About The Man Who Never Died

Chapter Two

The trip to Idah wasn't a sweet one but it was full of memories. Ogili had gone to Idah several times with his brother before now. Their transactions had been a smooth one with people across different tribes and nations that they had become reputable for it. The last deal, however, was a bad one; it was not unconnected to the mistake made by their partners from the riverside of Nsukka. They were not generous with women, so they thought, but Okeke, the youngest among them could not stand the charming beauty of those young maidens from Oyegede. Out of the eight maidens and two men who were taken before the return of Ogili and Obule, five of them had escaped.

“How was that possible?” asked Onyeke.

“I was urinating when one of them came from the back and hit me on the head...” Okeke explained.

“And you helped them to untie their ropes, o kwia?” Obule roared.

Ogili knew exactly what happened. He overheard Okeke's kinsmen — Edem, Alumona and Ovoko — talking in a low tone. Okeke’s mother was from the village of one of the maidens, he grew up there and understood their language, so, they believed that he might have aided their escape. However, the truth was far from that, he was seduced by one of the maidens, Aneh. She wore her tribal colours in a more traditional way: a simple length of striped fabric secured around her body with matching wrist, waist and neck beads. She looked very stunning in it, and she was full of wit as well in the manner she spoke to Okeke.

“I noticed you have not let your eyes off my chest and hips ever since we were sold to you people," Aneh said, avoiding his eyes.

“What?” Okeke asked, looking in her direction. She had become known for her boldness for speaking up. He looked at her in admiration of her stunning beauty. This time she intermittently touched her necklace made of local beads, it was made up of red and black colours. One of them was designed in a triangular shape that it pointed towards her cleavages, and she traced the beads one after the other, from the back of her neck to the end point. She was not unaware that he was looking at her, and in a deliberate manner that was as swift as it was crafty, she then adjusted the cloth tied around her waist. It was obvious that the game was working.

“The signs are clear. I think she likes me," Okeke mumbled to himself, grinning with ecstasy.

“All these can be yours," she suddenly said. She said 'all these' using her hands as though she wanted to wrap up herself and gift it to Okeke.

“What do you mean?” Okeke heard her well, but he needed reassurance.

“Don't be a child, I'm aware you know what I mean, or don't you like what you are seeing?”

Okeke made to remove her clothes but she brought him to calmness and got him paralysed with her words.

“Have you laid with a maiden before?” This was somewhat strange and came like a dart. Strange because he least expected it, and sharp because she asked the question authoritatively, and respectfully too. Should he tell her the truth? No, not now, he thought; he would appear small before her. But, telling her the opposite, he couldn't tell what she might think of him, but it would surely add to his pride. It would seemingly make him appear like a man.

“But why do you ask if I may know?” Okeke asked, and without thinking twice, Aneh told him:

“Because I’m very sure you know you will enjoy a woman if she crosses her legs around your waist while rubbing your backs with her two hands.”

This appealed to him, and he asked a rhetorical question that was suggestive of the fact that he wanted to deflower her. After he had untied the ropes fastened on her legs and hands, she suggested for them to stay out of the hut and he agreed.

“We can’t do it before people."

"Okay," he led her out.

She knew Okeke understood their language very well. He had spoken it to one of them, Agbenu, when she wanted him to help her with the calabash for her to drink water. This time, Okeke and Aneh were out already, she walking before him as directed, while he walked behind her, watching her buttocks swaying and hitting against each other like the thunder dispersing market women on Eke market day in Elugwu-Ezike or Orie Market day in Nsukka. He was beginning to fantasize unspoken things; he thought as he fleetingly did, of being married to her. Aneh was fair while he was dark. Perfect match! But, no, his parents and kindred at large would not accept the notion at the Umunna meeting, because she was too fair that she could be mistaken for an albino, obanze. They also had this notion that beautiful maidens hardly made good wives as they would be so immersed in adoring their own beauty all the time. They wouldn't like to get dirty with farm works; moreover, they would despise their mother-in-law at her old age. Okeke wasn’t sure if he believed that, but that was the belief many had swallowed. Who was he to doubt it? He knew of Ossai Igwe, the town crier who married a beautiful woman of fair complexion and she was still respectful and hardworking.

They were still on, walking like that, towards the place they would make love, when Aneh suddenly slowed her steps; and very swiftly, in a manner like the target of the leopard on its prey, Aneh bent down and beguilingly picked up a dried log of wood. Without any further delay that could occasion suspicion, she turned around and hit it on Okeke's forehead very powerfully, with the strength of a leopard, and Okeke dropped. Then she ran back to meet with the other maidens, helped to untie Agbenu and Aladi, who in turn untied the rest. The other hut where other three maidens and two boys were kept was a bit far, and going there would endanger them, it would be unwise to go there. So they took to their heels, and without being caught, they escaped the cruelty of being sold into s*****y. Aneh was to be married to her lover before she was captured by her father's brother and sold to slave traders. Agbenu's ordeal was an entirely different one. She was trying to escape from the marriage being planned by her parents to take place between her and a man old enough to be her grandfather when she was caught by strangers from a neighboring community who had heard about the slave dealers. They sold her off. Aladi’s case and that of the other two boys were strange: they were sold by their parents because of their stubbornness.