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“DO NOT WALK INTO THIS ROOM”

Niran carefully mouthed the words written boldly across the wooden door. “It seems that we have come to the end of our journey; we cannot go inside" he said in resignation. Niran was a reticent young man, and took care not to offend people.

The clues had brought him and his friends – Wale and Ropo – to this door. They were, all three, absolutely certain that the thing that they were seeking – the thing that had caused them to endure several dangerous adventures over several days – was waiting for them inside that room. They only needed to go inside and claim it for themselves.

“Are you really going to allow six small words stop you now?” Wale challenged, “After everything that we have already been through?”

Wale was speaking of the several brushes with death: the dance with the lion, wading in rivers crawling with crocodiles, the escape from cannibals……They had come too far to turn back empty handed. They had set out a fortnight ago from the comfort of their native land, through the thick vegetation of forgotten lands to the land of strangers and strangeness.

“The witch on the mountain warned us that we were to obey the laws of this land" Niran reminded the belligerent Wale, “It is the only thing she required of us before she gave us free passage.”

“I remember it well. And we certainly will” Wale assured him, “We have been taught to live by laws.”

“Do we turn back then?”

“Not on your life!” Wale stated. He nudged the door gently to test its resistance, and it gave way immediately, “It is not even locked" he remarked in astonishment, but he did not walk through it.

“It doesn’t have to be bolted shut if that sign is on it. The sign is as good as a lock.”

“No lock?” Wale carried on as though he had not heard Niran’s words, “This is interesting.”

“How is this interesting?” Niran asked, “What are you thinking?”

“We will go through it then" Wale said confidently.

“But it says not to" Niran hedged, “And the witch –”

“Ropo? You haven’t said anything” Wale interjected.

“Why?” Ropo mused distractedly. He was a contemplative young man who liked to understand things properly before committing himself to them.

“Why what?”

“Why are we not allowed to walk inside that room?”

“What sort of question is that?” Wale asked irritated, “It’s the law, who cares why?”

“It’s not for us to challenge the laws, Ropo, we simply have to obey them” Niran agreed.

They stood in front of the mud hut with the thatch roof covering, pondering their decision. They all agreed that it would be a shame to return to their village empty handed. The life of the Oba’s daughter depended on their success on this quest.

“It says: do not walk into this room” Wale mused.

“Yes, we have already established that” Niran spoke impatiently.

“It says: do not WALK into this room” Wale repeated emphatically.

Niran stared at Wale in confusion. “What are you getting at?”

“I will go into that room” Wale decided, “But I will not walk into it. I will hop into it on my right foot instead.”

Niran was skeptic. “What good would that do? You would still be breaking the law.”

“No, I wouldn’t be” Wale spoke firmly, “The law says; do not walk.”

“Do you really think that hopping into the room will not be in contravention of that order?”

“Of course, it won’t! We would not be breaking the law if we hopped into the room. The critical point is that we would not be walking into it.”

Niran looked to Ropo for confirmation. “What do you think?”

Ropo shrugged off the responsibility of committing himself. “I just want to know ‘why’ we should not walk into the room.”

“We will not be walking into the room, Ropo!” Wale was irate. Ropo was always over-thinking things. “So that takes care of your confusion. Stop asking useless questions, we are not here to challenge anyone. There will be no problem if we were to hop into the room.”

“Well, if you are absolutely sure…..” Niran said tentatively.

“Of course, I am sure. Does it say: Do not hop into this room?”

“No.”

“So there you have it!” Wale maintained, “No one can punish us for hopping into the room when the law clearly states: do not walk into this room.”

“Ropo?” Niran asked, uncertain.

“I am still on the why.”

“If they wanted to keep people out of the room, they might have pre-empted entry with many other words – the possibilities are endless. But they didn’t. It means that we are actually at liberty to enter into the room by any clever method except from walking into it.”

Having made that clever deduction; Wale decided not to delay his quest any further. He pushed the door wide open and they could all see the thing they had been seeking; it was sitting on a pedestal in the center of the room. It was cast in a steady golden glow, but the light seemed to come from within the thing.

Wale stood on his right foot and steadied himself, extending both his arms away from his torso. He thought only about one thing – Rise. Oluwarise was the Oba’s daughter who lay ill in her bed, waiting on this thing that was the definitive cure to her disease. Ropo and Niran would be honorable enough to tell the Oba that it was he – Wale – who had shown the most courage here today. And the Oba would reward him by giving him the hand of his daughter in marriage.

With a look of determination Wale proceeded to hop into the room.

Immediately, a lightning bolt tore across the cloudless mid-day sky and there was a clap of thunder in its wake. Ropo and Niran watched as Wale was engulfed by nothingness.

“Hah!” Niran left his jaw dangling.

