Daa Achikwu had recovered over a month ago, and, since the incident, had eaten many plates of yam pepper soup, but the whirlwind that came from the beating she received from Ndi Ikpa had blown enough and always blew harder whenever the youth of Ndi Ikpa gathered and started naming names that paid the ultimate price.
A good number of houses in Ndi Ikpa have been adorned with the ugly sights of fresh-looking graves because they became afraid of doing any digging on Oguaka land, where they buried their young that had died without raising a family. Oguaka was their closest land to Uzonwanne headwaters. And there is nothing anyone can do about it.
The submerged pedestrial woody bridge of Iyi Agada Omirima has become a challenge for the people of the southernmost part of Ntu village, the Ichaka kindred, and Ndi Ikpa, especially. Because of this, accessing these villages became a huge challenge, especially for the Ichaka kindred who used to access their farms on Agballa community land.
There was no village in Amaide country that did not have farm land in Agballa land. It was very fertile land covered by silt that was left unclaimed and unseized by any particular village. It was a unifying hectare of land for the entire Amaide people. Ichaka kindred, the kindred from where Ihentuga got married from uses that pedestrial woody bridge to access their farm at Agballa because it was the shortest route to take. It was during one of such goings that Ihentuga met Udaegbe, and wooed out stubbornness in her head after many attempts from other Ndi Ikpa suitors.
Ichaka people had appealed to Ndi Ikpa to assist them from their part the banks of the now explosive river while they threw ropes across the stream to create a temporary raft bridge. Ihentuga was opposed to the idea because he had no farm across the stream like other people. It was the youth of Ndi Ikpa that overlooked him and assisted their neighbors to put up the ropes, and made it easier for people on both sides of the water to access both communities, at least, until they fell hardwood trees nearby to serve them permanently.
By this time, though, Ihentuga had warned and given it as an order to his family not to visit Ichaka kindred again, until he forgot what Ntu village did to him. When they tried to ask him what they did, he pretended not to have interest in answering them. He only managed to say ''Igodo is still in Ntu village,''and walked away. He later went inside the room as his family continued asking him what had happened.
''Since suddenly the Ichaka people, who are renowned for swimming, even better than the frogs, forgot their skill because Ndi Ikpa was invaded, then let's forget about knowing that there are human beings on the other side of the water,'' he responded, angrily.
He walked to his seat, sat down while clapping his two legs against each other, and started murmuring to himself. His family became worried and fearful, yet angered by his latest order. To appear in the bad memory of Ihentuga is a problem he shared, albeit ignorantly, with the person, because he could bite off his tongue while eating during this ugly reminiscing. As his children had resigned to deep thinking while peeping at him with the farthest eyes they could use, he suddenly stood up.
''How could I, for a second, think about forgiving the people of Ntu? Ehee, how could I even imagine it? The man, Ntu, swam through the Ogbudu river the first time he came to inspect this land. It was only when he came back with his family and umu Awom- children of Awom, that they used an ugbo- canoe. And it is even said that his son, Ichaka, swam far better. But suddenly, just only so that we might die, the fins of the fish had chosen to become the wobbling limbs of a praying mantis. There is no problem. I own these children. I share them with no one, I mean, with nobody. With the hand of my late father, I paid the bride price of their mother. Forget it. Ntu people, forget it. Wait till they grow. They could choose to become stupid then, but now, they are under my watch. Go away, Ntu, Ntu people, go away,'' he angrily said.
Did the order sink well with Ihentuga's family? Among Igbos, maternal homes were their second homes. Most times, grandchildren of a daughter married outside enjoy some privileges that their counterparts born of male sons can't easily access. They were seen as sons and daughters who were robbed by half because of their mothers who were married off. Thus, to make up for them, they were seen as a group of humans so sacred, and exempted from intentional hurt. For them, ndi nwanwa, as they were respectfully and lovingly called, are a group that should have more of so many things. After all, their mothers who were married off were still part of the family.
They were a blessing to the family. For this also, men do wish to have daughters to qualify them to have such grandchildren to visit them, and visited by. Mothers too wish to have them come by. So, how would Ihentuga's children survive in this period of sickly rage without paying a visit to their maternal home? Whose making was it that their maternal home was in Ichaka?
Ihentuga's children devised means to defy the odds and informed their mother about their plan. It was appointed unto any of them to travel to their maternal home during the late hours. If it must be daytime, it had to be during ceremonies or funerals so that much attention of Ihentuga would be taken away by such events. Although on such occasions, if Ihentuga meets any known face from Ntu village, he finds excuses to go home and stay. There would always be a running stomach besieging the head of Ihentuga anytime he sighted any Ntu village man or woman in Ndi Ikpa. And his children and wife paid dearly for this running stomach that always visited him whenever any Ntu person was spotted around. With the constant repetition of this, his family became aware of where the running stomach was coming from. The bile of unremorseful anger is as deadly.
Whenever there was an occasion coming up, Dodo, his daughter, would be seen going about gathering herbs and roots, parking them in his personal kitchen where he normally roasted his yam tubers, meat or cooked his herbs.
Initially he would thank Dodo for being a caring daughter more than his son, Aruma. ''Aruma, ga nodi ala- go and sit down, e nwere m nwa- I have a child,'' he would always scorn Aruma to thrill Dodo. ''Anuna m- I have heard, Ubochi ozo a ga m agbakwunye ya apali ugu- next time I shall add pumpkin leaf root to it,'' Aruma would always say jokingly. ''Do not ever come to my kitchen, you have a bad heart. You can kill. I can see it in those eyes that look like those of a pussycat,'' Ihentuga would always thunder back. Pumpkin leaf root is a very poisonous root, albeit its leaf is a cherished and highly nutritious vegetable leaf among the Igbos, and their West African neighbors.