Ghost Hunting Not Witch-Hunting by Dare Lasisi. A yellow butterfly momentarily landed on my right hand while enjoying my dinner at the popular East End restaurant.It was a sign of a strange visitor in my vicinity.A bad but expected omen.I looked round and saw one tall dark-skinned man with an extra-large head.He gazed at me as if to punch my face.I pretended as if I did not see him.I noticed he was a one-eyed man when he removed his glasses.As if in the state of critical hypnotism,I could see some spirits escaping from his flat forehead,radiating the aura of discomfort.As if in a trance,the man removed an ipod gadget from his back pocket to listen to his favourite songs. He smartly moved and danced away from my side.I instantly heaved a sigh of relief as if out of bondage.I rushed my food and traced him into a nearby supermarket.I saw him at the milk section and I tried to approach him,but I blinked as if smoke dulled my both eyes and before I could utter any word,he vanished like a smoke.I came out of the shop with a sense of defeat to meet another scantly clad angelic daughter of Eve.She was a mixed breed teenager from my estimation.She smiled at me as if we were friends.As she opened her set of sparkling white teeth,I noticed a tiny pin at the center of her tongue.She also tattoed a scorpion on her left breast.My instinct told me she was a ghost made of water,a mermaid in human skin.I could not muster the courage to ask her simple questions. This lady quickly dropped a piece of paper on the floor as she was running to catch the train.I picked the paper up with fear dancing in my heart.I read her barely legible handwriting of her contact address.It was a place in North London,Edmonton Green and near the popular cemetery.I was thinking of tracing her the next day and not really worried about the aftermath effect. As I was walking down my lonely street,two brownish foxes double-crossed my path.I tried to scare them away with a big stone.The beasts ran away and later re-appeared as I inserted key into my front door.I promptly moved back to avoid any attack and suddenly,they escaped from my sight. When I finally entered my bedroom,I was in total state of confusion and unable to explain the scene to anybody.I was suffering in silence.I kept a sealed lip through out the night.I could not sleep as I was so afraid of her expected torture in my dream.I watched newly-bought plasma television until 2.30am to avoid being ferried away into the dreamland.My mind advised me to trace her address to north London.But another mind cautioned me to let the sleeping dog lie.To sleep or to remain awake through out the night? Few days after my encounter with this strange beautiful lady.I picked up my phone to call her and we both decided to meet in north London.I was prepared for any further crisis.We re-connected opposite a post office.She then took me to her apartment.She was staying alone in a one-bedroom flat.She asked for my choice of food and I requested for bread and tea only.The lady insisted that I must eat a solid meal.Then I agreed with her and asked for any solid food available. From my observation,she was a good cook in the same class with my late mother.She set the table and we started to eat Semovita plus fish stew.We ate from the same plate but I noticed one imaginary hand eating with us.I could not ask her until the hand picked the fish head assigned to me to devour. Few minutes later,I saw the vanished fish head in her mouth.I told her of my love for fish head from my primary school days and we both laughed. She told me she grew up in southeastern Nigeria with her Nigerian mother while her English father divorced her mother when she was just six years old.She later returned to England at the age of 23.She could speak some words in Igbo and very fluent in pidgin English. I was gobsmacked and could not continue my eating.I asked for the toilet.When I finally got inside the toilet near the front door.I vomited all the food with anger and flushed it.She heard the sound the of the water. The lady knocked at the toilet door to ask about my welfare. Are you alright at all?Any problem with you?Can I call the ambulance for you? She said. I gasped for breath as I tried to respond to her words with all my energy.I knew I was in deep mess for visiting this lady. I am okay but my stomach just reacted to the semovita.No problem my dear sister. I tried to appear calm. When I returned to the living room.She offered me a glass of wine which I declined.I told her to get me soft drinks or just a glass of clean water.She carried out my demands. She tried to make an eye contact with me and started to ask me several questions as if in a job interview. What really happened to you in the toilet?I knew you wasted and threw up all my food.Maybe my food not delicious enough for you? I mustered courage to speak out my mind as I was secretly planning how to escape from her temporary bondage in north London. I did not say your food was bad.I just dont like eating outside my house.I am okay now.Let us change the topic please. Tell me the truth.Dont be afraid to speak out your mind. She pestered me further to say something. To hide my feelings about the vanished fish head.I tried to crack some jokes with her. I really enjoyed the fish head but you also ate part of it without my consent.Even your whole body and spirit enjoyed the fish. How do you mean?My spirit or what? She asked me as if to slap me in the face. As I was discussing with her.I was hearing strange voices from her bedroom.As if some people were speaking gibberish words.It sounded as if they were knocking their heads on the wooden walls.When I asked her. She told me she was only playing music in her bedroom and she cannot take me into her bedroom until she could trust me.When the noise continued,I asked again and she blamed her Indian neighbours children.After all these sensitive questions and she could not give me reasonable answers.I maintained my sealed lip. Oh,lest I forget.I dont even know your name.I told you my name as Ade when we first met in east London last time. Okay,call me Stella or just Estee as my friends often call me.Dont bother about my last name. She gazed at me with seductive eyes and it appeared an electric shock forcefully travelled through my veins.I tried my best to resist the temptation.My eyes started seeing her double images in different beautiful forms.Maybe her divided images were my confused state of my mind or just odd illusions. She was first appeared inside her kitchen and moment later,sitting next to me and started playing with my phone.I could not say anything.I was just looking like a moron.I called out her name as if in danger. Estee!Where are you?I need to go back to my east London house. I am here with you.Please open your third eye properly,Ade.Youll see me clearly. I could no longer endure Stellas torment.Time to escape. Stella noticed my terrified body language but we both pretended as if nothing happened.My phone rang and as I picked the call,her own phone also buzzed and she quickly entered her bedroom to answer the call. *TO BE CONTINUED*
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 09:46:52 +0000
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