OFURE (IT WILL BE FINE)

Akhator couldn't feel a thing. He was numb. After two failed marriages and fifteen years without a child, his third marriage had finally produced a child, yet he had lost the child. He wanted to scream, scream at the unfairness of it all. He couldn't help wonder if the gods took a particular dislike to him or they simply did not exist. Four hours ago, he made sacrifices to the river goddess; the village native doctor told him if he sacrificed a white, female virgin goat, his son would be healed. He had done everything asked of him, yet he still lost his only child. He looked at his beautiful wife, who was crying profusely. He needed to take the dead body of their child from her hands; he watched her hug their child closely to her chest like that would bring him back. He slowly zoned out, letting his memories take him far away.

His first wife, Oghogho, was a beauty, tall, black and elegant. She had childbearing hips, big firm breasts and long legs. Men envied him because he he was one of the wealthiest people in the village. But, as much as they seemed like the perfect couple, they couldn't conceive; his family blamed her, the villagers blamed her, calling her a barren woman. They called her an ogbanje, insinuating that she had given birth to all her children in the spirit realm; therefore, she couldn't give birth 'in the physical'. Thinking about it, he couldn't blame her for killing herself. She obviously couldn't bear to stay alive, not even for him.

His second wife was the opposite of the first in looks; maybe he couldn't bear to live with someone who looked like his first wife. Itohan, his second wife, was also beautiful, caramel toned, curvy, but very short. She was a princess, the third daughter of the Enogie of Esan land. The Enogie had given her to him as a gift for helping him in a business transaction with the Igbos as he was a merchant who spends some of his time in Onitsha; therefore, he could understand the Igbo language.

He had to get maids for her, not one but four, and she squandered his money without conscience buying whatever she wants. Like his first wife, she couldn't conceive. Since she was the daughter of the Enogie, his family members couldn't treat her the way they treated Oghogho. The villagers did not have the balls to call her barren; they did not want to draw the wrath of the Enogie upon themselves. Instead, they turned against him, speculating that he had to be impotent. Some said he had gotten his wealth through evil means, giving up his ability to reproduce. Unlike his first wife, he could tolerate their malicious thought of him. At a point, he had been depressed and believed he was impotent. He had even gone to his good friend Mr. Stones, a white man who practised 'Oyinbo Me-di-cine' who assured him that he was healthy and there was no reason for him not to conceive. Some said the gods cursed him, he was tempted to kill himself and join his beautiful first wife, but he was determined to prove everyone wrong.

Eventually, Itohan left him, saying she couldn't bear to be with an impotent man. The Enogie sent him back the bride price he had paid and apologized profusely for his daughter's immaturity. He married his third wife Omotese solely to prove people wrong about his inability to conceive. Omotese was more beautiful than his former wives. The first time she went to his house, his family members and villagers called her River Goddess. She was fair, almost white, her hair was long, her eyes were the colour of the sunset, beautiful and radiant, her beauty radiated from a mile away, and he couldn't deny that he was immensely proud of his wife's beauty. However, she was very fetish and introduced him to many native doctors, even taught him charms that he never knew before. She got pregnant just three years after marriage but had a miscarriage. Not too long after that, she conceived again and gave birth to his first child Akugbe. His family members were excited. Even the villagers who had called him names joined him to celebrate, but he lost his only child a year later.

His wife finally let go of the dead son. Following custom, he immediately went to the forest with the corpse. The only person that accompanied him was his brother Idemudia. They dug the ground six feet deep and laid his son to rest. Idemudia insisted he called the native doctor as it's usually done. He refused because he had decided not to have anything to do with the gods since they were crooks. He got back home only to see his wife gone, no trace of her presence. She had told a little girl to tell him she had to go and couldn't bear to live in a house where she had lost not one but two children, and maybe he was truly cursed.

Akhator left for Onitsha and stayed there for a year. After a year, he came back and met the village of Ohordua unchanged. He returned wealthier than he was when he left; he became the first and only person in the village to have a house with a zinc roof. As he gently rode his bicycle down the street, he saw a lady with farm products on her head and a baby strapped to her back, she looked tired, but one could easily see that she would be a beauty if taken care of. He almost rode past his house, and his brother Idemudia laughed at him for being so distracted by a woman. He got all the information he needed to know about the lady from his brother. Her name was Ivie, and she was a widow whose husband had recently died. She had her farm and was a trader. When her late husband was alive, she had been the one sustaining the family. She was a kind woman, a Christian who believed in a person called Jesus. He was so intrigued he wanted to know more about her and this 'Jesus'.

His family members did not support the marriage because she had a child before and was a widow, but Ivie won them over with her kindness and, in her own words, her God. She told him about her God and his Son, who died for the whole world. She prayed day and night. She made him richer as she was a fantastic trader who provided new ideas to make his business grow. As he lived with her, he acknowledged that he wasn't superior to her, but she was his equal partner. Still, he didn't believe in her God, not even when they succeeded in everything they did. It was not until after they had had their first, second, third, fourth and fifth child that he had to drop

his pride and acknowledge that her God is truly the only God. So he got baptized and became a Christian. They had nine children in total. Everything was going well for them, then one evening, just a year after they gave birth to their ninth child, Akhator was called out by his brother Idemudia. He told his wife that he needed him to see his plantation, but she insisted he shouldn't go. He didn't listen to her.  On his way deep in the bush, he could barely see because it was dark. Then he saw a man pointing a gun at him. He figured it was one of those hunters, so he raised his hands and shouted, "don't shoot it is I, Akhator, your brother" then a shot was fired, and that was the end of Akhator.

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