Rami couldn’t help but notice that he hadn’t sounded drunk during most of their conversation. He sounded normal in a way that she had never witnessed since she met him. In fact, she had never thought that he was capable of making normal conversations like this.
“So you think the time he bought has elapsed and he needs to send another blood sacrifice?” Lilian asked just to confirm.
“Exactly,” Peter answered. “I believe that he came back into your sister’s life because he needed a blood sacrifice and he didn’t want to sacrifice any of his sons. It is easier for him to sacrifice a daughter he didn’t raise than the sons he pampered all their lives.”
It sounded cruel, but it was the ugly truth.
“That is the most sinister thing I’ve ever heard,” Lilian said.
“I told you, he’s the devil!” Peter exclaimed.
“So how do we get my sister back? Is it possible for her to escape? How do we know that she’s still there?”
He deflated. “I am not completely sure that she’s still there and hasn’t been sacrificed yet, but I know my brother’s hands are dirty. It is too suspicious that this happened the way it did just as time was elapsing for him to bring another sacrifice. And Nokalu doesn’t take dead bodies. He had to have taken her physically. I know that your sister was buried, but it was a closed casket so I am very sure that he tricked everybody somehow. I tried to look into the casket, you know.”
“You did?” Rami asked. This was news to her.
“Yes. The night before your sister was buried. Hormeku had people guarding the casket and they threw me out.”
“Of course they did,” Lillian muttered.
She looked at Rami. At this point, maybe they could share what they knew with him. There was no way that they would be able to rescue Aba without his help. And he had been very transparent so far, sharing dark secrets that they would have otherwise never uncovered, which would be key to their rescue mission. Rami was having similar thoughts, so she told Peter, “We know that Aba is still alive because she called me two days ago.”
For the first time since he arrived, Peter was the one who was shocked. “She called you?”
“Yes, and asked me to find her. One of the clues she gave led me to you.”
Rami narrated what she remembered from the phone call, and Lllian also recounted her dreams.
“This means that she’s still alive and can still be taken back from Nokalu before the time elapses. I was there for three months, but I didn’t have access to a phone. I don’t know what the conditions are for her. Also, I honestly don’t know how we can go and rescue her. One does not just go to Nokalu and demand the return of a sacrifice.”
The girls deflated. They hadn’t thought about what rescuing Aba would look like. Even if they managed to get inside, how would they ask of her? Who would they go to? And if they denied Aba’s presence at the shrine, they could hardly insist.
“I don’t know how we can get her back, but I know who does,” Peter added, regaining their attention. “The herbal doctor who helped me the last time. She is the one who told me to drink water when I feel the urge to drink. It is difficult to follow her advice on my own when I am not at her place. In all the years I have been a drunk, this is the first time I have spoken coherently for so long.”
“Maybe you will get better after all of this ordeal is over,” Rami encouraged sympathetically.
“How do we see your herbalist? Where is she?” Lillian asked.
Peter fidgeted. “She’s in my village in the Volta Region.”
When the girls exchanged nervous glances, he added quickly, “I know it’s a little far from here, but she’s the only person I know who can help. She already knows the situation, so we wouldn’t be telling her much she doesn’t already know. And since Nokalu is also in the Volta Region, we can go straight there afterwards, depending on how things go.”
“Okay, okay. How will we do this? Time is running,” Rami asked rhetorically, her mind racing.
“It is too late to set off now and be able to meet her. If we set off now, we will arrive after 7pm, and she closes her herbal place at 5pm. We can leave Accra at dawn tomorrow morning,” Peter suggested. “That way, hopefully, we can do everything in a day and return to Accra.”
Rami was conflicted. It sounded like a great plan — once they figured out their means of transportation. But she didn’t know if she could trust Peter to be this coherent and sober at 5am tomorrow morning. What if this new disposition was a fluke and they aren’t able to get him like this again? They could hardly go blind without a guide.”
“How will we meet?” Lillian asked, distracting Rami from her musings.
“I can meet you somewhere along the way to avoid detection,” he offered. “My brother can’t know that we suspect anything.”
“Will you be like this again tomorrow? We need you like this,” Rami told him pleadingly. “The Uncle Peter I have known until now can’t help me find Aba. How can we ensure that you hold off from drinking until tomorrow?”
Peter frowned worriedly. He hadn’t thought of that. And to be honest, this was the longest he had gone without a single sip in ten years. He tried to remember the tips Dr Soglo had given him — tips that he had failed to successfully apply for long periods. But this was important, and he was determined to help bring the young lady back home. He didn’t know what would become of him if Hormeku failed to send the new sacrifice, but even if it led to his demise, at least he would have done something meaningful with his life. The past ten years of his life would not be so useless.
“I will eat heavily and then take some sleeping pills and go to bed. A phone call will wake me up, so you can call me at 4am so that I can ready myself and meet you at Madina Bus Stop. There’s a Bus Driver next door who loads his bus from our junction to Madina at 4:30 every morning. I will give him my fare this evening so that he knows that I am serious about going with him. He is a kind boy. He will even wake me up if I oversleep.”
The girls were slightly reassured but still worried. But they had no choice. They could hardly keep him with them without raising any suspicions, and there was nobody else they knew who was open-minded enough to listen to their tale and offer help. In the end, they had to depend on the dubious sobriety of the family drunkard.
Rami ordered another ride to take Peter home with stops along the way to pick up the sleeping pills from the nearest pharmacy and two packs of food from Trudy’s for him to take home.
After they had sent him on his way, the girls hugged each other. Even though they had started this knowing that whatever they were going to discover would be crazy, this was far beyond anything they had ever expected. But now there was some concrete hope that they would find Aba. Tomorrow was going to be surreal.
