the boy who saw tomorrow. contd.

CHAPTER TWO pgs 7s& 8

Nothing occurred in the family for years, that seemed unusual and Durojaiye’s parents soon forgot about his clairvoyance. Durojaiye was now a grown up boy and was due to write his secondary school leaving examinations while his sister Ayomide was in her first year. Durojaiye doted on his sister so much and they were inseparable. So many times, he had rescued her from danger, both major and minor ones and had instructed her never to inform their parents.
Somehow, he had grown to understand that he had mystical powers to detect danger to people he knew, mostly his immediate family. He did not want to alarm his parents and the community in general, which was why he chose to keep it anonymous and focus on his immediate family. Issues like that were regarded as sorcery and people regarded such powers as diabolic. He might be labeled a wizard, which was not a good nickname for any man, even if it were for good deeds. He remembered vividly about a year ago when he foresaw his father fall of a palm tree in his dream. Very early the next morning, before any member of his family woke up; he went and hid his fathers climbing rope.
His father was forced to abandon climbing that day because he could not get a new rope made for him at short notice that day. When he got back from school that day, he went and took the rope from where he hid it, scrutinized it, only to find out that the rope had a small cut and seemed weak at the spot, which might have allowed the rope to snap if his father’s bulky weight had rested on it.
His father’s farm expanded, he leased an extra acre of land and his palm-wine trade increased because he was known for his quality palm-wine. It made orders come from far and near to supply fresh palm-wine, which he hardly met. He sometimes had to travel to other towns to procure from fellow palm-wine ‘tappers’, to meet his supplies.
Durojaiye sat for his West African school certificate examinations and came out with flying colours. His father asked him to hold on a while and help him with the farm and businesses so he could save enough money to enable him send Durojaiye for further studies. Considering the fact that his sister was still in school and he wanted her to have at least a secondary school education. He agreed with his father’s decision.
His mother continued with her petty trading. She used the little income she derived from the business to take proper care of her daughter. She saw to it that Ayomide never lacked anything necessary she could afford to give her. Durojaiye started learning the art of palm-wine tapping from his father and sometimes set the gourd for tapping to his fathers delight. Gradually his father began to leave him in control while he went to procure from outside sources to meet demand. This continued for almost a year.
Funsho had orders for the supply of a large quantity of palm-wine. A rich man from the city was hosting guests for the traditional wedding of his son and Funsho was contracted to supply the palm-wine for the occasion. Durojaiye set about placing gourds for the palm-wine collection from the palm trees.
A few days earlier, he had a premonition but could not understand what it was so he carefully observed. Two days before the day his father was to supply the palm-wine, Durojaiye sat under a tree in the farm to rest in the hot afternoon and fell asleep. He began to daydream. Suddenly he woke up. He had dreamt of seeing a man he could not identify hug him with blood all over him. Much as he tried to recognize the man’s face, he could not. His face seemed blurred. He knew something sinister was about to happen but he was confused because he could not understand the dream and that depressed him.
He thought of informing his parents, but he knew they would summarily dismiss his intuition. A day before the supply, that night, he dreamt and saw the unknown face staring at him, this time he was in a pool of water. He tried to move closer so he could see the man’s face properly, only to discover that the water seemed murky. On proper inspection, he saw that the man was in what looked like palm-wine. He immediately woke up and tried to interpret the dream. He could not see the man’s face but he was supposed to climb the palm trees with his father the next day to bring down the gourds of palm-wine. Instantly, he made up his mind to tell his father the next morning so they would take precautions before climbing the trees or better still, get someone else to climb it for them. However, he thought of how they would explain to people, the rationale behind both of them not climbing to fetch their gourds of palm-wine. Whatever the case maybe, he would inform his father and they would take proper precaution whilst climbing he concluded and then lay down to continue sleeping
Very early the next morning his father came to wake him, but he was already awake. After greeting his father, he explained his dreams to him and suggestions on averting any injury to either of them.
“Durojaiye, you know we cannot ask someone else to fetch the gourds for us. It would look too suspicious; people will wonder why both of us decided not to climb the trees when we are both hale and hearty,” his father said. “Supposing your dream is the opposite and it is the person we ask to bring down the gourds that falls down or is injured. It would worsen the matter; we would be accused of complicity in his accident. That is if we are lucky that he does not sustain a fatal injury or death. Don’t you think so? Remember you said you could not see the man’s face.”
“Papa, supposing it was I or you,” Durojaiye said.
His father kept silent for a while and mused over what his son said and then spoke.
“No man has ever been able to predict his own death except our Lord Jesus Christ, and he was no ordinary man. As for me, if it was I, won’t you have recognized my face?”
Durojaiye thought about what his father said and recollected that once when his father was to have fallen from a tree, he had known it and had hidden his climbing rope to prevent the occurrence.
“All right papa, we shall be very careful then,” Durojaiye said.
“What I will suggest my son is for us to climb the trees one at a time. One of us will stay down to watch over the other. It might take longer to fetch all the gourds, but it is safer that way, so that we will watch our backs ourselves.”
“Sounds okay papa.”
“Then let us go son, so I can be ready on time. You know the palm-wines have to be delivered before three o’ clock this afternoon at most. The occasion starts by four in the evening. I want to see if I can get back today.”
“But, you have also being invited papa.”
“Yes son, but I want to see if I can get back to my family today.”
“Papa if it is late, please don’t come back at night, stay until the next day. I can take care of the house. Promise me you will not travel at night papa.”
“Yes son, I promise I will not travel if it gets late. Hurry up boy, lets go, it’s dawn already and we are almost late.”
They left the house at about six a.m., Gbemisola by then had woken up to start with the days chores before going to the market, while Ayomide the baby girl of the house as she was fondly referred to, still slept.
Due to the careful measures they took, it took longer for them to harvest the palm-wine, but everything went smoothly without hiccups and they were glad.
At about eleven a.m., they finished harvesting, turned the palm-wine into jerry cans, and conveyed them to the motor park for onward transportation to their destination. After his father left, Durojaiye decided to go and meet his mother in the market and keep her company until it was time to go and fetch his sister from school. While chatting with his mother, he felt tensed up. His mother noticed and asked him what was wrong.
“Nothing mama,” he answered.
“Temidayo my son, I am your mother and I can tell when something is bothering you. If you cannot confide in me, whom will you confide in?”
“Mama I have been having some disturbing dreams for the past week but I did not want to upset anyone so I kept it to myself until today.”
“Until today?” “What do you mean by that?” his mother asked.
He then explained everything to her to the very last detail. He also told her how he.....

to be contd