Tussles. Collected Plays: Collected Plays

Scene 4. In Okonkwo’s house

63 Tussles: Collected Plays Scene 4 In Okonkwo’s house (He is sitting alone, brooding. Machete in sheath lies down his side.) Okonkwo (Listlessly) Ike! Ike-e-e! Ike (From backstage) Father! (Comes rushing in) Okonkwo (Languidly) Sit down. Take that stool and sit down….here…by me. (Ikemefuna sits down by him) That’s good. (Places warm hand on Ikemefuna’s back and looks at him affectionately for a while. Ikemefuna also returns loving looks. Okonkwo tries to speak but fails. Removes kola nut from bag and chews noisily. Then looking away). Ike… Ike Father! Okonkwo The wrestling match. Ike Yes Father. The one of two days ago. Okonkwo Yes. Did you see it? Ike Father, who in Umuofia did not? I saw it. Okonkwo And you liked it? Ike Father, I was proud. Happy. Okonkwo It pleases me to hear that. Ike (Looking at him in the eyes). Father, I want to tell you something. 64 Things Fall in Place Okonkwo Yes. Ike I’m proud of you. I want to be like you when I become a man. Okonkwo May that day come, my son. Ike Father, in seven, eight years I will take a wife. I will look for a wife like mama Ebeka. Okonkwo May the gods hear your words, my son. Ike My yamfield will cover many valleys, like yours. I will work day and night, like you. Okonkwo May it all come to pass, my son. Iked (Ever more excitedly) Father, tell me, will I return to Mbaino? Okonkwo (Startled) Mbaino? That’s for the elders to decide. (Silence) Ike! Ike (Looking into his eyes anxiously) Yes father. Okonkwo Tomorrow... (Silence) Ike Tomorrow. Okonkwo Ouf! Never mind. Ike As you please, father. Okonkwo It will come. 65 Tussles: Collected Plays Ike What, father? Okonkwo Tomorrow. Ike Tomorrow will surely come. And after tomorrow too. Okonkwo Tomorrow. Not after tomorrow. Only tomorrow matters. Not after tomorrow. (Visible signs of nervousness) It’s tomorrow I talk about. Ike Father, you are sweating. Okonkwo (Wiping his forehead) Me? No. Oh yes. Ah! Never mind. Go. Your wrestling session. It’s today. Don’t stay away from it. Ike I can go tomorrow, father. Okonkwo (Growing irritated) Today. Go today. Tomorrow? (Exit Ike) Tomorrow…tomorrow… not for you. The gods have willed it so. There will be no tomorrow for you. Even as I speak I see it. Wrestle today. The gods await your spirit tomorrow. One stroke only. Not two. (Moving towards exit) Ransom children never suffer two strokes. Only one. (Owl hooting offstage. Listens.) Too late. They are here. (Enter grim-faced elders clad in black, lips sealed with grass blades. Ikemefuna is in their midst, a pot of palmwine on his head. They stand the lad in the centre and perform a cult dance round him. Suddenly one of them strikes the pot on the boy’s head. As pot shatters to the ground, boy turns to Okonkwo shouting ‘Father! They have killed me!’ Okonkwo cuts him down. Elders dance round the corpse, clanging their machetes, then file out, Okonkwo with them, leaving body alone onstage. Enter Nnadi) 66 Things Fall in Place Nnadi (In a mixture of protest and supplication) Ani! This is your work. Violent death! Innocence murdered! Land defiled! Your name wronged! Tomorrow, yes, tomorrow Okonkwo and his family must flee to his motherland. And we your messengers will come down with punishment on whatever he leaves behind. We shall set fire to his houses, demolish his red walls, kill his animals, destroy his barns. (Pause, then dolefully) A life-time of hard work shall turn to dust. (Crying out). Ani! And you the gods of Umuofia, I ask you: this child lying here, tell me his crime. Was he wrong to cry out Father to the man who fed him? And my own twin children I threw away, what crime did they commit? What crime, those children, hardly born? (Softly). What crime? (Goes down on his knees over the body) Curtain ...