Chapter 2

Chapter 4 The day she was discharged was the day that she passed on. Obange Donmax was beyond himself with grief. If only he had succeeded with his suicidal mission he would not have witnessed his mother’s death. He almost got mad at the burial when the mourners who for all these time kept to their homesteads flooded the compound with intension of passing encomia about his late mum.

They were initially a people of their own class but now they were opening wide their mouths on the good times they had with their departed sister. Politicians found an arena to spread their rotten agendas pretending to be the only intelligentsia of the time. Obange Donmax watched all these in sentiments. Life had to go on. An independence life as there was no close relative he trusted. To him, no one proved trustworthy. He dropped out at class five as no one seemed to show interest in his education any further. His little brother was adopted by his aunt who had initiated his mother’s betrothal; unfortunately he also died two months down the line. At his age and with his level of education, the only job he could secure was to be a cattle keeper for someone so as to get food and be housed. He was hired by a relatively rich man who lived across the river. His boss lived in a mansion and owned several acres of land together with numerous servants under his service. The boss had numerous daughters but with a single son, who happened to have been of the same age with Obange Donmax. The boy was kind hearted. He made Obange Donmax feel a sense of belonging irrespective of the hard lined conditions stipulated by the family with regard to the workers. As a cattle keeper, he milked the cows but drank warm water with tea leaves minus the milk. He took his lunch at around ten before leaving with the cattle for the pastures in the field. Whether it rained or not, the cows were expected back at five in the evening. He had learnt to abide by the principles lest he be fired. His employer’s son was named Owade. He felt for his new found friend. At times he bottled for him some tea and sneaked with it to take for him in the fields together with some snacks. During the school holidays life was adventurous for the duo. One event could lead to the other some even proving tragic. Such like comedies came one Saturday when Obange’s master and his wife attended a funeral in the next village. Owade and Obange Donmax had a stress free day as there was nobody to supervise them. Obange Donmax carried out his usual morning chores as usual then sat for his breakfast and lunch respectively before driving out the cattle. The sky was clear above and since it had been dry for a period of time, there was less optimism that it was going to rain any soon. He sat on an anthill gazing at the livestock under his supervision graze few meters from where he was. With his attention fully concentrated on the cattle, a hand tapped him from behind on his shoulder. He jumped up in fright only to turn and find that it was Owade. “I didn’t know you are such a coward!” Owade teased him while laughing. “Have you ever heard of a shop dealing in body’s spare parts?” Obange Donmax inquired of him and jointly they laughed. In that hot afternoon, after watering the animals in a dam, swimming proved worthwhile to them. By the bank a man was doing some laundry. The two drove the cattle into the bushes for pasture before returning to cool their bodies in water. On that day they seemed to develop more complicated diving skills. They moved deeper and further from the bank. The still atmosphere was however interjected by a sharp blood-curdling wail. Obange Donmax raised his head only to see Owade’s last toe disappearing below the water surface. He was drowning! Obange Donmax never waited to see for himself. He simply took to his heels towards the bank and grabbing his clothes under his armpit, he accelerated like lightening into the forest. The man who was washing by the bank was the one who saved Owade. He was at the verge of getting stuck headlong in the mud beneath but the man grabbed him by the ankle and dragged him to the sand where he laid for sometimes before regaining consciousness. Owade was in for it. The man who saved him had to discipline him from the mischief of trying to search for death in the name of swimming. He gave Owade numerous countless slaps on his bare bottoms sending echoes deep into the forest. When Obange Donmax managed to get off his grip, he fled in nudity forgetting to take his clothes. He squatted in a nearby bush for his disciplinarian to evacuate the scene so that he could pick his clothes. He shivered since the weather had now changed and the cold evening breeze was blowing. A niggle of worry swept over him. It was after another two hours when he accessed his clothes since the man who provided hindrance awaited for his clothes to dry before packing them. Obange Donmax in the meantime roamed in the forest trying to trace his cattle but it was all palaver. He was convinced beyond doubt that Owade had drowned since he had left the scene before his rescue. He could not figure out how exactly he was going to broach the subject to his master. No one would lend him an ear but countless strokes and insults would be heaped on him. To engrave the matters, the cattle also invaded one’s plantation and did a thorough chewing on the crops. These were numerous mistakes to be done in a single day, he thought to himself. He opted to flee rather than face his master’s wrath. That evening he paid an urgent visit to his aunt who had stayed with his little brother, from where he could seek a new employer. Coincidentally, that very evening he fled was the very day he met the man who re-ignited his hopes. His name was Sir Richard. This man laid his academic foundation. For a long time, Sir Richard had stayed in Somalia as a soldier. He was a brother to Obange Otoyo. He had heard of all that revolved around his brother’s matrimony and he came to gather any of his remains and bring them under his wings. Obange Donmax happened to be the only remaining child thus he took him. Obange Donmax was warmly welcomed into the new family and taken back to school the following week. That was the biggest miracle he had ever experienced in his entire life. He shed tears of both joy and grief. He was for the first time convinced that there are still people in the society who can listen and give a hand of help to the wretched of the earth like him. During their first talk with Sir Richard, he can never forget these sentences which he was told, “Once you are in my house, school is compulsory. You are not a girl whose education can be tampered with due to unplanned pregnancy. What I shall eat is what you will also consume. If I sleep hungry, so will you. But never forget where you have come from, it will enable you not sway in life. Let your past bitter experience act as a mirror for absorbing rays and refract a bright future for you.” These words always rang as tintinnabulation on his ears all the time. That short remark entailed more than he needed. His pillars were now erected; it was now just him to make an anchorage on them. His candle had been lit for him his only responsibility now was to keep it burning. That night while privately in his room he made this prayer; “God your hands are not too short to save neither your ears too deaf to hear. As you were elevating your sons and daughters stuck in the mud of ignorance you thought of this son of a bitch. Accomplish the mission you’ve began in my life in Jesus’ name, Amen.” He fell into a deep sleep until the following morning. He had narrowly escaped the cavalier societal attitude. It was the quintessence of luck one can ever think of. He escaped the eternal raging jaws of poverty if he perfectly utilized the opportunity. One situation however pinned his peaceful stay irrespective of the warm welcome he received from Mr. and Mrs. Richard. He met a nephew by name Mapunda. He was naturally a sadist. He enjoyed Obange’s downfall and tried his best to make sure that he landed in trouble. Rivalry, antagonism and hatred became a quotidian activity. He saw Obange Donmax as a one of the rabbles who intended to reap from where they never sowed. Interestingly, Mapunda did not put into consideration the fact that even he himself was just but a beneficiary of Sir Richard’s generosity. Primarily, he pretended to be a raconteur before revealing the other side of his character which was not going to change. In as much as he fumed with anger whenever challenged by Obange Donmax in academics or anywhere else, Obange Donmax was convinced that there was nothing with a beginning that lacks its end, he persevered. His raffish behavior will one day be swept away by wind, he consoled himself. They shared the same room but spoke no word to one another. Mapunda joked about with his book work as his counterpart worked tirelessly so as to realize his raisonsd’etre. Mapunda was such a rapacious young man so mostly he could squander what had been left behind for them to share. The battle line will one day be drawn and Obange Donmax will bounce in rapture if he emerges victorious. One day they will part ways to face independent lives and even be expected to raise their respective families. His rash ideologies will sue him. Not unless he desisted from his ratty, grumpy and irritable attitude and just became rationale, then series of troubles awaited for him.