by Aluta Nite
Fiction for Adults and the Youth
(A Collection of Short Stories)
Since Life is not all Fun and Games
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
“Fiction for Adults and the Youth,” by Aluta Nite. ISBN 978-1-62137-433-6 (softcover) and ISBN 978-1-62137-434-3 (ebook).
Published 2013 by Virtualbookworm.com Publishing Inc., P.O. Box 9949, College Station, TX 77842, US. 2013, Aluta Nite. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Aluta Nite.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Introduction:
This storybook contains fifty-eight pieces of work. The short stories cover many aspects of human life on diverse angles. The tales depict happenings on various levels of weightiness. There are deep lessons to be taken away from the episodes.
The characters in this book are all fictional and the names are unreal.
Dedicated to:
All Story Lovers of the World
Acknowledgements to:
Baba Tunde
Contents
Sibling Rivalry
Never Settled
Gross Humiliation
Slippery Kulioma
Turmoil in the Neighborhood
Unwelcome Guests
They Called Her Millipede
The First Visit to a Mother in-Law
The Nurse
Unrealistic Culture
Origins of Kale Kaindi
Moses’ Life
Li Farm
Poor Bebora
Simple Elsa
Incompatibility in Action
Scary Results
Another Culture
Assumed Vice
Gerry and Orion
Total Surrender
Bad Influence
Complicated Genya
Peres and Alfreda
Raising Funds
Two Leaders
Barrenness Drama
Poisonous Assumptions
Loveable Dorina
Delusion in Adhina
His Life with a Car
Elitism at Play
Heart Breaking Abandonment
Queenie's Married Life
Child Wives
What is in a Name?
A Mother’s Embarrassment
Old Jacob and Children
Scaring Kids
Berto and his Friend
Fun, Fear and Hurt
Amy and Chale
Wild Wanda
The Village Thief
The Night Runner in a Community
Famine in a Province
A Grandmother
Bad Habits
Kingdoms at Work
Farmers, Warthogs and Porcupines
Generations’ Prosperity
Girl Turned into a Rock
When Laziness Turned to Riches
A Widow and her Children
Why Tortoise Shell is Hard
Man and Domestic Animals
Villagers and their Neighbors
How One Boy Got Injured
The Short Stories
Sibling Rivalry
Awa was born to a business-loving father who did not believe in employment at all. Moreover, his family believed in male children following in the footsteps of their fathers. His father and his uncle who was a younger brother to his father did business together. The two inherited two businesses from his grandfather who in turn had inherited the businesses from his great grandfather.
His father and uncle had limited formal education. Their wives had no formal education at all. Awa had two male siblings, one of whom was his younger brother, Ume and the other was his stepbrother, Uri. His father re-married soon after his mother passed away and that is how he acquired a stepbrother. He was the first-born to his father and just about eight years old when his mother died.
He also had a few female siblings, but they were married far away and therefore had very little to do with Awa in his life. Somehow, Awa was not very comfortable in his father’s house after the passing on of his mother and the arrival of a stepmother. He spent more time at his uncle’s house that was not very far from his home.
His uncle liked him dearly and treated him like one of his own children. The two had excellent rapport and his uncle loved him most because of his good behavior and hard work. He was a perfect example for his cousins to follow since he was older than them. He was focused and did not stray into bad ways despite his young age.
His father was the major shareholder in the businesses he owned with his uncle because of his seniority in age and therefore he had more responsibility to go with his stake in the businesses. To be exact, he held sixty percent of the shares in both businesses while his uncle held forty percent shareholding.
The businesses were worth millions individually. The businesses depended on each other in that one imported raw materials and assessed some locally and then produced what the other sold. The other therefore dealt with marketing and sales.
Both businesses were located in one premise in order to save on many amenities. Both companies owned the land and the buildings thereon, therefore even rent was not an issue. And the land and buildings were all mortgage free.
The manufacturing company bought chassis for buses and trucks and built complete body works ready for sale and use. After the delivery of the buses and trucks to the respective clients, the companies had nothing to do with mechanical repairs apart from bodywork repairs.
The companies did well and made good profits because the two brothers had sound business management acumen and even paid themselves salaries like any other employee to live on and re-invested profits in the businesses and saved some for rainy days.
