When Gods Bleed

by Njedeh Anthony

  As he slept he heard his wife scream his name, “Obiana.” He opened his eyes to see his wife dash out of their shelter. He quickly got up and followed her to see what was wrong. He saw the hyena running with their food bag. The scene was funny to him, but his wife had a different view of the scenario so he started chasing the animal. The hyena swerved around the trees as it ran. Just when Obi was about to grip the animal, his legs seemed to become glued to the muddy waters. The more he tried to struggle, the faster he sank. Amina had trailed her husband and looked horrified when she saw that his predicament scared him. She walked in circles like a mad woman, seriously confused.

  “Amina, relax,” Obi said, and it seemed to make her a little more composed. “Look for a thick and long branch and stretch it to me.”

  She scanned the area and found a branch. She stretched it to her husband, but it was not long enough. She removed her wrapper and threw it to him, but it, too, was not long enough.

  “Cover yourself,” Obi said, sinking slowly.

  “There should be something we can do. Please help me think!” Amina cried.

  “There is something I always wanted to tell you, but I was too proud.”

  “I don't want to hear anything you want to tell me of that sort now. You can tell me tonight, tomorrow, or even the day after that, but I don't want to hear anything of that sort now.”

  Her voice was now firm, but when she looked at her husband covered up in mud to his chest she started screaming and crying to the wilderness.

  “Please, somebody help me! Is there anybody out there? Please help me!”

  When she realized it was to no avail, she started entering the quicksand to join her husband.

  “What are you doing?” he shouted, only his head sticking out of the loose wet sand.

  She ignored him and continued moving toward him.

  “Listen to me for once in your life. I beg you with my soul, please do not join me in this my tragedy.”

  She ignored him and was still approaching him when a man with pale white skin ran over to where they were and stretched a branch to Obi, pulling the husband and his wife out.

  After they settled on dry land, Obi shook Amina violently by the shoulder screaming, “Do not ever do that again! Why do you think I was happy to live? It was because of you. You are my life and if you live, then my life was worth something.”

  “Without you I also have no life worth living,” she replied with no remorse.

  He was about to slap her when the white man cut in. “Please, such violence is unnecessary.” The man spoke their language fluently.

  Then Obi finally acknowledged the presence of the third party. “Kind sir, how can I repay you for your kindness?”

  “Please forget about it. My reward comes from my God,” the man replied.

  “Which god might that be?” Obi inquired.

  “The one God up in heaven.”

  “I take it that you are a missionary,” Obi inferred.

  “Yes I am, but we will talk on that topic later. There is a stream in front of us; you and your wife can wash up there. I live just across it and I insist you be our guests tonight.”

  “No sir, your kindness is more than enough. We do not want to encroach into your home.”

  “Nonsense. Let us go.”

  The missionary led them to the stream and then into his home. They lived in a small hut with an attached house made up of rafia branches. The attached house was built for a congregation, and opposite the entrance was two sticks crossed together. As Obi and Amina studied these structures, the white man and a woman of his complexion, apparently his wife, approached them.

  “It’s church,” the wife said with a very unclear dialect.

  Both man and wife gave a bow to show respect for their guests. They led them into their home and offered them something to eat, but Obi and Amina politely refused. It was very dangerous eating in a man's home when you did not know his background. The white woman insisted on pressuring them, but their refusal was adamant.

  The woman seemed to be hurt that they rejected her meal.

  “You’ll have to forgive my wife,’’ the husband said. “We are not used to people coming to our homes to visit, except on the seventh day when some people sneak here from the province.”

  “Come to think of it, I don't think we have eaten today, or have we Obi?” Amina said.

  He smiled. “We have not.”

  They offered them rice and stew, which they ate and were grateful. When the meal was finished, the women took the dishes away and left the men alone.

  “There must be a way I can repay you for your kindness.”

  “As I said, my reward will be given to me by God in heaven.”

  “You must have deep respect for your God.”

  “Do you say that because I saved your life and require nothing for it?”

  “And also welcoming us into your home.”

  “What is your name?”

  “Obi, and yours?”

  “Michael.”

  “Mekell.”

  The missionary laughed at the pronunciation of a name he felt was easy to pronounce. “No, Michael,” he tried to correct Obi.

  “What does it mean?”

  “I am not sure. All I know is that I was named after an angel of God. What does your name mean?”

  “Obi means heart. My mother called me Obiani, which means the heart of the land.”

  “Your mother, where is she?”

  “She died along with my father.”

  “I am sorry.”

  “Don't be sorry for me. She lived a good life and died well.” Obi tried to cover his emotions, but it was obvious the memory touched him.

  “I hardly have guests in my home. What kind of host would I be if I prevent my only guest from opening his mind?”

  When Obi was about to ask his question, the women came in and he stopped, which Michael noticed.

  ”You can ask me anything, we are all family.”

  “What are you and your wife doing in this secluded area and why leave your home to come to this world where the people are different from you?”

