Fiction for Adults and the Youth

by Aluta Nite

  Another time, just before lunch, one middle aged lady neighbor decided to confront Rina's mother in-law because the path to the shop and to the water point passed by the old lady's house and the middle aged lady passed there like ten or more times a day and nobody offered to tell her who the visitors were. She had to be introduced rather coldly after the confrontation.

  Later in the afternoon, Rina's mother in-law told her that both of them would go and give condolences to another old lady relative of hers half a mile away due to the loss of her husband a week earlier. Rina asked her mother in-law what they were taking with them to the widow and she told her that they would give her money, but not out of Rina’s pocket.

  In other words, her mother in-law had to provide her with special money to dole out. Rina again did not understand the underlying factors, but never asked why.

  At the end of the visit, the high school girl took them after breakfast back to town to the second sister in-law’s place via the first sister in-law’s house near where she stayed with her aunt. Those were the instructions from her mother, as they departed. She took them first to her aunt’s house for about five minutes before taking them to the oldest sister’s house.

  Her mother further instructed that her first daughter had to make lunch for them before they could leave for town at around three in the afternoon. Her mother was aware that her second daughter would not be home to give the visitors lunch as she was attending a wedding. They had lunch and then left for town.

  Rina's fourth sister in-law then left them there with the second sister in-law’s female in-law and the house helps and rushed out to her aunt’s place. Luckily, the second sister in-law was not going to be around along with her child and husband until the next day therefore there was no more drama as on the first day.

  Late morning the next day, they went to visit Rina’s third sister in-law who also lived in town, but in a different location. They stayed with her as she made lunch for her large family, ate with her and then left for the second sister in-law’s house again where they spent the second night before departure the next day, Monday again for the city.

  The Nurse

  Alice was a beloved wife of Jule. She was a nurse treating people with venereal diseases at a city council clinic, a job she loved and did to the best of her abilities every day over the years except weekends, public holidays and when she was on vacation.

  She had first class attitude and stopped to greet all that she knew and when one visited her at her home, one was treated with great care and happiness. There was always food and tea or coffee and good conversation.

  She was the type of lady any child would have liked to have as a mother. Unfortunately, she was not blessed with any child. Somehow Jule too, was an honest man who was true to his wife and marriage and never got involved with concubines or secret lovers in order to have a child.

  Both loved children, but they were confined to their limits, as their nature would have it. They appeared happy and were seen together at functions without any mishaps or pretenses.

  As they reached their forties and realized that they were aging and it was becoming impossible for them to have their own biological children, after many trials and medication; Alice had a heart to heart talk with Jule on this very difficult subject.

  She proposed to him an idea of her bringing a young woman known to her in their back country home area who would bring forth children for both of them. At first, he found it difficult to swallow or comprehend how that would be possible, but with her insistence, he bought the idea and they put it into practice.

  The young woman would conceive, carry the pregnancies, give birth and then leave the babies for Alice and Jule to bring forth. Meanwhile, the young woman would be like the nanny or helper in the house while the two were at work. In the evenings, nights, weekends and vacation time, Alice and Jule would totally be in charge of the children.

  They would all eat together and provide the young woman with the things that she needed in her life like clothing, food, pocket money, bedding and many more, but she would not be employed elsewhere because she was totally a nanny.

  This plan went on very well and four children were born, grew up and went to school, finished high school and got jobs. Meantime, Alice and Jule retired and went to live in the countryside at their small piece of land where they had put up a house and did subsistence farming.

  They were now in their sixties. The children were in the city while working, but not yet married. There were three boys and one girl. Their biological mother was in the city with them.

  They all used to go to the countryside every so often to spend time with Alice and Jule and all had happy occasions together however short.

  Jule got very sick and after some time, passed on. When Jule passed on, they all went and gave him a very decent burial and went back to the city.

  But once Jule passed on, the wind started blowing haywire. The visits reduced and eventually stopped.

  It was like Alice was non-existent and nobody really cared about her whether she was sick or not. Eventually, she also became very sick and passed on. Nobody lifted a finger in giving her a decent burial. She was buried without a coffin because there was nobody to pay for it.

  Unrealistic Culture

  Slesa was a young and beautiful young woman. When she was through with high school, she entered a secretarial college to study office management. She was a first-born in a large family of nine children from one father and one mother.

