NWAEKE RETURNS TO THE WILD

Nwaeke remained firmly wrapped around the old man's arm with her head resting in his hand between his thumb and his forefinger. She kept flicking her forked tongue to check out what was going on around her. A crowd still followed. The noise had not subsided either. There seemed to be a lot of excitement and she felt an occasional quick stroke as the children mustered enough courage to touch her.

Some of the children were trying to find out how easy it would be to get the snake off gramps if they had to. They knew very well that the snake was not venomous, the chances of hurting gramps would only be by constricting him.

"My goodness, it is cold. The snake feels very cold, and it is hard." a voice called out. " I just touched the snake. Come and feel it." The children took turns touching the snake and concluded that getting the snake off gramps would not be so easy. The snake's muscles were firm.

They asked gramps how he would be able to get the snake off his arm, since it was hanging on so firmly. Gramps explained to them that the snake would get off when prompted to do so. His Nnaa had taught him how to handle snakes. He had taught him the features differentiating venomous vipers (Aju ana)from the python (eke). He warned them not to try identifying or touching any snakes, to call an adult, just like they did in this case, whenever they saw a snake.

It took many years for him to learn what he knew about snakes. He could identify different species of snakes. He had learned more about snakes at Agriculture school and had lived and worked as a teacher in remote areas where there were lots of snakes. He learned a lot about venomous snakes from the natives in those days. He even learned how to treat some snake bites. The grandchildren remembered this very well and that was why they ran straight to him when they saw the snake.

The older grandchildren found some of gramp's snake stories very interesting and tried to figure out the science behind some of them. They could not agree on any single theory and decided to do more research when they got back to school.
The crowd filed through the gate leading to the backyard ( azu-uno) and proceeded through the cassava plot. Gramps stopped after crossing the cassava plot, at the edge of the small brush of small trees and shrubs.

Everybody stopped and the chatter stopped. The amateur photographers took their positions and were clicking away, getting good shots of the old man as he positioned to release the snake into the brush.
"Gramps wait, gramps wait", they kept saying. The old man waited patiently, actually posing for them to get good shots.

He had always been very gentle and understanding with his grandchildren. At his age, he still remembered their names, who their parents were, and special things about each of them. In return, they respected and loved him very much for his easygoing ways and understanding. He is so unlike their grandmother who wastes no time spanking them when they deserved it. They loved grandma too, but in a different way. They knew where the boundaries were and never crossed them. Gramps and grandma were so different and each had special things about them that the children loved.

Coming home to Nnewi to celebrate gramp's ninetieth birthday was a big treat. It meant bringing the whole family together for a lot of fun activities with the extended family. Some nights the cousins stayed up late into the morning hours chatting with each other or practicing the dance routine they performed to the crowd at the birthday celebration for gramps. On that particular morning when Nwaeke was found in the chicken coop,some of the youngsters had gone to bed very late. They had practiced Kirk Franklin's Stomp late into the night. They wanted to get it right for the occasion and on the day of the celebration, they did a fantastic job and the crowd loved it very much.

Gramps leaned over and, and gently with his right hand touched nwaeke's head. The snake unravelled from his arm and slowly crawled into the brush. The photographers kept taking pictures until nwaeke's tail disappeared.

" Wow! that was cool," declared the young fellow who had discovered nwaeke partially hidden in the chicken coop. Everybody agreed that it was a very exciting and interesting morning. The story will be shared with friends and family in the years to come. The story of the day gramps removed a python (eke) with his bare hands.

The End.

NEXT :

AKWAEKE: The story of a mother eke who lost one of her eggs and how she found it at the most strange and unlikely place. Stay tuned.