Acute Sign

The man seems not to know the name of the compound he found himself. He had been jumbling surnames together and laughing over his mistakes. The young men around him kept wondering if it's his head or the result of excess drink at work.

"This man wasn't this way before till that Mr. Johnson returned back to this village. See how he's wasting souls with his money" one woman said with bitterness you can't miss from miles.

One young man sitting two chairs away from her eyed her a few minutes before turning her way.

"So how did Mr Johnson contributed to the state Mazi Ije is in?" He asked her while making sure all hears him.

"Is Mazi Ije not in this state before Mr Johnson came back to this community?" He continued.

Many in the community have learnt how not to interfere in anything Mr Johnson in the umueke community. They are beginning to realize that some people are after the man for selfish reasons. Some don't like change for the better. Change for the better is what they believe levels the playing field. Only the sound in the head makes it in such a setting and most chiefs seem to know their abilities and what favors them. So, it's better to be a spectator than a player in anything Mr Johnson in this community. Some have started talking to others anyhow due to the man's stand on issues and policies concerning this community. Threatening themselves in living daylight on Mr Johnson's issues.

Mazi Ije are those kinds you will see that their senses are half-gone. They are not naked moving around in the market mad, but they are half there for sure. And his state had been that way as far as anyone in their mid forties in umueke community is concerned. So how some like this woman everyone knows her husband is one of those that don't want to hear change of any kind that concerns Mr Johnson in any way.

"I know Mazi Ije for decades he wasn't this way, since when did he not know the compound of Mazi Mba he helped to build the wall again? Is it not the mixture that Mr Johnson is feeding them for information behind his degeneration?" The woman encountered.

"For information?" The man asked rhetorically.

"What type of information will Mr Johnson be getting from someone like Mazi Ije? Any information Mr Johnson needs he gets from moving around in the community and he has been doing just that, moving around in the community and seeing things for himself"

The lady eyed him and laughed in a high mocking voice that made some not interested in the community, the chiefs and Mr Johnson story any more to turn their attention to her.

"You believe we are stupid in this community? Heh!" She asked.

"We know what that man is up to. But he believes we are stupid just because he has education and money. But that his ambition will not amount to anything" she said with bitterness so thick that many gathered in the compound for the naming ceremony of Mazi Mba's kid now focused on them.

"What ambition is that?" The man asked. "Ah!, that rumor of him being interested in being the king of this community?" The man asked with sarcasm "If that ever crosses his mind, he will not campaign for a day before getting it. Even your sons will secretly vote for him without your knowledge. Many are tired of your kinds, including your wards"

The woman eyed him with confused silence that made the man smirk a little. He knows the kind. Those kinds that don't trust the ground they are standing on, yet rant like demented soul. You can easily tell them from how their husband junkets around in the night like an owl seeking for secret support of one chief, one family or the other for one thing that concerns Mr Johnson or anyone that stands with his plans. When she seemed to have regained her footing, she went on offensive again.

"It's the chiefs that elect the new king when the king dies. Or, are you people planning to kill the king before his time?" She asked, eyeing the man with genuine confusion.

The man smirked before answering her.

"I don't know you and Mazi Ije who is worse in the head. I am not now sure of my own sanity for engaging in this talk with you. Mr Johnson didn't come to stay, he came to make life better for you. He has his family in Europe where he came from and he is planning to return there soon. If you and your husband kinds stopped him from opening up this community before leaving, it will be mass sweeping no one has ever heard of in the history of Umueke afterwards"

"Then, that will be his portion and all of you in his camp even before he returns to the west or not. So that's what you're plotting?" She asked with a tinge of fear in her. The man ignored her fear.

"The population of unmarried women is excess in this community, only two villages have motorable roads, all others are bicycles. No one has a motorcycle in this community. No electricity, nothing, not even a borehole. All these are what the man is practically asking permission to do for you free and fear of seizing a local post as king of Umueke community is what is behind the suffering your husband and his kind have subjected people here because they can" he said with anger that deepens the woman's fear.

"So, what's stopping you from training your daughters to be responsible people rather than selling themselves cheaply in the dark bushes each evening. You think that those that go to other communities for their wives are doing so because of poverty?"

"How come your father married not from this town then, how come his sisters are in their numbers that did not marry and one that did marry, married from two communities away from us. How come ah!?"

The man eyed her for a long time with annoyance and turned to the man beside him and changed the subject to another thing. Better talking to Mazi Ije kinds than the woman. At least you know you're talking to someone with his identity known than these kinds that camouflage their madness in many ways. He could hear the lady still vomiting out things that no longer register in his brain as coordinated words.