Chapter 9

“In that dream I found myself in the market selling some form of food items and the villagers will come to my stand pick up an item and turn to pay somebody else…” Tikayo‟s narration was interrupted with a grunt from the men.

“Sincerely that is what happened,” he maintained.

“So what did you do to arrest such a horrible development,” a man asked from the crowd.

Tikayo grunted like a pig, murmured briefly to himself before responding. “Again, I was powerless I couldn‟t stop the people from carrying my goods and despite my protest the man receiving payment for my goods refused to give me my money – This money is not yours it is mine you have not done what you were supposed to do that is why this bad luck has befallen you and your business. That was the cold answer I got from the man who was receiving payment for my

goods. Immediately I woke up from sleep, Tikayo concluded.

“What is the meaning of such a dream?” This time it was Mumba who asked the question. The answer took a while in coming.

“The ways of the Gods are different from the ways of man,” Tikayo was saying

“Very true,” the men chorused.

“The Gods do not make their ways known to any body except those who serve as oracles to the Gods–here in Boma village we are lucky to have a chief priest,” he said pausing for a while. “Men of Boma village I believe our chief priest having heard of my experiences has spoken with the Gods and now will tell us what the Gods are saying,” Tikayo concluded and sat down. Immediately, the chief priest took over as he stood up to give the men, the interpretation of Tikayo‟s dream. “Men of Boma village we must be grateful to the Gods because they have decided to let us into their sacred ways of operation,” the chief priest said. The men held their peace by refusing to utter a word rather they were content to follow the chief

priest‟s direction preferring to speak after he may have said his piece.

“The Gods really love us men of Boma village our problem is over the moment we do what the Gods wants us to do,” here again the chief priest paused while surveying the faces of the men.

“What do the Gods wants from us?” Mumba asked trying at the same time to hide his boredom.

“The Gods have not demanded anything hard from us,” the chief priest began by way of a reply. “The events in the dream as interpreted to me by the Gods simply means that the Gods are still angry at the fact that they had been neglected by those they were protecting.”

“But we‟d just offered sacrifices about three weeks ago,” a man said.

“Yes that is true but the Gods feel indifferent in that the sacrifice was done out of necessity and not respect,” the chief priest said before concluding. “Thus the Gods feel slighted over this total disrespect by the people of Boma village.”

“Men of Boma village,” Tikayo said standing up, “we must appease the Gods at once,” he said with absolute authority cutting off every opposition that might have risen.

“Who knows the Gods having been appeased will now chase away the evil from our midst?” Deep down even as he spoke, Tikayo was amused at the whole charade.

Which evil were the Gods chasing away. He was the evil and up till now the Gods are yet to expose him. It said a lot about the Gods they were worshipping anyway it suited his activities. At least they will continue making sacrifices while he went on with his killing.

Having arrived at the conclusion that another sacrifice was inevitable, the meeting ended on that note.

“I hope this time the killing will stop or else there will be trouble,” Abokito threatened.

“Yes I agree with you,” Mumba added. Tikayo killed his next victim without delay;

in fact the killing had occurred just two days after the second series of sacrifices was made

to Rorche. He did not consider waiting for two weeks like in the past. His victim this time was a girl whom he had met alone on one of the village path. Killing her too was not a difficult task just like other victims. Taking out the liver and the heart, Tikayo left the body on the path he did not bother concealing it. If anything, his actions portrayed that he preferred the body be discovered and thus reducing time spent searching for missing bodies.

Furthermore, he didn‟t need to bother about the bodies after all he had never been challenged by any of the men in the village. He knew the penalty his actions would attract upon himself and his whole family. Should the villagers find out his sordid deeds. If Tikayo was bothered about Boma village and their laws he didn‟t show it. Securing his prized possessions, Tikayo rushed to the river for a quick rub down before returning home. This was intended to achieve two things, first wash off the blood stains on his body and the second thing was a routine he usually observed daily as he prepared to return home

from the field with his cattle. In Boma village, the villagers had a popular saying that nine days is for the thief while the owner of the farm had just one day to catch the thief stealing his crops.

Tikayo‟s days were numbered but he did not know it neither did he know that from a vantage point one of the men had observed him right from the time he got to the river bank all the furtive glances he kept making while undressing. In any case, the man slipped away having concluded his business at the river. However, he resolved to get three other men and together they would start keeping surveillance on every move Tikayo made.