Free When Gods Bleed by Njedeh Anthony Page B

was offered. He just wanted to go back to his way of life.
    Dawn approached and he wondered if the people of Utagba would accept him during this crisis. He had nowhere else to go. There was also the possibility that they were not aware of what was happening. The thoughts were getting too heavy for his mind to carry, but he was consoled by their nearness to the boundary between Utagba and Abogima. He found a shelter underneath a pile of boulders and they spent the night there.
    As he slept he heard his wife scream his name, “Obiana.” He opened his eyes to see his wife dash out of their shelter. He quickly got up and followed her to see what was wrong. He saw the hyena running with their food bag. The scene was funny to him, but his wife had a different view of the scenario so he started chasing the animal. The hyena swerved around the trees as it ran. Just when Obi was about to grip the animal, his legs seemed to become glued to the muddy waters. The more he tried to struggle, the faster he sank. Amina had trailed her husband and looked horrified when she saw that his predicament scared him. She walked in circles like a mad woman, seriously confused.
    “Amina, relax,” Obi s aid, and it seemed to make her a little more composed. “Look for a thick and long branch and stretch it to me.”
    She scanned the area and found a branch. She stretched it to her husband, but it was not long enough. She removed her wrapper and threw it to him, but it, too, was not long enough.
    “Cover yourself,” Obi said, sinking slowly.
    “There should be something we can do. Please help me think!” Amina cried.
    “There is something I always wanted to tell you, but I was too proud.”
    “I don't want to hear anything you want to tell me of that sort now. You can tell me tonight, tomorrow, or even the day after that, but I don't want to hear anything of that sort now.”
    Her voice was now firm, but when she looked at her husband covered up in mud to his chest she started screaming and crying to the wilderness.
    “Please , somebody help me! Is there anybody out there? Please help me!”
    When she realized it was to no avail, she started entering the quicksand to join her husband.
    “What are you doing?” he shouted , only his head sticking out of the loose wet sand.
    She ignored him and continued moving toward him.
    “Listen to me for once in your life. I beg you with my soul, please do not join me in this my tragedy.”
    She ignored him and was still approaching him when a man with pale white skin ran over to where they were and stretched a branch to Obi, pulling the husband and his wife out.
    After they settled on dry land, Obi shook Amina violently by the shoulder screaming, “Do not ever do that again! Why do you think I was happy to live? It was because of you. You are my life and if you live, then my life was worth something.”
    “Without you I also have no life worth living,” she replied with no remorse.
    He was about to slap her when the white man cut in. “Please, such violence is unnecessary.” The man spoke their language fluently.
    Then Obi finally acknowledged the presence of the third party. “Kind sir, how can I repay you for your kindness?”
    “Please forget about it. My reward comes from my God,” the man replied.
    “Which god might that be?” Obi inquired.
    “The one God up in heaven.”
    “I take it that you are a missionary,” Obi inferred.
    “Yes I am, but we will talk on that topic later. There is a stream in front of us; you and your wife can wash up there. I live just across it and I insist you be our guests tonight.”
    “No sir, your kindness is more than enough. We do not want to encroach into your home.”
    “Nonsense. Let us go.”
    The missionary led them to the stream and then into his home. They lived in a small hut with an attached house made up of rafia branches. The attached house was built for a congregation, and opposite the entrance was two sticks crossed together. As Obi and