would be considered possessed and treated as an Osu; an outcast, so she bore the torment.

 

The first family member she ever met was Aunty Shade. She’d visited ten years ago, and had said that she was her father’s younger sister. Tade didn’t have the strength to hold a grudge, and hadn’t bothered to question Shade about her abandonment. She just wanted to go with her to meet her people, ready to forgive them, but Aunty Shade had simply said that they were dead, and that she was the only family that Tade had. 

 

She had hoped for so long to belong somewhere, but had to accept the gruelling news that she was alone in the world. Even the Aunty that had come to deliver the news had not made any attempt to build a connection with her. So, Tade had moved on from her family and the thought of what life could be if she grew up with her own people in her own land. She had joined the song and dance group in Nnewi, and had become a popular performer. Yet, this boy’s spirit would not leave her alone. She felt everything he felt, and wondered who he was.

 

It wasn’t until two years ago that she got answers. And the answers came in the strangest of ways.

 

Brother Joseph had come from America with a boat of ships that had been sent to steal people for slavery because he had a mission to take the news of Jesus to the remote parts of the world. He lived in secret in the forest, and that was where they had met.

The meeting changed her life.

 

At first, she thought he was a spirit. She had never seen any man so white prior to the time. He also spoke in a tongue she didn’t understand, but for some reason, she trusted him, and had begun to take care of him, taking him food, while he taught her his language. They became best friends, and she fell in love with him. In fact, she still believed that they were meant for each other, if only she could finish this confusing mission and go back to him in Nnewi.

 

The thought of her mission weighed down on her. Nobody around here would ever accept such a strange god as Jesus. He would be too much to thrust on the natives around here or anywhere for that matter. How could she convince them that a man who allowed himself to be stoned, dragged across a town in shame, and hanged to die on a cross, was an ideal god, not to mention that He was the only God?

 

How did you believe?

 

Tade believed because Jesus saved her. He took away her emptiness, gave her life, and delivered her from an evil spirit. The day she was liberated, she had been talking to Brother Joseph, and he was telling her the story of the woman who was delivered from seven devils. He was always telling her stories, but that story opened her mind to her own salvation, and so she told Brother Joseph about the boy in her dreams; the boy whose body seemed to be connected with hers, and he had prayed for her.

 

They had prayed for several hours, and she knew when the disconnection happened. She felt light immediately, and the weight she had been carrying became obvious to her. But even after the deliverance, she had still felt connected to the boy, and had said so to Brother Joseph, so they began to pray for the faceless boy who had no name. A month ago, she had a dream that the Prince in her hometown died, and for some reason, she was sure that the boy she’d been delivered from and the Prince were the same person. 

“I have to go and warn him,” Tade had said to Brother Joseph when she narrated the story to him.

 

“You must do what you feel you have been called to do,” he replied.

 

“I am not sure if this has anything to do with what I have been called to do. I just want closure.”

 

“You and this man were connected for a reason. The devil had a plan for this connection, but God will use it for His salvation.” Brother Joseph had said, and Tade had laughed.

 

“You honestly believe that God can save a Prince that has been immersed in the cultural nuances and tradition of his land since birth, the heir apparent of a very strong Yoruba Kingdom?” Tade asked, both amused and amazed at Brother Joseph’s audacity. 

 

The man was always saying bold things, but the only bold move Tade wanted from him was that he take her as his wife so they could navigate life together, after all, they were the only Christians in town, but Brother Joseph had insisted that Jesus Christ belonged to everyone, and they could not hoard him.

 

When Aunty Shade sent for her, Tade would have definitely refused. She was no longer a child that could be moved around without her consent, but despite a strong pull to stay safe with Brother Joseph, she knew that her life would not be complete if she did not fulfil her mission to the Prince of Iludoyin. Now that she was in Iludoyin, she couldn’t gain access to the Prince, and it was beginning to frustrate her. Since she was alone, she began to pray, asking God for help, asking that he led the Prince to her. 

 

Her prayers had only just begun when a man walked in. His presence filled the room, and he felt familiar, but Tade wasn’t sure she had seen or met him before. Before she could find her tongue to offer him a drink, he spoke first. 

“Why are you talking to yourself in the middle of an empty stall? You will scare customers away,” Adeyeri said. He was struck by her beauty, and wondered if he had seen her before.

 

“It didn’t seem to stop you,” Tade replied, struggling to stay polite.

 

Adeyeri was taken aback by her indifferent reaction to him. It was rare, even almost impossible, that he would enter a place and the person would not recognise him enough to bow in reverence. To be treated like every other human, and able to mess up without being placed on a pedestal would be fun, he thought.

 

“I will have a jug of wine. Bring a clean bowl, preferably one that has never been used before,” he commanded.

 

Tade raised her eyebrows at him. Who did he think he was? she thought, and planned to give him a piece of her mind, but remembered her Aunt’s instruction. She fetched the jug of palm wine and the cleanest calabash she could find. She placed the calabash on the table but held on to the jug.

 

Adeyeri raised the calabash as though to inspect it. “This will do.” He motioned for her to pour the wine. She didn’t. “What?” he asked, irritated by her indifference.

 

“A jug of wine is twelve cowries.”

 

Adeyeri refused to acknowledge her statement. He lifted his bowl for a drink, but Tade simply stared at him, refusing to serve him. “Serve the wine!” he said sternly.

“It is a lot of wine. I need to see the money before I can serve it.”

 

Adeyeri laughed. This lady truly did not know who he was. “The money will come soon. Serve me.”

 

Tade laughed, and moved away with the jug. This was not a serious man. After walking in with an air of superiority, he actually had no money to pay for a drink.

 

Adeyeri couldn’t believe his eyes. A woman actually walked away from him because she thought he was poor. 

 

“I am not the village drunk, I don’t owe. Serve me at once,” he commanded, and hated the sound of his voice. This definitely was how the poor felt; to be treated like you meant nothing because you had no cowries.

 

The man looked embarrassed, and Tade decided to pity him. The wine was growing stale anyway. She walked back to him and poured a full bowl of palm wine, but refused to leave the jug. 

 

“I see you are not from around here,” he said, and pulled her hand, as though to make her drop the jug of wine with him. As soon as their hands touched, it was as though a current passed through them. Startled, Adeyeri dropped her hands immediately. “I… Err… Sorry,” he said, feeling the need to apologise for holding her roughly.

 

“I see that is a foreign word to you,” Tade said, still wondering why his touch would affect her.

 

“I see that you are foreign.” Adeyeri said, and raised the bowl to his lips, but dropped it at Tade’s cryptic response.

 

“I don’t see how that is any of your business.”

 

Her rudeness and audacity irked Adeyeri.

 

Banji, who had overheard the later part of the conversation strode in, smiling. “I see you have met the witch,” he said, sitting in front of Adeyeri.

 

“Witch huh? That explains it,” he muttered.

 

“I am not a witch,” Tade bellowed, and Banji laughed.

“That explains it,” Adeyeri said again, and took a sip from his wine.

 

Tade rolled her eyes. “You promised me a Prince,” she accused Banji, who simply smiled, ignored her, and faced Adeyeri.

 

“How did you get out of the palace at this time?”

 

Tade dropped the jug and looked at Adeyeri, realisation dawning.

 

“You know me!” Adeyeri boasted.

 

I didn’t know! Oh Lord, how do I make this man believe my message? I have messed it up, and I haven’t even begun.