Meanwhile, Johnson Ọmọ-owú had been busy for the past few days. There were many things he needed to do after his meeting with Elder Kasumu. He had went in search of Kátikàti a secret friend of his father who happened to be his family from mother side.
There were other missions which he had to undertake. Today happened to be important too, he had to do some special magical rituals at the farm according to his inspirational dream interpreted by the Oracle.
He had finished all these since noon, but he had to do some other farm stuff.
"This should be enough work for the day. Those boys were lazy animals. If you were not around they would not work. They only know how to eat." He was speaking to himself along the footpath to a hut nearby. "I should not forget the fish I promised Mama Kogi lest she thought I intentionally don't want to give her some fish because her daughter went away with another man ....hmm...."
Johnson changed his farm clothes for a better and presentable one before he went toward the nearby stream that leads to the big river not too far from his farm.
He was flagabasted when he got to the stream. "Who did this to the fishes' kingdom? What a heartless devilish deed. Haa...! Who deed this?" He was saying as he moved along the side of the stream to where he ducked his fishing canoe. All over the stream were mutilated fishes with their bellies turned upside. They were plenty to count. The stream were full of them as if someone had tipped a truck full load of fishes into the water. Johnson was shaken to the bone.
"What's happening?" In no time he was beside his canoe. "I should removed the blockade to drive off those mutilated fishes from here, or else ....." He walked to the nearby tree and untied the palm ropes that were used to tied down the water blockade. As soon as he did so the stream current started to flow properly again and drive the dead fishes towards the nearby river. Johnson was looking at the mass of dead fishes with utter confusion.
"What is this?" He kept repeating to himself. After sometime, he was able to control his emotions and looked around once more. The place was cleared a little bit better to allow his canoe to paddle along. He removed the anchor and pushed the canoe along the stream bank towards the river. He paddled slowly and steadily. There were many species of fish. There were even bigger ones among them. This was insane! How could someone did this to the innocent fishes. The ragged mutilated fishes were even not looking edible at all. It looked like they were bombed with dynamite and bathed in acid, after examining the dead creatures properly. This was a disaster.
Without knowing it, he was already canoeing into the small river where other streams had joined it. It was then that he realized the horrible situation was not limited to his area. Something huge must have happened in the ocean. It couldn't have been only this area to have gathered these mass of fishes.
As usual, when he came to fish in the river he used to come to this place. There was a tree inside the river. He would tie his canoe to the tree and climbed up the tree looking at the work of nature.
Nature is wonderful, to have created such spectacular scene. A tree in the middle of a relatively big river! How did it happened? May be this place was not the path of the river initially. The tree must have grew here before the river find it's path here.
He used to marvel nature at this place. He would climbed up the tree and meditate for quite sometimes before fishing or at times he would just meditate and went back home. Today, it's another storyline.
While thinking up to this point, he noticed a mass of dirt clung to the shrubs around the tree trunk. He moved nearer and discovered a beautiful lady entangled with the shrubs and tree. How many times was he going to be surprised within few days that he had came back from Àjàṣẹ?
He was the nearest to this place; won't people ascribed the nefarious occurrence to him? Being a bold, extraordinary gentleman in his own right. He moved closer to the lady to check properly in order to learn something about what really happened.
He observed that the person's outlook doesn't look like a dead person. The skin was fresh, and lively, although slightly paled. He examined her body carefully in confusion. There was no mark or any sign of violence on her body. May be she was not dead. The thought slipped into his mind, suddenly. He jumped in fright of the thought. Curiosity they said killed the rabbit. He touched her skin to feel it. Not satisfied he placed his fingers close to her nose while moving the person's left hand up to feel her purse like a medical personnel. He listened intently for any sign. As he was entertaining the thought of abandoning this futile efforts, he noticed there was a small purse faintly. He was elated despite himself. Paying particular kin attention, he discovered that the lady was actually breathing faintly, not dead!
Without thinking too much, he tried to free her clothes that had turned and entangled with the shrubs. Using his whole strength he lifted her up in one breath onto the canoe, to avoid capsizing.
"È è mọ .....!"
He tumbled into the canoe, nearly going over into the river. The canoe rocked left and right violently almost capsized. "E e sí o .....!" His heart was pounding violently like someone who had just finished a marathon.
"This is .... Yemoja ... or what?!" He thought of turning it back into the river and turn tail. The downside of this is it could lead to the death of the person, ... therefore he would have caused it's death which God had prevented by entangling her with the shrubs and tree. He entertained many thoughts and simulated many scenarios in his head.
