by Aluta Nite
Geta did have a child with him, a girl called Ibrie. They continued to live together and she also continued seeing other men. One of these other men was her boss in the office where she worked. Her life was full of casual and uncaring relationships and to her that was love. The relationships lacked depth and commitment.
Unfortunately, she became sick and could not relieve herself of fecal matter often enough. She could take a week or two to produce something very small after a lot of struggle with tears coming out and she would have stayed in the bathroom with a newspaper or magazine to read or a small radio to listen to for a long time.
As a result, she became puffed up around her torso or trunk and she was diagnosed with colon cancer that dragged on for several years with two operations. Eventually, it became too much for her weak body and she passed on one Friday night. The nurses on duty that night reported her dying while calling the name Moni repeatedly till she was no more.
Moni on the other hand could not take in the death of her mother and in a span of a few hours, he tore one of his mother’s best dresses by shredding it with his fingers till it was no longer a dress while asking aloud as to where he would go after his mother’s burial because he did not know his father or where and how to get him. His stepfather was never close to him.
His mother died fearing for his future and she did not know what next because she knew that nobody could live with him or tolerate his behavior a part from maybe his father who he did not know and had no relationship with.
He was now twenty years old. He had no job and never finished high school. His father did not appear at the funeral nor look for him. Ibrie’s father did not bother with him after his mother's burial and it is his maternal uncles who took him under their wings. They tried getting in touch with his father, but he was unwilling to get involved in his life.
During one of Geta’s last working years, she was in her office with Moni and his father as usual paid her a visit. That was the opportune time for her to introduce them so that they could maybe see to themselves whether they wanted to carry on from there, but she let that chance slip away.
Gross Humiliation
Barth, supposedly second born in a family of seven children was born in the city where his parents lived during the colonial days in an African housing setting specifically designed so to promote segregation among different races that were Europeans, Asians and Africans. The first-born was a girl.
His supposedly father was a worker in the production industry where he earned meager pay to take care of his large family. His mother was a prison warder in a women's prison in the city also earning very limited wages.
Barth was a tall boy with a lot of hair on his head and showed signs of being a huge fellow in his later years like that of a bouncer. He was a charming boy who was very likeable by many people because he was polite, pleasant and sociable. He was never rowdy. He was also very handsome.
As he grew up into teenage and adulthood, he kept his good composure and good mannerisms. He retained his coolness and calmness totally. He did not drink or take drugs in his youth despite the fact that many of his age mates and older around him did so.
He also liked keeping to himself and doing things on his own without intruding into other people’s affairs or deeds. But if someone approached him for help or a chat, he was there for the person fully.
But, he had one big weakness. He did not like school curriculum of academics and cramming. He did not like it because he found it difficult to comprehend many academic concepts and issues. He went to school because his parents wanted him to, but in the real sense, he was just escorting other pupils and students to school.
He felt that he was not gaining much by going for that type of schooling. He was bottom of the class every school term with the lowest marks possible. His teachers, fellow pupils and students liked him very much because of his good behavior and cooperation though. He craved working with his hands instead.
Eventually, he told his father that he felt that he did not wish to continue with that type of schooling anymore because he was not making any headway. That was at the end of middle school when he sat for his final examinations and flopped badly. He went a step further and told his father that he wanted to do something technically oriented.
Apparently, he was very good with his hands in doing repairs, renovations, improvising and figuring out how to solve problems of technical nature. His father told him that he was too young to leave school and encouraged him to continue with school up to the end of high school and get his leaving school certificate then he would assist him fulfill his dream.
Barth as a result struggled with high school for another four years. He was lucky to have such a father who was willing to pay his tuition without seeing good results. His father promised to take him to the polytechnic for two years after high school to learn a trade. He was happy with that and that motivated him and made him push on with school.
Before he realized, four years were over and he joined the polytechnic as soon as he got his high school leaving certificate that was a prerequisite to joining any polytechnic.
He was very happy with this deal because what mattered now were his handling tools, equipment, machinery and instructions. Even if he failed theory, he always passed practical examinations with flying colors.
He worked hard and graduated in the industrial sector and joined his father in the same company. He worked very hard in this company and the owners liked him very much because of his candidness. The owners were foreigners.
