After a nightlong task of staying awake in the name of protecting a China shop from thugs and armed robbers, I had to compensate myself. And for me, compensation meant stopping over at Paris Club International, Cool Running or Chipwirikiti for 'one or two'.
Oftentimes, I had solemnly sworn not to stop over at these places. But each time I did so, I surprisingly found myself at these ‘synagogues’, downing bottles of cold ones like there is no tomorrow.
The sordid behaviour had
almost cost me my job one day. I had branched at Paris Club International, as
usual, for ‘one or two’, ahead of a miserable night of waiting for thieves and
engaging myself in battles with mosquitoes. I had ordered one, thinking I had
some money but there was none. I had walked out fuming.
I was an hour or two late,
and I would surely be some three or four hours late by the time of my arrival
at Shi Wang General Dealers; my workplace. As I walked closer towards the
building, my heart raced. Standing, just beside the main entrance was the boss
himself, Shi Ling.
I panicked. He never really
bothered to check on me. I was his good boy. I had impressed him so much during
my early days as a watchman at the shop, so much so that he never bothered to
mark my ‘register’. Some jealous fool must surely have told my boss that I had
not reported for work, I told myself, trying to figure out who it could be.
“Bwana...,” I wanted to cook
up a lie but he cut me short.
“Nava kuti ukugwira chito
bwino kwambiri. Ona, unali keseli kuona ngati zitu zili bwino. Nikukwezera
malipiro ako.” I’m told you are very diligent. See, you were behind the shop
checking if everything is okay. I’ll raise your pay this month-end.
Bwana Ling said. I sighed.
He struggled to communicate to me, and I struggled to get what he always tried
to say to me because of his troubled accent.
“Nikudikila mkazi wanga ali
paselipa,” he continued. “Timapanga stock-taking.” We were stock-taking.
“Ok Bwana,” I gave him a
fake salute, knowing pretty well I had been saved.
Just then, his wife – a
good-looking young girl, who resources allowing, I wouldn't hesitate to snatch
from my boss – appeared. She was dressed in a very tempting miniskirt, a
beautiful revealing blouse, and lipstick that was so inviting.
Seeing her, I must confess,
always made me curse myself for being poor. Good looking women like her surely
needed men who breathe. Men who can donate. Men who have. And not a mere church
rat like me.
That aside, I mean the fact
that I was jealous of my boss over his beautiful wife, I liked Bwana Ling. He
was a good man. As I saw them leave, I thanked my stars for being his employee.
I was better paid compared to my other colleagues who worked for other China
shops. Once in a while, Bwana Ling gave me a China T-shirt or a pair of shoes
for the ‘dedication’ I had towards my job.
Bwana Shi Ling, a short man
with a face that always looking like he was sleeping, had come to Malawi from
China as a foreman for a construction company that had been assigned to do one
of the roads in the rural parts of the country. When the road construction was
over, Ling did not want to go.
A few months before they had
completed the construction of the road, Ling had fallen head-over-heels for one
native girl in the area; my mistress now. A story is told that she used to sell
bananas at the Chinese camp where Ling was a regular customer.
But Ling went deeper. He
loved Esitele. Got her pregnant and then married her. When his colleagues were
leaving for China, Ling decided to remain behind a re-married man, for rumour
had it that he was also a father of five back in China.
So, that's how I survived
that day. Ling had been waiting for his wife. He said I was a hard worker. Yes.
That day they had been ‘stock-taking’. Up to date, I don't even know what kind
of animal 'stock-taking' is. You see, the thing is, every time Bwana Ling spoke
to me, it was either he was commending me on some job well done, or he was
sending me to buy some meat for him, nothing else.
He asked me to fetch frogs,
monitor lizards, snakes and all those kinds of weird animals for him. In short;
reptiles, mammals, amphibians and all other living things you can think of. I
carried his orders to the letter. The beauty of it all is that he already had
his customers. My simple task was to collect from them and deliver to him.
That's why, when he had
mentioned 'stock-taking’ that afternoon, I expected him to dip into his pockets
and give to me some banknotes for 'stock-taking.' He did not. His wife
appeared, and they left, leaving me in suspense. Up to date, I tell you, I am
still trying to figure out what kind of animal 'stock-taking' can be. But, of
course, I have a clue. The ‘S’ sound. It must have something to do with snakes.
Bwana Ling loved snakes.
~
This evening, seating comfortably
at a corner in Paris Club International, I had nothing to worry about. I didn’t
have to carry my knobkerrie and machete to follow thugs and armed robbers. I
had lied to Bwana Ling that my wife was seriously sick and thus I had to take
care of our three children. Being the good man that he was and the ‘good boy’
that I was, Bwana Ling gave me a four-day holiday plus an allowance to see
myself through during my 'trying times.'
