The last days of the war, I was on a mission for AFIA ATTACK and was stalled at Amaokwe Item. My tradesmen goods—salt and cigarettes mostly the Mars brand, Three Rings and Sometime Graven A and Bicycle cigarettes and light foods such as crayfish—I purchased the previous day and sent them on their way home. The day the war ended, federal soldiers commenced from Alayi junction and burnt down every prop­erty of value in sight hence the peo­ple of Item finally ran into the bush where they resided until things cleared up. Their women had been raped and the finest ones taken away by the Nigerian soldiers. The Item people were forced to sing One Nigeria and the song went thus “One nna-a-e one Nigeria.” Some of the forced singers chose to sing in their native tongue thus “Go-nna-e go Nigeria, Oko-m Eke kpu-ya mkpukpu ala...one go Nigeria.”
     On this trip, I had taken a few of my best men to market including Ekeoma Otu. My mother, sensing danger for her Nwa-olu (last child) had kept vigil until my return. She sat still on the track road through which I normally go to market. My brothers had gone to serve in the Biafran Army so I, although only 13, was the only male left to maintain our family including my mother, my sisters, my brother’s wife, my nieces and aunts including Iya-m Mary and Martha, my mothers sisters along with their sister Iya m Ochonga who was a hunch-back lady of might. Since I was stalled in Item, I had to brave the dangerous and perilous tide of the lone track road to return to my mother. It was on that trip that I encountered the federal soldiers and the okpoo snake, a deadly African snake with red and black marks. I was traveling back on our latest track road when suddenly, I ran into a com­pany of Nigerian soldiers being led and shown the trail by an Item man under the gun. This route we had recently discovered as a result of a recent assault on our boys who had travelled on one of our safest tracks. When the Nigerian soldiers discov­ered that track, they lay ambush and killed a few of our boys so we found another track and continued the Afia Attack.
     They were about half a pole when I sighted them; I made a fast U-turn and ran. Knowing the road very well saved my life. I came to a point where a big tree trunk fell across the road. We had bored a hole under­neath the tree trunk ground for secu­rity and easy passage so I threw my cigarettes above the fallen tree trunk, my salt bag I shoved underneath through the bored hole under the trunk; I dare not lose it, for many peo­ple required it as they  were suffering from kwashoka and would surely die a painful death without it.    Anyway, this action served to stall the Nigerian soldiers when they got to that point. A few yards from the tree trunk about eight yards to the right inside the bush to the left was an anthill which we as hunting children had scavenged hunt­ing porcupines during the earlier days of the war. Into the anthill which was slightly fresh with dwelling ants, I ran in.
     Behold, there was an okpoo snake. The snake poised alert to strike, but I lay still looking the snake dead cold in the eyes, also poised to strike if the snake dared. Meanwhile, the federal soldiers couldn't find me so they passed on with their frustration. The snake which had held me there frozen in its stare finally gave up and exited through one of the holes of the ant-hill leaving me alone.  It is only in retro­spect that I realize how the snake that held me spellbound probably kept me from leaving the safety of the anthill prematurely and meeting certain death at the hands of the soldiers.      
     After what seemed to have been eternity, I recovered sufficiently to get out of the danger zone. It must have been about thirty minutes later when I crossed the track road and headed back to Item to recommence the long jour­ney back to my mother who was still waiting on the trail, bless her heart. ....to be continued