The next day, Orji was found cold dead. He had died in his sleep. It was Udobuaku-abata that shouted the news to the entire family after her morning greeting was not acknowledged, which forced her to go closer to wake her junior brother up after over-sleeping his usual time. It was head, heart and soul-wrecking news in the entire household of Ononiru, and beyond.
A recently agitated Ononiru had lost words to express himself. In a state of confusion, he took up his machete to go inside the bush to commit suicide, but was quickly stopped by Ekwulu. The worst had befallen young-at-heart Ononiru at the age of coming home. He had suddenly become anciently old early that morning as breathing had become a gift each time he was able to inhale in some air. At sunset, Orji's body was committed to earth, inside an uninhabited bush where young men that died without family of their own were buried, and that place was still the Evil Forest, where the first Orji, Ekwulu's twin brother, was interned.
Edoro was seen heavily grieving, and words seemed to be far from her mouth, except tears huge enough to wake only who was merely sleeping. Sadly here, it was death, and not a nap. Orji died.
The next morning, being Eke market day, Ekwulu went in to see how Ononiru's sleep was last night, but the shout he came out with woke the entire neighborhood up. Ononiru had joined his ancestors. He couldn't survive the pain. He died with pain inside his heart. He had tried to stop Ekwulu from leaving but did not succeed, so he was left without a son and an heir. Last morning he had equally lost Orji. Who stays in his house after his demise? Would it be Udobuaku-abata? The possibility could not have been there because her bride price had been paid already, by a man.
In some of the republics which Isumeh was one of, a girl child could continue with the lineage of her father. They don't marry out. They stay in their father's house and raise children in the name of their fathers. Some would even marry fellow women in the name of their father to raise a family, big and good enough for their fathers.
Fear had gripped everybody. Ononiru must have thought and grieved about what became of his name when he died. Truly some thoughts slay. Ononiru had joined his ancestors without notification, or at least, a minor sickness. He may have met it unprepared. However, death has a way of making us stay in humility till we are ushered in. Yes, Ononiru had eventually died, and his body had stiffened.
Edoro was now a young widow whose breasts still held some promises for new babies if given a chance. They still swayed about, firmly. And if given a chance, she would do that one more time for her husband. In their republic, nothing kills an old person faster than the knowledge of having no successor that lives in their stead when they die. Udobuaku-abata was totally out of the picture. There was no opportunity for a refund of her bride's price. She was already pregnant. She only came around because of the early morning sickness she was having. She just needed the attention of a mother with experience; after all, Nduribe had no womb.
If the death of Orji could force Edoro to lose expressive words of agony, the sudden death of her husband could make her dumber, and rightly so, it did and did much more. Her sense of hearing had gone south since the announcement.
Four days after the burial of Ononiru, Nene took her younger son and ran to Amadi's kindred, Idomma, leaving her husband, Ekwulu, and their son, Uga, who went to the farm behind. ''I have come home. When they are ready, we will welcome them'' Nene said, angrily to the Amadis who had trooped in to welcome them as they continued asking about the rest of her family members.
''If two days, two deaths could not hasten up the legs of Ekwulu, our death can't.'' These and more were the words of Nene, who had joined the family that was Udobuaku's marital home. Luckily for them, they were now occupying the newly constructed hut Ekwulu had erected temporarily for his family.
Within one year of double mourning for Orji and his father, Ononiru, Ekwulu was seen shuttling between Uyom and Idomma kindreds, taking care of Edoro and his own family, concurrently. It was during this period that Udobuaku-abata gave birth to a baby boy who afa- divination said was Ononiru that had returned to be with her daughter.
After the expiration of the traditional mourning of her son and her husband, Edoro was exposed to certain thoughts of life, its nature, certainties, and remedies. One of those was how to enliven once more the continuation of the lineage that had come to be known as Ononiru's household. There was no doubt it was on the verge of extinction in the wise sense of patriarchy.
Udobuaku-abata, by virtue of marriage, was so helpless, and her husband, Nduribe, was busy loving a woman that had just made him a father, and there was no reason to leave the marriage for anybody. Marrying another woman on behalf of the late Ononiru became an option Edoro was seriously paying her thoughtful attention to. To her, the resemblance between Ononiru and Ekwulu was a beauty in her head that she would like to have around her. Because of this, having a woman impregnated by Ekwulu for late Ononiru would bring about that picture, and the closure her heart graved for the name of her husband.
There was no gainsaying that, since Ekwulu's insistence on going to Oruno's family, the relationship between Edoro and Ekwulu had seized to be that of a mother and son relationship. Anger and annoyance had taken out some positions between them. Sometimes, creative resentment comes in. Who would even blame a woman who was raising a son for herself and ended up raising the same for a man she barely knew? In fact, their animosity, which was, by the way, occupying only the head of Edoro, had gotten a definitive meaning since the death of her son, Orji, and her husband, Ononiru.
