Fiction for Adults and the Youth

by Aluta Nite

  When Jei was at home doing his blacksmith work, his children and children from around the village were always at his furnace chatting happily with him and among themselves without any fights or quarrels because he would not allow it. Holiday times were very happy occasions for other children especially boys because they spent a lot of time with Jei and learned a lot from him that even their own parents and other relatives could not teach them as was expected.

  Other children simply adored him. It was easier for them to listen to him and obey him because he too respected them and treated them very well. He gave children fruits and nuts to eat and when it was time to reduce the tails of the young female sheep, he roasted the meat for them to eat as well. He also informed them of when honey would be harvested and they went in droves on the particular evenings to eat honey.

  Honey was only harvested in the early night when it was cool and the bees were a bit blind to reduce chances of being bitten. The present gear for handling bees was not available then. And during harvesting season, he also roasted corn for them that they really enjoyed.

  He told the boys tales and parables and challenged them in many ways like giving them quizzes, work skills, wrestling, boxing and many other practical lessons. He came down to their level and allowed them to call him Jei instead of some respectable title for a man of his age. This endeared them greatly to him and they shouted his name whenever they saw him anywhere and run to him just to say hello.

  When he died, the home was full of children. Even the village school closed in his honor on the burial day as many children wanted to be present at his burial. They were allowed to walk passed his coffin to pay their last respects and many of them were very miserable and cried loudly.

  Unfortunately, the shoes he left behind were too big for anyone in the village to fill therefore there was no one to take over his honorable mantle. But, some of the boys swore to follow into his footsteps in their adulthood so that his good examples could be passed on to the next generations.

  Scaring Kids

  In every village, there were certain characters with something about them that scared life out of children. The communities capitalized on such people and situations and created monsters out of such people and the characters became the figures to make children do as they were told or to stop crying unnecessarily.

  In one such village, there was a short man nicknamed Small because he was very tiny. He was more or less like a dwarf. Despite his height, he was very stout and strong to the extent of doing what even some average size or big men could not do. He also knew how to make faces that reminded toddlers and even older children of Halloween characters. He also knew how to roar like a lion and jump and run fast.

  His job was roaming around the villages while peddling odd things. He peddled old bottles that he picked from dumpsters in the small towns nearby and cleaned them thoroughly; old clothes from second hand wholesalers and old newspapers from the rich people in towns.

  Ordinary people bought the bottles to use for medication when they went to the dispensaries for cough syrups and ointments. The old clothes were cheaper than buying new ones and old newspapers were for wrapping food and anything else that small traders were selling by the roadside, in the markets, shopping centers or kiosks.

  Sighting him was the worst thing that could happen to a child and none wanted to be caught doing something bad or crying without a reason. Mothers therefore told their children repeatedly that they would call Small to deal with them whenever their children were misbehaving or being a nuisance. And truly whenever he appeared, all kids became dead quiet and acted orderly.

  He always asked for the naughty or disobedient children so that he could taunt them a little to the mothers’ delight. Mothers’ burdens became lighter when he was around since he did the disciplining on wrong doers. He became so famous that even a bad deed done by a child after he had passed by would still be reported to him the next day for action.

  Some children who saw him coming from far used to run and hide under the beds, behind doors, bathrooms and anywhere else where they would not be seen or found. The unlucky ones were caught red handed and dealt with, with such vigor that they cried uncontrollably while begging for mercy and forgiveness.

  He would tell them that he was a cannibal and was capable of eating them alive and then move towards them as if he was ready to claw one to pieces while roaring like a lion. He would roll his big eyes and children would scream in a very scary manner and run to the nearest adult who would do anything to evade rescuing them in order for the lesson to be learned.

  Another such person was the chief of one of the locations who was extremely tall with a long beard and a turban on his head. Being an administrator, he was used to shouting and waving his walking stick as if he would strike anybody anytime. Parents therefore also took advantage of his stature and demeanor to scare badness out of children whenever he appeared.

  He used to threaten kids that he would jail them for days without seeing their parents, food, sleep or time to play. Children believed this seriously therefore ran for dear life whenever he was spotted. And the fact that he had two administrative policemen in uniform with him every time, really enforced the thought that he would actually arrest them.

  Some parents also scared wits out of their children by telling them that the few mentally ill or dirty looking men and women in the market places and shopping centers would go and take them away. These were crazy men and women who did not have the capacity to think about having baths or changing clothes because they were sick, a little off or completely off.

