Fiction for Adults and the Youth

by Aluta Nite

  Another morning, he was late in leaving his house and he took the same long route. This time, it had rained at night and it was still drizzling slightly. Again, he was not fast. The roads were wet and slippery. Just as he was approaching town to drop his wife, he lost control and the car landed on the island in the middle of the road. The car was not damaged. He just steered it on to the road and continued on.

  One other morning, he was early as most of the times and he took the direct and short route from his house to town. It was another rainy day. Again, he was not fast. As he took the last leg into town via one of the city the stadiums, his car turned to the right and went in circles however hard he struggled with it to move forwards it would not obey. He swirled three to four times in the same manner till he came to a stop on the left.

  Someone who witnessed him go through this ordeal and understood what was going on, came to his aid. This place had had bad spills of oil several times and with rain, it was an area awaiting disasters to happen. Luckily for him, there were no on coming vehicles or following him closely as it was very early.

  This Good Samaritan steered him out of this place and advised him to go home and recover before attempting to drive further to town or work. This was because, although he had no injuries, his head was deluded and could not function properly due to the disorientation.

  He drove home slowly and stayed there for two days while feeling strange and confused before he could resume driving and work. And later, he learned that several motorists had the same ordeal at the same spot on the same day.

  One evening after picking his wife from work and heading home, he was involved in another ordeal. After negotiating the first roundabout from town and joining the highway, someone banged his car from behind.

  The banging was so bad that the whole boot door almost disappeared inside somewhere. He narrowly missed hitting the car in front of him. He and the culprit exchanged particulars and information and he drove the car straight to the garage and left it there. The driver who hit him paid for the repairs.

  Luckily, while still talking to the culprit, one of his neighbors saw him on the road and stopped. He agreed to follow him to the garage and gave him a lift to his house.

  Finally, he was off duty one Tuesday morning in the course of the week while his wife had to go to work. He dropped her at the parking by the court house just behind her place of work and headed to the post office to check mail before heading back home. On his return after fifteen minutes, there was no car where he left it.

  He got confused and looked around to even places he did not reach before parking and there was no car anywhere. He then proceeded to his wife's place of work to find out if she knew what could have happened to the car.

  She could see that he was confused and she told him, “If the car is not where you parked it when I was still with you then it means that it has been stolen. Go and report to the police.”

  He went to the nearest police station and reported. The car was found very far on Thursday evening minus the most vital parts of the engine.

  Elitism at Play

  Education, hierarchy and class gave birth to a different life from the norm. One academic giant called Sawa was born in the early days when many people did not appreciate formal education. His parents were thoughtful enough to send him to acquire this strange thing called academics while his village still slept as far as this phenomenon was concerned.

  He went to school near and far from home and proved his worth to the highest level on this endeavor with bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees and several other credentials. As a result, he got plum jobs locally and overseas that propelled him very far in life socially and economically. He became a consult in several areas of life and his services were sought by his region and faraway lands often.

  After working for many years abroad, he returned back home and settled in the city with several consultancy jobs in tow both locally and abroad. He could travel to any part of the world at short notices with tickets paid for and accommodation provided plus mighty allowances. He was now married with young children.

  His financial situation was so good that he managed to invest in residential and commercial real estate, land, a range of vehicles and fat bank accounts. He lived large to the extent that his wife did not need to work because he could afford much more than his family needed. His children were in expensive private schools studying under foreign syllabuses. He had several house helps: cook, ayah, laundry man, errand boy, two drivers, day and night-watchmen.

  He was so occupied in his upscale life and work that he hardly even had time to commute back country to visit his folks and place of birth. He was intending to go there one day, but he was not yet ready to. Due to eagerness of his parents to see their successful son, they one day made a surprise journey to the city to see their beloved son.

  Luckily, he was around. An acquaintance escorted his parents to his house early one morning after their arrival by public bus. At his gate, the day watchman had to alert the main house before allowing them into the big compound. The watchman was told to take them to the outer house and wait there for further instructions.

  After some time, the laundry man was instructed to go with a flit pump full of vermin killing medicine to the outer house and spray them with the medicine to kill any parasites that they could have on themselves. He did just that then he directed them to have showers in the bathroom next door and change to clean clothes before heading to the main house.

