Village Resurrection

"The room is unfamiliar, i don't know how i got here" i have been hearing voices outside, some of them sounding like voices i have heard somewhere before but can't just them.

I pushed myself into a sitting position from the sofa I have been lying on and took a closer look around me and still felt totally lost. I don't recall in any distance or near past ever being in any house with this kind of furnishing. It looked like the kind of furnishing you will see in the 1950s Italian movies if you are into movie things 

The voices of people sounding as if they are having group discussion or tuned down debate of some sort are still penetrating from somewhere outside the room. I got up and confirmed what I believed I was right about sitting down. The room windows are so high like the kind you see in the churches and many thoughts raced through my mind. "Am I a prisoner or something?" I muttered to myself, eyeing the door by my right as I shuffled towards it with a kind of trepidation overwhelming me. 

I gently placed my hand on the door handle and pressed down wards. To my surprise, the door gave way with little noise and opened inward. I edged forward and peered in what looked to me as an everlasting corridor. I wondered if it was a hotel or something. The voices are still coming from what looked like outside again. I closed the door gently and made a move towards the direction of the noise.

I have not made about ten steps when two people appeared from my right in the passage wearing what I am sure is sport wear. White top and white shorts, a man and woman of about late twenties or early thirties heading my way talking animatedly as if they have not noticed me and yet, I can swear our eyes locked as they materialized from wherever. I had halted out fear but before edging forward again when I didn't see any of the emotion i am feeling on the two. 

"Hellow, Mr. Christopher" both chorused as they passed, smiling and I nodded while forcing my mouth to open and reveal what I supposed is white teeth the last time I paid attention to that department of mine.

I got to where they materialized from and debated whether to take my right or left and it occured to me that they must have been from the tennis court therefore the way they came must lead outside. And, I don't recall anyone calling me Mr. Christopher for decades instead of Chris and I truly don't recall ever seeing those white people anywhere. "How did they know who I am?" I turned around to see the room they entered but they had vanished. 

When I got to where I was supposed to be outside, it was all full of water and a close look at the coast before me told me I was in a mighty yacht. I was a little lost trying to figure out when I booked this journey and where I am heading to. Infact, the last time I travelled abroad by ship of any kind was eight years ago and I don't enjoy it. I am not good at swimming and I had booked that yacht just for experience only and it was anything of mixed joy then. I am afraid of water, I prefer planes to every kind of means of transportation. It's faster and less accident prone than every other means I know.

I was still scratching  my brain to know where I was and why I was there when a hand grabbed my shoulder from the back. I whirl around ready to throw punches when I see a smiling face of a lady of about thirty eyeballing me while still plastering her face with what I now know to be a practiced smile that doesn't originate from the heart or any other known human department. 

"You're Mr Christopher,right?" She asked with the same smile taking over the face again. "Yeah, Mr.Chris. and you are?" I asked, still sure the fear I felt is still lingering on my face as the smile lingers on hers. "I am so sorry to frighten you, I don't mean to. I am Julie Anderson and I am detailed to be your guide and guard  in this journey. You have been tired and I don't want to disturb you. I hope you rested well" she asked with the same smile that is now annoying somehow to me. "Yeah. My guide  and guard? And who detailed you?" I asked without taking my eyes away from her. For the first time, I noticed her physique, she is built like those girls you see in movies that over stretched themselves in exercise that they turned into  walking muscles  with biceps you can't fail to see are not for show. They put them into use 24 hours and I am sure she will not hesitate to put it into use if i dare force her to. She is no longer full time female but fifty percent man with those muscles and abilities.

"By the way, Mr. George. He asked me to look after you well and that is the reason I am here talking to you. I would like us to go over there and sit down and we get to know each other better." She said with that  still there as she started making a move towards the four empty chairs by my right and halted when I was not following suit. "Who's Mr. George and where are we?" I asked standing still and I swear I saw that smile slip a bit but returning to place and I can also swear that what replaced it that few seconds, I don't like it. I made a move towards where she was indicating and she followed.

"Yeah, Mr George Freeday, your business partner. The one with the ability to raise the dead" she said, eyeing me with that prefered now annoying smile.