  They walked around talking to themselves and to objects; eating from rubbish heaps and sometimes begging for food. Kids therefore avoided such people at any cost whether their parents were with them or not because the sheer look of the dirt on the bodies, clothes and hair frightened kids; add the threat from parents and the goal was easily achieved.

  Children who made their beds wet at night were also made scared by being told that snakes would be tied on their hips and they would have to spend the nights with snakes on their hips. This was a killer scare that made some children not sleep properly at night for fear of wetting the beds and having snakes around their hips. Some begged their siblings to wake them up so that they could go to the bathroom at night.

  The funny thing is that, these children grew up to adolescence and teenage and realized the adult machinations and instead of stopping the acts on their younger siblings and other children, they perpetuated them by making the issues worse and the fears greater.

  Berto and his Friend

  A ten-year old boy called Berto was living in the city with his dad and older and younger siblings. He had several friends some of whom were schoolmates, classmates and neighbors. They were his playmates as well. They kicked balls together and played other games in their free time at school and at home.

  He was a clean boy with smooth skin, clean-shaven head and smart looking every time while most of his friends were rough in their looks and dressing with unkempt hair and what have you. He was soft spoken, smiled shyly and rarely raised his voice or shouted. Some of his friends were loud and ready to fight any time.

  This quiet and humble boy got mad one day and the sky turned black instead of azure blue. He was ready to chew somebody. As they were playing football, one of his friends called Lomon, stepped on him on his right shoe and he complained because of the pain he felt. Instead of apologizing to him, Lomon laughed and called him ‘baby face’.

  This released so much anger out of him that any of his friends saw coming or had ever seen before. They were at the school play grounds after afternoon classes, during games time, therefore he was still in school uniform. He became so agitated; he was going to have a first big fight with Lomon. But, before doing so, he rushed home to change into home clothes while fuming and crying before the fight.

  He had one pair of uniform and he did not wish to make it dirty or have it get torn. He knew and understood his parents’ financi
al situation and he did not wish to make it worse. One of his older sisters saw him in fury and asked him why he was so annoyed.

  And he told her while crying, “Lomon called me ‘baby face’ after stepping on me painfully on my right foot. And, he didn’t apologize. He laughed instead. I’m going to get an apology from him or else there’s going to be a bad fight.”

  To his sister, baby face meant that he was young and good-looking like a baby, but to him he was being called a small kid not worth being treated otherwise. To him the name was demeaning. He changed quickly and dashed out of the house. Before his sister could stop him, he was gone. Even his sister was bewildered at the degree of his anger.

  She had never seen him like that since his birth. Their father was still at work. Their mother was at the family farm in the countryside. One hour ended and there was no Berto in sight, yet he had homework to do, dinner was about ready and the next day was a school day. She therefore decided to go and look for him.

  She found Berto fighting with Lomon right at Lomon's doorstep a mile away from his own home. There were many children who had gathered to watch this strange fight between unsuspected fighter and Lomon right at the doorstep.

  His other friends told her that he had been pushing Lomon demanding apology right from outside the school gate all the way to where they were at that time. When he realized that Lomon was not going to apologize to him, he decided to make it his first fight ever. Lomon could run away from him when he got the chance and he would follow Lomon and catch up with him and push him again and again.

  His aim was to teach Lomon a lesson so that Lomon and the other boys dared not belittle him again or try anything silly on him. His other friends were equally shocked because they did not know that he had such bad fury, guts and strength in him.

  They added that he would not let them stop the fight because he was ready to fight them too and they did not wish to fight with him because they liked him. The funniest thing about it is that he was fighting with all his might and crying and talking at the same time.

  It was the tears and talks that added energy and stamina in him. But, what he was saying was not clear at all because the crying and the punching drowned it. It was all systems go with kicks, boxing, slapping, wrestling and anything else that could be thrown in the mix.

  His sister struggled with him for so long before she could break him loose from Lomon. She took him home while he was still crying and talking in rage. He was so dirty by then because it had rained a little. He had to take a bath immediately before anything else. That is the day that the family really got to know who he was.

  No other young boy his size ever made fun of him again. Word went round and they all just wanted to be friends as before.

  One man’s meat is really another man's poison because maybe, many people would have taken that name calling as a good compliment to mean that they were young and handsome.

  He never fought someone again to adulthood. He is now a young father and a husband. He still keeps his cool and orderliness.

  Fun, Fear and Hurt

  In all fairness to all children of the world, growing up era could be the best part of any child’s life apart from falling sick every now and then, being brought up in a broken family where there is no peace, but endless chaos, where there is dire poverty with nobody knowing where the next meal will come from or cases of child labor and enslavement.

