The fact that Dr. Agaba was the person behind the attack on Jasper changed everything. Now, I realized more than ever before, that we were really in a fight to see who will be at the top.Of course, he is in the UK now, and there was no way I could get to him, but I know our fight will never stop.They brought Jasper out of the intensive care unit about a week later. He had wounds on his thigh, on his shoulder and around his neck.He was lucky the bullet did not move an inch toward his heart; that would have been a different story. He would have been death.Mom asked Jasper to stay with her, insisting that I won’t be able to take care of him. But I think the real reason she wanted him away from me is for his safety. Mom was afraid now, thinking I am with some gang that are fighting with me, willing to kill my brothers also.Talatu called in the middle of the week.“I heard what happened,” she said. “Is he okay?”“Yes,” I said.“You know who did it?” she asked.“It’s your boyfriend, wh
It was a month later that I got Deborah’s call. “Paul, you have to find a way to see Esther. She is dying.” “What?” I screamed into the phone. “What do you mean?” Esther had called me two days back, and I had asked if she was feeling well. She had answered vaguely, claiming that she was just tired. “She is dying, Paul,” Deborah said. “What’s wrong with her?” “She has been bleeding. It’s none stop. We have gone to the all the hospitals in town but it hadn’t stopped.” “Did something cut her body?” I asked. “Why is she bleeding?” “Her menstrual cycle,” Deborah said. “It hadn’t stopped for two weeks. Nobody knows what’s going on. The doctors checked and say there was nothing wrong with her that is causing the bleeding, and yet the flow keeps increasing day by day. We don’t know what to do. None of the medications is working.” “Where are you now?” I asked. “Family Private Hospital,” she said. “Do you know where it is?” “Yes.” It’s the most expensive private hospital in town. Mos
Talatu’s call came the next day, about noontime.I didn’t want to pick the call but I was curious with what she might have come up with. She never ceases to amaze me, and I was wondering what she would come up with today.“Paul, how is she doing?” she asked, as soon as I picked the call.“How is who doing?”“Your white girlfriend,” Talatu said. “How is she doing? Is she getting better?”My heart began to beat faster. Who told her Esther was in the hospital?“She is fine,” I said.There was no need to hide it anymore.“She is fine? I don’t think so. From what I have gathered, she is going to die.”“She is not going to die,” I said. “Your evil desires will not be come to be. She is not going to die; as a matter of fact, she is getting the best medical attention the country can provide.”She laughed. “That’s your problem. You think your money can get you whatever you want and whenever you want it. Well, this would not be the case. She is going to die and your money cannot save her.”I re
I reached Talatu’s village two hours later.It’s a small town with a population of about a hundred people. I parked in the middle of the village, close to the market.I came out of the car to find about half of the people in the market staring at me. I felt like running back to the car and driving away.“Welcome,” someone said from behind me.I turned and saw a young man about my age.“Did you come to see someone here?” he asked.“Yes,” I said. “I want to see the medicine man. The one who can cast spell or something like that.”“You want to cast a spell on someone?” he asked.“No, no,” I said quickly. “I don’t want to cast a spell on anyone; I just want to find out about it. Do you have a medicine man that does it?”He stared at me. “You want to know about it? What for?”I shrugged. “I don’t believe in those things. But a friend of mind is sick and someone said it’s a spell that has been casted on her. I want to know if that’s true.”The man nodded. “I see what you mean. Is this perso
I returned to Jos with my mind as busy as the 42nd Street in New York City. What was I going to tell Talatu to make her break the spell? I know now that she wasn’t a bluffing.I got back to the hotel and called her. She did not pick the call the first time, but she picked on the second ring.“How can I help you?” she asked. Her voice was sarcastic and distant.“Why would you place a spell on her, Tala?”“Oh, you found out. You are not as dumb as I though you were.”“Tala, what do you want? What do you really want from me?”“I want your girlfriend to die, that’s what I want. If you don’t want me to be happy, you will also never be happy. You will never marry that girl. So, stop wasting your time thinking that she will get well. She will never get well, and you will never be able to marry her.”“If I stop seeing her, would you break the spell?”A minute crawled by before she answered.“You won’t leave her,” she said. “You are in love with her. You want to deceive me and later go back to
I went back to the hospital to see how Esther was fairing. As soon as I walked into the room, I heard Dorothy’s sobs. She ran to me when she saw me, and she hugged me.My heart fell into my stomach. The thought that Esther had died ran over my mind and I felt my legs buckling under me.“What happened?” I asked in a trembling voice. “Is she okay?”Her mom was sitting beside the bed, while her father was standing by the bed holding Esther’s hand.They all had tears in their eyes.I was too late: Esther had died!“She went into a coma,” Dorothy said. “The doctors said she is going to die.”“So, she is not dead?” I asked.“No,” Dorothy said. “But the doctors have given up hope. She said she is not going to make it.”I gently pushed Dorothy away and walked to the bed. Esther’s eyes were closed, and her breathing came in long gasps.I stared at her and felt my heart melting, my body shaking.I turned around and walked toward the door.“Where are you going to?” Dorothy asked.I turned around
He looked at me the way a man will look at a child who wants to jump down from a tall building.“No one comes out of Pan Tumut Mountain alive,” he said.“But you came out alive,” I said.He laughed. It was the laugh of a mad man. It had no pace and no rhythm. And there was no goodness in that laugh, only an eerie and evil sound came out as the laughter.“I sold my soul before I came out,” he said. “Are you ready to do that? Do you want to remain soulless? If you are ready, then you can go into Pan Tumut. If you are not ready, remain where you are.”I stared at him and he stared back at me with eyes that were wide and reddish. The sides of his beard were folded inward, like the mane of an old lion.“Are you ready to do that?” he asked in another loud voice.“I will go,” I said, surprised that my voice was calm and that I had the courage to say that.He laughed the evil laugh again.“Well,” he said, and his voice was low this time. It was as if he wanted to calm me down and reason thing
I went back to the hospital and found Esther’s condition the same. Her father wasn’t there, but the mother was beside her.Deborah was also missing.“How is she doing?” I asked, moving close to the bed. Esther’s chest rose and fell, but her eyes were closed, shut in deep sleep.“She is the same,” her mom said.She looked older, with the lines on the face now prominent. And her hair was scattered, giving her the look of a woman who had not had her bath for two days.“I think a spell has been casted on her,” I said.“A spell?” her mom asked, looking at me with disbelieving eyes. “What kind of spell are you talking about?”“A wicked spell,” I said. “There are bad people in the world. Such people invoke spells on others just to punish them and the people related to them.”“Are you talking about witches and wizards and stuff like that?”“Yes; there are bad people who cast spells on others and will make them sick or even kill them.”She lowered her head on her palm.“Are you okay, ma?”She