18 Sleeping with one eye open (2/2)

”I don't know what you are talking about child” she then reached for Ego's hands and said in a calm tone

”Come and sit with me child and tell me what happened to you in the forest?”

Ego obeyed by going to sit beside the old lady; she was rubbing her both palms against each other as she recalled the awful incident that transpired that very night. She told her everything, right from when she went out to urinate, to her race in the forest looking for her and Ogologo; how she, the old woman, convinced her to join her in a safe house that turned out to be a place where she was tried and accused by her in-laws and a priest; how she was given poison to drink that almost killed her, how she woke up in a dark box and; how she finally woke up in her hut three days later.

”It must be the fever and the fear from what transpired before I found you in that shallow grave,” the old lady said as she held Ego's hands in consolation.

Now Ego was lost. The whole thing was no longer making any sense. Was she trapped in another nightmare, she wondered. ”What fever? Which grave? What are you talking about?” She asked the old lady as she removed her hands from her grip.

She placed her right hand on Ego's shoulders as she whispered into her ears

”I don't think any of those things really happened to you, the fever was probably messing with your head and mind; making you see and hear things that weren't there”.

”I was not down with any nonsense fever”, she said as she touched her neck with her left palm to check her temperature ”I can still remember everything and it was all real. I was not just hallucinating; I'm certain of what I heard and saw. She shifted away from the old lady to the far end of the bed and buried her face in her palms saying out loud

”Am I going crazy?”

”My child, don't be hard on yourself, you are not going crazy; it was the fever. I can assure you”. The old lady said firmly.

”How can you be so sure and you made mention of a shallow grave” Ego said.

”Yes I did, I found you in it deep in the forest”. The old lady said looking away.

”So I was buried alive in the forest,” She said wondering aloud. ”It must have been those men that placed me there?” she continued in her cerebration.

”Let me just share with you what occurred that night; maybe it will clear the air for you to understand that there is nothing wrong with you”. The old lady said in a weak tone.