  “In my country since I was born, I have always dedicated my life to my God. That is why I became a missionary,” Michael quickly replied. “When I first came over here with the merchants, I was forced to by the cardinal and I found this place greatly to my disdain. I stayed here for a year and quickly went home the first chance I could, but when I returned, I realized there was no room for me in that world. The only good I did was getting engaged to Mary, but she did not want to come to Africa with me, so I left her. After three years I went back to report to the church in my world to ask why they stopped sending amenities. They told me that they had cancelled the project in these parts and reassigned me back home, but over there was no longer my home. This was my home. So I decided to come back. Due to a force greater than I was, I went to see Mary, expecting her to already be married, but she was engaged.”

  He held tight to Mary’s hands and, though he was in tears, he continued.

  “She was still engaged to me after all those years. This time she did not hesitate when I asked her to follow me. We got married and came over here. We were spreading the word about our God in small villages, but we heard they started to kill people who joined our religion. We decided to come here, near the boundary between Ozuoba and Utagba, so the people who come here are not really noticed because of its seclusion from the populated areas.”

  When he finished, nobody had anything to say. The hosts noticed how tired their guests were and led them to where they would spend the night.

  As Obi slept, he dreamed of coconut trees all around him. Then one of the fruits landed on his forehead and cracked a little. He picked up the fruit and opened it. The Ifa priest's face came out of the coconut and he screamed, “Leave now.”

  Obi woke up immediately and told his wife to hurry up so they could leave. She got up and started getting ready quickly. He knew he was not worthy to hav
e this woman as his bride and wondered why throughout the journey she never asked him the reason they were running or where they were going. When she was getting prepared, he took out his knife and took out his back tooth. As Michael slept, Obi walked to where he was. If he had his way, he would not have woken him, but it was against their society’s etiquette to leave your host's house without thanking him. Such things led to the birth of enemies. In a soft voice he called to him, so his wife would not wake, “Michael, Michael.”

  “Yes?”

  “I am sorry to wake you, but I have to go now. People are after me.”

  “Stay here, we can hide you.”

  “No. Our people say, ‘The day a snail leaves its shell to find another one, it can never go back to the former.’ When these men come here, deny me, or else they will hurt you.”

  “Don't worry about us. There is something about the white men here that always make them not touch us.”

  “Please take this.” He placed his gift in the missionary's hand.

  Michael opened his hands and saw Obi's tooth and he was puzzled.

  “It means I owe you and when I repay your goodness I will ask for it back.”

  Michael was still puzzled by the gesture, he wanted to say something but both man and wife were on their way.

  *

  They were walking very fast and when Amina's foot started to hurt, he carried her on his back. They had been traveling from the night into the day. When darkness was finding its way again, he saw the boundary to Utagba about a thousand paces across a river from him, but then they heard the horses’ hoofs. He could see Utagba, but he knew they could not make it there before the horsemen caught up with them. He found a space within a group of hard rocks, so he squeezed his wife through it. There was no room for two, so he climbed up a tree away from where his wife was.

  There were nine men, eight were armed fully on horseback. They rode up to the area with fires on sticks for better illumination, then one of them shouted, “Halt.” He was not dressed like an Omee and he was not armed. As they stopped, he picked the sand and rubbed it. Obi now knew he was a pathfinder and hoped he was a bad one. The man kept his ear to the ground and slowly started walking toward Amina's hiding place. Obi tried to hold him back with his eyes, but the man kept getting closer and closer to where she was. He was still touching the ground and seemed to be tracing where Amina was through something on the ground. Then he reached the rock where she was hiding. All he had to do was walk around the rock and his victim would be found.

  Obi jumped down with a loud landing. Immediately all the attention was on him; he started running in the rain. Six of the Omees chased him, the other two stayed behind in case of any surprises. Obi was always as fast as a man could ever be, but horses were faster. During the chase, the general who followed the Omees stopped his horse and fired an arrow. The flight of the arrow echoed in his ears as he got to the mouth leading to the river, so he dodged, using his hand to block the destination of the arrow into his heart and he dived into the river. The Omees got to the mouth of the river and started firing arrows at him underwater until he disappeared. The Omees tied their horses to trees and swam across to the other side of the river.

  As Obi got to the other side of the river, he saw Utagba in front of him, but he deviated into a house. He had no intention of entering Utagba while his wife was curled up between rocks. Before he approached the house, he pulled the arrow from his hand; the blood gushed from it profusely. He tore a piece of cloth from what he was wearing and tied a bandage around it to prevent himself from losing excess blood. He looked behind him to see a trail of blood, but he hoped for the rain to wash his trail away. He searched the house for a weapon, but there was nothing he could use to defend himself. He had dropped all his weapons during the chase; the only thing left on him was his knife.

  Before he knew what was going on, they had reached the house. He climbed to the roof, clamping roof stripes with his hands and feet, with his knife in his mouth, trying hard to hold firm with the pain from the pressure between his grip and his injury. Below, he saw a child looking up at him. He did not know whether to beg or threaten the boy to be quiet.

