The morning Adisa turned 13, he heard his mother’s heartbeat stop- three whole days before she died! And this led to him becoming a prisoner!
Adisa had always been considered an odd child. He stayed on his own a lot and refused to play with other children of his age. He lived in Adetoun, a small village on the outskirts of Oyo, with his widowed mother, who sold akara and ogi in the market square.
He loved helping his mother, but over time he detested going to the market because he kept hearing a faint hum. This was a hum that only he could hear. Everyone thought he was making it up; even his mother thought he was lying to her. But Adisa was telling the truth; every time he was at the market, he always heard a low, incessant hum. It was painful, like needles in his ears.
He never understood what it was. A few months before his eleventh birthday, he realized that the hum was louder than usual. And it seemed to be coming from a trader who sold second-hand clothes beside his mother’s stall. The hum was so loud that it got him agitated; he cried and cried until his mother sent him home. She didn’t believe him when he told her about the hum; she only assumed he just didn’t want to be with her at the market. But that fateful day, as he walked away from the market, the hum followed him. While it was reduced, he could still hear it clearly. Which was a first.
After that day, he became scared of going to the market, and even his mother got tired of trying to get him to come with her. He could still hear the hum at home, but it was lower. Three days later, when his mother told him that the trader who sold second-hand clothes beside her stall in the market had died, he didn’t think much of it.
And over the next few years, he kept hearing the hum until his thirteenth birthday. When he woke up that morning, the hum was loud, almost deafening. He cried into his pillow, covering his ears, but he could still hear it. His mother rushed into his room, trying to find out what was making him cry, but the hum only got worse. Unable to take it any more, he ran out of the house, running as fast as his legs could carry him. He didn’t stop running until he was on the outskirts of the village; only then did the humming reduce.
At that, Adisa was scared to go home. He hung around and, by evening, tried to return home. But he couldn’t because with every step he took, the hum became louder and more painful to him. He knew then that he would never be able to sleep in the house, because the hum had followed him home.
The day after his birthday, he tried to go to the market to tell his mother about his new predicament. He went to the market because he knew she would be there. But he couldn’t make it. The hum was still in the market! Just as it was in his home! Adisa was suffering, and no one was taking his situation seriously.
He spent another night outside. And then another. And by the morning of the fourth day after he left home, Adisa woke up to a blissful silence. The hum was gone! He was so happy that he ran home as fast as his legs could carry him, eager to see his mother again. But to his horror, when he got there, there was a crowd gathered around his house. And then, his neighbors told him the tragic news, his mother had passed on!
In the peak afternoon sun of the previous day, she had simply slumped while at the market, and all efforts to resuscitate her had failed. And as he wept, it suddenly made sense to Adisa. He remembered the trader in the market, and his mother, and he realized that what he was hearing was actually a death hum. It signified that someone was about to die! It warned him about his mother’s impending death, but he ran away instead of helping her. And she lost her life as a result.
This realization weighed heavily on Adisa’s mind; he couldn’t believe he had figured it out so late. He decided that no one was going to suffer because he failed to act ever again. He tried to forgive himself and move on, he continued to run his late mother’s business, using it to survive. But he never heard the hum again until two years later!
That fateful day, he was pounding beans that he would use to make akara when he began to hear the hum again. He knew at once that someone was about to die. So, he left everything he was doing and tried to trace the hum. He knew from experience that the closer he was to the person about to die, the louder it would get. So, with that logic, he tracked down the source of the hum, and it led him right to the Oba’s palace. The person whose death was impending was the crown prince of Adetoun. Adewale, the heir to the throne!
It turned out that at the time, Adewale was seriously ill, but the palace was keeping the news under wraps because they still had no idea what the cause of the illness was.
At once, Adisa raised an alarm and warned the prince that he was going to die soon, and something had to be done. But no one believed him. Everyone knew he was a recluse who had no friends; they also knew that he was nowhere to be found when his mother died, and they found it suspicious. They believed that he was after the Prince’s life. Besides, no one outside the palace knew of the illness, so he was a prime suspect. Queen Iyabo, Adewale’s stepmother, was furious with him and threw him into the palace cell!
He was interrogated for long hours, but besides knowing that Adewale was about to die, he didn’t know how or when it was going to happen! The longer he remained in the cell, the louder the hum was.
And one night, he noticed something different about the hum. It had a different pitch from the hum he heard when his mother had passed, and also different from when the trader died. His mother had died from overworking herself, stress, and heat stroke from selling in the hot sun. The trader died from an underlying illness that was never treated. The hum had revealed it to him at the time, but he couldn’t interpret it. But now, it was also revealing the cause of Adewale’s coming death. And it wasn’t natural at all; someone was poisoning the Prince.
This shook Adisa greatly; he couldn’t understand why someone would want to do such a thing! But then, he realized that the only person who was focused on trying to figure out how he knew of the illness was Iyabo, the Queen. She had a son of her own, and she wanted him to become the next king, not Adewale. And so, she was the one poisoning him slowly, making him sick so that there would be nothing suspicious about his death. Adisa knew he couldn’t keep this to himself.
The next morning, the hum was at its loudest. He could tell that the Prince didn’t have much time left. When the guards came to serve his breakfast, he managed to break away. But he didn’t run out of the palace. He ran straight to the throne room, being careful not to be caught by the guards, he managed to get the King’s attention. There, he warned the king about the Queen and told him everything; he even revealed the exact poison that Iyabo was using and the antidote that would save Prince Adewale.
It was administered at once, and within hours, Adewale was healthy again! The hum that had been coming off him was finally silenced. Iyabo was arrested; she confessed that she was only doing it for her son. She wanted him to be the king. She had also killed Adewale’s mother, just so she could be the Queen and the only wife. Now, Iyabo tried to do the same thing to her son.
She and her son were exiled from the village, while Adisa was praised for his bravery. Without him, Adewale would have died, sending the village into mourning. He became an important member of the village, working with the king so they could know who was about to die and see how they could be saved. Just like he did with Adewale.
Adisa had managed to master his powers, and he was going to use them to the best of his ability for the good of his people!
Wanted to try this again. What do you think of this?
