Five Nights with Omenka by Chukwuemeka Godswill

COMING SOON IN 2014!

Another book by Chukwuemeka Godswill

Book Title: Five Nights with Omenka

Author: Chukwuemeka Godswill
Genre: A Novel (Literature)
Language: English
ISBN:
Publisher:
Place of Publication:
Number of Pages:







      EXCERPTS FROM FIVE NIGHTS WITH OMENKA
www.chukwuemekagodswill.blogspot.com

  “Once upon a time, a time when the sky was the land of the squirrels, when the birds loved to walk on earth with men before Enu, the Sky, and Ani, mother Earth, parted ways and the birds chose the Sky.” At this point, Omenka paused and scanned our confused faces. We had never heard him begin stories this way. He had always begun with only 'Once upon a time' and we were usually all right with this, even though he never explained which time exactly. But was there a time Enu, the Sky, and Ani, mother Earth, lived together? Well, that would make an interesting story, I thought to myself, if only the old man would go on, for he had stopped. He put on a mirthless smile, picked up his snuffbox, hit his callous thumb on it three times, opened it, dipped his right thumb into it and with

his nail collected a small quantity of tobacco and sent it straight into his left nose. He took a similar quantity and sent it into the second nose. It made him shed

tears and he sneezed. He squeezed his nose, sat up a little to produce a rumpled brownish white handkerchief and wiped his eyes and nose. It baffled me why elders sometimes choose to take what would make them cry.

“Mgborie is surely the best tobacco producer on earth. The quality of her tobacco has remained the same for ages,” he said, rather to himself than to his impatient audience. (inappropriate. Remove) He scanned our faces again and smiled mirthlessly in his usual manner. “Well, there surely was a time Enu and Ani were married and they lived happily together, before they had a quarrel and both went their separate ways. When they parted, the Stars, the Sun and the Moon left with Enu, while the rest of us stayed with Ani, except the birds, which had equal love for both, and in their confusion have always spent the day with Enu and the night with Ani. And of course Enu cannot prepare them a better meal than Ani, which is why they always come back to Ani for each meal. The divorce, of course, has not been easy for Enu who occasionally begs in a thunderous voice and sheds tears to see if Ani will marry him again. Well, this is not our story for tonight. I want to tell you a story of what happened when Enu and Ani dipped hands in the same bowl, when the chameleon had not learnt to tread the earth with caution.” At this point, most of us sat up a little. A boy of my age, who was sitting very close to the old man, whom I later got to know was his great grandson, added more wood to the fire to keep us warm. It was a cold night and the moon was half.