Dial - Season 1 - Episode 134

4 years ago

Dial - Season 1 - Episode 134

The witch took me home.

The sadness was a shroud around me that I couldn’t dispel. She gave me warm water, and I took a bath. We sat on the veranda and conversed. She asked if I were hungry, and I told her no. Then she wanted to know what had happened at the palace, and I narrated everything to her.

A slow smile spread across her face as I spoke and, looking at her, I slowly understood where her daughter had inherited her amazing beauty.

She had a small farm not far from the house, and she took me there. Slowly, as she explained the various life stages of the vegetables and foodstuffs, my sadness slowly dispelled, and I breathed a little bit easier.
Back in the house, we had our dinner on the veranda again. This consisted of soft yam boiled in light soup, and then mashed with red oil, and served with fish, snails and grass-cutter meat. She called it mpoto-mpoto , and again it s£duced my palate so much that I could not have enough!

It had put me off at first because its yellowish appearance had reminded me rather unpleasantly of something unprintable, but served with the soup, it had become such an amazing delicacy that I dug in without conscience.

Later, when I looked up, licking my fingers, I saw her looking at me in a kind of funny way, her eyes all tender and soft. I put my head to one side and looked at her with slightly-narrowed eyes.

“And why are you looking at me like that, witch?” I asked softly. “Are you planning on eating my flesh tonight?”
She smiled sadly and shook her head.
“You eat like my husband used to,” she said sadly and looked away, her face suddenly lonely and filled with sorrow. “The only man for me. My man. I miss him.”
“I’m sorry,” I said gently, and she smiled a beautiful sad blast at me.

And that was when I saw the slithering black mass in the yard…another snake, this one bigger!
“Yei!” I whispered, instantly afraid, and got to my feet, ready to bolt inside.
She took my arm and held it tightly, smiling gently.
“You can’t run away from them forever, Yao,” she said kindly. “You’ve been running away all your life, from love and commitment, and it has been transposed in all that you do. It is time to stop running, my son. Come with me.”

I pulled my arm from her hand, my face sickened.
“Don’t you dare, witch!” I said unsteadily.
She took her stick, the one with the V-shaped tip, and then she held my hand.
The gigantic snake was slithering toward the bathroom area. She took my hand and tried to drag me, and I pulled my hand free.
“Hey, witch, don’t do that!” I shouted.
She stood in front of me, held my upper arms and spoke gently.

“You can always get over all the fears, and all the hurts, Yao,” she said gently. “Come with me, don’t be afraid.”
So I followed her, and we chased down the snake.

“The African Black Mamba,” she said softly. “One of the deadliest and violent snakes in the world. It is aggressive, but it has an in-built abhorrence to humans just as we do for them. It is an instinctive mechanism God placed between us. But, a blow to a snake’s back breaks its bone structure, and it ceases to be so mobile. Here, hold it like this, come!”
.