Damona Part 2

Papa didn't give her time to ask the questions that flooded. His seeming lethargy deserted him and he sprang into action. 
"I'll answer all your questions. Just go to your room and pack a few essentials in your back pack. We have to leave before the Police gets here." 

He put his arm on her little shoulders and gently pushed her to her room. She tried not to stare at her mother's corpse just lying there, by the staircase. Tears sprang to her eyes as she packed but she brushed them away.
Her world had just come crashing down and there was so much uncertainty. But one thing she knew for certain; her life would never be the same again.

As they got into the car and sped out into the night, she kept taking side glances at her father. He seemed like a stranger to her now. He had always been a very quiet man, one who said little but always lurked in the background like an ever present shadow.

The car came to a stop and they alighted.
"Leave your back pack in the car. We won't be here for long." he instructed.

They walked into the crude building. White plastic chairs were everywhere, with a few persons in white gowns and yellow sashes belted at their waists. They all held huge Bibles under their armpits and were murmuring words she couldn't understand, some moving in a morbid fashion as one having convulsions. They all stared at her as she passed and she put her head down to avoid their eyes.

A lady wearing a red sash indicated for them to sit as she went into a small office by the side. Soon after, a tall robust man with thick beards came out of the office, the woman following behind with her hands demurely behind her back like a loyal servant. The man walked with a quiet confidence that came from years of being in authority, his purple sash giving him a grand look.

He walked to her father, murmured a few words into his ears and then turned sharply to look at her. She shrank back in fright. His eyes were dark, boring into her soul like he wanted to search out all her secrets. He put out his left hand and the lady behind him produced a bell and handed it to him.

He then shouted a few words and rang the bell incessantly as his followers in white started singing and clapping loudly. He jumped up and down around the hall like one possessed until he stopped in front of her, holding out his bell. She stood uncertain. Then he laughed.
He drew circles round her head with the bell then stopped suddenly. He walked abruptly back into his office. Her father stood up and motioned for her to follow. They went into his office decorated with a table and two plastic chairs. He placed the bell on the table beside some big books and sat down. Her father took the other seat and waited.
He cleared his throat.

"You will take her to the Mango river at Obiro. Wash her every morning for seven days. Feed her only raw eggs and mineral. Then her maadam will appear anytime you want her to."

"Thank you father" papa replied, bowing his head in respect and led her out to the car.

They drove for a few miles until she turned to him abruptly and asked " will you now tell me why you killed mama?"
He took a deep breath and stopped the car.

"I have known right from birth that you were a Kondra. I am a Kandra, a male intercessor. It was my destiny to produce one Kondra from my lineage, for which reason I married your mother. Your mother had no idea who I was.
But I had to kill her Angela, it is a law. A Kondra or kandra must eliminate their mates when a child is born. The mate's death purifies the child Kondra.
Please forgive me, but you have a destiny much more important and we must leave here now."

"So my mother is only good as a childbearer? What kind of law would murder an innocent woman?" she shouted.

"Listen Angela, you don't understand anything. You will know very soon."
She sat quietly and absorbed this. There was no explanation, no reason, no logic that would justify her mother's death. She swallowed the bitterness in her heart and asked "Why did you call the damona?"

Papa laughed bitterly. "Am not a murderer Angela. I've never been one. I didn't have it in me to do it. I needed his influence."
He turned to look at her. "Can we go now?"
She nodded slowly.

They drove into the Obioro area where papa led her to a small room with no windows. At night, it got stuffy but she didn't complain. The mosquitoes were not helping either. She didn't speak much, neither did her father. She was not allowed to leave the room, staying alone whenever her father went to buy supplies. She hated her diet of raw eggs but she drank it dutifully, using the mineral to wash the raw taste away.

The seventh day broke in anticipation. They went to the bank of the river. She washed herself and they stood in the water, waiting.
The water started bubbling a few minutes later, rising until her Maadam emerged slowly from the water. She would have turned and run if her father had not been behind her. She couldn't bring herself to touch her, to know if the flesh was real or an illusion. Dressed in white robes and long flowing hair, her maadam was striking.

"What do you want?" Maadam asked her father.
"To know her first assignment."
"Wait for a few days, i'll let you know."

Papa turned her around and they walked away. She knew if she turned back she wouldn't see anything.

Maadam came to her that night.
"Kondra, now you have been purified, you must begin your training."

Angela stared at her with suspicion, "so you knew about my mother's death and you didn't tell me?" the familiar bitterness filled her heart again.
" yes, your mother was a necessary sacrifice."

She frowned in anger. Didn't anybody understand? That was her mother, her mother they had murdered in cold blood. They all acted like she hadn't even being a human being, like she had been nothing, to be forgotten easily. How could she just forget her? Her sorrow threatened to fill her heart. She swallowed it down.

"What do you want me to do?"
Maadam smiled, her eyes hard and cold.
"You will kill your father."