Father's Love & other Stories

ISOKEN

ISOKEN

©OKERE CHARLES N

Many years ago, in the ancient yoruba kingdom, there lived a man named ayodele. Who was married to Isoken the daughter of Osaigbovo, the then oba of the old Benin kingdom. Isoken was a beautiful woman and deeply religious and respect everyone in spite of her status as the daughter of a king.

Because of her humility everyone loved and adore her like a queen. Her husband is a very wealthy man, he’s know to be the wealthiest man, at the time.

His house is surrounded with beautiful gardebs, the people of that town normally comes to his garden to settleesolved dispute matters. Because they all thought so highly of him.

Ayodele had three best friends, whose names are, Adebayo, adekunle and adeboye, who were also among the community leaders. These three friends were so attracted to Isoken beauty, they were so obsessed with their desire to have her in their bed, that they lost focus on their responsibilities as leaders.

They each wanted isoken, but neither told the other how he felt, for each was ashamed to admit his lust. So day after day they think of the best way to have her in their bed. Somehow they found out each of them had a mutual desire for their friends wife and decided to map out a plan to balcknail her. In order to compel her to satisfie their lustful desire.

Every day isoken used to take a walk in the garden with her two servants. One evening isoken went into the garden as usual with her two servant women. No one else was there, except isoken and her female servants.

It was very hot and isoken decided to take a bath. So isoken said to her servants, “Bring me some bath oil and some perfume, and lock the gates, so that I won’t be disturbed.” The servants locked the main gates and went out by the side door to get what isoken had asked for. Little do they know they weren’t the only ones in the garden. Adedele friends who had known that isoken always take a walk every evening were hiding behind a big flower tree in the garden, with a young man, who was half nude.

As soon as the servants had left, these men jumped out from their hiding place, ran to Isoken and said to her, “The gates are locked and no one will see us. We are burning to have s*x with you, so give us what we want. If you don’t, we will go to your husband and swear that we saw you send your servants away, so that you could be alone with this young man.” “There is no way out.

Isoken moaned. “If I give in to you, I could be put to death for adultery. If I refuse, you will still have me trapped. But I would rather be your innocent victim than sin against the gods of our land.

So she started screaming as loud as she could,and the three friends began shouting accusations, while one of them ran and unlocked the gates. As soon as the servants in the house heard all the noise, they ran into the gardens through the side door to find out what had happened to Isoken. The three friends told their story, and the servants were shocked and ashamed. Such a thing had never before been said about isoken.

While they were still laying their accusations on isoken, the young man freed himself from the grips of adebayo and adekunle and ran out of the gate, making their accusations more convincing. They acted like ones running ning after the young man, but that’s just a distraction to make him runaway.

Isoken was taken to husband, the evidence was so overwhelming and convincing that the husband believed everything. Isoken was charge for adultery, the death penalty for such act, is decapitations.

Some elders who didn’t believed the accusation levelled against isoken, by ayodele’s friends. Requested for them to look into the matter, in order not to condemn an innocent woman to death. So in order to fulfilled Justice and fairness, the council of elders fixed a date for her trial in the village Square

The trial would have been done in ayodele’s compound, but because of the matter at hand, they considered it unholy.

On the day of the judgment, isoken was asked to stand in the middle. She was surrounded by the council of elders, the leaders, ayodele (isoken’s husband) and a lot of people who were all present to see the final fate of isoken.

Ayodele’s friends repeated the same accusation and isoken’s maids confirmed their accusation, saying, they saw the young man ran out of the gate.

When given the audience to speak, Isoken debunked their accusation, saying it was all a conspiracy. Saying, her husband’s friends conspired to do this to her, because she refuse to give them what they had been longing for. Which was for them to have s*x with her.

Adebayo stood up immediately and gave her a hard slap, which made her fell down on the ground.

“how dare you say such lies against us, you worthless adulterous woman. She held cheek with her hand, sobbing. She steal a glance at her dear husband, who was sitting in the midst of wolves, he called his friends. Who didn’t react or rebuke his friend for slapping his darling wife. This made her sobbed more.

She got up on her feet, wipe away her tears and said..

“I swear in the name of the gods, that I am innocent of these accusations, I am innocent and a curse on me and my father’s house, if I am lying. May the gods erase me and every member of my father’s house.

Ayodele’s friends, laugh out loud and said to themselves…

“just take a look at this dirty adulterous woman, swearng in the name of the gods. Who is she trying to fool? Why are we wasting time, let’s cut her piece by piece..

At the point, when it seem all hope was lost for her to proof her innocence, Three elderly men stood up. They demanded for an ancient staff, belonging to a long forgotten deity of am ancient forest kingdom. So isoken and ayodele’s friends can swear on it…

On hearing this, ayodele’s friend shivered in terror. They tried to kill that idea, tagging it as a very stupid and silly idea.

But majority has the vote, everyone agrees for the staff to be brought out. So the ancient staff was brought to the village Square. Isoken was the first to swear, in tears isoken swear her innocence. Everyone was expecting her to be consumed by Fire. But to their surprise nothing happened to her.

When ayodele friends were asked to swear, they were shivering and confessed the accusation they levelled against isoken were all lies. And isoken was right, they wanted to have s*x with her, but she refused.

Everyone jumped up in joy and praise the gods for giving the men such great wisdom and idea.

The penalty for such false accusations was same as the one accused. So ayodele’s friends were all skinned alive.

Ayodele was so ashamed of himself for doubting his darling wife. He went down on his knees and begged his wife for forgiveness and promised to always stand by her side in every situation or circumstances.

Isoken forgave her husband and they lived happily ever after.

The end..

©Okere Charles N 2023