mother, and, with love, anxiety. She determined to nurse her child to health, and she put
all her being into it. She was rewarded by occasional spells of health during which
Ezinma bubbled with energy like fresh palm-wine. At such times she seemed beyond
danger. But all of a sudden she would go down again. Everybody knew she was an
ogbanje. These sudden bouts of sickness and health were typical of her kind. But she
had lived so long that perhaps she had decided to stay. Some of them did become tired
of their evil rounds of birth and death, or took pity on their mothers, and stayed. Ekwefi
believed deep inside her that Ezinma had co me to stay. She believed because it was that
faith alone that gave her own life any kind of meaning. And this faith had been
strengthened when a year or so ago a medicine man had dug up Ezinma's iyi-uwa.
Everyone knew then that she would live because her bond with the world of ogbanje
had been broken. Ekwefi was reassured. But such was her anxiety for her daughter that
she could not rid herself completely of her fear. And although she believed that the iyiuwa which had been dug up was genuine, she could not ignore the fact that some really
evil children sometimes misled people into digging up a specious one.
But Ezinma's iyi-uwa had looked real enough. It was a smooth pebble wrapped
in a dirty rag. The man who dug it up was the same Okagbue who was famous in all the
clan for his knowledge in these matters. Ezinma had not wanted to cooperate with him
at first. But that was only to be expected. No ogbanje would yield her secrets easily, and
most of them never did because they died too young - before they could be asked
questions.
"Where did you bury your iyi-uwa?" Okagbue had asked Ezinma. She was nine
then and was just recovering from a serious illness.
"What is iyi-uwa?" she asked in return.
"You know what it is. You buried it in the ground somewhere so that you can
die and return again to torment your mother."
Ezinma looked at her mother, whose eyes, sad and pleading, were fixed on her.