What Now!

I’m not usually presumptuous but for whatever reason I’m convinced my mother doesn’t like me anymore. I could be overreacting and all this is just a mere misunderstanding, but in her words, “Oh God, you’re such a disappointment,” she said. So you be the judge of that.

I could go live somewhere else until the storm blows over except I do not possess a single coin in my wallet. Matter of fact I don’t own a wallet. So I’ll do what I always do when mother doesn’t want to look at my face.

Kasende’s pub was where my day started and ended. I could drink all that my stomach could carry as long as I helped him plough and prepare his land for the rainy season. He was the kindest, most gentle man I knew.

“Muzeeyi has chased you from home again!” Kasende asked as I entered his one-roomed grass-thatched pub. I nodded in agreement.

“Sorry brother, but unfortunately you’ve visited at the wrong time, I’m still waiting on customers, I’ve only sold two pots of malwa today and I cannot have you drink anything unless I’m assured of a payment. You’re bad for business my friend.”

“Eyy Kasende, I’m your day one, are you seriously saying you’re going to leave me hanging after everything I’ve been through,” I lamented, taking a sit by the door.

“Remind me, what exactly have you been through?”

“Okay now you’re insulting me, I thought as a fellow man you would understand my pain but I guess I was wrong.”

I jumped up from the stool. Shoulders raised and head held high I strolled out of Kasende’s pub.

“He will come back crawling for my help and I’ll remind him of what he just said to me.”

I decided to go to Mulondo’s compound. At least Mulondo lived in his father’s house too and could understand the agony of sharing the same roof with one’s parent as a grown man, every day I had to deal with my mother’s nagging squeaky voice.

On my way, I met Lutaaya. Immediately he saw me, he made a right turn. I knew he was avoiding me because no man carrying a black kavera dressed in his Sunday best had any reason to be walking into another man’s garden.

“Eh Lutaaya, are you getting blind,” I shouted as he disappeared into Mubiru’s banana plantation.

A part of me wanted to run after him and uncover whatever he held in his black kavera but my mind was set on visiting Mulondo so I forewent that exploration.

As I went along I saw the Kakembo brothers coming my way. They stopped when they saw me and for a second we locked eyes. I then jumped over a ditch by the road into a heavy bush away from the main path, I picked myself up quickly and sprinted through Mzee Kikomeko’s banana and cassava.

I looked back to see the brothers chasing after me. They are much shorter fellows so thanks to my long legs I was confident I’d outrun them, besides I had three hundred meters off them when I’d taken off.

Swiftly, I avoided colliding with a lone goat. Mzee Kikomeko owned the largest goat farm in the region and he was the richest man and more importantly, his youngest son Kikomeko was a friend. I desperately needed a friend.

After only a few minutes my legs were beginning to tire. I was three people outnumbered and the brothers had muscles as big as John Cena’s. If I didn’t make it to Mzee Kikomeko’s house before they caught up with me, I was a dead man.

If it came down to a fistfight I’d definitely be pounded like Kalisto against Braun Strawman. I didn’t want to end up like Kalisto. “Poor fellow.” I winced as I remembered the unfair wrestling match.

Kakembo Omukulu the eldest of the Kakembo brothers was catching up to me. I thought of shouting Kikomeko’s name but that was not manly and there was a possibility that Namale, Kikomeko’s younger sister was home, I fancied her.

Actually, I think I was in love with her and that would ruin my chances with her. She was beautiful and had curves in all the right places unlike Namigade the Kakembos’ sister who was short and stout with a face uglier than her three brothers combined. She was no woman for me. A handsome man like me deserved better, I belonged to Namale.

I willed my legs to go faster but they were a disappointment. I could see Mzee Kikomeko’s house but it seemed miles away. I glanced back to see Kakembo Omukulu at my flank and when I turned back, in an instant my skinny body collided with a banana plantain.

I dropped to the ground and groaned in pain, holding my hands to my chest. I then looked up, the Kakembo brothers were staring down at me. They reached for my feet but I kicked at them with all my might.

“Kikomeko,” I shouted, “Kikomeko.” I could hardly hear myself as I was already out of breath. The brothers managed to tug at my feet. They dragged me like a sack of potatoes as I cried Kikomeko’s name. I’d rather have Namale see me like this than face the unforgiving wrath of the Kakembo brothers.

“We are going to teach you a lesson,” Kakembo Omuto the youngest of the brothers growled.

“How dare you disgrace our sister,” Kakembo Omuwanvu the tallest brother snapped.

“Please forgive me.” I finally resigned myself to the fact that no one heard my cries and I begged for mercy.

Kakembo Omukulu kicked me in the ribs.

“Shut up,” he snarled.

“Okay I’m going to marry your sister,” I pleaded.

“You had your chance and you didn’t,” Kakembo Omuwanvu barked.

Using a wet banana stem the brothers tied my hands behind my back and ordered me to kneel down.

“Please don’t kill me.”

Kakembo Omukulu had produced a pocket knife. My heart leapt as I watched him play with the knife in his hands.

“Stand up,” Kakembo Omuto ordered.

As he closed in on me, I closed my eyes.

“Look at me,” he demanded.

He grabbed my neck with his left hand and with his right punched me hard in my nuts. I dropped to my knees, curled into a ball and wept.

“Perhaps we should cut off his dick.” Kakembo Omuwanvu said as I buried my face in the ground.

