ORIGIN - Chapter Eight

Echi woke up in the middle of a busy afternoon in his compound, looking like a sacrificial goat. He demanded a seat, and it was given to him immediately. Visitors, whose doubts were cleared after they had seen Echi behave like a normal man, started leaving slowly in small groups when they could not see any sign of insanity that his neighbour claimed he had. The men, especially the older ones, remained for a while, still searching him closely to see if they could notice a change of attitude or an awkward display that was not normal. They didn’t see it. They admitted that his neighbour was lying just like the rest of the visitors that had left did when he greeted them in the traditional manner, and they responded, but unlike the rest of them, they made sure they laid individual curses on her before bidding him goodbye.

In the night, after Echi proved beyond any doubt, to be calm, his mother visited him. It was one of those unusual visits that would make him hit his head hard wit