Click Here For episode 1
Episode two
It was a Monday morning. Father had left home early so as to meet up with the company's bus hat waits at the Mandolé bus stop. Mandolé was the nearest bus stop to our house. Our house was located at the foot a hill.
Oke meji was the name of our street. It was the outskirts of a popular town then. Oke Meji which means: "two hills or twin mountain" in the Yoruba vocabulary, was a tourist attraction for many around its environs.
It was not as popular or beautiful as other tourist attractions in the country but there was something peculiar about it. It was told that the twin mountain took its origin from a popular kingdom called Araoke.
Araoke was known for cultivation of cocoa. In fact, every home had at least one acre of land where cocoa was cultivated. And this made the villagers wealthy and their standard of living was high.
Oba Adedeji was the king at that time and he had two sons, who were twin brothers. They looked alike in everything, behaviour, appearance, relationship with others and strength. They were both handsome, kind hearted and they related well with the villagers.
When Oba Adedeji was about to die, he was confused on who would succeed his throne and so he sought counsel from IFA through chief Adigun.
IFA said that Aremu and Aremo, the children of the king, had the same destiny and they couldn't succeed without each other.
"Electing one as king and leaving the other is like planting seeds of destruction in the village", these were the words of Adigun.
The solution IFA gave was to either coronate both of them as king or the village should be without a king till the twins die, and then the kingship title will be shifted to another family in the village.
This made the king confused and more perturbed.
Eventually, the king died and Aremu and Aremo were made kings in Araoke at age 10.
There was joy in the village and it was a very peaceful reign. The kings, by virtue of their education, made civilization come to Araoke. They sold their produce more to the white men and the city.
Twenty years after, Aremo and Aremu were to marry and they both admired a lady, Abisola. This made confusion enter the village.
At first, the villagers taught it was normal for the Kings because they had the same destiny but something made them more confused.
It was a custom in Araoke that a lady must wed as a virgin but if she gets deflowered, she should remain unmarried till death.
Aremo wanted to get Abisola first before Aremu, so he made arrangements to lay with Abisola, since he was king and had authority over everything. He didn't remember that the customs existed before he was formed in his mother's womb.
Aremu too, discovering Aremo's plan, went to lay with her before him.
Aremo, discovering what his brother had done, laid with Abisola still. The kings now took turns to lay with her.
When the village heard of the abominable act committed by the two kings, they rioted to Adigun's shrine.
IFA instructed that the kings should be banished from the land or they should remain unmarried and ostracized till death.
Aremo and Aremu, out of shame left the village at night and ended up in the evil forest at the outskirts of Araoke. And they both turned into mountains.
Civilization and urban development made life get to the evil forest and the two hills were found.
This was a myth people tried to make me believe.
*********
Jolami smiled when I narrated my dream to her. She was found of smiling and sometimes laughing hard when she hears things like this.
"I'll end up your wife" she said with a feeble smile plastered on her face which had now made her dimples show.
Jolami was dark in completion, plump, pretty and had succulent, fleshy buttocks accompanied with balancing feet which made her posture perfect. What caught my attention when we first met at the shopping mall was the gap in her front teeth popularly known as 'eji' in the Yoruba vocabulary.
Funny enough, we attended the same secondary school but I didn't see her for once. St. Michael's secondary school, Mandolé was big enough, having twenty thousand student capacity structure. I also got to know her better when her parents moved to Oke meji, their permanent residence.
We were so found of each other and our parents were aware of this. They regularly advised us to keep ourselves till we get married and this same reason made us choose the same higher institution of study.
It may sound funny, but I rejected admission to the university once because of Jolami. Our relationship was indeed sweet and intimate that some married couples wished their marriages were filled with fun like our friendship.
Click Here For episode 3
Click Here For episode 3
© Philip Vincent Abayomi
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