Must Read: The Devil Wears Okrika (A Story By Souloho19) - Season 1 - Episode 8

6 years ago

Must Read: The Devil Wears Okrika (A Story By Souloho19) - Season 1 - Episode 8

In the crowd the villagers all listened to their leaders. All was silent and the only voice to be heard was De Nwachukwu’s powerful voice.
Okudili sat at the back where he could keep an eye on Amara. He had been on the lookout and had even come to the square early with the hope of seeing them. But they had arrived late, just minutes before the opening prayer. Okudili paid zero attention to tye words coming from De’ Nwachukwu. He was more interested in the daughter. He frowned as he saw the young man in the leather jacket lean in to whisper something in her ear.

De’ Nwachukwu: “I need to appeal to everyone of us, we can not allow one demon to come and ruin our happiness and our peace as a community”

“This is the time to stand together, be on the lookout, 0ur youths and young men especially, we boast of some of the best wrestlers in the neighbouring billages. We need to task ourselves with protecting our women, we need to fluch out this person and we need to be united to do so, the worst thing is he is one of us, he might even be sitting here listening to me….”

He let that hang in the air as he took his seat.
Pa Kenneth who was still agile for a man in his eighties stood up to address the villagers. “As we speak, visitors from another state arrived in our community few hours ago. They would be hosted by our very own Bartholomew and I understand you will come in contact with most of them over the course of the week. I want to implore you to receive them peacefully, people of Amaife have always been known for their hospitality, let us not let that change”

“Our daughters are landing in the mortuary without passing through the hospital and you want us to be hospitable?” Someone shouted from the crowd and immediately there was a chorus as the villagers broke into murmuring and side talks.

Pa Kenneth tried to calm the crowd “My brothers and sisters, we need to play our part, if you can expose this monster through diabolical means please, please and please do that but let us not refuse our brothers who serve pastor Bartholomew’s God the chance to do so” His attempt at silencing the crowd backfired as their voice increased. The recent killings had gotten under the skin of everyone. They had all looked to their leaders for a solution and had come to this meeting with renewed hope thinking: ‘our leaders would tell us what to do’. They were not pleased with what they were hearing so far: Unity? to be Watchful? No way! the voices increased as they grew more unsettled.

De’ john stood up in a desperate attempt to calm the villagers. Raising both hands he called for decorum, but alas the uniform voice of protest grew louder.

A figure emerged from the crowd. He walked briskly to the front and conferred with the leaders. Pa Kenneth nodded and gestured to the crowd with his hand as if to say “they’re all yours”

A funny thing happened, The moment the man opened his mouth to speak, the crowd fell quiet. It was Stevenson.

“People of Amaife, you all accepted me in your midst and I’m grateful for that. I’ve learnt so much from you all, I’ve been able to get priceless material for my book, but not only that you’ve taught me values that were alien to me in my country”

He began to pace “It’s so unfortunate what has been happening the past couple of weeks, but I assure you all whoever he is, he would be caught, your leaders are doing their possible best and its up to us to do ours, our firls and women please never you walk alone. If you’re going to the farm, go with your brother, if you’re going to the stream don’t go alone, take someone with you. With time whoever is doing all this would slip up out of frustration and we’d catch him” he paused, stopped pacing and looked at the crowd till his eyes met hers “As you people would say, 99 days for the thief, but one day for the owner”

“So we should allow 99% of our daughters to be killed first abi?” the voice from the crowd fired again

“Don’t mind the idiat!” Okudili added, his voice dripping with ,much contempt.

The crowd started shouting again.

“Did you see the way Steve looked at me?” Oluchi asked Amara after the meeting as they walked home.

“Yes Oluchi, I saw it” Amara replied. Although for a minute she had thought the European had looked at her.

Paul who had stayed behind to greet and catch up with his old friends caught up with them.

“Amara, I’d like to come over and say hello to your father” he said as he tried to hold her hand.

Amara didn’t need a soothsayer to know what Was coming next. She had to talk with Oluchi, she couldn’t afford to lose their friendship and at the same time she couldn’t be dragged into any relationship. All of a sudden she needed to be alone. She needed to think.

“You know what? I need to check on my sister Joy and need to prepare food for my father. I know he would be very tired”

“That reminds me, I heard about your mother passing away, I’m so sorry” Paul gave himself a mental kick for not remembering earlier.

“Its alright, Oluchi we’ll see later”

“You shouln’t go alone”

“I’d bbe fine, I’m sure I’d see Joy on the way”

“What’s wrong with her?” Paul asked his sister as they watched her walk away.

“She’s upset”

“About what?”

Oluchi had no reply to that she just shrugged.