THE SHORT CUT FILLED WITH TEARS

Hello. Have you ever heard of the word” Egbere”? They are dwarf-like spirits that live in the bush. They carry mats over their shoulders and are always crying.

My name is Kunle Omope; let me tell you a story about “Egbere”.

Greg was this super brilliant teenager who lived with his not-so-rich parents somewhere in Lagos. In his neigbourhood were many Yahoo boys. Although Greg lived a sheltered life, the Yahoo boys found out about his uncommon intelligence from his former classmates. So, a gang of four Yahoo boys cornered him one evening when he was taking a stroll. They sweet-talked him into joining them, with a promise of making him so rich, that he would save his parents from the clutch of poverty.
After, a little resistance, he agreed. They nicknamed him G-boy, from his name, Greg.

Just a week into always sneaking away from home to learn about Internet fraud from his guys, G-boys parents asked him to leave for Sango-Otta to spend some time with his grandpa.

Grandpa was pleased to have G-boy around. In the mornings they would both leave for Grandpa’s small farm not too far from the house.

One morning, Grandpa was too tired to go to the farm, and G-boy offered to quickly rush down to bring home some of the harvest of sweet potatoes they had uprooted the previous day.

On his way to the farm, G-boy heard the disturbing cries of a person. Slightly afraid, he hid behind a tree. To his shock, he saw a small human creature of about three feet in height. He couldn’t make out the face of the creature because it was partly covered by dry grasses.

As the creature came closer into view, G-boy noticed it was carrying a silver mat that gleamed in the morning sun. That’s when all his late grandmother had told him about Egbere flooded his memory. He remembered grandma telling him many tales as he sat with her in the evening while eating a delicious snack of roasted coconut seasoned with pepper and salt. Grandma told him stories about “Egberes”. How the small creatures were always crying for no reasons, even as they wandered about the bush.

The most interesting thing he remembered was that his grandma said whoever could get an Egbere’s mat would become very rich after 7days.

G-boy gave this last memory a quick thought, and bravery welled up in his heart. Slinging the small bag of potatoes across his shoulders, he sprang out from his hiding place behind the tree, and ran after the crying Egbere; snatched the mat from its arms, after which he took off, running as fast as his legs could carry him. The Egbere ran after him, but its short legs could not match G-boy’s fast and powerful strides.

On getting to Grandpa’s compound, he hid the mat behind some banana trees, before entering the house with the small bag of potatoes.

For the rest of the day, G-boy felt uneasy. He got up from a lunch of roasted potatoes and palm oil several times to go check whether the mat was still behind the banana trees- it was there.

In the evening, he could take it no more and feigned a fever, telling his grandpa, that he had to quickly go to his parents’ home. After promising to return in a few days and making a pretense call to his parents through his grandpas badly functioning mobile phone, he secretly recovered the mat and was bus bound back to town.

While in the bus, a million thoughts crossed his mind, but all he was concerned about was the wealth the Egbere’s mat would bring to him and his new friends.

G-boy’s friends laughed at him in comical disbelief when he arrived at their flat and showed them the mat. No sooner had they began to laugh that G-boy unfurled the mat, and a bright glow enveloped the room. The mysterious light stopped their laughter, and they suddenly believed in its powers.

G-boy didn’t go home to his parents; he wanted to surprise them with millions of naira after 7days, so he and his friends kept vigil over the mat.

At 12midnight, while they slept, G-boy was awaken by some scratching sounds just by the windowpane. He stood up, took a look, and was horrified to find the Egbere behind the window. He quickly woke his friends up and they all went around the flat, making sure every door was properly locked and every window bolted.

Then it began…Egbere started to cry relentlessly,

“E bami gbe eni mi o, hu hu hu hu, e ba mi gbe eni mi o” (Translation: Give me back my mat).

The boys shut out the noise from their ears and compassion from their hearts. Egbere cried from midnight until dawn, then it left as mysteriously as it came.

In the midnight of the second day, the Egbere came again, and resumed its crying…but this time, the crying sounded like the cries of a hundred Egberes.

The boys endured. They couldn’t step out of the house because of fear, but they were determined to be rich, the cries would just be for a few days, after all.

On the third night, the crying voices had increased to a thousand.
The fourth night, they heard ten thousand crying Egberes.
The fifth night, it was a million crying voices.

By the sixth night, the boys were walking like zombies, the deafening noise from the crying had messed their minds so bad that their eyes saw spirit creatures…their noses were filled with the strong stench of the forest…their dry tongues tasted soiled earth…their lives were filled with misery.

On the seventh day, their dazed minds couldn’t take the crying voices that had now multiplied to hundreds of millions. It seemed all the Egberes living in all the forests around the world were now at their window.

Finally, they gave up and returned the shining mat. They threw it out the window and immediately the voices reduced to one lone voice of a crying Egbere. They watched it through the window as it picked up its mat. Lifting it over its shoulders, it walked slowly away, crying. But it was too late as the boys ran out of the house and followed the Egbere.

They cried along as the Egbere led G-boy and his friends into the bush.

It’s been 14years now, and the Egbere is still leading them in a slow march further into the forest, while they all cried together, “E bami gbe eni mi o, hu hu hu, e bami gbe eni mi o.

The end.