When he called her the following morning, it was to tell her to get ready for the visit to alayewo. The rest of the story was not unfamiliar to Taye.

When they first approached him, the reaction of the eighty – year old medicine – man was to refuse to attend to Taye and Malomo, telling them pointedly to return to their new – found healer. Husband and wife were themselves not unprepared for this. They were aware that the oldman had full information regarding their reluctance to come to him, regarding their decision to leave matters of their son's health in the hands of Ajani. In any case, Moyosore was well over five years as at the time they reported to him for the first time. Even if he had not received any prior information, the question would still have arisen as regards who they had been visiting. Rather than put up any argument then, they simply pleaded for the old man's forgiveness. He accepted their plea in the end but not before reminding the two young parents of their own health histories. In particular, Taye was taken through the story of the big sacrifice for the umpteenth time and he was asked to confirm from his parents how it happened that he was sent to school. Malomo was also reminded of the profound troubles she took her parents through, how she often returned from the same school with acute pains and it was his medicine that cured her of the illness. All these he did, as he told them finally, thirty - twenty five years before when he was much younger and therefore less experienced. Since then, he had achieved many more of such feats, and even a few others that were much more astounding. He did not fail to cite examples.

They thanked him and he proceeded with his diagnosis. Having consulted the oracle, he reported that it was the same abiku spirit that had haunted both parents in their childhoods that had now taken possession of Malomo's womb. Special rites would have to be performed to expel it once and for all. In his own case, what Moyosore needed were rites of exorcism. Once this was done, his health problems would simply disappear. The rituals were not as expensive as Malomo and Taye had feared, and they were both happy that they carried them out. They resolved to continue to consult the man regularly, even as they made up their minds never to abandon the conventional hospital. What they wanted was for Moyosore to remain in good health, how they achieved it was not of particular importance.

It somehow happened that for two years after his parents' visit to alayewo, Moyosore never took ill even once. He never even had malaria. At age six, he started school. It turned out that he had inherited his parents' prodigious intellects. And for over one year, he went to school and returned without any complaint. People did not allow this to go unremarked about. They pointed out the difference between the boy's condition when his parents consulted only the modern healers and his current condition. They reminded the parents of their initial reluctance to visit the old man and pointed it out how difficult it had been persuading Taye and Malomo to take the steps. Though they themselves noticed the improvement in their boy's condition and felt really relieved about it, the young couple did not, on their own, talk much about the development. It was as if an open discussion of the situation would engender a reversal. They probably were really afraid since, as it would seem, the rituals carried out in specific relation to Malomo had not worked. Or, rather, and to put it a little more appropriately, what it had done was to effectively seal up the young woman's womb. This was to the extent that throughout the same two – year period, she had not missed her period even once. Which was unusual. But the old man continued to assure them that there was no cause to worry, that the couple needed to exercise just a little patience, that Malomo would give birth again and again. When the matter was mentioned to him, Ajani told them, on his part, that the woman might need to undergo a comprehensive medical investigation adding that it might be necessary to refer them to the bigger hospital in the city for the tests. The couple received this suggestion without much enthusiasm and part of the reason was not unconnected with what the financial implication of the investigation might be. They decided to continue to hope on God and on the old man. In any case, they still had Moyosore and he was doing well.

Two months into his ninth year and the boy went down. It was a major crisis which caused the parents much distress. To them, it was a clear indication that the problem was not yet over, that Moyosore might afterall not be a sure hope. To most of the rest of the community however, it was not really a big issue. The medicine man had been at it for too long. He would not allow Moyosore to introduce a blot into what otherwise had been an immaculate career. The old man himself assured the parents that they needed not to worry. It was the same abiku spirit that was expelled two and a half years before that was trying to return, it was trying to re-possess the boy. Since he, the old man, was now in charge, it would not be possible for him to re-gain entry. Well, Moyosore recovered after two long months, and after he had succeeded in shaking his parents faith in everything and everybody around them, after he had created a permanent feeling of anxiety in them. While still on his sick bed, the school session wound up to a close. Moyosore could not participate in the promotions examinations that were written in the last two weeks of the term. He had no choice but to repeat the class.

The boy did not even try to douse his parents' anxieties after this – he fell ill regularly. And, one night, just two weeks before his tenth birthday, he gave up the efforts to live. Neither Malomo nor Taye could cope with the reality when eventually they were confronted with it. The future held no respite, as they saw it. They were terribly shattered and terribly devastated.

Dr. Ajani thought he should pay Moyosore's parents a condolence visit on hearing of the boy's death but neither the husband nor the wife could give him any real attention. They were in intense agonies. On their own, the men preparing the corpse for burial simply thought they should not allow the doctor to waste their time. They deliberately snubbed him, displaying their absolute impatience for the rubbish he continued to mutter, attributing Moyosore's persistent illness to sickle cell anaemia. Utter nonsense. Taye came out as the one among them holding the knife brought it down on the boy's forehead, making a deep cut. He watched quietly as the man did the same thing on each of the boy's two thighs. Taye saw that each time he made the cut, he warned the boy in a grave voice never to return to the world of the living if he knew he was not ready to become part of them. Otherwise, and if he would not stop running, as the man added, Moyosore should expect further brutalising treatment when next he visited. The boy's father could not help but wince in pain as the middle toe in his son's right foot was ripped off and flung into the fire burning gently beside the men. Then, as he saw the rest of the body wrapped up and dumped into the shallow grave, something told him that he might need to give Ajani's words another thought.