  Though the family was large, the children were close to each other and the family was a very happy together. Their father was the sole bread winner as their mother stayed home to take care of the young ones and house chores every day.

  The family stayed in the city in company housing rented out to their father by his employer. All the children of school going age went to school every day without fail as their parents fully believed in educating their children up to where their brains would take them.

  Unfortunately, the wishes that her parents had for them would not materialize because as man plans his life, God also plans for him otherwise. Just as Slesa finished college and started working for the government of the day, her father started becoming sickly.

  Slesa worked for the government for two years then realized that her pay was too little for her to achieve anything meaningful. Moreover, she wished to help her parents who had sacrificed so much to put her through school and college.

  She therefore decided to look for another job in the private sector with better pay in her career of choice. She managed to get a job in a commercial bank in the same city therefore she continued to live with her family. Meanwhile, her father’s sickness was getting worse.

  In a year’s time from the time that she changed jobs, her father passed on. A dark cloud, suddenly and quickly hang over her family leaving them devastated and desperate.

  Her family had no say as to where her father would be buried because the culture of the tribe took over as dictated by her clan's men and women from her countryside home area and those in the city. Whether her family had lived in that home area or not was immaterial.

  Apparently, none of the children had lived in that countryside home a part from occasional short visits and none was born there. Some of the younger children had never even gone to that countryside home. They were all being brought up in the city where they went to school and had friends.

  Some of the relatives that they did not even know came forward claiming that they had to all go home and bury their father there and possibly stay there henceforth. And to demonstrate this, the clan members packed all the household goods of her family and sent them home in a big truck on the day that the family left for home with the casket carrying her father.

  Slesa and her mother and even her siblings had no say in all this because they were not allowed to as tradition was speaking for them and not themselves. The house was left completely empty as if it was deserted for the company to take back and give to someone else.r />
  All this was in disregard to the fact that her siblings were in school in the city and Slesa worked in the city. Her family swallowed hard and went along with the pronouncements and headed home to bury their beloved father and husband.

  After the burial, the whole family defied all odds and headed back to the city to pick up the pieces of their lives and start anew without their father. Miserably, they went back to a cold and empty house with Slesa as the sole breadwinner.

  The questions then were: who were the beds, sofas, tables, chairs, crockery and everything else taken home to? What were the children going to use? How was their mother or Slesa going to acquire new items?

  The stuff was needed in the city and not in the countryside where her family did not reside. How insulting to their minds! This was adding pain to their already miserable situation of losing a beloved father, husband and breadwinner.

  Her father’s employer gave them three months of continued occupation of the house while looking for alternate accommodation after which they had to move out to where they did not know. Sad as it was, they were happy to have the chance to re-organize themselves within the period given.

  The needs were overwhelming to her and her mother. Her mother had to start doing what she had never done before – look for some part time employment and also start some little business of buying and selling small items just to try and make ends meet.

  A few good Samaritans from the neighborhood chipped in and gave them a few important things like a table and two chairs where children could sit and do homework in turns after school. Someone gave them a few kitchen stuff to enable them start cooking.

  They had to do with sitting on mats on the floor and also sleep on the same mats without mattresses. That is what they could afford to buy immediately. The hardest part was tuition; fare to and from school, books, uniform, home clothes and medical care.

  The so-called clan members who put them into this mess coughed nothing to help them nor visited them to find out how they were doing. They were on their own.

  Although her father had land in the countryside which could be put to use to produce food or cattle and poultry for milk, meat, and eggs, the children were still young and needed nothing more than their mother around while they went to school in the environment that they were used to and happy in.

  After three months, the family moved out to a smaller rented property and this strained finances even further because this was a new phenomenon in their lives. They struggled on day in day out over the years and some of the children had to leave school earlier than they would have liked so that they could chip in the struggle to make ends.

  Some time went by and a few of Slesa’s siblings who were out of school started working. She stopped putting her life on hold and got married to her sweet heart of some time and started her own family. Her husband understood her predicament and did not stop her from assisting her mother in her endeavors to make ends meet.

  She met a good man who despite knowing her hardships was ready to join hands with her in marriage and help her in chipping in to lighten her mother’s burden.

  Origins of Kale Kaindi

  Ram, a husband and a father of several children of both sexes, was in his early sixties. After retiring from his job in the city, he and his wife decided to buy land and put up a farmhouse in the city suburbs by the beach. Their aim was to sell farm produce to the beach hotels and eat the rest.

