Dial - Season 1 - Episode 118

4 years ago

Dial - Season 1 - Episode 118

.
The witch stood gazing across the river for a while, watching the royal princess scampering into the canoe, and then a very sad and anguished look passed across her face suddenly, and she turned away abruptly.
“Come, Yao, let’s have some breakfast,” she said.

I stared at her retreating back for a while with puzzled eyes, and then I turned and followed her up the incline, then through the cocoa trees and down toward her house. She seemed very agitated as she removed a scarf from around her arm and tied it around her hair tightly.

The witch walked ahead of me, her gait fast so that she put a little distance between us, and I could not speak to her until she entered the veranda. She had put a low table there, and served food on it in two earthenware pots, both covered.

There was a bowl of water, and a metal cup containing some water.

There were two low stools on each side of the table, and she sat down on one of them brusquely, and motioned me to the other.
“Eat fast, Yao,” she said, and her old face was worried. “They would be here very soon, and they would take you away.”
“Who?” I asked with raised eyebrows. “The princess and her people?”
“Yes, and stop asking too many questions,” she said, keeping her face low as she uncovered the food.

“Then you have to provide me with some answers, witch!” I said, agitated. “I can see you’re very strung up all of a sudden. You look so sad and wound-up, and I couldn’t help but notice how your eyes lit up when you were looking at that naughty princess! Why, Maame, why?”
She looked up at me suddenly, and her face wasn’t angry as I had feared, but the face of a very sad and distraught woman who had tears in her eyes.
“Because she is my daughter!” she said quietly, and tears dripped down her eyes slowly as her lips quivered. “My daughter, my only child! And now she hates me!”
“The royal princess is your daughter?” I asked in hushed tones, shocked to my very core.

She nodded without speaking.
.
“Meaning you’re – or were – the Queen Mother?” I asked.
She put her head to one side and regarded me solemnly.

“Eat, Yao, please,” she said. “As soon as she gets to the palace, the King would send guards after you, to capture you. When you get to the palace just tell them you’re a stranger, and you’re not familiar with our customs. They’ll probably ask you to buy a sheep to be slaughtered to appease the gods, or they’ll throw you out of the village! Do you have a little money on you?”
“Appease the gods because I wouldn’t fall down on the ground in front of that d--n…sorry, sorry, but this princess, your daughter, she does irritate me.”

“Yes, Yao, it is the custom of our people,” she said. “Do you have money to pay for a sheep? I have some little savings. I can give it to you if you don’t have money.”
“Forget about money, please, Maame,” I said as I drew my stool forward. “Money is not a problem. I want to know about this daughter of yours! Why is she living in such a flamboyantly arrogant way while they’ve driven you to the outskirts of the village because you’re supposedly a witch?”
“Eat first, Yao,” she said quietly, using a corner of her cloth to wipe her eyes. “I’ll tell you as we eat.”

I sighed, and glanced down at the food, and then my expression changed.