The morning the sky turned purple, I should have stayed in bed.
From my window, the clouds swirled like boiling yam porridge, streaked with flashes of green lightening that made the town of Oboroko look like a film set for alien invasion. The elders would later call it "one of those strange days the spirit world remembers you." I simply called it trouble.
I was half way through my breakfast when a sharp knock rattled the door. It was Mama Felicia, my neighbor, wearing her usual head tie that looked like it had been wrapped during an earthquake.
"Adaora," she panted, "come quickly. They say the king's talking drum has started talking by itself." she said, moving to and fro.
I stared at her. "of course, it's a talking drum. That's the point." I said with a frown.
"No, this one is speaking full sentences in the English language," Mama Felicia explained, wide-eyed.
Now, in Oboroko, you do not ignore news like that. Ten minutes later, I was in the palace courtyard with half the town, staring at the king's sacred drum. Normally, it only spoke when the drummer struck it. Today, it sat on its three-legged stool, booming out phrases without any human touch.
"Who took my bracelet?!" it thundered.
"Bracelet? What bracelet?" The king looked bewildered.
"The one under your bed," the drum yelled again.
"That is not ordinary drum talk." A murmur swept through the crowd.
"Ah! This one na juju," another whispered among the crowd.
"Find whoever bewitched my drum!" the king exclaimed with a darkened expression.
Unfortunately, the drum chose that moment to shout: "It was Adaora!" it yelled out with great confidence.
Fifty pairs of eyes turned to me. I nearly dropped my handbag. "What?! I've never even been in your bedroom before, let alone going under your bed to steal a bracelet I've never even seen before." I defended myself.
Immediately, the king narrowed his eyes. "Search her bag!" the king commanded in great rage.
Before I could protest, two guards opened it—and to my horror, there was a glittering gold bracelet sitting right on top of my notebook.
"I honestly do not know how it got there!" I cried.
"She lies," the drum bellowed.
Panic and embarrassment tangled in my chest. This was impossible. My morning had been completely normal—except for the purple sky... and the cat that had wandered into my house before breakfast... and the way it had stared at me as if measuring my worth.
I took a deep breath. "Your Majesty, I think the drum is being controlled," I said confidently.
"By whom?" The king inquired.
"That... cat," I said weakly.
The crowd erupted in laughter, but my friend Chike, who had read far too many books about village mysteries and understood and witnessed various strange happenings within the village, frowned and calmly asked me, "Actually... where's the cat now?" He looked at me with pity.
As if on cue, the cat appeared on the palace wall, its tail flicking like a whip. Its eyes glowed the same green as the morning lightning. Immediately, the drum spoke again: "Return what you stole!" it said to me.
The cat leapt down, landing majestically in front of the drum. Without anyone touching it, and suddenly the bracelet floated up from my bag and slid onto the cat's neck like a royal collar.
The crowd gasped.
The cat gave a satisfied yawn and trotted away, disappearing into thin air.
Silence.
Then, suddenly,
pandemonium ensued.
"Jesus!" a woman in the crowd shouted, holding her head.
"Guards! Stand in position," the king commanded in fear.
A few minutes later, the king cleared his throat. "Adaora, it seems you are innocent... mostly." He said apologetically.
"Mostly?" I inquired with polite anger.
He smiled faintly. "You have been chosen by a spirit. Congratulations. Or condolences," he said, grinning as if he had just won an Olympic medal.
By evening, the purple sky suddenly faded, the drum fell silent, and life returned to normal—except for me, I couldn't help but keep reenacting the whole scene in my head. I just couldn't place the fact that a drum was really talking to me, and negotiating arguments like it was a human. I just could not shake the feeling that somewhere, in some hidden corner of the spirit world, a cat was actually wearing a gold bracelet and plotting my next "fateful day."
THANKS A LOT FOR READING ME