  A man, probably the owner of the house, came out and answered the Omees. The boy looked away from Obi’s direction as though he wasn’t there. He watched them search the house and even question the boy. Strangely, the boy seemed to be protecting Obi. When the Omee was talking, blood soaked in the wet cloth around his hand fell on the floor. He tried to cover up his wound properly with the other hand. It was getting pointless staying where he was because he was going to be caught.

  By the time he noticed what was going on below him, the small boy had the Omee’s knife with blood on it and was laughing. It seemed he had been doing some cutting. Next thing he saw, the Omees evacuated the house because of the incident, assuming the spirits of an angry god possessed the boy.

  Obi waited till the parameter was clear. He overheard the general saying that he had not yet entered Utagba, so they should spread out and keep searching. When Obi came down, he went to his hero. He heard the house owner call him Otuturex. He met the young boy lying on his mat, he said nothing but in their silence, they made a pact and Obi entered back into the rain.

  As he left the house, he knew that he would never forget the favor the child did for him. He would have pulled his tooth and given it to him, but you never give someone younger your tooth. He surveyed the area around his location and saw that the Omees were well spaced out. He did not bother looking toward Utagba because he was going back to get Amina. The area back to the river was neglected except for one Omee. He watched the Omee surveying the area carefully. Obi crept near him and pulled back a branch of a tree. He held the branch firmly, waiting till the Omee got into target. As the Omee walked into the target spot Obi released the branch and with a great force it hit the warrior’s neck. The Omee was motionless on the ground.

  All that drilling and training can finally be used for something after all, Obi thought. He did not have time to waste. As he quietly crossed the river, he hoped the Omee was not dead. He had never killed a man before.

  The two Omees and the pathfinder had been waiting by the river and they were getting impatient. They all shared the premonition that their comrades might be in trouble of some sort, probably a wild animal attacked them or their target had entered Utagba. None of the Omees knew why they were chasing this man, but their orders were clear. They did not want to see the man alive. If they were ordinary men in the kingdom, they would have asked why, but they were Omees. They never ask why, they just follow the orders their superior give them.

  Amina still remained curled up between the rocks. Her body seemed to crumple, but she stayed where she was because the dread still lived. She heard them chasing Obi, but from the conversation between the Omees closer to her, she knew he had escaped. She hoped he got to Utagba. She knew that was where he was going from the Omees’ conversations. She never wondered why. Such information did not seem necessary to her because her husband was such a positive force in her life. Even being squeezed between rocks with danger around her, she knew she was happy and these past months were the best days of her life.

  While trying to get comfortable she heard a hiss. She looked behind her and saw a rattlesnake. She slowly started crawling out of the rock, but the snake was not ready to let her leave its home without a bite. The snake struck, aiming for her neck. She grabbed the snake’s head before it got to her and threw it away.

  She breathed a sigh of relief as she landed on the floor, but when she looked up her eyes met the three men. She got up and started running and they chased her, laughing. She could not run fast enough; her legs hurt from the endless roaming. One of the Omees caught her from behind. She tried to struggle, but the man was very strong. He used one of his hands to grab her bosom and the other to pull off her wrapper. The other two men were laughing. She dug into her wrapper, took out her knife, and stabbed him in his genitals, then she used her elbow
to hit him. She ran toward the river.

  The other Omee looked down to see his comrade dying, and took out his bow and arrow.

  As she ran, she saw Obi running toward her and she knew she was safe. When Obi grabbed her, he felt a sting in his heart. He looked at his wife to see an arrow that passed through her chest.

  “For you I die. I am proud,” were her only words and she died.

  “You live forever, I swear it!” Obi roared. He dropped his wife gently on the ground and when he rose his eyes were bloody red. He did not have the look of a man anymore.

  The Omee tried to get another arrow, but the scene frightened him and his hands shook. Even when he got the arrow, he could not fit it properly. By the time it was well-fitted, Obi had already walked to him.

  With an intense force, Amina's husband dug his hand into the bowels of the soldier and brought out his intestines. The pathfinder on seeing this took the Omee’s knife and stabbed himself to death. Then Obi made a bonfire; it was an Omee code to show that the mission was accomplished.

  The Omees on the other side of the river saw this and came back, but when they returned to the area, they did not see anyone. The general told them to spread out and look for the other Omees. They were careful because they had found one of their comrades dead on the other side.

  As the Omees spread out, one of them saw his comrade sleeping and went to wake him up. As he shook him, he realized his comrade had nothing in his stomach, but it was too late. Death was behind him. Another Omee was roaming the bushes and saw a trail of blood, so he followed it cautiously. When he got to where the injured man was, his throat was sliced.

  “There is something wrong. I am not hearing from the others,’’ an Omee said.

  If only he had looked closer he would have known that death dressed like an Omee.

  The general was searching with another Omee. As they surveyed, they began to see dead bodies. The general went to investigate the scene properly, then he heard someone drop. He looked back to find out he was the only Omee alive. He put his sword into its compartment and reached for his bow and arrow. As his right hand reached for an arrow, he felt an arrow pass through his hand. He tried to pull his sword with his left and another arrow passed through his left hand.