Later, Awa’s father passed on when the young man was already married and in his early thirties. In his will, he bequeathed his shares to Ume and Uri equally, that is thirty percent each and nothing to Awa as his second wife wished to see happen.
What went through Awa’s mind when this happened can only be known if someone became him at that time so that his heart or mind could tell that someone. He never spoke a word about it. Apparently, he kept his cool and continued with his life like nothing major had taken place in his life.
He went on working with his uncle and two brothers in the businesses and acquiring experience and a lot of knowledge. His brothers too, were married then. His uncle's sons were not involved in the businesses.
Then his uncle passed on when Awa was in his mid-forties and left all his shares to Awa despite the fact that he had his own sons. According to the uncle, he had left other assets that he owned personally to his sons including his money in banks.
What Awa’s father did to him did not go down well with his uncle therefore he decided to do what his brother should have done in the first place. He talked to his own sons before doing it therefore there was no problem from his sons who loved Awa dearly.
This good gesture of his uncle to him; would cause untold problems to Awa later. With both father and uncle gone, Awa and his two siblings were now totally in charge of the two businesses.
His two brothers did not like the idea of Awa having the lion’s share of the companies, yet he did not choose it nor ask for it. They started being nasty to him through jealousy, false accusations, bad mouthing and what have you. The three families lived together in one big house to minimize expenses.
But when Awa saw the changes in his brothers, he feared for the worst. They did not act calmly like him when he had nothing
and they had it all from his father before the uncle died.
In order to avoid the worst, he made changes in living arrangements as the chief executive officer of the companies, due to being the major shareholder. He acquired two new houses in up market areas that he gave his brothers and their families and they moved out.
Then he acquired a smaller house in a middle class area for himself and his family. He rented out the big family house for income for all of them. He then asked his brothers to choose the top range vehicles that they would have liked to drive and he bought the vehicles for them and their families.
He acquired an ordinary vehicle for himself and his family. All the other old vehicles were left for business purposes. This did not even begin to scratch the surface and make the brothers happy. Their wish was to acquire another five percent shares each from Awa so that they could have thirty-five percent shares each or all equally at thirty-three and a third percent each.
Things became serious and worse to the extent that even communication was a big problem in the offices and factory, yet the businesses had to be run. And all their sons were to be incorporated into the businesses. They were not willing to take orders from him or see major decisions made by Awa.
Even dealing with their lawyers and bankers to sign documents at renewal time of overdraft facilities granted to carry on the day to day business while waiting for collection of debts from buyers and payments to their suppliers, was one big headache. Awa had to think harder and come up with further structure to enable the companies flourish.
He therefore decided to divide the businesses so that the brothers could have one and he could have the other. He consulted their banks and attorneys about it with all the details and the banks and attorneys gave him the green light.
He then sat the brothers down and gave them the option of their choosing the company that they preferred to have over the other. They obviously went for the meaty one that did all the manufacturing. Awa had no objection and that is how they went their separate ways.
Awa solidified the other company till it could stand on its own then brought in his two sons who were through with education up to college level to work with him. When he was sure that his sons got the grips of it all, he left them the business and left the region with his wife to settle elsewhere except when he wanted to see his sons and their families. Awa was in his late fifties then.
Never Settled
Geta, a girl child, was the first-born of Kandi and Mich. Kandi was one of the finest fathers ever known. He hardly raised his voice to any of his children. Besides Geta, there were other five children in the home, two other girls and three boys. His children loved him dearly in return for his unconditional love towards them.
He took them to some of the best schools in the region depending on their ability. Those who did not do well in regular schools, he sent to technical colleges or any other institution that they preferred. In other words, he did not dictate to them what to do as a career, but rather what they were interested in and capable of doing that would lead to fulfillment in their future lives.
The family’s life was difficult initially, but with time, Kandi worked hard and made good progress in his place of work and the family moved up the ladder to an up market residential area. The children ate and dressed well all the time.
Although he did not have a car, he kept the family happy and provided fare to all of them. Those who went to boarding schools were dropped at school and collected from school through alternate arrangements.
Geta unfortunately was quite a wild girl. By sixth grade, she already conceived and gave birth to a baby girl who was brought up in the family as one of her siblings. Most of the family acquaintances did not know about this little secret in the family. They thought that Geta’s daughter was the second last born in the family before the last girl.
