Market was really slow today and Mama Ibe wondered what was going to be of her as she needed money for soup. Since her husbands death she has been struggling with taking care of her children. She sold vegetables and fish. Sometimes market was good and sometimes it was bad. She couldnt wait for her children to come of age to begin helping her with farm work. Her eldest son was only 13. The weather began changing and she heaved a frustrated sigh and cursed the rain that was about falling. Uturu gbagbukwe mmiri choro imebiri m ahia taa she cussed. The day began turning to night and strong wind began blowing and began lifting sand off the ground. She hissed again and she brought out her umbrella. She wasnt going to let rain make her go to bed hungry with her kids. She would sit tru the rain and sell her foodstuffs afterall water doesnt spoil vegetables or fish. It seemed like the rain was going to be very heavy as the day continued getting very dark. Ahhhhhhhhh!!! a lady in the market screamed. We don die oh!!! Everybody looked in her direction to decipher the cause of the scream. As they saw what made her scream, everybody took to their heels. Mama Ibe left her foodstuffs and ran. She didnt give a thought to how hungry her kids would be. Who would think of food when death was around the corner? She ran and made for her home. On her way she saw people running in different directions. Some made for the bush while some made for the church and others the shrine. She knew there was trouble as she saw the priest of Ala running away from the shrine people sought refuge from. Mama Ibe, wished she had dug a hole before this happened so she could hide her kids and herself there. She reached home to find her house empty. Ibe and his siblings were not at home. She ran confused if the rapture they talked about in church was what was happening. She held her chest and ran around in circles looking for her children. She ran to her neighbours house and was relieved to see them there. There were so scared they had ran to meet their neighbour. Her neighbours house was a bit of solace to her as she wasnt alone with the kids, at least she had grown ups to face the calamity together. Her neighbours house wasnt far from the church and she could hear the screams and prayers going on there. She wished she was there at least in such multitude she would be so scared. Oh God she prayed, as we die today please make the death as painless as ever please, we are your children and we dont want to die. Her children prayed silently so did her neighbour. The whole village was very quiet except for the cries and prayers of those in the church. Suddenly, they heard someone shouting and saying something. The bold enough ones came out to hear what he said. Mama Ibe waited till he came close to their house of refuge. The voice drew closer and she could recognise the voice to be that of Nwa teacher. That was Mr Okoro, the school principal. He got the name because he began teaching at a very young age hence the title. Everybody could hear him shout, Come out of your houses, nothing is happening it is just Eclipse of the sun, it will only last for a few minutes. Mama Ibe hissed and concluded book has entered his head, the world was coming to an end and he is talking about eslip of the sun. She swore she saw something eating the sun and they are telling her it is normal. She stayed indoors with her kids till the sun returned and she praised God for not wiping away mankind. Maybe God decided to forgive mans numerous sins and return the sun to them. That was a day she, her kids and the whole village would never forget. HAPPY ECLIPSE: Girls dont forget to collect your eclipse gift from your boyfriends.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 19:14:22 +0000