Dial - Season 2 - Episode 39

Episode 4 years ago

Dial - Season 2 - Episode 39

Another heap of dirt came tumbling down on me, and then, suddenly, it happened!
I felt the earth shaking underneath me violently, and then it began to move up!

The ground beneath me was rising up, filling up the hole! It was as if the ground was growing!

Up and up I came, the distance between the grave and the ground above diminishing, and suddenly I found myself sitting on the ground above.

The grave I had been lying in had filled up, and now there was no longer a hole, but filled hole! The earth had grown up beneath me! The four guards who were holding the shovels suddenly screamed with horror as the shovels were yanked from their hands, and then the shovels smashed into their skulls with such force that they fell down immediately with blood in their heads!

The four savage dogs suddenly made whimpering sounds in their throats as they stared into the trees above them, their tales between their legs.
“What’s going on, Okomfo?” King Obiba shouted with fear. He was standing behind Abena Adobea who was sitting on the ground too with her hands and feet lashed cruelly.
Okomfo Basabasa was looking at me with horror, and then he looked up into the trees.
“b0s0mba Nana!” he screamed suddenly, waving his horsetail whisk in an agitated manner. “You’re interfering, b0s0mba Nana! This is no business of yours! This boy has broken our customs again, b0s0mba Nana! Hold your peace and return to wherever you’re coming from!”
And then we all saw him!

Nana b0s0mba was descending slowly from the branches of the long trees. He was sitting on a white sheet of square cloth that fluttered in the air! He was in a grey robe, his hair, beard and moustache quite bushy, as usual!
And he was sitting on just a square piece of white cloth!

It defied logic, and understanding! What made it worse, perhaps, were the green apples packed on one corner of the straight cloth. Under normal circumstances, the weight of the apples should have collapsed the cloth and sent the apples crashing to the ground, but it remained still.

He was holding a half-eaten apple which he bit as the cloth brought him lower still until he was hanging in the air, just behind me, and his dark eyes bored with furious anger at Okomfo Basabasa.

The fetish priest of Etwe-Pe-Kote tried to look defiant, but I could see that fear lurked in the depths of his eyes.
“What are you doing here, b0s0mba Nana, please?” he asked, trying to sound tough, but there was an unsteady beat in his voice.
“I told you the boy was mine, and that you shouldn’t touch him,” Nana b0s0mba said softly. “Yet, you have come close to killing him twice!”

The four dogs suddenly gave a series of deafening barks as they stared furiously at Nana b0s0mba, but their tails remained between their legs.

Nana b0s0mba didn’t even look at the dogs. He just waved his free hand in their direction and uttered one word.
“Sleep,” he said.

And immediately the dogs collapsed on the ground in deep sleep mode!

I saw sweat on Okomfo Basabasa’s face, and I smiled with real and ugly fiendishness at him.
“You can’t intervene, b0s0maba Nana!” cried the fetish priest defiantly. “He broke our custom! He desecrated the
nsamanpowmu!”
“No, he didn’t,” Nana b0s0mba said softly. “Mr. Biko bought the
nsamanpowmu! He paid for it! He did it lawfully from the rightful source. The
nsamanpowmu has never been a part of the lands owned by your hideous village, Basabasa, and you know it!”

Okomfo Basabasa was desperate now. His eyes were open with his increasing terror.
“He took away almost all the citizens! They’re now at his new village! He has la!d our town waste, and scattered our people! Any man who does that is subject to our customs, and the punishment is death by being buried alive!”

Again, Nana b0s0mba looked at him coldly. He dropped the pith of the apple carefully on the ground, and then he reached out and took a fresh one which he bit into and chewed with obvious relish.

“Mr. Biko built his house on a piece of land he purchased,” Nana b0s0mba said coldly, and then took another bite of apple. “He didn’t ask anybody to leave the village. The people came themselves, even when the place wasn’t finished. The people made their own choices. Customs don’t apply where citizens of the village make a sensible choice. So, in trying to bury this man alive, quite wrongly, you’ve exposed yourself to me. Remember I told you the war was still raging between us? I’m going to show you who I really am, Basabasa.”

His final words were accompanied by his direct and cold stare, and even I felt the sheer malice oozing off him.

“Now, b0s0mba Nana, don’t you dare!” Okomfo Basabasa wailed. “I have not barked up your tree, b0s0mba Nana!”
Nana b0s0mba pointed a finger at the fetish priest.

“Rain on you!” he said softly.
And the rains came!


It was a heavy downpour, but this rain didn’t come from the sky, now. It didn’t rain everywhere, no, not one bit!

The rains started just on top of Okomfo Basabasa’s head, and fell heavily on him! It was as if he were taking a shower from a giant sprinkler! It rained on top of him heavily, drenching him to the skin.

I began to giggle insanely!
Okomfo Basabasa now had his one personal spiritual shower!

It rained on him, and I could hear the thunder crashing just above his head. He moved to the right, and the rain followed him.
“b0s0mba Nana, b0s0mba Nana, don’t do this thing!” he shouted with real fear as he tried to run away. “I haven’t come to do battle with you, please!”
Nana b0s0mba pointed a stiff left forefinger at Okomfo Basabasa.
“I have a battle with you!” he said harshly. “Down!”

The ground shook around Okomfo’s legs, and immediately his feet disappeared into the ground!

He shouted and tried moving his feet from the ground, violently trying to free his feet, but it was stuck fast!

He looked at Nana b0s0mba with dawning horror on his face. And then he raised a hand and pointed at the man from Wowo.
“No, this is not right, b0s0mba Nana, no!” he said, his voice unsteady. “You can’t do this to me!”

“But you were going to do it to the boy, weren’t you, hm?” Nana b0s0mba said, and fire spurted out of his mouth in a small blast, and smoke seeped through the thick hair around his ears. “Down.”

Again the earth trembled, and Okomfo Basabasa sank into the ground to his knees! The guards and the elders suddenly took to their heels, running wildly into the forest.
King Obiba turned toward the forest.
“You stay!” Nana b0s0mba said, pointing a finger at the king. “You’re not going anywhere yet!”

King Obiba trembled with fear, and he leaned weakly against a tree as sweat poured off his pompous face.

“b0s0mba Nana!” Okomfo Basabasa said, and his voice was docile and quiet respectful now, filled with a terror that was pathetic to behold. “Yes, I did wrong! What I was going to do to the stranger was bad, very bad and wicked! I apologize, please. I’ve learnt my lesson. I’ll never cross you or the stranger again. Please, forgive me!”
“I warned you,” Nana b0s0mba said with very hard eyes, and then he pointed at the fetish priest. “Down.”