After this is when he started drinking but moderately. One Sunday, mid-morning he had a bet with someone he visited about how much he could or could not drink of the hard stuff and the fellow challenged him to the bet. There was a whole bottle of whisky on the table in his challenger's house and he said that he could finish it all quickly and still get up and walk to his home comfortably.
His challenger knew that he could not because he was very new to alcohol and moreover it was mid- morning and he had not eaten any chunks of meat or chicken or fish a part from some light breakfast. He took one glass quickly and asked for the second one. He finished it quickly and asked for the third one which he could not finish.
This was in a span of just about one hour with a lot of talking going on as well. Before long he said that he could not go on, but he was leaving right away for his home. He was told to rest for a little while because it was like he was already seeing stars.
He insisted on going and he was let go. By the time he reached the gate of that home, he was swinging. By the time he crossed the side walk and stepped on to the road, he needed something to hold on to. He therefore reached back for the gate and held on to it. He then collapsed there.
He was carried back to the house with a lot of difficulty because he was hefty and completely motionless. It took a lot of doing to get him to the house and on to a bed. The challenger and two women sweated really hard to accomplish that job. Even from the bed, he was slipping and dropping down to the floor over and over.
Luckily, it was a Sunday and he was off duty. He lied limp in bed with his mouth forming and groaning loudly like a lion. He was breathing though. He did not wake up till Monday lunchtime, twenty-four hours after the incident.
Although, he woke up, he could not walk because he was mighty dizzy and confused. He ate a little for the first time since Sunday morning and then vomited seriously. His host called his place of work early in the morning to report his absence due to ill health without mentioning the drinking issue.
He could not leave that house till Tuesday evening to report to work on Wednesday morning. He had lost quite some weight and he had a mighty headache. At least he could now walk steadily and eat. Anyway, he recovered fully and that became history.
As a result of that experience, he did the honorable thing and quit drinking completely. With time, he got married and had two children who were both girls.
Then later, his father fell sick and died after several months. Wh
en his father died is when he saw what he did not expect. Those making funeral arrangements told him that he was not the first son to his father therefore he could not perform his father’s burial rites.
Apparently, he was not his father’s biological son but a stepson because his mother played games in marriage and conceived with someone else and still remained his father’s wife. He was therefore brought up in this household like the first son, yet he was not. His biological father was well known in the neighborhood.
He too apparently, knew who his father was because other children in the neighborhood used to tease him about it. And when it came to looks, there was no doubt about who his father was because the alleged father looked exactly like him and had two other sons who also looked exactly like Barth.
In fact, if someone would see him with his biological father’s two sons or the biological father, that someone would wonder as to what he was doing in that other family’s home.
He did step aside and let the fourth born, a boy, take the mantle of the first son because the third born was also a girl. The fourth born was out of the region at the time of the death and he had to be waited for to arrive back before anything could proceed.
Barth acted quite sober about everything until ‘his dear father’ was buried. And this is why the first and second paragraphs of the story used the word ‘supposedly’.
The sad part of this story is that nobody in the family faced him and told him the truth about himself despite his supposedly father loving him unconditionally. He had to be bullied outside the home for him to go and inquire about the truth of the teasing is when someone owned up to the truth.
Maybe, if someone owned up to the truth to him early enough in his life, he might have wished to approach his biological father and see if he could fit in the other family instead of being a burden to the supposedly father.
Somebody who was an adult made a mistake and it would have been proper to let him know something on the onset so that he could make a choice. Maybe his biological father too would have liked to have him in his house, but his hands were tied in that Barth was born in another man’s home and for the sake of peace, he chose to keep silent.
Slippery Kulioma
Kulioma was born to the fifth wife of his father in a small town. He was the first born to his father and mother. He therefore had several older siblings from his father’s first four wives. He also had four younger siblings from his father and mother.
Being the first born in his mother’s house, he was expected to pave the way for his younger siblings as the societal rules dictated, but it was never to be so because he chose other avenues of life that were not congruent with expectations.
His father being old and frail did not put enough effort in Kulioma's upbringing as he did with his older children.
His mother too did not play her part as expected because to her, his father being soft with him was a sign that he was loved especially because of the fact that she was the youngest wife. The other young children thus just followed in the footsteps of their older sibling.
