ANGELS DO CRY (PART 2)

Angel woke up screaming. She clutched fiercely at her mother's arm. She was lying by her side on the mud bed. Ulo instantly awoke. She held on to her five years old daughter and began to rock her with soft,inaudible words until she quietened.
"Mama..I saw the..the..black tall man again." Angel said in between bouts of shivers. Ulo rolled her eyes in the dark. Angel and her uncanny inclination to dream always! It had been a usual occurence and gradually it was beginning to disturb her. She was glad that husband was snoring away tiredly and hadn't heard her scream. Badmus never hid his utter distaste towards Angel's ceaseless dreams. He thought them strange and somewhat mysterious. Even there was something about the orphan child that gave him the shivers; She looked at him and he felt her eyes bore through the core of him! Her eyes shone with a certain unethereal glow when she was amused,and unlike children her age who giggled with childlike innocence, she never did. Sometimes he had this niggling feeling she was a wizened old woman trapped in the body of a child. He often times wondered how Ulo got along beautifully with her. He could never bring himself to call her his child even when Ulo adopted her as one,the very moment they disposed the body of her Mother that fateful night,five years ago.
     The next morning,Angel accompanied her mother to the farm while her father went hunting with friends. It was a bright day. The sky was a clear grey and birds chirped merrily.
 Ulo smiled as she watched her daughter till the soil to uproot a tuber of yam. She felt so much love for her that she looked up the sky and inwardly thanked the gods for bringing her to her doorstep. At that precise moment,Angel looked up at her mother and her lips curled in a small smile. Then she went back to her work. "Mama.." She began slowly,her eyes never leaving the now visible yam in the soil,"I..dreamt...last night.."
"Oh yes you did Angel. " Ulo interjected with a broad smile,"You dreamed of the strange black man with the vertical marks on the face,didn't you?"
"No Mama!" she exclaimed. Now she faced her mother squarely and went on,"I had another dream. I dreamt Papa was bitten by a black snake on his way to the farm."
"Oh no! It cannot be,my child. Your father is a brave man. He would kill any snake that tries to bite him."
Angel stared at her mother for several long moments, and returned to the task of uprooting yet another tuber of yam.
 At sunset Ulo had had enough for one day. She tied the tubers of yam firmly with a piece of cloth and settled them on her head. Angel wanted to help with a few of them but Ulo wouldn't allow her.
 They strolled back home with Ulo whistling merrily and Angel staring into empty space,thinking about how real her dream was last night. She still remembered how her father's face had gone ashen with the pain of the snake bite. She wasn't happy that her Mother hadn't believed her.
 As they got nearer home,Ulo sighted Oriri her husband's friend,Mena the village herbalist and...the lying form of her husband himself,on the mat outside their hut. Quickly Ulo doubled her steps with Angel moving just as quickly in her wake. "Oh no!" Ulo cried,abruptly dropping the tubers of yam on the ground. She rushed to her husband who was lying still with his eyes closed. His face was a shade of grey and his lips were looking very pale. Ulo broke into tears.
"Snake bite Ulo." Oriri said sadly from behind her. "No one saw it coming. The tiny black snake just bit him and was gone before we even knew."
Ulo turned desperate eyes on Mena. "Have you bled him yet? Will he be fine? Have you rubbed the sacred ointment?"
"He's been bled woman. Do not fret. "Mena replied gravely. " He's a strong man and still has in him plenty of blood. He's also a lucky man. The venom from the snake bite did not spread far."
"Thank the gods..." Angel said quietly. Mena turned to look at the little child who had spoken so elderly. Many children her age would have cried at the sight of their ailing father,but not this little one,Mena thought to herself. And there was something else too... something a trifle strange about the child,something she just couldn't place her finger on... She shrugged,picked up her raffia bag and slung it across her droopy shoulders. She had done her best. The man would live. She took her leave thereafter. Oriri followed suit,with the promise to stop by the next day.
 Soon as they were out of sight,Ulo rounded on her daughter, "You dreamed about this last night! How come you dream these dreams and they happen?" She wasn't furious,just a whole lot more confused than ever.
 Angel lowered her eyes and said nothing.
" Tell me how you know these things. How you dream them! You had a dream that the King's son would go blind and it happened! You dreamed that my sister would birth a set of twins and Kuri actually did,after so many years of childlessness. You dreamed of the death of the village clown and Itoh passed away two days later. Yes,i remember you also dreamed of the boil that caught me on my eyelid....." Ulo broke into hysterical laughter now. She laughed till tears began to flow down her cheeks. Then she wiped them with the back of her hand and looked at her daughter intently.
"Mama I don't know how I dream them. They just come to me while I sleep." Angel held her mother's eyes and then looked away. "I hate that I dream these dreams! " she burst out,the tears threatening to spill. "Papa hates that I dream them too! But I cannot stop them. I close my eyes and I see things."
 "Please my child,stop seeing these things,okay? Will you do that for Mama?"
Angel nodded her head vigorously. She rushed into her mother's outstretched arms and hugged her fiercely. "Thank you Angel." Ulo said,and kissed her daughter on the cheek.
That night She dreamed again.
 In the dream she saw the tall dark stranger with vertical marks on his face again. He said nothing. He just stared at her maliciously and then turned his back and walked away.
 Her mother asked if she had any dream  when they woke the following morning but Angel responded in the negative.
"Good girl!" Ulo hugged her. She was happy that the dreams were beginning to stop. But she did not see Angel's lopsided smile as she moved to her father's bed side to see how he was fairing.

*      *      *       *       *      *       *       *       *       *      *       *      *

The years rolled by and Angel's dreams still continued. She had grown into a lovely girl of sixteen.
 Tall,dark skinned and with a perfect body that had filled out in the right places,she had become such a beautiful sight to behold. The Randy old men in the village ogled her whenever she passed by and their male sons won't let her be either. Her beauty was heard from far and wide and soon she became the talk of the town.
 Ulo was very proud of her daughter. She sang her praises at all times,ceaselessly thanking the gods for giving her such a beauty. But her husband. she still wouldn't understand the unspoken grudge he held against her. All the years he'd held himself with a certain aloofness that puzzled her. Never had Angel been rude to him nor had she been ill behaved. If anything,all she did was do them proud by being the best in school and at home. Well,she earnestly hoped things evened out eventually.
 One night, Angel had a dream again : She'd driven a knife right into her father's chest! She woke up panting and sweating profusely. She sat up,mentally willing the nightmare away. Her heart was beating so fast.  Getting up now she tiptoed to her father's bedside and found him snoring peacefully.  
 Yes,he wasn't the best of fathers,but he was her father still. She swore by his bedside that the dream would never ever come to fruition.
 The next morning the cries of jubilation woke everyone up. The chief priest's wife had put to bed a bouncing baby boy. Ulo dashed out of bed,got hold of a piece of native chalk and sacred oil and marched to the village square as it was custom.
 Angela went to her father's bedside to salute him. "Good Morning Papa."  She knelt before him.
"Did you sleep well? "
"Yes papa."
"Good" He got up and ordered her to dress his bed. As Angel meant to bend over,she felt a hand grab her breast from behind. Startled,she turned to see....her father's hand on her righ breast,squeezing hard!  She screamed in horror but her mouth was soon stuffed with a piece of cloth as he pushed her on the bed.

To be continued.
Written by Osarhieme Okungbowa.


*Hmm.. as I always do ask,"Did you enjoy the story? Ade,atleast I can rest small now,abi? Hehehe..
Will continue tomorrow,ok? Lemme know what you think about this story..
Kisses n hugz.
Meme.