The age difference between Geta’s daughter, Lynnette and the last girl and child, Ellie, in the family was very small and the two grew up almost like twins. Lynnette was born and soon after Geta’s mother gave birth to Ellie. The difference in age between the two was just months.
After giving birth to Lynnette, Geta went on with school as if nothing had happened except that she changed schools to disguise her little secret. She went on with school and did her final middle school examinations and passed and joined a prestigious boarding school classified as a national school on the onset of her high school education.
Despite her success in school, her wild ways never dimmed, even after having a baby. It is like they became even stronger. She changed boyfriends like dresses. The longest she could have a boyfriend was six months. Sometimes, she had two or several at the same time.
Her life without a boy or a man was never complete. And it looked like any man could do especially the vulnerable ones who could provide a good time. Any day was date day for her if she was not in school.
Eventually, she finished her high school, but due to wasting so much time on pleasure and leisure, she did not work hard enough for her final high school examinations therefore she did not qualify to go to college for further studies.
She settled for nursing which she really liked. By her nature of being soft spoken and kind, it looked like the right career for her in order to treat patients well. She did go for nursing and did one year, but other problems arose when she had two and a half more years to go. Registered nursing course was three and a half years then.
She forgot why she went for the training and concentrated more on male doctors and this brought her down as some of the matrons and sisters could not tolerate her any more as she failed examinations because of divided attention and competing with some of the trainers and bosses for the same male doctors. As a result, she got discontinued.
She therefore had to go back home and start all over on something else. This time, she settled for secretarial training that took her far away out of the city to a polytechnic in another town in boarding facilities. The course was for two years. She did go on with the course, but during the final year, she became pregnant.
She delivered before finishing the course and doing her final examinations, but she had gone far enough to get a job in that career. After delivery, she moved in with the father of her son. They were not officially married though. Her son was called Moni.
Her father helped her secure a secretarial job. The father to her child or her boyfriend called Lolo also had a job. They started their life together very casually, but devoted to the child and each other and it looked like it would last.
Her boyfriend was a man from a different ethnic group and religion from hers and their ways of life were very different too. They both had to spend some time getting to know each other well.
With time, his family became close to her just as hers had become close to him. At one time, her mother in-law went to visit them in the city where they lived and worked when Moni was now one year old. She got the shock of her life from this visit.
One of the things that her mother in-law tried to teach her was how to handle her son in the bedroom. This was very embarrassing to her because to her and her origins, that was a no go zone for a mother in-law. Her mother in-law stayed with them for one month and then went back to her home in another town.
After her mother in-law left, they started having serious problems between the two of them especially those of trust. She claimed that he was cheating on her and he claimed the same. In other words, birds of a feather had at last met or flocked together.
On the other hand, the man like many other people; did not know about Lynnette and Lynnette’s mother never offered to him that little secret. He did meet a friend of Geta’s mother who through gossip revealed to him that Geta had a daughter called Lynnette.
He confronted her with the information and she denied it. Meanwhile, their squabbles over men and women continued. And money issues got added to the quarrels and all went too far to the extent that she packed her things and left their matrimonial home one day. She went back to
her father’s house with Moni.
With time, she felt that she was wrong in moving out and started getting in touch with him wanting to go back. This was six months later. And his response to her was that it was too late because he was already involved with someone else and that someone else was expecting his child and had also moved in with him.
Moni was two years old then. When she moved out, was the last that time that Lolo set his eyes on Moni. Geta later got her own house elsewhere and moved in with Moni. She kept her job as she was bringing up Moni.
Meantime, she still kept in touch with Moni’s father on telephone and sometimes, he popped in at her office. They kept some casual relationships of even going for lunches without involving Moni. He did not contribute anything towards his upbringing though.
Moni meantime, became a spoilt child; wearing and eating only what he wanted. Before long, he was dictating everything to Geta. And while in middle school and in puberty, he got involved in drugs. He started stealing Geta’s best things to sell for drugs. He dropped out of school altogether in junior high school.
Before too long, Geta got involved with a married male neighbor, Dod and he sent his fourth wife away in order to live with Geta, his fifth wife. Dod's last wife went away leaving her children and some of her co-wives’ children with their father. Dod rented a separate house for the children while he remained in his house with Geta and Moni.