PRIVATE
ENCOUNTER The day is dying gradually as the sun abates its
smile. The night is knocking to come and take its place on the face of the earth, but Tunde, unparturbed by the change of barton in the sky, quietly sat on the veranda of their three bedroom apartment filled with fear and uncertainty. Dreading deep down, the coming of the night. During his 19th birthday anniversary, six months ago, he never imagined he will be ending his teenage days in this very way, maybe he is even on his way out of the world already. Because events in the last six months have changed the perception of life in this young adult's head. As he sat transfixed with terror on that armless chair, he just can't get his mind off the heculian task that lay ahead of him. He raised his head and goggled the hitherto bright and sunny atmosphere put on looks of ebony and his mind raced back to the beggining. The beggining of what he is about putting an end to, or rather that is about putting an end to him... Just like any other night, Tunde had taken his dinner quietly in his room on the day he arrived back at school after a four day home visit to celebrate his birthday, he peacefully await the powerful sleep to come and take him to the ever captivating dream land. Gradually as expected, he dozed off and went into a deep sound sleep with the hope as always to wake up a bright and energetic young man. But as it will occur what transpired that night was to torment him for a long time to come. Suddenly in the middle of his sleep, Tunde became conscious of something, a bodily presence...an unwanted one for that matter and he felt the need to urgently return to planet earth-to his bed where the feelimg emanated. As he was walking back to life, he immediately felt a touch, then a grip and then an explossion of a powerful ammunition with an effect that rocketed his entire body. From the region of the legs the explossion travelled through his body with so much alacrity that it paralysed him immediately to the extent of not being able to open his eyes talkless of raising his finger or turning on his sides. It consumed the whole of him so powerfully that the only assurances of life for Tunde was the continious vibration of his whole self, the hammering of his teeth, the heavy and frightening throbbing of his heart and the obvious threat of the very life going out of him in few seconds. He wanted to open his mouth and scream for help but he was already made dumb by the process and thus he had to resort to silent praying for return to normalcy. After about five minutes of the dreadful
encounter he was gradually and systematically released from the strange captor. And then he opened his eyes,slowly and steadily regained his voice, his hitherto paralysed body seemingly regained its strenght and agility and then he gently and quietly helped himself out of the bed to assure himself that he is still a living being. He looked at the wall to his left and screened the wall clock,he didn't even turn off the light, it was 3:00am. Tunde spent the rest of the dark dawn awake,wondering what in the name of every thing had happened to him, such that when the day finally broke free of the gripping night most of it was spent ruminating over the event of the past night. He was so obviously disturbed that his hallmate questioned him. Kunle had asked his ever active fellow, jokingly. "Tunde, what's cooking?" The "nothing" that followed hardly left his lips. Worried by the uncharacteristic answer, the concerned neighbour asked again "paddy, is everything okay?" Like the snail and its ever alert tentacles, Tunde ignored Kunle, withdrew into his room and locked himself in it. The following night was such that came with fear and dreadftation of a similar encounter. But that was not to be for the following four months. And Tunde thought he has overcame the scare afterall, since he still remained his old self. Looking back, he wished he had done something back then. For the past two months have been the most terrible for him. The encounter have not only returned, it had since turned an almost daily affair and more fiercely. And he became convinced in himself that what or whoever this is , is after his life and he is close to getting it. Thus he felt, though against his ill arrived naivety, it is time he came to the glare. So he returned home from school to intimate his parents about the life threating development. His parents grew mad when the news exploded in their brains, reprimanding him heavily for coming out so late. And they are even at a loss as to what to do to such spiritual cataclysm. His father had described it as a spiritual encounter which defies ordinary solution, but his mother won't stop rebuking the 'disaster'. Thus a direction is urgently needed from a notable and powerful Alfa who is versed in matters of the spiritual world. The family, being a muslim one hitherto had no trouble getting a strong muslim spiritualist. In the even that followed Alfa Maliki was consulted and after much consultation and prayers he disclossed that: "An evil
spirit has been sent to this boy, to collect something from him and not to end his life. Something very vital to the fulfilment of his destiny. His 'Heavenly ordained talent'. Due to the weight of the task, the spirit had decided to use a gradual and steady sap method." And then Alfa Maliki had added "They want the sun to set before rising, their plan is to collect the pen from the writer when his sheet is still blank and hijack a hungry man's food before he had a taste of it. They want to permanently sieze the boy's God given gift before he brings it to bear. But you are here and they have a foiled situation on their hands. Insha Allah we will defeat them." Alfa Maliki then schooled them through the process they will each undergo as parents and as the concerned. The process will span a whole week. A thunderous clap in the sky knocked Tunde back to life. He looked up into the sky and saw a black boring sky robbed of the brilliant stars by the gathering cloud. And he felt tonight won't be easy. His instinct told him that it should be around 8:30pm. It's been a week since the battle began and they have fought it as outlined by Alfa Maliki. Various verses of the Quran have been recited thousands of times, the continious use of spirit threatening Turari and numerous Nafilats had gone into it. Tonight he will observe the final Tawajud during which,as he was told, he may physically and privately encounter this spirit , in the concluding leg of the battle. "Brazen up to the challange and follow the guideline" were the Alfa's words. Knowing well, what to do at midnight, he stood up and went straight into the house and in to the kitchen. He will have his dinner and the countdown will begin. Tonight, weakly stood a falling wall of jericho separating him from his destiny fulfilment. As he started with his dinner, he was certain of one thing...VICTORY, victory, victory will be his.