Edidiong watched Mary and felt sorry for her. From the question Mary just asked her, she knew her friend had ventured into the evil forest and Edidiong could not even begin to understand how Mary was feeling at the moment.
"Where did you go to, Mary?" Edidiong asked in a low tone as she looked with a sad expression on her face.
Mary had sat down by this time, holding unto a cup of water as if for dear life. Her knuckles were whitening as the tightness of her hands increased around the cup. She was still trembling. What she saw would never leave her memory. Mary wondered if she would be able to sleep that night.
"I walked into a forest," Mary replied without looking at Edidiong. "I do not even know how to describe it to you, Edidiong. I just wanted to pray..." Mary finished as her bottom lip trembled while tears rolled down her cheeks.
"It is okay, my dear," Edidiong said as she walked to where Mary was.
"You will be fine," Edidiong put her hand over Mary's shoulder and patted, consoling her dear friend. She could not imagine what Mary would be feeling right now. Even the natives didn't dare to go into Forest Afo, knowing what happens there, and what the forest was for... talk more of a stranger who didn't know what was happening in the land.
"I think you should rest a little," Edidiong said as she came to sit opposite Mary.
"I can not rest. What is that forest? The cook warned me before I left, but I didn't listen, Edidiong. I saw many... many skeletons. I do not understand..."
"You are talking so much..." Edidiong said with a little whimper. "You will give yourself pain in the heart" (She was referring to a heart attack but didn't know the word to use). "They call it the evil forest. It is where they put the children that resemble each other... they leave them there to die."
Mary froze, staring at Edidiong with wide eyes.
As Edidiong looked at Mary, she noticed that her eyes refocused again but seemed like a darker blue. Mary got up from the mat, her jaw and fists clenched.
"WHAT. DO. YOU. MEAN?", Mary asked with a very low voice, Edidiong barely heard her.
Edidiong bit her lip and cleaned her sweaty palms on her wrapper, "Mary..."
"You people kill twins?", Mary asked, pointing her finger at Edidiong.
"It is not me!" she exclaimed as she lifted both her hands in the air. "They said that when two people resemble each other like that, it is a taboo, a mistake of life. I am not inside. Ha!" Edidiong knew that Mary was stubborn and she knew her friend would do something about the matter. Like she was doing with the 'killing of virgins' matter.
"What does that even mean?"
"If the children that look like a copy of each other are not destroyed, the great goddess will pour her wrath on the whole land, not even the parents of the children. Giving birth to children like that is an offense on the land..." Edidiong explained.
"Oh My God! IGNORANCE!. This is ignorance AND wickedness, Edidiong" (Mary had made that statement in English which left Edidiong lost. She had only heard her name at the end).
"I did not understand you. I hope you know that... she complained, pouting her mouth.
Mary ignored that, "Innocent children are seen as taboos? Please make it make sense"
"Nobody knows why two human beings will be born looking like each other. It is abnormal. Think abo-"
"I DO NOT HAVE TO THINK ABOUT ANYTHING. It is a normal thing. It is when a woman's egg splits and-", Mary stopped. "I do not know how to explain it in Ufik, but it is just the same as having a child. No taboo or foul play there. It is nature, Edidiong"
"Oh..."
"It will have to stop. It has to stop! It is murder. Leaving babies to cry and die out there in the cold? In the forest? I can not believe my ears".
Mary Hutchison made a mental note...[First thing tomorrow, as long as I am able to breathe, I will go to the Obong's palace]. "If they like, the coronation or 'initiation' should last forever, I will wait outside till I see the Obong. WHAT NONSENSE!"
"Ah, Mary...", Edidiong got up from the mat. She wasn't understanding the energy emanating from Mary, so she wanted to leave. "This one you are shouting in your language, let me start leaving..." She tightened her wrapper firmly around her chest and left Mary's hut.
Mary didn't even give her a second glance. She was furious.
[A lot of rubbish going on here. Where do I even start from? I haven't seen the Obong about the killing of virgins... or Introduction of Western Education, now, THIS?], her eyes were closed. Mary was deep in thought.
The cook had been eavesdropping since the beginning of the discussion. [I warned her. Ah! Now she knows about Forest Afo. Thank the gods it is not my mouth she heard it from], she closed the wrapper they had used to block the kitchen away from the general room silently.
* * *
That night, Mary had a nightmare.
She had fallen asleep on the mat where she and Edidiong sat to discuss. Mary hadn't left that spot even after her friend left.
In the dream, she was walking on the streets. It was very dark. Then she heard the crying of a baby... no, two or more babies.
"Why were they crying so much? Where are their parents?", she asked. Mary looked around and saw that she was alone on the entire road. No soul in sight.
"I can not leave those kids". She began to trace where the sound was coming from. She got to a thick forest. "Who would leave a child here, for goodness sake?"
She kept walking... deep into the forest. The cries were getting louder, and Mary knew she was getting closer to the children.
She saw them! Two sets of twins... Alone!
They were wrapped in light wrappers. "Oh my God. What is this? HELLO?!", she called out as she looked around to see if the parents were somewhere in the vicinity. No one replied.
She removed the woolen scarf that had been on her shoulders and covered the children with it. Mary sat on the ground beside them and began to sing.
To her surprise, they all stopped crying and began cooing.
She smiled, happy that she had gotten there on time.
Her happiness was short-lived when a short human not more than 3 feet, with the voice of an old man said, "What are you doing here? This is no place for you. GET OUT!"
Fright woke Mary up from that dream...drenched in sweat.