She had married five husbands. Each time, no child came, and this always made her husbands send her away. The villagers mocked her. They called her a witch. The shame broke her completely.
With nowhere left to go, Aduke chose the forest.
That day, as she gathered wood to build a small hut in the forest, she unknowingly picked up a strange stick called Kuduku. This stick was a strange spirit. She packed it together with the other sticks she had gathered.
That night, inside the small hut she built, she cried.
“God, even one child. Just one.”
She didn’t know something terrible was listening to her.
The stick heard everything.
The following morning, as Aduke woke up and stepped outside her hut, she froze.
Right in front of her stood a strange tree that had not been there before. The tree looked fresh, almost alive, and on one of its branches there was something.
It was a baby.
A small baby wrapped carefully in green leaves.
Aduke’s heart almost stopped. She slowly moved closer. The baby was alive, breathing, quiet.
Suddenly, the tree began to shake violently before her eyes. Then something unbelievable happened.
An old woman came out of the tree.
The old woman’s body looked thin and dry, almost like wood. She looked like part of the forest itself.
Aduke was shaking with fear.
The old woman spoke.
“My name is Kuduku. I heard your cry last night,” she said in a dry, deep voice. “You asked God for a child. I will give you this child,” the old woman continued, “but on one condition.”
Aduke swallowed hard.
