Eniiyi gulped nervous energy and futilely tried to disappear into the folds of her grandmother's wrapper. What had she done wrong? And why was it so serious as request the attendance of every pair of eyes in the village?

'Grandma,' she whispered, keeping her gaze focused on the space between the ground and where the assembly was, 'I swear, I didn't do anything. Believe me.'

There was a slight break in her grandmother's movement, other than that she made no indication of having heard the young girl.

The escort stopped in front of the platform where the high chairs were and prostrated flat on the floor in greeting to the group of six elders decorating the furniture. A dark-faced man sat separately from them farther to the side and he so very much looked like it was all he could do from stomping down and beheading the girl.

'Here they are, Baale, elders; the possessed child and her grandmother.'

Eniiyi almost spit out blood at that statement. What on Earth were these barbarians on about?

Grandma bowed her head slightly and greeted the council. She couldn't kneel down to them since there were some that were younger than her amongst them. She pulled Eniiyi forward. The young girl had now regained her composure and stared at the elders in a non-chalant manner.

One of the men - the oldest - turned to the angry man. 'Baale, can we carry on?'

'Do,' came the curt reply, with a look of contempt. Then he turned to glare at Eniiyi and the girl glared back. Old decorated bull!

'Very well then, we shall knife the matter straight in the chest.' All eyes turned to the girl.

'Eniiyi, child of Makanjuola, do you hear us?'

Eniiyi did a mental eye roll but answered. Even she was not too dumb to not know she was in a serious, although mysterious, situation. 'I can.'

'Is it true that you forecast the death of Miss Bewaji, the daughter of the village chief four days ago?'

Eniiyi frowned, surprised. 'No, I didn't. Who is that?'

The elders glanced amongst themselves and the angry man snorted.

'Who did you forecast their death?' an elder threw back.

'I . . . do you mean the woman from Abuja?' Eniiyi eyes went wide and she palmed her cheeks in horror. 'She's dead? She eventually died?' She gasped.

'She's only pretending to be innocent,' a voice from the crowd hollered.

'Don't let the witch ensnare you in her evil webs,' another shouted.

A wave of murmur rolled turbulently around the building at this as the people vented their opinions.

'What can cause this kind of disrespect?' the angry man whom Eniiyi had hypothesized to be the village chief said.

The noise stopped instantly as people murmured their apologies.

'Elders, with all due respect o, you're wasting your time, kódà, you're wasting my time too and the time of the people. That girl killed my only daughter and she should be banished from this land.' He ended with a tone of finality.

'Baale, we can't do things like that, have patience, sir.'

The baale looked highly offended by this but was stopped from talking back by the arrival of two young servants who came to whisper into his ear.

'Someone has been sent to the family members in Abuja to report the death. Hopefully he'll get there by tomorrow and they can come home and let us start the funeral rites.' The baale said whisperingly, suddenly looking sad remembering he would have to do the funeral rites for his child who died before him.

The elders all nodded solemnly, understanding in the man's pain.

They continued to the dumbstruck child. 'Why did she do to you to warrant such malevolent actions?' 'Where did you meet her?'

The girl looked, jaws open, from one elder to the other and finally closed her mouth to purse her lips. 'Are you trying to say that I killed her? In what way? Aren't you the ones who killed her? I warned them, I did. That shrine place is unhelpful, if she had been -'

Mama Nurse slapped her mouth shut making the girl jump in pain and yelp.

'Grandma, what was that for?!'

Her grandmother held her ear firmly in one hand and pushed her down to her knees. 'Elders, please, I plead on you to forgive this innocent granddaughter of mine. Ọmọdé lóń ṣeé, she's just being childish, she doesn't know what she's saying.'

Eniiyi squirmed under the woman's iron grip on her ear making it more painful. The old woman tightened her hold on the ear.

'Do not interfere in this, she's committed a grave offense and the only penalty for it is death.' The elders said, finally voicing the conclusion they had long since arrived at, even before the arrival of the culprit.

Mama Nurse looked afraid at this sentence on her younger son's child and forgot to hold Eniiyi's ears down. This couldn't happen, even though the girl was obviously possessed she was still blood and she couldn't let her be taken away to be killed. In great distress she went down on her knees in front of the council.

'Please, don't do this, don't let her die, ẹ ṣàánù mi, have mercy on me, ẹ wo titèmi mọ́ ọmọ yíì lára.'

'Please, stand up, mama.' The elders were shocked by her going on her knees.

'Go and seat down in the audience while we decide her case.'

The old woman was skeptical about it but finally stood up, cast one tearful look at the girl who had now stood up and went for a seat, sighing like a deflated tyre.

'Shame, watching an old woman go down on her knees for you!' a person shouted.

