WHERE IS YOUR HUSBAND?

The oguiso torch flickered inside the hut. Crickets chirped away in the bush behind. 

Yetunde paced around the tiny hut with her toddler sleeping soundly on her back, where she had straddled him. She kept looking at the moon as it spread itself in the night sky, outshining the stars.

“Where are you Tokunbo?” She asked rhetorically as the night grew eerily silent. 

Deep in the forest, a man hid behind a mango tree. A masquerade escorted by two wolves ran after another man whose arm was bleeding. One of the wolves caught up with him and sunk its teeth into his left heel.

“Eni tí ó bá fẹ́ rí àwọn ẹ̀mí yóò kú! (he who wishes to see the spirits will die)” The masquerade said in a pitiful dirge,

“Ayinde, you called this upon yourself. Now, you must go with the gods ” 

The wolves tore muscle from bone as Ayinde screamed in horror. An owl sat on a tree branch, cooing as though it was crying. 

Tokunbo held his breath as he listened. A single tear threatened to fall from his eyes but he blinked severally to avoid the emotions raging inside of him.

A while later, the forest was quiet. Tokunbo peeked a glance at the scene. The wolves and the masquerade had vanished. He worried that they were still lurking around in the dark looking for him so he remained at the back of the tree.

Hours passed before Tokunbo convinced himself that the worst was over. His legs ached as he tentatively walked over to Ayinde’s remains which was bustling with flies. 

The corpse smelt of poop, blood and mud. Tears welled in Tokunbo’s eyes as he touched his friend’s lap where a bone was jutting out. He quickly composed himself and stood up.

As he turned around, a woman with fangs and claws for nails was smiling at him. He wanted to run but his legs failed him. He looked at the woman whose brown eyes twinkled with delight and mischief. She sank her teeth into his neck and bit him. She pricked his hand with a claw and licked the blood that flowed afterwards. 

She glanced at him briefly before running, as she ran, her legs and hands became furry limbs. Tokunbo was shocked when she morphed into a wolf. She seemed to sense his eyes on her back so she craned her neck in his direction before running into the thick shadows of the forest.

Tokunbo felt his legs move on their own as he ran out of the forest fearing for his life and bleeding. His eyes were blurry with tears but he somehow managed to reach his hut.

“Y…Ye-tun-de…” Tokunbo called from outside the hut. He fell on the cold floor of the mud hut. He could barely breathe.

Yetunde who had just woken up from sleeping on the tye-and-dye wrapper rushed to his aid. She searched through the pile of clothes at the corner of the room and wrapped his neck with the cloth. 

His hands felt a little cold so she rushed to the cooking shed behind the house and grabbed scent leaves, salt and water. She placed a generous amount of salt on the wound in his hand and gave him scent leaves to chew and salted-water to drink before she covered him with a cloth as he labored to breath. She opened the neck wound and spread mashed scent leaves and salt on the bite before wrapping it with a new one.

The toddler awoke and she went to rock him back to sleep. When he had fallen asleep, she went back to Tokunbo who was saying unintelligible things on the floor. Yetunde’s heart filled with fear for nobody went to that forest at night to hunt. 

A few hours later, a cock crewed and Yetunde strapped her child to her back and ran to her mother-in-law’s house to inform her of what had happened. 

A few moments later, she returned with her mother-in-law and a herbalist to inspect Tokunbo but they  returned and saw him breaking kennel outside. 

“Yetunde, how will a woman leave the house without preparing food for her husband?” Tokunbo asked as he paused to take a handful of kennel from the calabash on the floor.

Yetunde who was still stunned looked from her husband to her mother-in-law who was apologizing to the herbalist. 

“I’m sorry, òkómi. I should have known better but you were too sick this morning so I had to seek help,” Yetunde apologized as she knelt beside her husband.

“My son, how’s your body today?” Iya Tokunbo asked as she felt his forehead for any temperature. Her scarf was wrapped roughly on her head and her buba was showing too much shoulder.