" I don't recall him and don't recall anyone, any business partner i deal with bearing such name" i said looking lost. "Oh!, don't worry, she said you will not recall that fast. We estimated three more days before everything will return to normal" She said, eyeing me closely. "What everything" i asked eyeing her with confusion she must have read and concluded genuine enough that she started explaining.

" You see, you had been dead for six months according to a leading newspaper 'the punch' in your country and the  picture of you dead in a coffin was sent to Mr. George but the man seems to have supernatural powers to raise African dead from the grave. When she asked us to get ready for Lagos, that he has his debtor to raise from the dead, we thought he was playing one of his jokes only when he got serious and released the traveling plans and what he intended to do, we still doubted but decided to follow nevertheless. But i was eager to see him perform this feat when he showed us your pictures in a coffin and that  paper declaring you dead two weeks earlier with your villagers and wife crying nonstop in that pics that mr. George was moved to tears and decided to perform miracle he reserves for his african dead debtors for the sake of your wailing and heartbroken family." She said, eyeing me with what now looked like some other sort of smile I can read what that one connotes. When I was not opening my mouth, she continued. " you see, Mr.George had supplied this cars and electronics worth three million dollars you spent years hassling him for and never stopped in reminding him how credit worthy you are and when he could not take the disturbance anymore, he did his own calculus and decided that truly, you are creditworthy and had been loyal for six years and he granted your request. 

Last month, we were surprised to read first in the internet about your demise then this paper and clip appeared in our officer from your wife detailing in the papers how these terrorist hijacked the whole consignment in your lawless wharf when they attacked Lagos wharf and how they shot many workers and some known business people and we are surprised you are among the dead in that dastardly act. Then, it's this golden coffin and thousands of those villagers willing nonstop some evemore heart broken than your wife and children.

You could not believe he spent almost five days watching your burial clip nonstop and when he started getting up in the middle of the night to watch this clip for another three days for hours non stop, we know he really takes you as his friend, something more than business partner." She was now smiling that smile again that a kind of chill ran down my spine. " Only heaven knows what he saw in that clip and read in that paper that touched him so much that he decided to go down south Sahara to go perform this miracle of resurrection." This smile is now getting wider and more frightening to me although i still don't recall any of the thing he is enumerating. But she seems eager to get to the end of the story to do something else. "So, we landed secretly in the middle of the night and found our way down East from Lagos and when Mr George started receiving mysterious calls from this mysterious woman in this mysterious part of nigeria, we changed course like ships do and off to Abakaliki we went from Onitsha instead of your countryside home. It's then we know there's more to this resurrection than he is revealing. We landed in Abakaliki in the middle of the night after wasting time in our hired cars for nothing in one interior town called Ugbo or something like that. When we received this call again to move by this mysterious woman i can only hear a bit what she was saying, i know this miracle won't fail even though i was still in the dark about who the receiver will be and why we are navigating all these bushes and bad roads instead of heading to your home to start digging up your grave to see how rotten you are already and at least say sorry to your mourning wife and kids. Why inside this thick overgrown bush in a town full of hut and mud houses with almost few people we see behaving as if they are seeing Jesus himself" she said with eyes still observing my face seriously looking for what i don't know. For sure she was looking for a particular sign i can't place. "so we landed in Abakaliki around 1am and bought three motorcycles and found our way to Onitsha Ugbo they call that town that is inaccessible by car the following day by same midnight and found our way into this hut where you are sleeping off your tombo drink they called that local drink and one tiny dart to three of you in that room did the job you are now still behaving as if you a ton was emptied into you. Before then, the two dogs in that compound had received the same treatment and we found our way with incarnated you to Ghana where we embarked on this journey for Mr. George said that the sea will clear your head and you will start recalling certain things. We had worried about how to handle airport checks even though we contemplated smuggling you into a luggage apartment but your state cancelled that option. Mr. George wants you in one piece in four days time to tell him certain things that beat his Sunday school and catechism class hands-down" she said still intent on my face seeking signs i don't know. Suddenly she asked: "How do Africans die just six months ago and incarnate into a grown up same person only a state away from the dead man's state looking the same and bearing the same name?" Now, her smiles has taken a macabre form  that sent chills down my spine. There's something about this  journey that looks like one way journey. I am not liking it.