  After that, they were taken to the main house without their luggage. In other words, they were now clean enough as not to infect anybody in the main house with anything bad.

  They were met at the main door with dry hellos without handshakes or hugs. They were made to sit on the two chairs nearest to the door. They felt cold and unwelcome in their own son's house.

  Their grandchildren were not introduced to them nor were they free to touch the grandchildren who they could see walking around from afar. Breakfast and other meals were served to them separately on the dining table at the verandah. There was also no meaningful conversation between them and their son and daughter in-law.

  They spent the night in the same outer house and the next day very early, they were given tickets to go back where they came from with instructions not to go back to the city without an alert from the son. Whatever food they carried with them for their son's family never reached their son's kitchen. Maybe, it was used to feed the dogs if at all.

  On their return home, Sawa's father could not fathom what happened to him and his wife at their son's house. Thoughts overwhelmed him and the results were sad. He committed suicide using a rope in his own house a few days after their return from the city.

  Of course Sawa got to know about the death and what could have caused it therefore he decided not to attend the funeral. He also knew that word went round and he would be scorned if he dared to go. He remained in the city. And that was the end of him and his countryside home area. His children never got to know where their roots were.

  Heart Breaking Abandonment

  Born in a broken family of three siblings and no parents was very difficult for little Rosalia, Juliana and Rob. At an early age of less than ten years old for all the three children, their parents parted ways and the three children were separated and each went to live in separate locations with a grandma, an aunt and an uncle all on their father's side.

  Their mother remarried while their father got lost in his stupor of excess drinking. None of the parents remembered the girls and boy wherever in their fun or sorrow otherwise they would have paid them visits and provided them with whatever small they had.

  All the three children grew up extremely bitter with their parents. Their guardians or care givers kept them consoled and took them to school and they each managed to finish high school despite lack of tuition every now and then.

  The three siblings met every now and then during school holidays with the consultations of their guardians. Despite the dis
tances in residential areas, they showered each other with lots of love whenever they met and cried in each other’s arms at the thought of what could have been if they were together as a family.

  Unfortunately, none of the children visited their parents wherever they were because their parents did not show them love or care for them to reciprocate. Their care givers noticed this and kept them safely with them where they got love and care.

  Unfortunately, human beings forget that children do not remain children forever as with passage of time, they grow and mature into adulthood. In fact with absences or lack of contact, children appear to grow even faster.

  Before too long, all the three children were through with high school and they were in middle colleges doing nursing, secretarial and insurance. After two to three and a half years stints at the courses, all of them got jobs and were settled each in his or her own apartment with friends or alone.

  They all turned out to be responsible and independent individuals. And this is the time that their mother through some dubious sources learned and realized that she had left some children somewhere who were now adults and productive.

  One Monday morning, she went to look for Rosalia at her place of work. Whatever problems she had with her second family, she wanted to share with Rosalia. The receptionist alerted Rosalia of her mother's arrival and Rosalia did not hide her anger and disgust.

  She matched straight where her mother was and without greetings or hugs, asked her, “And where have you been all this time? Why now? You mean to tell me that you did not know that any of us existed till now? Do you even know what we have gone through all these years? You do not deserve to be here. I do not want you in my life. Please leave and never come back.”

  Her mother looked haggard and unkempt and in dire need of help. But Rosalia's colleagues did not feel bad about her behavior because home is where a child is happiest however poor the conditions or circumstances. She abandoned her children for another man and family.

  Someone else could have reacted differently but she was justified in her situation and at that juncture, it was not easy for her to act differently as she had to grow up without a mother who was not dead but alive and negligent.

  After getting this type of treatment from Rosalia who was the second born, she dared not call on Juliana or Rob. She went back where she came from, back country. And even when Rosalia or her sister got married, none of them notified her because they did not want her in their lives or in the lives of their children. Not that they cared much for their father, but they acknowledged the fact that all their guardians were their father's close relatives even if he was not in their lives.

  Queenie's Married Life

  Queenie's name is derived from the word queen because she was born during the coronation of Queen Elizabeth 11 in 1953. Her parents found it fit to honor the Queen who was the head of state of her country that was a colony of Great Britain. She so grew up with her head up because she was a little queen in her own right.

  Queenie did not go to formal schools because her father did not believe in educating the girl child. Instead she went to religious schools wherever she lived from time to time to learn the rudiments of religion and that was all. In her area of birth, most girls of her age, older and younger did not attend formal schools.

