The Forbidden Fruit


Many people thought she was already feeling home sick, but what the thought
in her mind was a very different one. She had spent weeks in the sober mood, not telling anybody anything about it. But how could she
tell? Telling anybody the cause of her sadness meant she would tell
the remaining part of the story from how it all began. She would tell
about the darker scar on her dark skin, how she had come by it and as
she tried to imagine herself telling the story of her life to her
parents or anyone who cared to hear, she couldn’t figure out what that
would cause. But she was sure her mother would die even before her
death if she knows of her time that is fast approaching.

“Morenike!” Her father called.

She didn’t know he had been standing behind her, peeping from inside the entrance over the small wood gate. She had been carried away in
her thoughts, but when she suddenly heard her father’s voice from
behind, she wasn’t shocked. She didn’t answer, didn’t turn her
straight face.

“You know how sad I feel whenever I see you look this way” of course,
she knew how sad her parents used to feel whenever she looks sad. She
was the only child and Adebayo would spend every of his belongings, to
make her happy. He became arrogantly proud of her, when she started
growing to become a woman. He would take her to play ‘ayo’ game at
‘Seredale,’ saying to the mother, “she is meant to be a son" as he boastfully parade her like the only queen in the village. She too would smile at her very reasonable height for a female, with her white set of teeth which is as straight and neatly arranged. Shea butter would bring out the smoothness of her dark skin, leaving the youth in the village stumbling over and over again.

The truth is this: she came from the trees. The trees in the thick
forest, where pounded yam and egusi soup is served hot. Under the
banana tree is suitable to be a play ground, where they sing and dance
in the fashioned clothing of palm fronds. She could sing the world
out.

‘Yeye’ allows them to go to the world to get exposed. Only on a
condition they must agree to - specific time to come back. Yeye
caused her the scar she got. She called her back prior to time and
Ogunmakin had pressed on the four year old corpse, a red hot iron. It
was either a means of scaring her away or identifying her if she
should come back. She never came back. She would rather stay and enjoy the lush land of the woods, sing under the banana tree in her adorable voice and play with 'kogo' the monkey, her favourite of times. They would take a stroll and admire the lands and no matter how far they travelled, she was sure kogo knows the way back home.

one day, on one of her strolls with kogo, she wanted to share with him a bunch of banana. Kogo hijacked the
banana and took to the tree, not wanting to share any amount of it. She had sung so impressively and Yeye had given her the
whole bunch. She must eat of it. She followed kogo, pleading to
get some, but the monkey playingly tossed the banana away from her
reach and proceeded from trees to trees perfectly. She would smile timely each
time and moved on with pleading and the journey.

At last, at a stone throw from what looked so appealing a
scenery to her, kogo agreed to share her some. They both sat on
the floor to eat, but the plain land of ridges, neatly lined in rows
and columns now caught her fancy. She strolled towards it, to have a
good feel of beauty. There she was touched.

“Would you cry your eyes out and become sick?” she heard a man speak
gently to his wife, who was sobbing seriously. She dare not let anyone
see her and she was so interested in the story. So she became
invicible and listened carefully.

“Where are they?” the woman asked, crying “Adebimpe makes the
ridges, Adebayo would pluck the cocoa and harvest the cassava, Adeola
the only female would fetch the fire wood. The good old times, the
rough bad days with my children, my two lovely male children and a
girl. Where are they?”
“They will soon come again with time, Amoke,” he pleaded, “They will
come again. You’re not too old to give birth Eledumare is still there,
clearly aware of our plights and you should know that a night sheep
may bring back forth your three children.”
The man helped her poor wife inside and when she noticed herself
again, it was getting dark and Yeye would have become worried.
************
“That world is too dangerous over there,” Yeye protested.
“I know, but it’s time I made some people happy in it,” she said.
“You can make us happy here too. You sing into our hearts and we're happy whenever you do this.”
“Here is happy place already, let me go out there and learn new things in
the danger, face challenges and make them happy.”

Yeye now turned sober either because she wouldn’t want to loose her or
that her feelings and emotions had been flamed by her words.

“You may go,” Yeye said simply. Just as she set out to move. Yeye
called back, “You shall leave that world when on that day you wed. But
if the hair-headed tire you before that time, you’re welcome always.”

“That’s enough time to do with the world,” she answered

“Don’t keep Iroko waiting,” she warmed, "he wishes to take you as his
wife on that day you wed that man in the world.”