  This was a very promising venture for him because his wife of over fifty years old loved working on the land and producing food for the family and for sale. And with this new idea, they would both be at the farm doing what they both wished to enjoy doing for the rest of their lives.

  All their children were grownups, working and living in the city and some of them were married with young kids.

  Ram did acquire the land desired and put up a big bungalow as the farmhouse and family home on the land. He moved to the farm with his dear wife of many years. They put up drip irrigation system on the land to enable them produce vegetables and fruits all the year round and kept some poultry.

  Life was good and the farm was green all the year round with all sorts of food crops like pumpkins and squashes of many types, French beans, English garden peas, maize, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, capsicum, cucumbers, zucchinis, pawpaw and passion fruit tendrils climbing everywhere including the structures and trees on the farm.

  Mango, coconut, cashew nut and citrus plants were still young but coming up nicely. The only places where there were no crops were the narrow paths where people walked and the track where their vehicles run to and fro connecting the gate, the main house and garage.

  They had a big poultry coup with layers that gave them eggs for home consumption and sale. They collected eggs every day from the coup.

  Twice every month, over the weekends, that is Friday evenings or early Saturday mornings, they were houseful because their children visited with their grandkids and stayed till Sunday evenings or early Monday mornings. There was a lot of laughter, singing and merry making with kids running around while playing.

  In the home with them, were three male farm helpers and a house girl. Two of the male helpers stayed with them in the compound in their quarters at the back of the main house because the chicken work was demanding even at night. The third one worked daytime and went away so did the house girl who did the cleaning and washing in the main house.

  The house girl lived by the main road about thirty minutes’ walk from the farm. She reported every morning and went away every evening except when she was off duty that was sometimes over the weekends and sometimes on weekdays.

  Apparently, she was not just coming to work only because she had another agenda. She had an eye for Ram and after some time, openly showed it to Ram’s wife, a humble and hardworking lady who was totally unassuming.

  She was called Fato. She started becoming very rude and disobedient to Ram’s wife. At first, Ram’s wife just thought that it was her nature to behave that way when her moods were off. Before too long, she found out that Fato knew her husband as much as her because Fato quoted to her what she did not expect any other woman to know.

  It ate her up and she asked him and he denied it. Being so unsettled about it, she told her children who also confronted their father and he again denied it. Fato was thirty years old and a single mother of two children, a boy and a girl who were staying with her mother elsewhere.

  To find out the truth and confirm the worst, Ram was followed one day by one of his sons when Fato was off duty. He was seen entering her house and caught red handed coming out of her house after staying in there for a span of three hours.

  When he was confronted this time, he rudely remarked that Fato was his concubine and that there was nothing one could do about it. After that, he started going there openly and even spending nights there. Meantime, she stopped going to work.

  Ram’s wife really felt betrayed. The big and happy family became quarrelsome and miserable. The children reduced their visits to the farm to once monthly. Their mother got depressed and became sickly.

  Before long she was dead. The children stopped going to the farm completely after her death. Fato moved in with Ram and the two stayed at the farm. She went a step further and brought her son and daughter to stay there with her while going to school around there.

  Before long, she conceived and had a son with Ram. Her older children nicknamed their half sibling, Kale Kaindi because Ram was oriental and Fato was black. The farm on the other hand started changing with the death of Ram’s wife because farm work was not something that Fato could touch. She was too beautiful, clean and delicate to touch a trowel, hoe, machete or bend for hours.

  Before too long, even the male farm helpers were not keen to work there because Fato did not treat them as well as the old lady. Within one year, the farm was becoming a desert and going back to how it was before it was started.

  The land eventually became completely barren. Ram became sick and one
of his children took him to the city to take care of him. Eventually, he too passed on. The children abandoned the farm because they did not wish to have anything to do with Fato.

  She lived at the farm for a while with her kids while prostituting at the beach. When things became too tough for her financially she started tearing down the buildings and selling the wood, stones, roofing materials and anything else that could be bought.

  When there was nothing else to sell, she took her kids back to her mother and went to a small town nearby to prostitute on daily basis. She became sick and was diagnosed with hiv/ aids but that did not deter her from prostituting

  Moses’ Life

  Moses worked as an accountant in public service for many years. Due to the sensitive nature of his job, handling finances, he was being transferred often to avoid his getting familiar with issues at one station and the temptation of starting to shortchange his employer.