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A home away from home

The twig of golden stars

NIGERIA | Friday, 22 February 2013 | Views [535]

 

Hunterias was not to be deterred as concerned residents surged like the wave of the sea, towards a familiar ground. Yet the sea shore was nearby his father's hamlet, disturbed by the wind yet taken for a price of time than chance. The debris littered the front of their dismayed eyes, as they clutched on to some items out of the remnants of their annihilated house in 2009. The Government had decided to remove everyone from the district which had been dominated by fishermen and local market women who had before then, been making a living doing their local businesses. Hunterias was their only son and life was taking another turn there on. Hunterias's father asked him to go and summon his mother, who was a trader with a stall full of mangoes,coconuts and bananas by the building of the the Local Government office,for the look of things. She soon arrived at the scene of the wreckage, as caterpillars kept pulling down many houses, one after another. The five months notice letter issued out to all occupants of Geropian Beach had expired and nothing would have prevented what was to become a catastrophe. " How could this be", she muttered to her bewilderment. Her favourite dresses,shoes jewelries and other personal effects had been carted away by hoodlums who had come to the scene to take advantage of the helpless situation. They were soon driven away from the site which had once been known as their home for over fifteen years by soldiers, who were generous with many lashes and gun shots to disperse and set defaulters into other towns. As these towns had yet been unregistered and certified by the Government, yet the need for industrialization and civilization had made their plight irreversible. They fumbled further into uncertainty, and plunged away from hope. So it became dark in the sky, and respite was not reached. They decided to go and stay a while with Hunteria's Uncle, before they could come up with a plan of settling some where else. This relative was known to be residing in a town just next on the other side of a boarder linking with a well known divided land of Gogaladan. They stayed there all along for two weeks nearby the upfront of the various evergreen forest canopies with a waterfall creating a somewhat pool which serves as a fresh source of water for the residents. Mr. Pansidas was a very very resilient and enterprising young man in his early thirties. He had soon become one of the most promising wine tapper of the town, with old and young customers flooding away in his newly furnished outfit alike. While his wife had also become a flourishing woven basket seller in the town. Although they would take time off work to visit a somewhat tourist site from time to time as they would recollect, sharing their experiences of the verdant plain after auctioning their stall which used be situated over five miles away from their current domicile. Yet they are on their way for a treat, as they were clutching some bags full of meals, fruits and including the money appropriated from the auctioning of their distant stall, as well as a mat in order to picnic. It was another weekend again, so they decided to go and have a good time for a family night in the outdoors. Hunterias looked on in the immediate distance and saw the same pathway where few cars and city buses seemed to be passing by at long intervals. They climbed up the ditch leading to this and stayed a while on the tarmacadam road to hitch-hike. Time slipped by as they waved in vain intermittently at every site of cars, lorries and buses till they became all in. Luck soon shined on them as a truck pull out in front of a huge coconut tree where they were standing by the side of the road. So the driver requested if they were heading towards the Masses church of Zion. They so nodded and before getting in the truck for the back seat. The driver seemed to be one of those missionaries who had finished their assigned duties at some Catholic School. He offered them bottles of fruit drinks and snacks for refreshment, while whistling to the sound of some gospel song made in the eighties. They soon got to the Masses church of Zion and highlighted from the truck. The Missionary blessed them with a piece of The Virgin Mary,saying words which reminded them of the catholic Church situated in their former district. They came this far the same say of being evicted from their humble abode. So off they went singing gospel songs, filled with hope and excitement.

 

A woman of strength and vigour are the words used to described a myth known as Potoron. The Town of Gogaladan had never been so overwhelmed by the activities of her religion and ways of life. A thousand men worshiped her and so many used to mark her hatred for local residents to have matched that for the pit of hell. Hunterias and his family worked on foot on into an endless patch by a mountain side, which stretches into the plain of Caraghenism,which is widely referred to as being the tomb of death. The forty one days to the end of the reign of the King of Gogaladan was approaching, and Potoron had given an order to his soldiers to get ready for the fight of their lives. As she was still adamant over her stand to becoming the next king of the town. Many who could not live with turbulence caused by this, had fled to other towns for safety. A date was set for the war and the plain of Caraghenism was supposed to be the meeting point for this. The Plain was lush and beautiful with flowers of varieties and a river flowing into and outside the corners of rocks interlocking distances amid tunnels in the plain. The same was to be bewitched and used for the change of time due to it being cursed by Potoron ten years ago, thus becoming the tomb of death. For this was said to be hosting a family of the next heir to the kingship affirmation for some time hereafter. One night drew them closer to the beginning of the course of the river, the same night which was to become the night for the spilling of blood which would eventually lead to a new turn in dynasty. They rolled out their mat and set a camp by a bonfire made by hunterias's father. They made a delicacy from vegetables,snails,pepper,palm oil,fresh tomatoes,some pinch of salt and a tuber of yam, which was to be their last supper before their leaving for the overlooking destination, sloping downwards from the tip of the overlaying undulating grounds covered with short bushy trees and shrubs somewhere just before the outskirt of the town of Gogaladan. As they were about to go to sleep, Hunterias pull out a burning twig, headed into the bush and threw it into the dry verdant field. Meanwhile, those who had chosen to stay indoors in the town had all been executed by the king, as all able men had become soldiers and fire had been set on steads and frameworks of business ventures was halted to bring all activities of the town to a standstill. Suddenly, there was a loud noise by the mountain side, and suddenly an inferno was encroaching the land with bright lights of golden stripes. This was referred to being the wrath of the spirit as instantly ascertained by the king, staring into the elevated distance with eyes wide open. Potoron was alongside startled in deep horror, which caused her chariots of soldiers to leave the town at once, leaving none behind. The king was happy to hear the good news and later sighted Hunterias's family walking towards their position from ample dust of clouds of rising flames in the Tomb of Death. He felt a bizarre sensation of death and tragically stumbled and died before his entourage. This was on the way to closing in on the distance in the direction of his heroes and an heroine, even though they were apparently not sure of their view of thousands of soldiers then. The king was later pronounced dead the following morning. Meanwhile, Mr. Pansidas and his wife as well as Hunterias were taken to the town and ceremonious arrangements were being carried out to making him the King of Gogaladan. The town's name was changed from Gogaladan to Lanlata, meaning "The land of the twig of golden stars", this was soon after the event which had taken place prior to the death of the king was narrated. The head chief of the Town had said the spirit had spoken. Finally, a date was made and hundred of thousands came to the town square agog in front of many hosts and their new king, with songs and showers of feast.

 

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