The braids of obuoku water

Chapter 1 (Episode 1) They said it all happened on a hot Thursday afternoon, that day little Amara was just 8 years old, when she followed a butterfly past her compound down the winding path behind the village church and towards the water, no one noticed until it was too late by the time the first scream rang out, all they found were her tiny sandals, one stuck in the mud and the other floating slowly in the shallow edge of Obu water side, the river was calm as if it were asleep but Amara was gone. linda was just 28 years old when she packed her entire life into a dusty Ghana must go bag and left Abuja behind ,she didn't look back not at the old salon where her boss constantly maltreated her, not at the boyfriend who ghosted her after 4 years, and definitely not at the fake friends who only remembered her whenever they needed free works ,abuja is not for me and I'm never coming back she said to herself with a renewed vigor and a determined spirit ,Linda headed for a small community called Obuoku Wateride, life there was very cheap and peaceful so she heard, but what no one told her was that the community had a secret hidden beneath the river and the peace only came at a painful price 2 weeks after Linda arrived in the community she started applying to different jobs in order to raise money to start her salon business ,she worked as a sales girl in a provision store ,sold Akara by the roadside and even did cheap hookups at night ,about a month later Linda was finally ready to open her salon however the shops they were very expensive and her budget was just 5,000 NRA which was not even close to half of the price but one fateful day her friend Machi told her of an abandoned building by the riversideit's been 10 years since anyone entered that building machi said "Linda screamed for joy without even thinking twice finally God has answered my prayers," she said the next day Linda headed straight to the building and when she entered inside her heart leapt for joy the place was old and rusty with think cobwebs hanging on every corner but she didn't mind, immediately she started cleaning the place and within 5 hours she was done the next day she went to the market and bought all the necessary equipment she needed and within 2 weeks the salon was up and ready she named it Linda's Heaven saloon,the community watched in terror as Linda opened a saloon in a building that had been abandoned for years linda saw their stairs but she didn't care she was 100% sure that the villagers will troop in their numbers since the salon was close to the river which offered nothing but peace ,however months passed but not a single person came into her salon not even a fly ,every day she would sit outside her store waving at everyone who passed by in hopes that they would approach her salon but no one did ,what is wrong ,?.am I cursed why is no one coming to my salon she asked her friend, Machi, i think it's because of the location of your salon my dear Machi replied, location what is wrong with opening a saloon by the riverside the view is beautiful and the river offers nothing but peace that is why I didn't think twice when you told me about this place i think I made a mistake by telling about this place Linda i would advise you to live here Marty said but Linda was too adamant she believed so much in the river that she failed to see the harsh stairs and turned a deaf ears to anyone who tried to advise her. linda didn't have money for proper food and some days she would suck a dry cube of Maggie just to feel full ,on her worst days she would soak a statute of Gary in cold river water and pretended it was ice cream the villager said no business ever survived near the river and that the river was cursed but Linda didn't believe in curses she believed in second chance ,and she believed in herself at least she did until the night it rained and she heard someone knock on her door even though she hadn't seen anyone walk past that evening .who knocks on a saloon door in a forgotten community at midnight , the rain had just stopped when Linda heard a knock on her door it wasn't loud it was soft like finger tips tapping on wood at that moment her heart started beating very fast, it was almost midnight and no one ever came to her salon at that dark hour not even the drunk fisherman. she was still thinking of who the person might be when she heard another knock at first she wanted to ignore the person but the knock persisted she crossed her chest three times and whispered silent prayers ,then she tiptoed towards the door and opened it gently and to her surprise a woman was standing there she was barefoot and soaked with water dripping from her hair ,she looked human but there was something unnatural about her presence ,the woman walked inside without asking questions and sat calmly on the plastic salon chair linda looked at her with fear and greeted her "good evening ma" please what do you want, the woman smiled faintly and said "My name is dei......Dei didn’t look at Linda through the mirror; she looked through the glass as if staring into the river itself. Her skin