“What was that?” Ropo ran towards the door and peered into the room, mystified. There wasn’t a trace of Wale. But the thing that they were seeking sat there, unmoved by the mysterious occurrence.

“Where is Wale?” Niran did not trust himself to walk even an inch towards the door. He hovered in the background, trying to look over Ropo’s shoulders.

“I do not know” Ropo said without turning around, “He’s gone.”

“Gone? Gone where?”

“Niran, we were both standing together and I saw exactly what you saw. Nothing more. I don’t know where Wale is.”

Niran pushed his weight from one foot to the other in a nervous dance. “We should go. We should turn back now and head home.”

“We cannot fail on this quest. Rise will die” Ropo pointed out needlessly.

“And where is Wale? Can you tell me if he is still walking amongst the living?” Niran asked impassioned, “We may both end up dead if we don’t turn back now.”

“And what will the Oba do to us when we go home empty handed, and his daughter dies because she cannot have the cure?”

“Let’s go, Ropo” Niran implored, “The witch said we must obey the laws of this land. And it clearly says here that we are not to enter into this room.”

“Yes, but why?” Ropo was now genuinely intrigued.

“Who cares why?” Niran lost his temper, “You have seen what they have done to Wale! The punishment for disobedience is death.”

Ropo looked doubtfully at Niran. “We do not know that for sure.”

Niran did not conceal his exasperation. “What are you talking about?”

“We do not know that, whatever might have happened to Wale, happened to him in punishment for entering into this room.”

Niran considered this but remained unconvinced. “What else would it be if not punishment?”

“Consequences are not always punishment, Niran” Ropo stated, “I want us to go back to the witch on the mountain, she may give us answers.”

Niran grudgingly accepted to make the trip back up to the mountain with Ropo. But just as they turned their backs to the mud hut that housed the thing that they were seeking, there was an explosion of smoke that startled them. Niran fell to the floor in fright, expecting that they would share in the fate that had befallen Wale. Ropo spun round to stare keenly at the retreating smoke. The fading miasma revealed the witch from the mountain. She had spared them the journey.

“You are looking for me?” her voice evoked images of dry leaves being crunched under foot in the harmattan. She was small and decrepit, but the look in her eyes was steely and exuded an uncompromising strength that contradicted her physical form.

“Yes” Ropo said without flinching. He took a step towards the witch to show that he was not afraid, “You told us to obey your laws. And it is our desire to do so. But you also know what we are here for.”

“The thing that you seek is in this room” She spoke gravely.

“Yes” Ropo confirmed, “And it says there: do not walk into this room.”

“That is true.”

“I want to know why.”

“Laws are made by the gods” The witch prevaricated.

“And some are made by men. But there is always a point to them, and it is not to deprive us of our existence. My king’s daughter lies dying and she will surely breathe her last in a few days if we do not return soon with the thing that we have come for. What kind of law would imprison us like this?”

The witch chewed on an imaginary substance with her toothless gums as she contemplated on what Ropo had said.

“No law would imprison you” She said eventually, “They only protect you.”

“What happened to our friend?" Niran interjected, having worked up the courage to face the witch once more.

“What happened to your friend?” the witch returned the question in faint befuddlement.

“He vanished” Ropo replied, “We watched as he disappeared before our eyes. There was mysterious thunder and lightning.”

“Your friend did not heed the warning.”

“The warning?”

“Yes. It says: do not walk into this room. It is not just an imposition of authority for the mere sake of it. It is there for your protection.”

“But Wale did not walk into the room” Niran pointed out, “He hopped into it on one foot.”

The witch laughed mirthlessly. “He was being clever – way too clever for his own good. He tried to circumvent the warning by picking apart the semantics, forgetting that the warning does not change with differing perspectives – it has substance, and its substance is in its intent. He failed to realize that the consequences would remain real and every bit as dangerous. His concern was to evade the resultant punishment for breaking the law – and he was well aware of the fact that he was breaking the law. Even with his clever devising.

If his actions were deliberated for punishment, he might be exonerated on the detail that he did not walk into the room. But while punishment may be forestalled, consequences cannot be evaded. One may drop a calabash from great height and not be punished for such carelessness. But the calabash will still break into a thousand pieces.”

“So where is he now?” Niran persisted.

“Unfortunately, your friend has been engulfed by the curse, which has protected the thing that you seek from the hands of greedy men for several years. The curse is a lock” the witch explained.

“Is he dead?”

“Yes.”

“Hah!” Niran fell to the floor again and rolled his body in the dusty earth like a woman in agony.

“How do we unlock this……curse?” Ropo asked, ruthless.

“The answers are on that door” The witch pointed a crooked index finger in the direction of the hut.

Ropo walked to the door and peered closely at the sun-bleached surface. “I don’t see anything”

“Look closely" the witch said.

“I am looking closely, there is nothing on this door except the warning that says, do not walk into this room.”