“I’m fine; A feeble woman is the reason you left your husband this early. Go back to your husband and I’ll handle my wife,” Tokunbo said with an air of arrogance. 

Iya Tokunbo ignored him, “Let the herbalist check you. Your wife must have been afraid,” Iya Tokunbo said as she signaled the herbalist to check him.

The herbalist checked but there was no wound or wound mark as opposed to what Yetunde had reported.

“Yetunde, what kind of false alarm was that? Kini?” Iya Tokunbo scolded Yetunde.

“Mabinu ma!” Yetunde apologized as her mother-in-law and the herbalist left. 

Later that night, Yetunde’s legs were spread wide open in the darkness of the hut as Tokunbo thrusted into her with the strength of a beast. Afterwards, he slept off like a log of wood. 

Yetunde woke up in the morning to a house without Tokunbo. She went in search of him outside the hut but he was nowhere to be found. A few voices were shouting obscenities in front of the hut so she went to check.

“Where is Ayinde?” Abike -Ayinde’s wife- asked. 

“I have no idea. Please, when you were coming, did you see my husband?” Yetunde asked.

“It’s that husband of yours that can answer our question. Ayinde said they would be going out to hunt. He didn’t return yesterday and this morning, he wasn’t found,” one of the bitter onlookers said to Yetunde.

“Kilode? I said I don’t know where Ayinde is. My husband didn’t say anything like that. He even returned wounded that night…”

“Odedeji, the son of the gods, mighty son of Ifa… (incantations and dirges)”

The small gathering in front of Yetunde’s hut cleared so the chief priest could pass. Abike who was shaken with a feeling of grief sat wailing inconsolably.

“He who sees what the human eyes shouldn’t will live with the consequences. Death would have been a better reward. Where is your husband, Yetunde?” The chief priest spoke in a weird way with saliva spewing from his open teeth.

“I couldn’t find him this morning,” Yetunde replied, still confused.

“He whose eyes has seen Eshu or witnessed the madness of his trickery would wish for death…” the chief priest was saying when a group of people entered the compound carrying a mat that was covered with wrapper, flies joining the parade.

“What is this assembly?” Yetunde asked as she raced towards the gathering. She flung open the cloth and the battered corpse of Ayinde made her recoil. 

“The sojourner has found rest in the bossoms of Eshu. A child shouldn’t dance where he shouldn’t. Child of Akani, kpele,” the chief priest said sorrowfully. 

Ayinde’s wife rushed to the corpse, on seeing its deformity and the smell of rotten flesh, she vomited. Ayinde’s face was an eyesore missing an eye. 

Shortly after, the host of visitors walked out of the compound, singing a dirge.

Yetunde’s toddler came out of the hut and sat beside his mother as he played with red soil. Tears flowed down Yetunde’s face. The chief priest who was still standing pitied her.

“A cleansing sacrifice will be necessary if you want a decent life. Tokunbo has been driven into the wild where he now belongs. An animal cannot live with another kind… (incantations) You have to leave this place after the sacrifice. Eshu will hunt for you and yours,” the chief priest sniffed the air like one would for dead rat, “Eshu has left it’s mark. You should leave and start anew. Instead of Yetunde, become Yetide the mother of INIOLUWA, a son of the gods.”

“Baba,” Yetunde called as hiccups filled her throat, “I have only one son, Ayoola. Who is INIOLUWA?”

“The seed of Eshu,” the chief priest said, turning his back and walking out of the open compound, “He won’t entirely be man or beast but his destiny is like his name, a treasure. He will bring you fortunes. A gift from the gods.”

Yetunde sat askew  on the floor with her head on her palms as tears mixed with sand.

“Who did I offend?”

A pair of glazed eyes stared at a rabbit in the thicket a few meters away from the hut. Its tongue licked off blood from its fangs. The unsuspecting rabbit was about to run into its hole when the malformed wolf attacked it. Blood trails lined the floor as the animal walked away.