“He’s only half a man anyway,” he added.

“No please don’t.” I cried.

No man deserved such a punishment. No amount of sin could justify such an act.

“You should listen to yourself crying and begging for mercy,” Kakembo Omukulu jeered.

“Still thinking about your dick eh. Isn’t that what was on your mind when you decided not to appear at your wedding? Your dick right, that’s what you told your drinking mates when you were buying them drinks with our money, that your dick deserved a better-looking wife. After we paid your dowry you dared leave our sister hanging and bragged about it. You picked the wrong girl to mess with.”

The brothers kicked and punched me while they spat insults. The last insult I heard was, “You lazy, drunk, good-for-nothing son of a bitch.” And I blacked out.

When I came to, it was dark. I was still in the same spot the brothers had brought me to inflict their pain for my indignations against their sister. I tried to move but my limbs ached terribly so I stayed still.

A sudden thought jogged me alert and I scampered to check my pants. I struggled with my hands before realising they were still tied behind my back. In excruciating pain, I crossed my legs and with a lot of difficulty rubbed my inner thighs against my groin.

“Thank you, Jesus,” I sighed with relief, my manhood was still intact. It had gotten me in trouble but it always served me well and I was proud of it. I slept uncomfortably but at least I had no missing body parts.

When I woke up again it was daylight, I could feel the hot sunshine on my face. I tried to open my eyes but they did not obey me. After a while, I stopped trying as it was a painful effort. I was now scared I had gone blind. My head throbbed too, it felt like my brain was leaking from my skull which was highly likely considering the beating I had received.

I heard voices in the distance.

“Help,” I whispered, though it was meant to be a scream.

“Help,” I called again.

In agony, I made an effort to get to my feet but midway I toppled over and hit the ground with a bang, the electric pain that went through my body produced the scream I hadn’t had the energy to produce earlier.

“Who is there?” someone asked.

I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out.

“Oh, my God!” A familiar voice exclaimed. The last thing I remember was being carried.

When I opened my eyes again, I was greeted by the blue faded colour of the paint on my bedroom walls. My mouth formed into a smirk, “glad to be alive,” I said out loud.

I moved out of bed and limped to a small table across the room. I picked up a comb that had a mirror on one side. I looked into the small mirror and my face was almost unrecognisable. It was swollen everywhere, I opened my mouth and my legs gave way at the sight. Two front teeth were missing.

“Oh what have they done to you,” I cried.

Mother walked into the room and watched me as I watched myself in the mirror.

“They almost killed you,” she said.

“That’s what you get for messing with people’s daughters.”

Her voice was filled with contempt.

“I’m done with girls of this village,” I murmured loud enough for mother to hear.

She stared at me with disgust and then left the room. Watching her back as she walked away from me, I remembered my younger days when she would hold me and soothe my pain with her thumb, then promise to hurt those who hurt me. But that was history. A long time ago that was insignificant now.

After a failed attempt at chewing food, I picked some money from mother’s bag and headed out for painkillers.

‘So you’re still alive,” Kasende laughed as I limped toward his infamous pub.

“I’m still alive,” I bellowed.

Kasende met me halfway before I reached the entrance of the pub and said, “I know you just resurrected from the dead and expect free alcohol but I’m truly sorry Ssali, things are really hard nowadays and profits do not come as easily as they used to…”

“No worries.” I cut him off. “All drinks are on me,” I spoke loudly so the other drunkards could hear me.

“What! Boy, this is not your father’s kafunda, I will not tolerate your nonsense.” Kasende barked in my face.

On an ordinary day, I wouldn’t have let such an insult go without spitting my own retaliation but my jaws hurt and I couldn’t afford to argue. Instead, I pulled out a fifty thousand shilling note and slapped it in Kasende’s chest. He shut up and directed me to a comfortable stool with a pillow, the king-size stool. It was where the richest revelled. My throne was back.

I took my seat and waited for my pot of malwa in the king-size pot. I had been away for a while and I had no intention of sharing my alcohol with anyone and the pleas of the other drinkers for a taste of the contents of the king-size pot fell to deaf ears.

As the warm liquid made its way over my tongue and then down my throat, I thought of my dear Namale, I daydreamed of her naked body warming my bed.

A sudden shout of my name woke me out of my daydream, I opened my eyes to the angry sight of mother, machete in hand.

“Today I’m going to kill you,” she roared.

By the time I became aware of her presence, I’d been cornered, she was already at the veranda of Kasende’s pub so I retreated back into the hut. It only had one entrance and I had no way out.

“Mama please calm down,” Kasende begged mother, standing between her and the door.

“No, no. That boy has given me enough headaches, today I end it all. I brought him to this world and I shall take him out.”

I squeezed under a table and for the first time in my life cursed my long legs.

“I want my money,” she shouted.

“Kasende if that boy has given you any money I want it back.”

“Mama please calm down.” Kasende pleaded with mother, who was swaying her machete in the air.

The woman was serious about ending my life. It wasn’t the first time she’d had such an episode but this was the ugliest scene ever.

The rest of the day drinkers had vacated the veranda in case the situation escalated. A crowd was gathering. Shielded by the commotion I sneaked out of the hut and dragged my buttered body as fast as I could away from there.

“What now!” I pondered as I sat under a mango tree a few meters from home.