Kulioma went to school properly, thanks to his older siblings who sacrificed parts of their salaries to pay for his education along with his younger siblings in the name of helping their father and younger siblings.
Kulioma went on with formal education up to high school level and passed his final examinations, but not well enough and got his high school certificate. He then declared that he wanted to do advanced level certificate that was then a two-year course. In his case, he wanted to do it as a private candidate while studying on his own at home or wherever.
Not to forget to mention that he was not called for admission directly to an advanced level school because he did not score the required grades to be guaranteed that. To do this, he needed the examination registration fees that had to be paid nine months in advance before the examinations would begin.
He managed to convince one of his older siblings to pay the necessary amount for him arguing that he did not wish to go through formal schooling system again by repeating the last class of high school; that would have given him a chance to assure his doing better round two for better qualification to be called for advanced level studies.
This particular sibling decided to go along with the idea because he did not wish to be blamed later for not assisting him in time of crucial need especially on something that could enhance his career and progress in life.
Sadly enough, Kulioma never paid the examination fees since he could not produce the receipt when requested to do so and he never studied at home in preparation for the examinations either. What he did with the money nobody got to know. Around the examinations time, he was miles away enjoying himself with his friends.
When he felt that the dust on the issue had settled, he returned home. After that, he got a job and this first job was with the public service. He was assigned to the personnel department where salaries were prepared, paid and petty cash handled.
He was sent for training in the city with other recruits miles away from his home province where the job was based while being paid some allowance. After the training, he went back home and was on the job full time with full pay.
He commuted from home every day to work and back home. That made his life pretty cheap and easy because he did not have to pay rent or utility bills. He only paid for his transport to and fro and lunch.
Despite all that luck, he saved nothing and squandered all that he earned just like that. What he did with the money is not known. He worked here for two years and then got sacked because he stole money from the till.
He thus became jobless at a very early age in this career. If he could not stay and work in the public sector then there was no hope elsewhere because it was very uncommon to get someone sacked from public sector jobs however sloppy or lazy they were.
Next, he got someone he knew who he convinced to network for him in public transport business for a job as a cashier, the job he knew well. That someone succeeded and he was called for a job in the city in that capacity. The company he now worked for; transported passengers to and fro between two cities day and night.
He did the job for six months and stole money again. The employer, without any success looked for him endlessly and gave up. Meantime, he was lying low in his hometown.
After that, he traveled to the city again for an interview with a confectionery cum bakery outfit for an interview for a job. He passed the interview and was offered a job on the outskirts of the city or suburbs where he was also given accommodation.
One of his older siblings in the city helped him with a few house items to help him settle on the job quickly and make him a bit more comfortable in the initial stages before he could buy his own personal effects. He worked for about two months and absconded from the job because it was not in the city center where his other relatives were.
He went back home and stayed for a while doing nothing. Then he found out that one of his previous bosses whom he got on very well with at the public service job had been transferred to an upcountry town. He got in touch with him and then followed him there. He stayed there for one year without going home or getting in touch with anybody.
His parents got wind of where he was but worried as to his safety and wellbeing and started collecting money to give one of his cousins to go and look for him in the town where he was.
The supposedly messenger to be told them, “Just collect money and give it to me for my own use because I cannot waste my time going to look for someone whose wild ways are well known to all of us. I will not go. I will take the money and put it to good use right here at home.”
And he added, “Kulioma is not a child to begin with, and secondly, scarce resources are being wasted in trying to locate him for what?”
When his parents heard this, they then started getting in touch with one of his older siblings who lived and worked in another town halfway between their home and where Kulioma was supposed to be. They pressurized this sibling through te
lephone calls and word of mouth via people commuting to this sibling’s residential and work town to go and look for Kulioma in the further on town.
After getting too much disturbance from the messages, this sibling decided to give it a try by not going but calling the institution where Kulioma’s former boss was supposed to be working. The first call he made yielded no results as the former boss he was looking for was not around.
The second call he made was successful as he found the former boss.
And after relating to the former boss his reason for calling, the former boss told him,
“I wonder as to why they are worried about a full-grown man who is in his house with his wife.”