She was again spreading the cassava on the hill, alone, It was one of the chores she hated most. She struggled to keep the tears which were forcing their way through her eyes from falling. She felt a sharp pain in her nose, the usual pain she feels whenever she tries to stop herself from crying. Her tears were not from the fact that she hated spreading cassava, her whole life made her cry. She had decided few months back when her father died, to be a strong woman, but somehow she couldn't help the tears, but it only proves that she's human...a woman. The tears suceeded in falling eventually, she wiped her eyes, fast enough before anyone could see her cry.
She finished spreading the cassava and headed back home..home to meet her mother and her siblings

She had to tell Mother that Olabimpe had not helped with the cassava and She hoped Mother would listen. She never does anyway, nobody ever does. Nobody paid attention to anything that concerned her. When she was little she had wondered why she was always left behind amongst her mother's children, she had wondered why mother would not cuddle her like she did her siblings, or why she can barely look at her for a second. Her only source of love and care was her father who was rarely around. One time she had asked her father why Mother hated her,He had hushed her and told her never to say such again and assured her that her mother loved her. But even as a child, she knew this wasn't true.
When her father died few months back, she had thought the world had ended, but no, it continued. A sad world hers is. She made up her mind however, to be strong, for herself.
She had later discovered her that her mother's behaviour toward her was due to the strong resemblace between her and her mother's mother, who was said to had left her mother with her husband and had gone ahead to marry a wealthy shea butter merchant in another town. Mother grew up to hate her own mother, and her giving birth to a carbon copy of her only reminded her of her great enemy,and painful childhood.
SHE understood, she had decided to love Mother anyway, even if the love is unreturned, and she's going to tell her Mother about Olabimpe, even if she does not listen.

Few stone throws from her house, she could hear a loud noise, there was the voice of a wailing woman, and an angry male voice. she rushed into her compound to find Odetunde, one of the greatest hunters in their community and his first wife popularly called Iya Aladire due to the nature of her job as an adire, a local textile, merchant.The noise apparently was from these two.
Iya Aladire was wailing uncontrolably, the only words that could be heard from her were, "My daughter o".
Odetunde who was with a cutlass, was panting as if he was going to drop down his chest any moment, he was screaming down at Mother who was kneeling and also weeping,
"Where is he?, Where is he?, Ajiun, don't hide your evil son"

"I don't know where he is, Odetunde, I swear on my husband's grave" Mother replied, still crying
" I will get back to you, you know I will. I am heading to the
Baale's now and you know what that means!" he barked down at
Mother again, he then beckoned to the wife and they both left in anger.
Mother broke down and wept bitterly.
All this while, she had stood in a corner, watching the whole scene happen. She rushed to her mother and tried to calm her down, but from a distance, she knew better than to touch her.

Nice work...keep it up.more updates

wizkris: Nice work...keep it up.more updates

thanks, will do.

Oh no.... You did not continue again. Nice write up.

More please

More please, nice 1.

I'm happy you guys like the story . Will keep the updates constant now....

"Mother, What has happened?" She asked quietly.
Mother who had been crying profusely, suddenly stopped crying on sighting her.
"I'll tell you what has happened when I decide its any of your business" Mother replied angrily. "Now, get inside and complete your chores" she added and then resumed her crying.
She wasn't shocked at getting such a reply, as a matter of fact, She was used to getting such reply.
She walked away trying not to believe that whatever had happened wasn't any of her business, whatever happened had to do with her brother, her family and that made it her business. She decided she was entitled to be worried, and she was.
The only chore that was left for her to do that evening was to make dinner, so she made dinner and retired to her room. The house was unusually very quiet, she couldn't tell if any of her sibling was around or not. She did not see or hear Oladele, her brother who obviously was in a serious trouble. She thought about talking to Mother again, but she knew that it wasn't a very good idea. She remembered she had planned to tell mother that Olabimpe had refused to help with the cassava, but that would be a very stupi.d thing to do right now. She hoped that Mother would discuss whatever had happened over dinner.
"Orunmila, please keep my family safe", she prayed in her heart.
That evening, a messenger from the Baale came to invite Mother to the palace.
Somehow, she knew her family was in a deep problem, and deeply wished her father was still alive, but she could only hope that the ancestors have mercy on them and help them. So in her heart, she prayed, once again.

