The Tales of Achelo – Episode 3

Episode 3

Edith recounted to me that the day father died, he had visited grandma in her small hut. She told me that he came back rushing and stopped behind my bedroom staring without blinking at the grave direction, with blood exuding from the side of his mouth. Edith went on that mother approached father and called him but he never answered. That he was trembling all over and wanted to point to the graveyard but dropped dead! She also added that when they took father inside, they found a piece of paper in his pocket written:

When I die Janer, don’t burry me next to those people. They were not my real parents. They just adopted me. They had some agreement papers in their small hut which is of wicked motives. There is a black box there. It has a buffalo horn and a python skin surrounded by red beads. It has the names of all my family members. Burn the hut and the papers before the prayer crusade takes place. Those people are bad. I had known the secret. They wanted to sa…

Edith told me that the other part of the paper was cut off. Mother had been very hostile whenever I asked her what the buffalo horn and python skin meant. She would almost knock a spoon out of my hand whenever I ask that question at meal time.

One Sunday evening when I had come back from the prayer crusade, something happened. I was happy because I was told that God is the father of the fatherless. I got encouraged that I will not be having one eye when Jesus comes back and that I would have my full sight back by then. I would not remember the troubles of the world. My fear would be gone and forever. Then I was just approaching mother’s room when I heard sobs and sighs coming from inside the room.

“Eh… eh… Lord why? Why?” she cried.

I stopped, pinned myself to the wall. I had the feeling that she was facing grandma’s spirit or even father’s spirit again.

“Lord,” she sobbed again. “I…I have loved you. With all my heart I have loved you. I never doubted you. Not for any one second. Lord all these years I was able to bear. I feel I should not suffer. He too, loves you yet you took him away. He loved me. He loved his family. He didn’t love what his mother did. He was a complete separate body.”

Episode 4

She sobbed and gave a very long sigh. I could hear she was picking up a paper, if not a book. It was probably a book. I remembered the table had a bible (King James Version) donated to her during Scripture Union fellowship. I didn’t hear any sound of a book being opened. She closed the window; the clicking sound passed my ears.

“Then Lord,” I heard her continuing, “then Lord. What… What had remained of him…you…you. Lord you deprived him of one eye. Oh… Lord why?” she heightened her cry and the words became indistinctive. I felt a sharp pain in my injured eye. Something hot ran down the back of my neck. I experienced an inevitable acid rising through my throat. I was swelling in anger. My eyes were flooding. I couldn’t hold back my tears. I hurried off to my room but it was unfortunate; the door lock hooked my sleeve. It got me twisted and thrown down heavily on the floor. I could hear mother calling behind me.

“Achelo! Achelo! What is happening there?”

I had fallen and my other uninjured eye was paining.

“Oh God, Please! Please! Not this one,” I prayed soothing it.

Mother dashed to my room. I had found my way already to my bed. She switched on the light and came to sit by my bedside.

“Achelo,” she wept after seeing me holding my paining eye. “Achelo, believe God! It won’t happen to you again. You will be fine. God loves you. At least you are still able to see my pretty face. Rise up and we pray.”

I swept away my tears. They were not stopping though. My lips were trembling. My eyes were blinking rapidly and out of control. Mother had not seen. She wrapped me around her arms.

“Son,” she said, finally looking at my face. “You are strong. Your father was strong too. You copied him. You are handsome. You are pretty handsome, son.”

She curled her lips into a cry. She held her lips strongly together to hold back the urge to wet her face.