Hello.
I realise this entry should be a story of my very own experience, but this is of a best friend who is closer to me than I thought possible.
Her name is Ada
About the year 1990 , a certain couple had really bad fights and big issues almost everyday. This being the outcome of a childless marriage.
They hail from a prominent State in Nigeria, one in which most of their believes and traditions run quite deep and almost unbelievable.
Anyways, after much thought and discussions, an agreement was made which will change their lifes forever.
Following this agreement, Mrs. Okere, my best friend's mum got pregnant and there was only joy to be heard from miles and miles on end.
Fast forward to about 19 years later.
I met Ada.
We were an inseparable pair, which is why I can tell you with conviction that she is the nicest girl, the nicest person I have ever met.
Unfortunately, by the time Ada had started taking interest in boys and dating, things began to go horribly wrong.
On about three occasions, she had been dumped by a boyfriend who had about three weeks prior to their break up, complained fervently about a constant dream about snakes, upon which they fall ill or be in serious danger of dying.
The first time this happened, she was rather afraid of the boy instead of herself so she broke up with him, until same exact scenarios repeated itself with the next boy and the next boy, same dreams, same fear filled intensity, same illness then the break ups.
Then one day, she had her own dream.
She dreamt of snakes. Snakes everywhere, busying themselves for no exact reason, they all seemed oblivious to her presence except she knew they weren't. If she tries to scream, she finds herself unnaturally calm and this bothered her more the dream itself.
After that one-time, the dreams became constant, there were always only a few changes to each time the dreams happened. A particular snake seemed to come closer with each dream that occured until it was standing right there as if in protection.
At first, she would not even tell me this much. She couldn't even tell her parents. I got scared most times myself because the day I'd dream of snakes my head will fall off with just the intensity of scream I will produce, lolz.
I prayed for her safety and for God's help, for deliverance and understanding. I prayed because I loved her much more than a sister.
After about three years and years of being unable to keep a boyfriend for more than three months, of constantly having the same dreams, of having the feeling of being watch, Ada told her mum her problems.
To her shock, her mother became unnaturally frightened. She demanded to know why Ada hadn't told her of the problem when it started. She was what I would call "very very frantic".
Before long Ada was bundled to the village and was unable to contact me for weeks, worry almost killed me.
About a month later, Ada called me, finally, to come visit and narrated all that had happened while she had been away.
On getting to her hometown, her parents had told her the circumstances surrounding her birth. She had been given to her parents by a deity whose protection and attack details invovled snakes (they hadn't known this at the time), they were to constantly perform a ritual rite in her honour to the deity yearly. But as time went on and things seemed alright, they had ignored the rituals hoping that finally they were freed with civilisation and modern life.
Ada narrated that being in her hometown seemed to make the snakes even bolder, she'd sworn she had seen a few snakes in her surrounding who had made no attempt to hurt her.
Apparently their constant appearance had been in protection and rememberance that a ritual had to be made before she is allowed to make most big decisions in her life, like getting married.
She was told that marriage was impossible until all the rights had been done, Ada became furious, she refused to believe this because she is a Christian, and is almost very prayerful, almost.
That was why, in her bedroom after a long dreamless nap, she had woken to see a snake watching her and had gotten instantly furious. She had commanded the snake with faith and fury to get out of her room and her life and never return, to her slight surprise, the snake vanished and the last thing she remembered was weakness overcoming her, she said and I quote, "I must have fainted, because I did not remember anything else after then".
The rest of the story, she heard from others.
Ada swore she had died. Every prayer and anointing that occured outside her mind had seemed distanced. She'd sworn she had felt really tired, her thoughts had been of exhaustion and a little of that fury still remained.
While the prayers and tears happened, all in her subconsciousness , she had had an out of body experience where she had had to win a debate, she had argued for what felt like years, her fury propelling her, she mostly only remembered her desire to conquer the snakes and after what took years of really aging and a last memory of dying, she woke up.
I cried and cried and cried... I was in awe, totally and completely in awe. I didn't for the life of me believe this could even ever happen, and I would not have believed it if I hadn't been there all along.
Today it's the 7th of February, 2018 and Ada got married last year, on the 23rd of December, 2017. So far, she is truly happier than I have seen her in years and even tho she is still and always will be in my prayers, I know this is it, Ada my best friend is free.