By the time Mother came back from the palace, they had all eaten dinner except Oladele who was still nowhere to be found. Mother went directly to her room and did not say anything to anyone. Voices were heard from her room, Mother's angry voice and that of a scared Oladele.
After a few minutes, the conversation stopped. Mother came out and summoned everyone to the general Chamber. The whole family of seven including Oladele gathered at the general chamber. There was a loud silence in the room. Nobody was expecting Mother to break a good news, so in silence, they awaited the deadly news, whatever it was.
Mother did not say anything for awhile, and this made the atmosphere very tense, their hearts were beating very fast.
"Odetoun, Odetunde's daughter is dead" Mother said in a low tone
"And the reason why her death concerned this family is because it was caused by your brother, Oladele", She added.
Five fearful eyes turned to look at Oladele, whose head was bowed and had started weeping like a baby.
"He forcefully slept with her and the poor girl bled to death!", This time Mother had started to talk angrily.
"You all know, and the gods know that I did not teach you, all of you my children to exhibit this kind of behaviour, and neither did your father, May the spirits bless him in his grave. Oladele has brought disgrace upon this family, and now we must pay. We all know the. Law in our village and we know the consequence of his action. He is either outlawed or we replace Odetoun with one of our daughters, and this decision I have been asked by the Baale to make by tomorrow, and I cannot, and will not allow any of my child to be outlawed. It will not only be a disgrace to this immediate family, but to generations to come. I have decided that one of you, his sisters will have to make a sacrifice for this family and replace the daughter of Odetunde. This is equal to losing a child, but it is a sacrifice we must make, to reduce the shame of this family. I have not decided yet which one of my three daughters will go, I will decide and let you all know in the morning, you can all resume your chambers".
There was no need to wait till morning, they all knew who was leaving the family.

D exchange...hmm....nice....

This is a very 9c write up. Please don't frustrate me with the suspense. More!

Wow,dont tell me dt precious gal is going 2 carry/bear d sacrifice o.

Wow... That's all I have to say now, but to be candid, you inspired me to write a short tale which I will do tomorrow, please pardon my unfinished works as they would be completed when time becomes something I can give away without thinking of replacing....

Bless Y'all

Story has been moved

https://www.nairaland.com/1199523/story-another-day

thanks y'all...

Bolushalom: thanks y'all...

You better continue

Bolushalom: thanks y'all...

U HAD BETTER CONTINUE BEFORE WETIN HAPPEN 4 1992 GO HAPPEN O.

Her heart was beating very fast. She knew she was the exchange. It could not possibly be Olabimpe, Mother's favorite daughter, neither could it be Olaide, who was too young to be released by Mother. She was the exchange and she knew it. She felt a sharp pain in her heart, the thought of her being excluded from her family made her extremely sorrowful,even though she had not always been treated as one of them. She consoled herself and decided that would be doing it for her brother, a brother whom she hardly know anything about, still he was her brother, and she had to pay the consequences of his action. Life is not fair, she had known this all along, and now she had to be brave and fight through it.
She couldn't sleep that night.She had never been so scared, she had to go through some ritual process which she found scary. At that moment she needed someone to console her and she missed har dear father. She had heard of the exchange rite. Her father had told her stories of people who had gone through the exchange,but she had never thought she would be one of them. She began to think about the family, Odetunde's family, she had a feeling life would be worse living there and even though she was going there to replace their dead daugther she can never be their daughter and they are never going to treat her as one. In her heart, she prayed to the gods to help her scale through this miserable life. Tears gushed out of her eyes and once again she couldn't hold them back.

Damex333: U HAD BETTER CONTINUE BEFORE WETIN HAPPEN 4 1992 GO HAPPEN O.

Foxy_Rebirth:

You better continue

I have sirs! Lol

Bolushalom:



I have sirs! Lol

comme and update na. We don dey wait since o.

Oh! How I wish I was a good writer. Your story is very interesting, keep it up.

@Bolushalom don abandon this thread be that o....

Guess she's very busy of late...

Osyxcel: @Bolushalom don abandon this thread be that o....

Guess she's very busy of late...

I'm sorry. You guessed right.