  The few who did were lucky and it was because someone was either a school teacher in their families or they lived with relatives who believed in formal education. Otherwise, girls were chattels to be married off soon after circumcision and got confined to childbirth and house chores.

  Boys on the other hand went to formal schools so long as their fathers' could afford the required tuition or their fathers' embraced the good in formal schooling even if they did not have the opportunity themselves.

  Queenie like her many age mates, got married at an early age after undergoing female genital mutilation that was carried out before teen age or commencement of menses. She was married off at around fifteen years of age to a young religious teacher in his twenties who taught children at the school in her village.

  Her husband was not a man from her community but due to the good job he was doing in the village, her father who was also a religious teacher to young adults and adults, found it fit to honor him by giving him a wife.

  Her husband and her started life together and in one year, they had their first child, a baby girl. Queenie was therefore seeing her father every day because her husband and her rented a house close by.

  When their daughter was about one year old, her husband decided to move from her area of birth to his home area of birth far away and work there and build a foundation for his family. And, he had intensions of going away with his young family. He made the first move by telling her father and her uncles of his plans.

  They all sat him down and told him that if he was going away then he would go alone because his home area was too far away and nobody from her home area would be willing to pay them a visit.

  Since his mind was made, he left alone without his dear family. He went away and after some time, got married to someone else and sired several children. He stayed in his home area for five years then decided to go back to her home area and claim his daughter who was now six years. His aim was to take her to elementary school for formal education.

  He commuted to his former work station and found his father in-law. His former wife was already married to someone else and his daughter with her was living with the child's maternal grandmother, his first mother in-law in the next location from where he used to work.

  He commuted to his mother in-laws place, a home he knew very well from earlier times and found his daughter and her granny. After exchanging pleasantries with them, he stated his mission. Of course the young girl could not remember him, but thanks to her granny who luckily had kept his memory alive through constant reminder of him to her as if she knew that he would one day go for her.

  There was no objection because his mother in-law was not in a position to pay tuition for the little girl and the child's mother was not about to do anything about it therefore he left with her after a few days. She got enrolled in school straight away.

  Meanwhile, her mother had gotten married to a second husband soon after her first husband left. She left this first daughter of hers in her father's house with nobody to take care of her instead of going with her to her second marriage. Her mother only got wind of how the child was suffering in the hands of Queenie's stepmother and went for the child.

  Again, it was not a man of her choice, but a man decided on by her father because her second husband was her father's assistant in his administrative job and he was also a man from around therefore the issue of going far away would not arise. He was middle aged and had grown up children from his previous marriages some of whom were the same age as Queenie.

  Queenie's new husband's home was walking distance from her father's place. She got blest with three children, two girls and a boy through this marriage. During this marriage, her second daughter was staying with a married female relative of hers and at age six, this little girl was abused sexually every day by two young boys who were the sons of the male owner of the house or husband to Queenie's relative.

  Had this child stayed with her mother, Queenie, maybe such a thing would not have happened. Queenie's reaction was to take this child to live with the child's maternal grandmother where her first daughter was before her first husband went for her.

  She much later divorced this second husband and went back to her father's home. She stayed there while her three children stayed with her mother, their maternal grandmother.

  After a short while again, she got married for the third time to an old man who was more or less the age of her father. This too was a marriage arranged by her father. He had grown up children who were much, much older than her and his grandchildren were older than her own children.

  She was blest with one child, a boy in this marriage. His home was in the town suburbs. Due to his age, he was sickly
often and eventually he died. When he died, she went back to her mother's home this time with her last child.

  Meantime, her first daughter was through with education up to college level and got a good job in the city within Queenie's home province. Queenie sent her last child over to her daughter to take him to school and provide him with whatever else he needed. Her second and third daughters were all married by this time. Her first son was not married, but he was old enough and independent in his own right.

  While staying at her mother's home, she met her next husband to be from around the area where her mother resided. Queenie's mother and father were not living together because they got divorced when Queenie was four years old. This time, it was a man of her choice. Her mother too was not a very healthy woman and she passed on after a few years of Queenie going to live there.

  After her mother's burial, she took in her new husband and the two lived in her mother's house a long side her other maternal relatives including an old uncle of hers.