As usual on weekends like this, Solomon is engrossed in a collection of short stories. This time he is devouring The Reporter who dared the kingdom. It is the story of Uchechukwu Jumbo, who wrote a story declaring that a powerful king was dead. The king was really dead. But it was a taboo for anyone other than the palace to break the news. But Uche did and he murdered sleep.
A day after the story was published in The Country, Uchechukwu got a phone call. The caller was cold. “He simply asked: Are you Jumbo?” He got a positive response and added: “Check your mail. There is a letter there from the palace lawyer.”
Before Uchechukwu could ask any question, he had cut the line. Uchechukwu was about asking him which palace. Pronto, he checked his mail and there was nothing from the palace. He felt this must be a huge joke. A friend probably playing a prank on him. He tried searching out the owner of the number on truecaller, but he drew blank. He thereafter sent a text message to the caller that there was no mail in his box.
“I see. Wait for it,” was the reply from the man he chose to address as palace clown.
“Alright your excellency,” he replied.
True to the threat, Uchechukwu got a letter from the palace. He was asked to retract the story or risk a legal action.
The Editor-in-Chief of The Country, Donald Ojugo, a no-nonsense man, was livid with rage when Uchechukwu showed him the mail from the palace. He was mad and insisted no such retraction would be carried.
The ultimatum given them to carry the retraction expired and court summons were served on Uchechukwu, Donald and The Country.
When the suit was heard, The Country was asked to prove that the king was indeed dead. It was asked to produce the dead certificate of the king. Uchechukwu was afraid. He did not expect the case would turn out that way. He was really terrified.
But, the music changed and the dance step assumed a macabre mien when The Country decided to change its lawyer. Ladi Lawson’s takeover of the case changed the scenario and turned the tide against the palace.
Since the case was Oba Topaiyae versus The Country and others, Lawson argued that the king must come to the court to show that he was truly alive and that The Country had lied against him. Osamudiamen Ugbomwan, who was the lead counsel for the palace, tried in vain to explain why the crown could not be
brought to the court.
The judge would hear none of that. As far as Justice Bileda Okunrinyiojale was concerned, if the king could sue, then he should come to the court.
At this stage, Barrister Ugbomwan asked for adjournment for the king to be briefed about the latest development. Justice Okunrinyiojale granted the request and that was the last of that case. On the next hearing, the palace withdrew the case, saying it was no longer interested in pursuing it further.
Uchechukwu was happy at the turn of event. Solomon laughs as he gets to the climax of the story, where modernity dealt a blow on the ancient.
At that moment, a voice whispers to him: “The gods are dead. Why should we live in a modern world and carry on with the attitude of the Stone Age. The things of the old must belong nowhere else but in the old. This is the modern world, my brother. To hell with the days of yore.”
He laughs and almost says: “My sentiment exactly!” Then his phone rings. It is Ikponwosa. What does he want this time around?
He picks the call. Pleasantries over, Ikponwosa says: “It has started happening. My friend, who is a policeman in Ibinu, says the statistics of missing people have shot up in the last two months. And most of those who are missing are virgins. Girls who are preparing to start secondary education. Now, their families are in pains. Yet, they dare not shout out or voice their suspicion. They just die in silence. Ours is a world of fear and I am afraid this same fear will kill us one day, if we do not defeat it.”
Solomon smiles as Ikponwosa vents his anger.
“Just keep safe Ikponwosa. We will talk later.”
It is siesta time for Solomon. He observes this as a ritual on weekends.
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The first thing that captures his attention is a signpost: ‘The land of silence, where the Oba of Ibinu goes after transition’. Before he makes sense out of that, he is confronted by another inscription: ‘The royal majesty comes here after leaving the savannah bush’.
From nowhere, a strange man appears to him. His head is half clean shaven. He begins telling the tale of a kingdom so big that when its king dies, he is accompanied to the land of silence by three virgins who all their lives have been raised to live and die with the king.
Another strange being soon joins them and picks up the story. He tells of a king so powerful, so revered, so great that he cannot just die alone. He has to be accompanied to the land of silence.
The sun seems to have just come down. Yet there is so much breeze. And there is a bit of shower. It is all confusing. All strange. And then appears another man, a third man, less strange than the duo.
“The world is a strange one,” he begins,”the more you look the less you see. No matter how you try, there are things you will never understand. You can only try but understand you will not. The best way to go about life is to just stop trying to understand things that are not your business.”
In that moment, the weather changes. The sun disappears; the breeze stops; the shower ceases. Then from a far distant, a voice screams continuously: “The leopard is ill in the savannah bush. The leopard is ill in the savannah bush. The leopard is ill in the savannah bush.”
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And Solomon wakes up, sweating and panting. What kind of a dream is this? Then he says to himself: “Let the leopard stay put in the bush for all I care. For me, there is no God like Jehovah our Lord. He is above any other being. He actually created all. He created heaven and earth. There was nothing in the beginning until He decreed things into existence. The world only had form and void when He said it should. Man and woman did not exist until he created them in His own image. Animals were nowhere until he decreed them into existence. This God, who is the only kabio-osi, is above all and I have this great God as my personal Lord and saviour, why on earth should I be afraid of an ordinary human-being that was created the same way my savior created me?”
There and then, he decides to return to the Writers’ Haven to finish work on his novel. This time, he decides that no mortal will make him run home until the work is done and truly done.
And to the haven’s serene bosom he returns.
