SOLOMON'S BRIDGE {Part I}

SOLOMON *9*

Solomon! I said, look at me!

Solomon looked at his father, and watched as his father did a strange air dance with his hands, you are my favourite, he said, you are the chosen one, he chanted repeatedly, now receive the eyes of the water spirits! Receive them, Solomon! His father's voice was packed with strength and power; it could instill obedience from the bone marrow, that's how deep and commanding it was! It is true, that many years later, Solomon Effiong of Etoi would occasionally be jerked awake by the sound of his father's voice telling him to "Receive them, Solomon!"

At the tender age of five, he resolved not to go the way of seven brothers before him, siblings he had never even known. He realized that he could not afford to fail. So when his father drew out a gleaming, heavy, long sword from his side, and let it drop, pointing downward, into the sea, he knew he had to get it back. His father barked at him to do so.

He dived into the Atlantic and followed the sword on its gleaming journey down past depths so dark only it's glint was his guide. And when he finally burst out the surface, he wasn't gasping for air. When he swam back into the canoe, pushing the sword toward his father, the man grabbed it, holding it up to the sunlight, examining it, then sheathing it, putting it by his side. The man never said a word, never showed any sign of pleasure or displeasure, he just stared into his little boys eyes, his hands gripping the sides of the canoe tightly. The silence was a clue that they waited for he knew not what; out there, in the ocean. And who would believe such account?

The swelling of the water around them happened suddenly; swiftly, almost one with the silence, for his father held his gaze until, from the corner of his eyes he could see a shadow falling across the canoe. But his father held his gaze, and he was more afraid of looking away than looking at what the water was doing. And who would believe such an account? That the water molded itself to reach into the canoe and whisk away the secret things back into the big blue? Who was he to confide in, a five year old boy, of his great sorrow at his mother's disappearance, and eventual death, after that fateful day? And no time for his childhood to grieve; as his father introduced yet another solemn duty: he was to receive the general's bounty, their monthly sustenance.

This task involved him entering the forbidden hut. The forbidden hut sat beside their living quarters, a very small sort of shanty nobody in the compound dared to enter, except for Solomon's father. Every month he was to take the sacrifice out to sea and retrieve his father's sword from the ocean depths, wait patiently for the water to claim the sacrifice, and then hurry home to the forbidden hut, to accept the general's token. When he entered the hut he would sit on a small footstool as his father instructed and wait for the general to slither out from a large hole in the ground.

Once it was out, it would curl itself into position and begin to teach him a lot of things; philosophy, advanced mathematics, the sciences, particularly manipulations of the genetic code sequence of homo sapiens. The lessons always ended with a lot of hissing sounds, then the magical appearance of a white bowl filled to the brim with gold coins. He would wait for the general to slither back into it's hole before carrying the money to his father. When as a young man he took a wife, he learned the hard way that his life was not for such things as soul mates. She was his soul mate, and very obedient. But she was no match for the general.

The horrific circumstances of her demise is what led to the forceful seizure of his only child, Ifiok, by his in-laws, and his banishment, from Mbiabong Etoi. Ifiok grew up and married, and birthed a son, Edem, who grew up and fathered a boy, Effiong, out of wedlock. Edem later married an efik woman, who birthed him a daughter, Amma. And his great grandson, Effiong, got a wife for himself from Benin, who gave him seven children, out of which only a girl survived an horrific act of revenge. And Amma, his famous great granddaughter, married an irish man, a tall white, and gave birth to a girl...