UYAI ✔️

Uyai (twelve)

The palm wine tapper growled again for the sixth time as he lost again.  Ete Affiong just smirked while pouring himself a cup of palm wine.

"I still don't know how you do it." His friend scowled. "You must be an excellent cheater because no matter how much I look it still looks legit. I can't even notice a thing." He glares at the abandoned game on the mini stool between them.

Ete Affiong chuckled after downing a large gulp of palm wine. He frowned at the taste. It wasn't fresh.
"That's because its legit. What's up with the palm wine" he sniffs the remnant in the cup.

"Can't you tell it's not fresh."

"Yes I can smell that, apart from that, it taste funny." Ete Affiong poured in some into the cup and extended it to him for a taste.

"Indeed?" He took it and sipped a little, savoring the taste. "Chai! My son had finally done it." He cried in exclamation and spits the drink.

"Why? What did he do?" Ete Affiong rushed out, his voice holding an edge of panic.

"He has finally succeeded." He ignored him placing both hands on his head as he moved it to and fro.

"What is it? What did he do?" He was full on panicking. He had leaned forward as he waited for his trembling friend for an answer. His eyes were unseeing as if lost in a far away world.

The palm wine tapper swiveled his head to Ete Affiong and fixed him a look. A desperate one.

Ete Affiong gulped. This was not good.

"We've been poisoned." Was his next word.

"What?" He whispered taken aback. Just like that? He just couldn't believe it. He didn't feel weird. Apart from the weird sensation he felt in his mouth, nothing felt amiss

"My son has poisoned us. Éyen mi ànwod oo " Tears had pooled in his eyes. He resumed shaking.

"With what? What did he put?!" He yelled, Ete Affiong felt tempted to call his wife in case...no! He refuses to think about it.

"He called it preservative..."

"Preservative?" Ete Affiong interrupted, his eyebrows were furrowed. He remembered that, he had once seen something like that with Chief Ifiok.

Ete Affiong exhaled in relief. His stiff shoulders went slumped.

"Yes. He had gotten from a friend who just returned from the city. He had said to put it in the palm wine but I refused knowing it was a type of poison called preservative. I-I never knew he had put it without my knowledge." He sniffed and raised both hands helplessly.

"My friend. It's not poison."

"Its not?" He paused with a frown.

"Yes. Its a preservative."

"I know that. That was the name of the poison." He shot him a stupefied look, still not getting his point.

Ete Affiong sighed and shook his head. Ignorance is a disease.
"Its not poison. A preservative is a chemical which when added to food substances prolongs its usage by preventing it from decaying while still  keeping it fresh."

"Are you sure?" His voice held doubt.

Ete Affiong nodded then frowned. "But why would he put preservatives in a palm wine?"

"I told you it's poison."

"No. Not that." He waved him off. "What I mean is, palm wine itself can naturally be preserved, due to its ability to ferment, when it does, it becomes alcoholic and alcohol is a natural preservative."