“Look very closely" the witch repeated.

This time, Ropo heard her voice instinctively, as if it had come from within him. It had not been borne in the wind, across from where she was standing. In that moment, Ropo saw the subscript below the broad warning. It read,

DO NOT WALK INTO THIS ROOM
WITHOUT THE VISITOR’S CLOAK OR YOU WILL FALL
INTO THE LAND OF THE FORGOTTEN.

Ropo had spoken the words out loud.

“You see?” the witch impressed upon him, “It is all there.”

“Liar!” Niran accused her in his vexation, “You only just added that subscript.”

“When you seek answers, you will find them" the witch retorted. She turned to Ropo, “Now you know why. And you also know how to protect yourself from the curse.”

“Where do we find the visitor’s cloak?”

The witch smiled. “You already have it on you.”

Ropo scrutinized his bare chest in puzzlement. “But I have nothing on except my wrapper.”

“The visitor’s cloak is invisible” the witch explained, “It is my permission to let you enter this room. You have not taken the law into your hands and twisted it to suit your purpose. Instead, you asked for understanding; and your respect has been noted. You may now enter as a guest of this land and claim that which you seek.”

Ropo hesitated for only a moment. Then he entered into the room. He walked into it. Niran watched closely, expecting the lightning and thunder that had preceded the disappearance of Wale. But there was only silence as Ropo claimed the thing that they were seeking from the pedestal. He placed it into his sac and exited the room. The witch nodded in acknowledgement of the completion of their task.

Ropo and Niran set out on their journey home.

Beautiful...I love the subtle depth... great work..more ink to your pen

Great story!!!

This is very beautiful. As in, brain sha... I also thought like Wale..Now, I know. The answer sticks in the mind of he who seeks to know why the answer was so.

Meanwhile, I have a little problem with the use of full stop before 'said'. Also, you used a question mark and an interjection mark. Despite the fact that I pragmatically understand what you were trying to do, but you don't need to express surprise by using interjection mark. You have to make us surprised. And indeed, you made us surprised, so there was no need for it..


You are good. I doff my heart.

Divepen1:
This is very beautiful. As in, brain sha... I also thought like Wale..Now, I know. The answer sticks in the mind of he who seeks to know why the answer was so.

Meanwhile, I have a little problem with the use of full stop before 'said'. Also, you used a question mark and an interjection mark. Despite the fact that I pragmatically understand what you were trying to do, but you don't need to express surprise by using interjection mark. You have to make us surprised. And indeed, you made us surprised, so there was no need for it..


You are good. I doff my heart.

Thanks for the compliment. And I appreciate the corrections (again. The last ones helped me a lot).

RaggedyAnn:



Thanks for the compliment. And I appreciate the corrections (again. The last ones helped me a lot).

You're welcome..

NICE ONE

Nice one!
Learnt dat there is difference b/t punishment n consequence.

Am not surprise abt wale because we all knw dat in journeys like dis, @ least one person's head will fall.....lolz

Starz222:
Nice one!
Learnt dat there is difference b/t punishment n consequence.

Am not surprise abt wale because we all knw dat in journeys like dis, @ least one person's head will fall.....lolz

Thanks. Much appreciated.

Interesting! Kudos Op.



PLEASE CHECK MY SIGNATURE!

wow this person can write oh

Nice story








Make I confess I never read I'm, I just rush say make I comment. Fp things

nice and interesting story

How is this story making front page now after two months of publication?

Following

N

nice one op

Yay! My story is on Front Page! Lol. Thank you Mods, thank you guys for your comments.

This is a great story,I love it

I'm the type that hates long epistle but ur story is worth every second I spent reading it, so dramatic and interesting, can't believe I read such a beautiful, classic, unpredictable and inspiring story on Nairaland, thanks to the Mod for pushing it to the front page, Can't wait to read their journey back home, Nice one Op, You just made my day.

This is a great story,I love it


So I learnt there's a need to understand things before taking some actions.

Also,you can't manipulate the law

Great

I HAVE WALKED INTO THIS ROOM.


Come and beat me


*modified* This story is the (nuclear) bomb. Lesson learned

This story is really good for a movie. I love every word that I read and its composition is lovely. I HOPE TO SEE MORE OF THIS. MORE GRACE TO YOUR INSPIRATION

RaggedyAnn:
Yay! My story is on Front Page! Lol. Thank you Mods, thank you guys for your comments.

Wow. This piece is really wonderful. Such creativity. Have you ever written a romance story?

nice story dear,is dat d end?

Hi RaggedyAnn

Do you mind writing a fiction story for me? I will pay you for your services. You can contact me at signature. Im sincerely looking forward to hearing frm you. Thanks

Has the story ended?

Wale was right oh, he did not walk into that room, if I were the one, I would have crawl in.