MY NIGHTMARE

HEALING POWERS

It was already morning, the birds were chirping and people were busy with their morning routines but Rita and Cecilia were not yet up. They slept through the early hours of the day and only woke up when the sun peeked into the window as they didn't bring down the blinds.

Rita woke up rubbing her eyes. She stretched her body and let out a loud yawn, got off the bed and went to prepare breakfast.

At the fireplace, the woods were still whole and there was no male around to do the breaking. She adjusted her clothes and immediately got to work. After breaking the first log of wood into smaller pieces, she raised the axe high to break the second one when something happened, The axe missed the target and landed on her big toe, cutting deep into her flesh and breaking the bone therein. She screamed in agony and threw away the axe, blood oozed out of her body and she tried controlling the bleeding.

Cecilia rushed out of the house when she heard her daughter scream and ran towards the fireplace. She saw her daughter deeply hurt and ran into the bush to get herbs for treatment.

Rita held her torn skin together, closed her eyes to absorb the pains while tears rushed freely down her cheeks. She muttered words of regret to herself and wished for healing hands. Immediately, the unimaginable happened. The bull-horned man she always saw in her trances appeared before her with his suffocating and negative aura. She screamed so loud that her mother heard her from a distance and ran towards the fireplace. She forgot her injury and ran to meet her mother.

"Mother, he was here again, he now comes during the day. Maybe he caused this accident, maybe he wanted me to get hurt. Mother please save me from him, I don't want to see him again, he scares me."

"What do you mean? How did you get healed? I saw you bleeding, yes, I saw it. I saw your injury. Tell me, how did it happen?" her mother enquired.

Surprised by her mother's outburst, Rita slowly lowered her gaze, not too sure of what to expect. She saw her toe, healed as if nothing ever happened. She was terrified. She narrated her wish and the trance to her mother who confirmed she has been given the gift of healing. Cecilia knew exactly what had happened. Ekwensu saw Rita in pains and came to her rescue. It is typical of supernatural beings to come to the aid of mortals who they have taken interest in, therefore, Rita's fate would not be different, but she did not want her daughter to think too much about it , so she had to come up with a lie to make her believe that everything was alright and she had no cause to be afraid. She told Rita that the Almighty sometimes decides to grant the wishes of good humans, all it takes is just to make a wish and it would come to pass. Rita was dumbfounded but couldn't argue with her mother. She kept wondering if she was dreaming. Could this be real?