The obi family, a simple happy family of 3 living happily and growing in age, glory and grace.
Mr obi got married in the year 1990,to his lovely high school sweetheart, miss dorathy. swimming and struggling with the tides of life, they lived without the fruit of the womb for over 7 years, after 3 miscarriages Mrs obi was on the verge of giving up, both parents finally decided to adopt, before they finally gave birth to a male child, they named him Nnamdi which translates in Igbo " My father lives". They loved him so much as he was their heir and only child.
Mr and Mrs obi where both loved their jobs, they never joked with it, they both worked in two different law firms as partners, hence they where financially comfortable.
As igbos and from the eastern part of Nigeria, they where expected to travel home occasionally to visit and see their grandparents and other relatives. But due to the the nature of their jobs, this was a task too hard to accomplish. Mr obi's excuse was that he was not done building his own house in his father's compound, a necessary priority according to him.
He neglected the fact that his mother, Nnamdi's grandmother was seriously sick, she had limited time to see her grandson, a desire she dreamed of, before she passed on 2 years after his birth.
A two story duplex building, built to perfection by the best contractors in the east, Mr obi was simply a perfectionist, for a year he contemplated on the plans and two extra years to finish the project. Now he had no excuse not to take his family down to the east to see his father and other relatives.
The trip was to be made during the Halloween holidays, after Nnamdi's graduation from junior secondary school,
He had grown to be an intelligent, handsome young man.
The idea of traveling to the village excited and at the same time freaked Nnamdi out, he had never traveled to his home town before, he imagined how exciting and boring it would be. He was eager to meet his relatives and grandfather whom he had never met before. "How long are we gonna stay in the village" he asked his mother on their way back from his graduation party. "just a week baby boy" she replied, "And am sure you will enjoy your time there, I assure you", "I hope I do" He said.
The journey was to be made on the day of Halloween. A short flight of 40 minutes and a car drive of 2 hours from the airport. They landed in the airport in the afternoon and they boarded a vehicle already waiting to take them down to the village, the journey was a long and boring one for Nnamdi as he saw scenes and people he never imagined before. Mr obi showed his son, different landmarks in town, including his old secondary school.
They arrived in the village at night, the obi's new family house was decorated beautifully with spooky and creepy jack o lanterns, a make shift casket with bright lights was hung between the two mighty pillars at the front of the house, the walls where designed with scrary but yet beautiful images which gave Nnamdi goosebumps.
" I hope you like the designs Nnamdi" his mother asked, " I do mom, but it's kind of scary". " I know, that's Halloween for you", she made scary sounds as they pulled up into the compound and they all laughed together.
They where all welcomed by their relatives, cousins and nephews. Nnamdi was obviously happy to meet them. Mr obi took his son upstairs to finally introduce him to his grandfather, he had gone to bed early. They both walked into the room where he was, putting on the light, the old man was peacefully at sleep, with a light tap on his legs, he was awake and on his feet, hugging and embracing both his son and grandson, he was obviously excited and happy to see them. "so you finally decided to come back home" he told his son obi with a light punch on his arm. "Yes papa" Mr obi replied, "we have a lot of catching up to do, both of you, you know, and by the way where is my beautiful wife, didn't you guys come back with her?" he asked, "she's downstairs" Nnamdi replied. They all made their way downstairs, to see Mrs obi.
The next morning, Nnamdi's grandfather took Nnamdi round the village, he showed him the village square, the market, the palace and shrines. The experience so far was an exciting one for Nnamdi, till it all took a different turn that night.
Nnamdi's room was located downstairs and close to the living room, so he had a nice view of the palm tress that grazed the surroundings around the compound. That night, Nnamdi slept early, so he was forced to wake up around midnight to take a piss, he looked outside his window and he was scared by the weird images the palm tress formed, he just pushed the thought aside, as he was a big boy and shouldn't be scared of the darkness of the night, he then made his way to the toilet, located at the other end of the room.
He heard strange sounds as he approached the door, but looking back he didn't see anybody or anything, he just went on with what he was doing, when he was done peeing, he washed his hands while facing the mirror, but when he looked at his reflection, his heart melted in his chest as he saw an old woman, instead of himself, she smiled at him and he could hear the words from her mouth, "my son".
He immediately ran out of the toilet, screaming and calling for his mother, he ran upstairs to his parents room. He told them exactly what happened, but they both laughed, saying it was just his thoughts and nothing more. The next day Nnamdi narrated everything that happened to his grandfather, he seemed to know what it meant but he didn't say anything, he just told Nnamdi that everything would be OK, and he should make sure to inform him if it happens again.
That night, Nnamdi slept in his grandfathers room, he didn't want to witness what he did the night before. That night was colder than usual, they slept peacefully under thick blankets till midnight, When Nnamdi started hearing strange sounds, first he heard the door open and close slowly, but he was too scared to look from under his blankets. He heard screeching sounds, like someone using his/her nails on a mirror, he had goosebumps all over his body, he was so scared 😳, he almost peed on himself.
He finally gathered all the courage to come out of his blanket and look, he saw a strange figure, that looked like a statue standing in front of the mirror, it didn't move but rather it just stood there staring at the mirror. Suddenly the strange figure turned around and he could see it was the same old woman he saw the night before, she just stood there, smiling at him, she seemed harmless he thought. she opened her arms, waiting for an embrace, and saying the same words "my son", that freaked Nnamdi out, and he screamed at the top of his voice, waking his grandfather and everyone in the house.
The next morning Nnamdi's grandfather called a family meeting, he didn't tell anyone the reason for the meeting, but it was obvious what it was meant for. In the meeting he expressed his joy of his son returning home with his family, he also continued to tell them how him and his late wife had expected their return years before, he revealed to them the reason for all Nnamdi's bad dreams, he told them about the curse his late wife had laid on Mr obi before she died, a punishment for not letting her see her grandson before she died. He went further to tell them that Nnamdi would continue to see his grandmother's ghost except he was taken to her grave side alongside his mother and father to apologize and plant flowers in a bid to appease her spirit.
With fear and remorse in the heart of Nnamdi's parents, they regretted their actions and obeyed the instructions, they could not joke with life of their only son.
THE END.
OPEN A DOOR IN YOUR IMAGINATION AND I WILL WALK THROUGH IT…….
Thank you for reading..........