I leaned against the stump of the once mighty and sacred Muvule tree. It was a tree that my ancestors had told us never to cut lest an epic tragedy would befall the people of the land. Its stump and trunk now lay there, felled. They were now the only thing that testified that thats where my house once stood.
It had many memories;memories that now i held dear,yet they brought a heaviness to my heart that made my soul sink like lead...Dont know why, but i held onto the bottle that i had run out with from the bar..the bottle that had saved my now wretched life.
"Go drown yourself in your bottle if u think it will save you "...
Those were the last words that Alice-my wife- had screamed at me as i run into the heavy pouring rain that fateful night.
As life and fate normally do,they had sat down and conspired to amuse themselves by playing the "irony-card" on me..
But the result of this was the furthest thing that could warrant the title of amusement..
I had ran out of my hut after having another of the now re-curring quarrels with Alice.Am not a man to find pleasure in verbal confrontation,especially with Alice(coz she always won) I used it as an excuse to go the Trading centre to drink one or two.Although i must admit,most times there ended up being many more that followed the first and second.But i cared less,as long as it took my mind off the domestic mess in my head courtesy of the fore mentioned.
I had ran threw the pouring rain,with the thunder booming and the lightening flashing menacingly as if warning me of some unknown danger to come. After slipping one-time too many I decided to just wade my way through muddy rivers that now crossed the path;they were like fast moving snakes whose reflections were vivid whenever the lightening flashed.
The rain drops that fell on my forehead rapidly flowed down my face and obscured my view of the path.I constantly had to whip my face to be able to barely see where i was going.I was soaked to my bone marrow.But i was a man on a mission..a mission to drink.
The banana leaves from the plantation through which the path snaked kept weaving with a ferocious intent to fell the banana plants.Like flapping wings the leaves beat against each other making a cacophony of noise.
Strangely enough though,this didn't give me any sense of fear of what might lie in the darkness of the plantation.If anything the noise made me feel like i had company,as if it was loudly whispering its presence and announcing its companionship.
The path then started to slope down into a coffee plantation for a few meters then zig zigged into another banana plantation.
By this point i had lost the sense of my surrounding-probably numbed by the wetness from the rain and my brain being an inferno of rage due to Alice's nagging.
I just couldn't stand Alice whenever she threw a tantrum over every little thing that i didnt do, or that which i did, but didnt do well enough.She had become the proverbial nag that made a husband prefer to sleep on the roof than share a room with her kind...
As my brain huffed n puffed...I heard footsteps running behind me...