“Observed and beheld,” she answered and left quickly before Yeye
Would change her mind.

Everything surprised her when the family welcomed her to the world.
The cola she ate to weave away bad luck, the bitter nut, to grant long
life, ‘Aadun’ to make a sweet life and honey to fill her life with
goodies. She got the name that swept her off her feet. ‘MORENIKE’
which means ‘I have found someone to please.’ So, they promised to
take care of her and please her like she belonged to this world.

Just as promised, Morenikeji grew up with care. She learnt very fast,
learning first how to make ridges like perfectly as she had seen it
the other time. She really enjoyed doing things she knew because she
feels she was filling up the spaces the three kids had left. She
really loves to try up new things too, that made Adedayo think he was
meant to be a boy. She sings as well too.

She had put them to tests several times. She had fallen sick times countless, but her parents had not been at all fed-up of taking
care of her.

“Why do you take care of me so much.” She asked curiously on her sick
bed one day. Amoke held her head up. The tears that fell from her eyes
was hot when it dropped on her check and it meant to her it was of
passion and not sadness.

“Because you’re precious and I love you so much”

“Love,” she asked. She had never heard of the word even in the times
from where she came.

“Yes. Love,” Amoke answered finally. “It is what makes the world go
round. Eledumare stays anywhere it is found and bless it”

“Then I guess baba loves me too”

“Yes you should be sure”

“Then if Eledumare bless that place where love is, why do I fall
sick,” asked Morenike.

“This, it is just a test, my dear. You will overcome all this with
time if you don’t get fed up of loving us”
Amoke paused a bit and continued " you see, before I gave birth to you, I already had three children and just as a test as your sickness is, they all died at once and our hearts ached. See, we never got tired of loving ourselves and that's why we have you as a manifestation of Eledumare's presence"

“So are you…?” Morenikeji couldn't finish the question and so Amoke picked her up from there.

"No! Don’t ever think that way. Me, Amoke and the love of my life,
Adedayo will never stop loving you”
She forced herself up and hugged her mother so tight, but she
squeezed her lightly in return to avoid hurting her. Though she already knew the story, she couldn't fight back tears. They had passed
her test and taught her what love is.
**********

Olufemi came into her life again; to manifest that love exists in the
world. Iroko would never tell her how beautiful she looked, but
Olufemi did.

“I'm just like the shining sun,” he once told her one early morning. When She looked up at
the morning sun, he continued "I'm meant to brighten up your day and illuminate your world" she became flattered.

“You are just mild as that full moon” he said another evening, “look
at it,” he ordered and she did. It was pretty.

But one evening, when
she asked “Yes, no sun in the sky and no moon up there, what do I look like now?”
Olufemi gave him a captivating look and she turned shyly away. He said
“Look up, what do you see?”

“The stars,” answered Morenike

“They are the children of the moon. They twinkle in joy and kiss the
moon to bed when she feels sleepy”

“Humn…” she sighed, not taking her eyes off the sky

“Yes”, he affirmed, “So when you’re the moon and I’m the sun, would
you love our stars?”

“Yes,” she answered softly and surely. “I have been taught all my life to do that”

“Will you marry me?” asked Olufemi
Morenikeji looked away from the sky, to the citrus tree under which
they sat, to Olufemi’s face, but he wasn’t there. He had knelt soberly
and in all answers that she searched for in her mind, a 'yes' was all she could find.
*************

She had thought over and over again and couldn’t tell anybody her story. She
shall be going tomorrow, back to the trees, where Iroko waits
impatiently for the new bride.

“It’s getting late my dear,” Adedayo said to his precious daughter.

The ladies, who were making the feast, had gone and what remained was
the few red hot coal that had not burnt into ashes, still warming the hands of time.

“See, the moon has
gone to bed, bet the stars kissed her good night. Let’s go to bed.
Your man shall be waiting tomorrow.”

‘Who was her man?’ Iroko or Olufemi. Iroko was a tree and Olufemi was
the sun. She was the moon and only Olufemi could give her the stars.

As she stood up to go inside as her father took the lead, she made up
her mind.

I'm starting to think of putting somethings up, so I thought I should put it here first for you guys to read. It's just a couple of short stories I'll be updating weekly and I have about eight of them right now, so you neednt worry for the next two months or there about . Hope you'll find them interesting. Thanks.