Some people were against the girl being held responsible for the death of Bewaji. They also believed the woman had died from lack of the proper treatment. They had been aware when the woman was carted off to the native doctor against her wish and had remained mute about it. They had known it may hasten her coming death to her but had also known the repercussions of them voicing their opinion. And now that a poor girl had spoken up and gotten into trouble they had now found their mouths. Such was life.

There were soft murmurs of approval from people like this person but majority of the crowd started raining curses on him for siding a witch.

'That's enough!' The village chief stood up from his high chair. 'I don't have time for all this nonsense. A whole me should not be seated here and be discussing what needs not to be discussed.'

'Rubbish!' Eniiyi had long since stood up and now turned to glare at the crowd, her fear of them having been detached and flown out of her, replaced by anger

'I refuse to be punished for what you did! It's your fault the woman died, not mine, I only tried to help but did you listen to me? No!' she answered her own question.

The crowd gasped in shock at this.

'Eniiyi!' Grandma shouted in horror at her and started to stand up.

'What? Grandma, let me speak for myself!'

Mama Nurse was more than shocked into obedience by the commanding tone of a girl more than half a century younger than her.

The elders had quiet during all this exchange. They spoke among themselves and one went to whisper something to the baale wherein a heated whisper ensued, after a while, the baale finally nodded his head in consent to whatever the request was, albeit still looking somewhat angry.

The elders rapped on their table for decorum.

'Iya Femi, this issue is no child's play, she has affirmed the women's accusal. We've all agreed that the girl is an evil witch but because she's still a child we shall not have her killed,' the eldest of the elders said.

'Baba Agbanila paid a visit long before you arrived and revealed that he had met the evil child when she first arrived in his compound to perpetrate the murder of the poor woman and immediately he laid his eyes on her, he had noticed the presence of the devil in her,' another elder started. 'So, rather than being killed she will be taken to Baba Agbanila, who shall then proceed to cast the evil out of her and break her holds from the spiritual evil society she's initiated to.'

Mama Nurse knew it was the best offer she would be getting. She couldn't possibly convince them to just let her send the girl to Olufemi in Lagos. Also, the girl needed it, she was clearly an initiate in an evil society and needed to be exorcized. She shuddered at the thought that she'd been living under her roof for two weeks.

'Very well.' She nodded her consent.

At the same time . . .

08:51 pm
Tokyo, Japan.

Eniiyi's mother gently moved the brushed strand of hair out of her face and continued staring at her husband in mirror. He looked serious as he went through the task of brushing her hair, like it was some office work. It was amusing seeing the incongruous expression on him and she smiled at this. Before back then when he used to brush her hair every night before bed he'd look very skilled and relaxed at it as though it was what he was born to do. When she'd asked him why he'd attributed it to the fact that he grew up with no sister and hadn't had the chance to comb a girl's hair so why not put his all into it now that he got the chance. But that was long ago, slowly work had kind of taken over and they both retired home from work exhausted most nights and the nightly routine had become history.

So, tonight when she'd arrived at the apartment with a severe migraine, Mide had come up and out of the blues started to brush her hair with such tenderness that she wanted to cry. He had his way of picking the hair tress by tress and brushing it out. It had done the magic like it used to; the headache had disappeared.

'Dandelion Fluff, what's on your mind?' he said, laying the hairbrush down on the vanity unit and staring satisfactorily at his handiwork.

Eartha sighed in the manner similar to the reaction of a punctured balloon and leaned flush against her husband. 'Nothing, just thinking.'

'About?' He pressed a soft kiss to the exposed part of her neck.

'Nothing, really.'

'Let me guess, you're worried about Adekunbi again.'

Eartha blinked, she'd actually forgotten about that.

'Oh, thanks for reminding me, and you're not welcome.' She used Eniiyi's common phrase.

Mide chuckled and came around to pull her up to him. He cupped her face in his palms and looked into her eyes. 'It's okay, you know. You know, right?'

She pressed her right cheek into his palm, leaning into his warm touch and sighed. 'Maybe, this gut feeling just won't leave me, and my intuitions are proven correct most times. Mide, do you think we made a mistake putting her in the village?'

'Of course not, she's as right as rain, probably enjoying herself immensely as we speak.'

His wife smiled at this. With that expression their daughter had on her face when they were leaving her Eartha knew the girl must have been trying her best not to do anything fun. She did hope she hadn't put down and annoyed too many people.

Mide bent his head and kissed her softly on the mouth to cast away her worries. She leaned into his kiss, kissing him back with more intensity as she let the first wave of pleasure wash over her. She shuddered sighing into his mouth. Really, what was wrong with her? Her daughter was okay, her mother-in-law wouldn't have it any other way. So maybe it was useless to be worrying about nothing.

She closed her eyes into the kiss as Mide lifted her off the ground, bridal style and carried her towards the bed.