I think I was born with my doubts! But too much exposure to Taju may have staked up some tendencies to maturity;a feeling,was it a quest for unity with oneself? Intense as the feelings incised upon my lost mind,there was this sticking obstinance not to give in to the charlatans of Joda.
With sunken-eyes,sun-darkened skin,a storey-tall maze of bushy smelly hair fast forming ponytails,you could mistake Taju for a madman. There was always a swamp of flies buzzing about him as he moved about his kingdom. He would sit beneath the shade of a large neem tree,muttering his banter of incantations that made no sense,sometimes,rambling into some unfathomable rave of some sort about a plot of land taken away by Audu. There was no particular drift to his harangue;it was always many things jammed together.
There was a heap of disused tires,made to support his zinc-made hut,old rotten bowls scattered across the vicinity of his kingdom. Taju had a refutation for taking long swoop after obstinate children throwing stones at him. It so happened one day that my best friend,Aminu,the most headstrong of us all,so ran out of luck and Taju caught up with him…God! He had the bashing of his life.
I always laughed to a cry whenever I remember that rather unfortunate encounter. I was not at the scene,but from what I heard,Aminu had fainted and slumped into a long comma that many thought he would not make it after he was rescued. For the rest of the day,we sat cross-legged by his hospital bed sobbing,palms supporting our jaws like some mourners bereaving over a departed loved one.
Taju could be violent sometimes,but with me,he was always different….
To be continued….
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