Having sworn that oath, she sat down on a stony ledge and waited. Her fear had vanished. She could hear the priestess's voice, all its metal taken out of it by the vast emptiness of the cave. She buried her face in her lap and waited.
She did not know how long she waited. It must have been a very long time. Her back was turned on the footpath that led out of the hills. She must have heard a noise behind her and turned round sharply. A man stood there with a matchet in his hand. Ekwefi uttered a scream and sprang to her feet.
'Don't be foolish,' said Okonkwo's voice. 'I thought you were going into the shrine with Chielo,' he mocked. Ekwefi did not answer. Tears of gratitude filled her eyes. She knew her daughter was safe.
'Go home and sleep,' said Okonkwo. 'I shall wait here.'
'I shall wait too. It is almost dawn. The first cock has crowed.'
As they stood there together, Ekwefi's mind went back to the days when they were young. She had married Anene because Okonkwo was too poor then to marry. Two years after her marriage to Anene she could bear it no longer and she ran away to Okonkwo. It had been early in the morning. The moon was shining. She was going to the stream to fetch water. Okonkwo's house was on the way to the stream. She went in and knocked at his door and he came out. Even in those days he was not a man of many words. He just carried her into his bed and in the darkness began to feel around her waist for the loose end of her cloth.
CHAPTER TWELVE
On the following morning the entire neighbourhood wore a festive air because Okonkwo's friend, Obierika, was celebrating his daughter's uri. It was the day on which her suitor (having already paid the greater part of her bride-price) would bring palm-wine not only to her parents and immediate relatives but to the wide and extensive group of kinsmen called umunna. Everybody had been invited?men, women and children. But it was really a
7. Agbala wants something! Agbala greets! God who kills a man on the day his life is so pleasant he give thanks! . . .
.
THINGS FALL APART, PART 1 / 267 1
woman's ceremony and the central figures were the bride and her mother.
As soon as day broke, breakfast was hastily eaten and women and children began to gather at Obierika's compound to help the bride's mother in her difficult but happy task of cooking for a whole village.
Okonkwo's family was astir like any other family in the neighbourhood. Nwoye's mother and Okonkwo's youngest wife were ready to set out for Obierika's compound with all their children. Nwoye's mother carried a basket of coco-yams, a cake of salt and smoked fish which she would present to Obierika's wife. Okonkwo's youngest wife, Ojiugo, also had a basket of plantains and coco-yams and a small pot of palm-oil. Their children carried pots of water.
Ekwefi was tired and sleepy from the exhausting experiences of the previous night. It was not very long since they had returned. The priestess, with Ezinma sleeping on her back, had crawled out of the shrine on her belly like a snake. She had not as much as looked at Okonkwo and Ekwefi or shown any surprise at finding them at the mouth of the cave. She looked straight ahead of her and walked back to the village. Okonkwo and his wife followed at a respectful distance. They thought the priestess might be going to her house, but she went to Okonkwo's compound, passed through his obi and into Ekwefi's hut and walked into her bedroom. She placed Ezinma carefully on the bed and went away without saying a word to anybody.
Ezinma was still sleeping when everyone else was astir, and Ekwefi asked Nwoye's mother and Ojiugo to explain to Obierika's wife that she would be late. She had got ready her basket of coco-yams and fish, but she must wait for Ezinma to wake.
'You need some sleep yourself,' said Nwoye's mother. 'You look very tired.'
As they spoke Ezinma emerged from the hut, rubbing her eyes and stretching her spare frame. She saw the other children with their water-pots and remembered that they were going to fetch water for Obierika's wife. She went back to the hut and brought her pot.
'Have you slept enough?' asked her mother.
'Yes,' she replied. 'Let us go.'
'Not before you have had your breakfast,' said Ekwefi. And she went into her hut to warm the vegetable soup she had cooked last night.
'We shall be going,' said Nwoye's mother. 'I will tell Obierika's wife that you are coming later.' And so they all went to help Obierika's wife?Nwoye's mother with her four children and Ojiugo with her two.
As they trooped through Okonkwo's obi he asked: 'Who will prepare my
afternoon meal?'
'I shall return to do it,' said Ojiugo.
Okonkwo was also feeling tired and sleepy, for although nobody else knew
it, he had not slept at all last night. He had felt very anxious but did not show it. When Ekwefi had followed the priestess, he had allowed what he regarded as a reasonable and manly interval to pass and then gone with his matchet to the shrine, where he thought they must be. It was only when he had got there that it had occurred to him that the priestess might have chosen to go round the villages first. Okonkwo had returned home and sat waiting. When he thought he had waited long enough he again returned to the shrine. But the Hills and the Caves were as silent as death. It was only on his fourth trip that he had found Ekwefi, and by then he had become gravely worried.
Obierika's compound was as busy as an ant-hill. Temporary cooking tripods were erected on every available space by bringing together three blocks of sun
.
267 2 / CHINUA ACHEBE
dried earth and making a fire in their midst. Cooking pots went up and down the tripods, and foo-foo was