But I had cooked up the
whole thing. I just wanted to have some fun. It was Christmas time. I was
neither married nor had three children. I was only a poor bachelor housed in
one of the shacks in the slums of Zolozolo, a location that only looked
beautiful when one was drunk.
I was only about three weeks
old in the city, and I felt home and welcome every time I emptied an extra
bottle of KucheKuche beer – the brand that always wants you to hunger for more.
Before, I had been a tenant in one of the tobacco-growing areas in the
countryside. I went unpaid for five and half years and decided enough was
enough. I left for ‘greener pastures’ and settled in Zolozolo.
The reason why I was not yet
married at 32? Simple. I had no trust in women, except my mother and Mary, the
mother of Jesus. I loved my first girl at 13, the next at 18 and the last at
22. The worst one was that girl I loved when I was eighteen - Vitumbiko. I
loved her. She never loved me in return. I smiled. She never smiled. I tried to
make her laugh. She couldn’t just succumb. At one point she nearly killed my
mother with hypertension when she had lied against my father that he was
responsible for her pregnancy.
I don’t like talking about
that shit. She was not only a liar but also the Devil’s incarnate capable of
plotting any kind of evil. Since then, I keep on declaring to myself: ‘No women
for the rest of your life, Mavuto. They are all traitors, murderers. Like
poisonous snakes, they can kill, just for the sake of killing, without eating
you. Drink beer, more beer and the Almighty will be happy with your spirit for saving
his precious water.’ Of course, I did not believe in this mantra.
I was downing my fifth
bottle when I saw Goodson, my workmate at Shi Wang General Dealers approaching. He was a shop
attendant and earned a more meagre pay than I did. I wanted to hide, but then I
realized that he was too drunk to distinguish between good and evil. Walking
beside him was a sick-looking girl, so nauseating. Everyone in Paris Club
International had his gaze focused on the ‘couple’, which had now sat just
beside me.
“Mavuto!” he joyously
extended his hand. I hesitated but offered it all the same. What could I have
done after all?
“Can't he realize that this
girl is very sick?” An elderly gentleman standing next to my workmate said in a
tone that was low to him but one which was heard by everybody. And just then,
everybody turned in our direction.
“These are the things we men
don’t see when drunk,” some loudmouth to our left shouted.
Goodson did not move an
inch. I have already mentioned, he couldn't distinguish between good and evil,
lovely and ugly. He turned to me instead.
“...hey! You told Bwana that
your wife is sick.” I was wrong. He was not as drunk as I thought. Everyone
turned to me. I looked down.
“Mavuto,” he went on. “Taste
a beautiful girl like this one and see that girls are good!”
The 'beautiful girl' who was
standing beside him, whom Goodson would 'taste and see that she is good' sooner
than later, smiled. Everyone laughed.
“For how long,” my workmate,
it seemed, wanted to injure me more. “Are you going to remain unmarried? Don't
you know that all bachelors are fools?”
Much as I didn't like women
personally, I felt bad when someone laid bare my attitude towards women in
public. That’s why I wanted Goodson, my workmate, to leave.
The whole bar was sent into
stitches of laughter once again.
Enough was enough. I rose to
my feet, aimed a blow at Goodson which sent him sprawling to the ground. Then a
dead silence enveloped the bar. Dead silence. The 'beautiful girl' who had come
with him was trying to shake Goodson up but to no avail.
Something told me to run,
and I started doing so. And I was not looking back. Behind me, I could hear
drunkards shouting, shouting so loud and hard.
My direction was home. I was
considerably drunk, so I thought going home was the safest thing I could do.
I had run and run, and I was
heavily panting now. I had now reached the bridge which I had to cross before
reaching my house, my shack. This bridge frightened me. It was renowned for
various notorious activities from thievery to murders. And yet, I had to cross
it before I could get home. I was here now, and very afraid.
I had not even reached the
middle of the bridge when I saw three men with a torch flashing their light
directly at me.
“Hey, can't you see that you
are injuring my eyes?” I said, under the influence.
They didn't respond. I got
nervous.
One of them fished a knife
from his jacket and threw it at me. It came straight to my chest. I fell in
pain. I looked back and saw what looked like a police van moving in our
direction.
“Shit!” I faintly heard one
of them say. “Somebody tipped the police about our presence here. Finish this
bastard and let's go!”
I felt very great pain in my
chest, pain that was finishing me. And then there was darkness...