Eventually, he came to term with helping the thing. At least it could returned back into the river when revived.
Thinking up to this point, he started paddling the canoe back to his farm hut to take care of her. By this time it was late in the evening and the day was going for a rest.
Upon reaching where he used to anchor his canoe, he pushed it to a safe place and tied it up before running to his hut to get some medicinal herbs. There is a particular leave planted at the back of his farm hut. When rubbed vigorously and squeezed a little of it's fluid into an unconscious person's mouth and placed the squeezed leaves in front of the person's nose, no matter what , if it's not really death the person will wake up.
He did it as prescribed and waited for it's reaction. Suddenly, the lady sneezed violently and cracked open her eyes. By this time Johnson had distanced himself to a reasonable distance in case of any eventuality. He placed his right hand at his waist where he hide his special machete. If it is war, I will give her war. If it is fight I would fight her; he thought to himself while watching the creature struggled within the canoe uncomfortably before she was able to right itself and sit properly. As she observed her surrounding. She noticed Johnson immediately and possibly knew that he was the one that rescued her. She still tasted something in her mouth and the peculiar smell of herb. She made hand signs indicating she needed water to clear her throat. At this, Johnson ran back to his hut to fetch some clean water for her.
When he came back and attempted to give her the bowl of water, he nearly dropped it. If the lady hadn't being expecting such thing to happen he would have dropped the bowl of water out of surprise. The lady however quickly catch the bowl. She drank some of the water and cleared her throat before placing the bowl down beside her inside the canoe.
Johnson was again shocked. Won't he die of shock at this rate? He thought to himself. The lady had changed to a presentable beautiful lady, no more Yemoja style. Her upper body remained the same but her lower part is now normal like human being with the dresses she wore.
"My savior, my fated encounter, thank you. I'm called Òkínja Ẹjadibúmú."
This thing actually spoke my dialect perfectly...?! Johnson watched the lady, surprised that she didn't called herself Yemoja, as she also was watching him silently, waiting for his response.
"I'm also called Ladele by most people in this area. That's not my real name though. At other places I was known as Johnson in case you came across people calling me by both names, it won't be strange." He kept silent watching for any sign of hostility again. The lady was watching him too. When the lady was not ready to talk and he could see that time was running off. The place could be dark in another few more minutes, we have a shorter day, longer night. "I hope I had not offended you in any way. I used to fish in the river but I don't really like eating fish. I gave them to people because they like it. If you are ready to go back, you are now fit to do so. It would soon be night and this place would be dark. If you don't mind, I will be taking my leave." Johnson said, and prepared to turn around and go.
"Johnson, Ladele my helper and savior, please wait." After she had spoken this few words, she kept silent again and started ringing her fingers shilly in distress.
After watching for a while, Johnson was uncomfortable.
He asked, "hope there was no problem? I can take you back to the river if that was what's worrying you. There is still time before it's dark. We mustn't delay further." Johnson then walked to where he had tied the anchor ... "No, that's not it. It's just that I felt ashamed and embarrassed. I don't know what you will think about me." She explained. "Ashamed? Embarrassed? What I would think about you? I don't understand. You can say whatever you want to say. There is no problem, feel free to speak with me." Johnson said.
"You were the only person I actually, probably, have now on earth that I can even trust. If it won't be too much of a problem, please help me fully." Òkínja Ẹjadibúmú said and look straight up pleadingly to him.
Johnson was abashed and confused again. "What is it that you want? If it's within my capabilities I will help. If I can't help I would have left you long ago, I won't even made the attempt to rescue you." He laughed ruefully. Òkínja was looking at her feet while watching him through the lashes of her eyes lids. She blurted out "please let me come with you to wherever you are going. I have no home that I can go anymore." She cover her mouth with her hands while actually crying, and tears were flowing down her face like water torrent. Johnson was touched. At the same time he was frightened. "I won't harm you. I can't. I owed you a life debt. I can't harm you. Please help me brother Johnson Ladele ..... please....." It seemed she sensed his thoughts.
Johnson could not help himself, he has the feeling that the lady was sincere and innocent. He did not know what to do. The whole events since he came back from Àjàṣẹ were becoming more confusing and strange. After considering everything a bit; he became emboldened. If not, why not! There was nothing that can fry better than popcorn! "Well, it's getting dark here we'll be talking when we reached home. I still need to get some things in the hut for us to eat when we reached home. He helped her out of the canoe while he kept watching her secretly. Òkínja Ẹjadibúmú was full of appreciation and gratefulness. She continued to thank him on and on as they went on their journey to Johnson's house.