She crept into the palace unannounced and stood in the front room where she was expecting to bump into any member of the royal family. Leona saw her as she passed by the corridor and startled to see her said, “Are you looking for Mother, Mama Kama?”
Mouth wide open, Mama Kama just nodded and blurted, “I am here specially to see the dear king as well please?”
Leona added, “Are you all right, only you look white as a sheet?”
Mama Kama stammered, “Yes, I know, dear child, what with the horrific news we had announced to us this morning, it doesn’t do one’s heart any good, does it?” Leona quickly went besides her and lent her a hand while summoning her to take a sit in the living room and offered her a camomile tea to calm her nerves which were clearly shattered.
While the two were conversing, the king walked in from the study, sighed and said sarcastically, “Oh, Mama Kama, what brings you here, not another complaint about the children being too loud I hope.” Mama Kama realised at that instance that her constant complaints to the king about the subjects’ children was annoying the king.
However, she quickly dismissed that thought as she had a bigger bone to chew right now. She straightened herself up as if to say the dent on her reputation where the king was concerned was visible enough to crease up her clothes.
“Dear King, I need to talk to you about this morning’s announcement which has left me feeling worse for wear with worry,” Mama Kama groaned. The king realised she was terrified and not acting up as normal. He took her hand and reassured her by saying, “I know you are worried and fearful, but you will find that we all are. But we have the assurance that we will not be consumed by these evil spirits because we have prayer to depend on. We have a higher power we can call upon to deal with those vile creatures.”
“That is what I am worried about. What if the prayer doesn’t work, why do you think praying to someone or something that we don’t even see or know can help us? Mara is an impressionable young girl, what if she just dreamt it all up for attention? It’s not that long ago when she came to the village with post-traumatic stress disorder. How can you believe what she is saying is true?” added Mama Kama with all conviction.
The king responded calmly and said, “There is only one way to find out. We wait and see what happens, but I would rather learn how to pray than find out when the spirits come, it will be too late then. They are coming whether or not we like it and we are sitting ducks no matter how this can be dressed up, but if prayer is going to save us, I would rather take that chance, don’t you?”
With a shaky voice, Mama Kama responded, “That’s why I am here. I have got a plan that might save us. We can dig a big tunnel underneath the palace and use it as a hiding place for when they come. The palace is very strong as it’s built of stone, surely it can protect us, they won’t find us there.”
The king shouted, "That’s foolish, twaddle woman, can’t you see that you cannot stop spirits from entering any place they want to? They are spirits not human beings.
“If they can live in the cracks of mountains then what is a tunnel? After all, they might come tomorrow or next week, what time will we get to build this tunnel of yours, they might even come in the night while we sleep and if we live in the tunnel when will we know they have come and gone, what will we do for food and sanitation? Obviously, you haven’t thought it through have you?”
By this time, the queen had heard the king shouting and came out stunned at the conversation that was going on. Mama Kama was in floods of tears and repeatedly saying, “Well, I don’t know, do I, I just wanted to help,” and kept on weeping bitterly. The king realising he had said too much, just walked off to the bedroom for a quiet moment.
Leona and the queen took Mama Kama to the kitchen far away from the king’s earshot. They sat her down and comforted her until she had stopped sobbing. The queen made her another cup of tea as the one she was offered earlier had gone cold. She had barely touched it.
“I really was trying to help, dear queen, I didn’t mean to upset the king. I am just so very scared for everyone’s lives,” Mama Kama said with teary eyes.
The queen said, “Shhhh, hush now, we cannot undo what is done, I know you were trying to help. I will speak to the king when he has calmed down. I am sure he didn’t mean to upset you.”
“Whatever are we going to do when these spirits come?” Mama Kama said helplessly.
“Ooh, Mama Kama, we have no other option except to pray and if you have not started, you better start right now because you never know when they will come. I am not trying to scare you but I would rather scare you than allow you to risk being consumed by those evil spirits!” said the queen with all seriousness.
Mama Kama said, “Well, I really didn’t buy into this as I remember Mara not being a stable child in the past and thought that she might have made it all up for attention.”
“No way, she cannot make something like this up. I know her and grew very fond of her. She is over her nightmares now
