Wale and the Little Moonlight

CHAPTER THREE

One month later, Kehinde and his household had been the happiest people in the whole of Ogunta. Baby Wale had been growing in speed as though he was a plant fed with manure whose season of growth was around. Kehinde did not stop spending time with his son at every free moment he had. Even though he had big farmlands where he cultivated yam, cassava, corn and other crops in their due season, he had spent more time these days with his son at home, than he spent with the work in the farms, yet he worked twice as hard, especially with the extra hands he had contracted to work for him. This time, harvest would be plenty, his family would feed well, Wale would grow even as tall as the iroko, he would always think.

Kehinde would not also stop thanking the spirits of his ancestors for interceding for them. He believed that it was only the prayers he rendered to his ancestors about a period of one full moon ago, that made the spirits of his ancestors to put the pronouncement in the chief priest’s mouth that baby Wale should live and that his life in the village meant well for the village and not evil. The gods are indeed wise. He constantly reminded himself of this age-long adage. And he would be grateful to some elders like Kolawale, his best friend, and Baba Ogun who made it clear for people to see that though the storm happened during the moment of the baby’s birth, but the unusual also happened; the people also witnessed a night rain, a heavy down pour for the first time in the history of their land. It had never happened before. Though it came heavy but it was a sign of blessing.