The next morning, Mother made her decision known to the family and no one was dissapointed. The one who was mentioned went about doing her house chores, with a very heavy heart this time. Nobody said anything to her, no words of consolation, no tears, no goodbbye hugs,it was obvious she'll only be missed for the house chores she does. She couldn't cry anymore...She had ran out of tears.
That evening, they came and took her away. She was taken to the chamber of Oluwo, the high priest. She had no idea what the procedure of the ritual was but she knew nothing bad would happen to her. No grievious harm had been done to anyone of the people her father had told her about. This is just a tranfer of family title. She knew all these, but she was afraid still. She just wanted her normal life back even though there is no love in it, but there was nothing she could do. In the next two days, she would belong to another family, nothing will change that.
Three days, she was there in Oluwo's chamber. She was made to eat different concoctions, different incantations were made and on the third day, the exchange took place. Mother, Odetunde and Iya Aladire were present. Oluwo tied her wrist to her Mother's with a red raglike rope, made a long incantation, realeased the rag and tied her wrist to Iya Aladire's wrist and made another long Incantation.
After the whole process, the Oluwo spoke.
"Daughter, you now belong to Odetunde's family in Aka's compound, you are no longer Lakunle's daughter. Think yourself not as one but as Odetunde's daughter. Do not consider Lakunle's children as your siblings anymore, Odetunde's Children are your siblings. Ajihun is no longer your mother, Iya Aladire is. Forget about your old self, that person you were is gone already. Your new family will rename you". He turned to Odetunde, "Your daughter was dead, but now she's alive..take her she's yours". He hands her over to him and turned to Ajiun "I am sorry for your loss Ajiun, but this is the law of our land, it is a price that must be paid for the action of your son. May the gods console you". "You all can leave now, the ritual is complete".
Ajiun left first, no one could explain the expression on her face, it was unreadable.
"Let's leave for home" Odetunde said in a husky voice. Those words made her shiver, they scared her. "Where is home?", she asked herself.

Ah Bolu, after that long absence u con give ur short update,e no gud o,oya-make a longer update my gal/guy

Bolu!! Haba! This is too short now

Damex333: Ah Bolu, after that long absence u con give ur short update,e no gud o,oya-make a longer update my gal/guy

olashas: Bolu!! Haba! This is too short now

OMG!!!! That is short? Ok, dun worry, will update soon. Xoxo

Home was a very large compound with six buildings. She was not surprised to see so many buildings in the compound as Odetunde was known in the community to be a successful and wealthy hunter. He had seven children, six males and one female, his sons were also hunters .
The nearest building to the gate, she learnt later was occupied by Odetunde himself, the second was occupied by his first son, the third by Iya Aladire, two by the other children and the last by servants . The female child who had died courtesy of her own brother had stayed in the same building with Iya Aladire, and now that she had come to replace her, she had to stay there too. Odetunde's first wife had died from an unknown illness after she had given birth to their first son. Iya Aladire gave birth to the other children, the female inclusive.
That night, she was taken to Iya Aladire's building, and was shown a chamber, it was bigger and more attractive than her former chamber. It had a beautiful raffia bed and colourful artworks hung in the wall, above the bed was a window wide enough to allow fresh air into the room. There were about four baskets of cloths on the floor in a corner of the room. She wasn't expecting them to be hers, as she can't imagine a person having cloths as much as those. She was uncomfortable because she had never been in this kind of room before, she wasn't even sure it was hers. As if to clear her doubts, Iya Aladire said
"This is your room".
She turned abruptly to face Iya Aladire with wide eyes.
"What?, is there something you don't like about the room?" Iya Aladire asked.
"No, Mama, I like the room just fine, Thank you". She knelt down to show her gratitude.
"You don't need to thank me, you are now my daughter, the gods has made it so. I will ask one of the girls that help me to bring in your food".
With that Iya Aladire left the room.
She stood up and turned back to look around the room again and then sat on the bed. She knew her new mother had just been nice to her, she just couldn't believe it yet. People are usually not nice to her.

That's all U got to give now?....expected U to update much more than this after that long break...

Anyway, how are U & studies?

Bolushalom this is called sure wickedness, after starving us 4 so long, u now have us a taste just 2 touch our tongue and vanish. E NO GOOD O