Things she took so lightly had come to make her a beautiful looser. Except at the initial time of what looked like agitation of Ekwulu, Edoro had come to welcome anyone, and any name Ekwulu chose concerning family that gave him joy, but more recently, loosing a son and a husband within a time had taken much out of her, and this included her tolerance. Each time she remembered that Ekwulu belonged elsewhere, anger played host in her heart. This also made Ekwulu very uncomfortable, and sometimes resentful towards her. However, he kept being a good Ekwulu of a man they raised in the family, and so caring to a fault.
Ordinarily, by this time, Ekwulu ought to have joined Nene and his children at Idomma, but he chose to make it a visiting period because of a widowed Edoro. Leaving her completely had become a challenge for him. After all, she was once the entire mother he had. This didn't stop the growing bile in the heart of one of them, and if one of them was a woman indeed, there's no doubt she harbored this venom alone. And yes, there was a woman. Edoro was the one. The growing bile was expectedly coming from her. They love with all their heart but hardly give up on love with all their heart. But ordinarily, who wouldn't feel ire raising a child of another on her back, and end up being pick-pocketed from the same back?
Unfortunately, here is a thing too: when anger and resentment go on for so long, and make us well-defined strangers to each other, the dowsing of such umbrage without emotional tacts can relaunch us back into envy of the strange selves we were trying to run away from. And this means no well.
Within this period of the Cold War, as it appeared, laughter, smiles, banters and pleasantries thrown at each other became something beyond the boundaries of the ordinary. Edoro was interested in details. No doubt it was a cold rainy season under the sun, and traits of handsomeness from the site of Ekwulu had gotten a softer spot in the heart that had come to be Edoro's of recently. But Ekwulu was just about busy trying to see Edoro make a good bounce at life again. After all, life had been really unfair to her, but it had to go on.
He wanted to make it go off as fast as possible so he could join his family in Idomma. At this time, he purposefully stayed back with Uga so that he could be of help to a steadily becoming lonely Edoro. Last time he took him to Idomma, he beat one of the grandchildren of Amadi. When he was asked why he beat him, Uga said Unachukwu was calling him his brother instead of his friend. This made the elders around start laughing at Uga after cautioning him. It was the same evening that little Uga ran back to Uyom kindred to be with his father. He couldn't stand people making jest of him for his choice of words.
Be that as it may, visionary Edoro couldn't let her wishes blindfold her. She called in Ekwulu one night into her hut. ''Your father, Ononiru, and my son, Orji, had died. It leaves his family vulnerable to closure. Udobuaku-abata had been married off. And I can't just lie idly to superintend over the closure of this family when I know that traditionally I can remedy it. It is no more news that you chose Idomma over Uyom. I have come to reason with you to some extent. But there is a favour I want from you. Let me bring in a wife for my late husband, so you may father the children for us, so Ononiru's name will not disappear in Uyom. Please. I am still young enough to babysit them'' Edoro pleaded. Ekwulu paused his breathing before he exhaled some air.
''I heard you, mama. But saying that I chose Idomma over Uyom was wrong. The culture and the tradition of our people had chosen a place for me. And I have no objection to that. Ordinarily, it was a difficult task for me, but the understanding we have of our culture made it look as though it was easy. I grew up here, it was you and papa all through, and you made me whosoever I am today. Please, I have heard you. Bring in the woman. But make sure she is from a good home. I have heard you,'' Ekwulu said.
Two weeks into the discussion between Edoro and Ekwulu, Amanke, stepdaughter of Emesia, was married, and brought in as wife to the late Ononiru. Amanke was into pottery making like Edoro before she got married. She continued with the business in the house of Ononiru, as Edoro took her time to introduce her to other products she was not into.
It did not take much time, Ekwulu and Amanke blended so well, and the relationship became a highly respected one. However, three years into their affair, there was no sign of pregnancy. Edoro was worried. At this time, Nene had lost two pregnancies to miscarriages at Idomma. The last one almost took her life in the sixth month. She received a rapid recovery four days she stayed with Edoro, who advised Ekwulu to bring her to her in Uyom. In the next two weeks, she went back to Idomma healthier and happier.
The recuperation of Nene in Uyom had exposed so many things to Edoro, and made her susceptible. The care, love and attention Ekwulu was showering on her had revealed, not in small measures, the type of experience Amanke could be having with her 'foster-husband', Ekwulu, who was showering her with devoted attention.
Throughout the period of Nene's recovery, it was in Edoro's hut that she was living in. Her former hut had been handed over to Amanke. She had no ill feelings about that. After all, she was now a visitor to Ononiru's house. The sweet nothing that couples share and their teasings rejuvenated some traits that were human and particularly womanly, in Edoro. Her long-subjected breasts started feeling uncomfortable in their pockets anytime Ekwulu made a visit to Edoro's inner room where Nene was currently guest-housed.
Was it jealousy, or a positive feeling? Such a time to know this was made to look further away when creative pretenses and sophistry were of high value, clothed in ideosyncracies that were exclusively women's. But how much longer would one wait in vain for her one-time son, who was, both emotionally and psychologically, hers, to wane down? Ekwulu instinctively made it linger. He saw a mother and was bent to see her as such till the very end.