had a translucent, bluish tint, like milk spilt in water. "I want you to make me beautiful for the festival," Dei whispered. Her voice sounded like wet stones grinding together. ​Linda, desperate for her first customer and paralysed by a fear she couldn't name, didn’t ask what festival she meant. It was nearly August, the peak of the rainy season, but the village had no festivals scheduled. "I... I don't have much hair extension left, Ma," Linda stammered, her hands trembling as she reached for a comb. ​"Use what is here," Dei replied, pointing to a small, woven basket she had placed on the floor. Linda hadn't even noticed her carrying it. Inside was not synthetic hair, but long, shimmering strands of green-black river weeds that smelled of salt and ancient silt. ​For three hours, Linda worked. The shop grew unnaturally cold. The smell of the river filled the room, drowning out the scent of her cheap hair oils. As Linda braided the weeds into Dei’s hair, she noticed something that made her blood run cold: the woman wasn't breathing. Her chest didn't rise or fall. Yet, as the style took shape, the woman’s face seemed to fill out, becoming youthful and radiant, while Linda felt a strange, bone-deep exhaustion seeping into her own limbs. ​When the work was done, Dei stood up. She reached into her mouth and pulled out a heavy, old coin made of pure gold. She placed it on the table. "They will come now," Dei said, her smile widening to reveal teeth that were too sharp, too white. "But remember, Linda: the river never gives; it only trades." Episode 2 ​The Sudden Bloom ​The next morning, the village woke to a sight they couldn't believe. A queue had formed outside Linda’s Heaven Salon. It wasn't just the villagers; wealthy women from the city in tinted-glass SUVs had somehow found their way to the muddy banks of Obuoku. ​Machi came running, breathless. "Linda! What did you do? People are saying the river goddess blessed you!" ​Linda didn't answer. She was too busy counting the money. By noon, she had made more than she had in a year in Abuja. But as she worked, she noticed something odd. Her customers didn't talk. They sat in the chair, eyes glazed, staring at the river through the window. And every time Linda finished a head of hair, she felt a sharp, stinging pain in her chest, and a single strand of her own hair would turn bone-white. ​By the end of the month, Linda was the richest woman in the community. She bought the building, painted it gold, and replaced her plastic chairs with velvet ones. But she was no longer the vibrant 28-year-old who had arrived in a Ghana-must-go bag. Her skin had grown sallow, and she walked with a limp. The "ice cream" she used to make from garri and river water was now all she could stomach; normal food tasted like ash. ​The Hidden Debt ​One night, exactly three months after Dei’s visit, the rain returned with a vengeance. The river rose, licking at the foundation of the salon. Linda sat alone, counting her millions, when she heard the familiar tap-tap-tap on the door. ​She didn't want to open it. She knew the rhythm. But her feet moved on their own, compelled by the gold coin she still kept in her pocket. ​Dei stood there, but she wasn't alone. Behind her stood a small figure, dripping wet, wearing a single, muddy sandal. ​"Amara?" Linda whispered, her heart seizing. The little girl who had disappeared twenty years ago looked exactly as she did the day she followed the butterfly. Her eyes were hollow, filled with river water. ​"The salon is built on her playground," Dei said, her voice now a roar like a waterfall. "You asked for a second chance, Linda. You believed in the river. Now, the river believes in you." ​Dei stepped forward, and the gold coin in Linda’s pocket grew searing hot. Linda realised then why the building had been abandoned. It wasn't just a shop; it was a toll gate. The "peace" the villagers spoke of was maintained by giving the river what it wanted. The previous owner had fled because they couldn't pay the price. ​"I gave you the customers," Dei hissed. "I gave you the wealth. Now, I need a new stylist for the deep. Someone to braid the manes of the drowned. Someone to stay... forever." ​The Reflection in the Water ​Linda tried to scream, but water began to pour from her mouth. She looked into the salon mirror one last time. She didn't see a successful business owner. She saw a woman whose reflection was already underwater. ​The next morning, the villagers gathered at the riverside. The salon was empty. The velvet chairs were overturned, covered in a thin layer of silt and green weeds. Linda’s millions were gone, replaced by a pile of wet, rotten leaves. ​Machi stood at the edge of the water, weeping. As she looked out into the calm, glassy surface of the Obokku, she saw something floating. It wasn't a body. It was a single, dusty Ghana-must-go bag snagged on a branch. ​And deep beneath the surface, where the light doesn't reach, a new sound joined the hum of the current: the rhythmic snip-snip-snip of a pair of scissors, and a woman’s voice humming a song about a heaven that turned out to be a watery grave. ​