  This was the best part of Esther's life. She had nothing to worry about because somebody somewhere was fully in charge of her in all ways. She ate. She slept. She played. She went to school. She had a roof over her head and clothing. She did all regardless of what day of the week or what type of weather or who was around.

  The atmosphere was free, comfortable and fun so long as she followed the basic rules like do not steal; do not use foul language, lie, swear; respected others; ran assigned errands and more.

  But in the course of that freedom she sometimes went overboard and hurt herself by being stupid, assuming too much or just testing the waters here and there.

  One perfect example is when she would go to the big guava tree and look for a suitable branch for a swing. And with a rope on hand she climbed the tree and tied the rope on the chosen branch and then got down and started swinging while sitting on the rope.

  The rope on its own was too rough and cut into or hurt her thin backside therefore she would make the sitting place a bit comfortable by padding it with heaps of old clothing. It definitely felt a bit comfortable, after which, she swung herself so much that even when she was summoned home, she would buy time before going.

  One thing that she overlooked perennially is the strength and sustainability of the ropes she used. The ropes were always the old discarded leashes of the larger cattle at home and could not be used on the fully grown cattle anymore because such cattle had proven to be too strong for them over elongated period of use and the wear and tear had taken its toll. To her eyes and mind, the ropes looked usable, but they were not really okay.

  In a child’s eyes, they were perfect despite warnings from those who knew better. Instant gratification mattered more than what could be or happen.

  As the saying goes that everything with a beginning has an end, so was the life of the ropes. Sometimes, that end came very quickly, but sometimes it took a little longer. While in the process of swinging, pushing one of her younger siblings or two of them together, the ropes would give way at the branch level, in between or at the sitting area.

  The falling used to be loud, painful and full of bruises some of which were pretty bad cuts as the ground below was full of dry sticks, gravel, thorns, rough grass and soil all together. In fact, if the ropes got cut from the top, the friction of the ropes on the branches was heard much earlier because the ropes were actually warning her as they scraped the branches.

  But, she chose to ignore that all the same. If it was her who fell and got hurt, she could not scream however painful because she asked for it. She sat down, wept quietly and suffered quietly till the pain subsided before she could go to the house. But, if it was one of her siblings, then she was really in hot soup.

  Her sibling screamed and there was very little she could do to help her or him ease the pain and she was also scared of going with her or him to the house for fear of being spanked for causing the whole ordeal despite warnings.

  Sometimes, her chosen branch of the tree gave way and fell due to the constant disturbances of swinging and also because of swinging while carrying one of her younger siblings on her lap and thus adding weight on the function of the branch and rope. This type of fall was worse than that of the rope cutting or an individual falling, due to the weight of two bodies and the branch breaking and going down along with the bodies.

  The funny part of it is that the wounds healed and she went back to the unreliable swings again and again and that hurt history repeated itself over and over.

  Another foolish thing she used to do was to roll on the grass despite knowing the consequences. She was born with a strange allergy. Having grass or leaves touch her exposed arms, legs or any part of her bare body caused itchiness, scratching and rashes.

  She used to suffer a lot during harvesting time because she had to go to the garden with a basket to carry the harvested crops that could be corn, millet or beans and the going and coming back involved walking along narrow paths with grass lashing her legs, feet, arms and sometimes neck and face.

  And on the way to the stream or spring to fetch water or to look for firewood in the bush, the growth on the wayside touched her on all sorts of manner and that caused a lot of itching, scratching and swelling.

  But, at least in the three scenarios of water, firewood and harvesting, she was helping with family chores; therefore there was meaning to the suffering. And moreover, she was not alone as all members of her family plus hired helpers were involved in the chores. And it was good because she was being taught responsibility.

  But when she caused the itchiness, scratching and s
welling for no reason by rolling on the grass as her playmates did because she did not want to be left out then she was really being a very big fool. In which case, it would not only be the limbs, neck and face but the whole body, as she was not wearing trousers but a gathered, pleated or round dress or skirt.

  And to add insult to injury, she had to bathe and water really accelerated the irritation. This is when she actually had to resort to crying because she did not have enough hands to scratch the whole body at the same time and that is what her body was calling for.

  Nobody was sympathetic, as they all laughed at the fool who caused it all to herself while knowing the consequences. The itching and scratching stopped and she did it again and again without any qualms. Realization was only there during the suffering.