NEVER AGAIN

[Appeared in the Malawi News of 16 June 2012]

“I’ll never set my foot in this village again!” Asilo uncaringly shouted over and over again at his parents and relatives as he stomped off to his vehicle. Seconds later he furiously sped off.

He left fuming dusts over his relations. They were people in disappointment and resentment being at the receiving end of his fury again, because by nurture or nature, Asilo was a man who hooded fiery temper. It was chiseled on granite for all to see. It had often dwarfed his thinking capability and made him to unleash outbursts of insults or eruptions of fists at souls he perceived were in the wrong, whether he was at fault or not. And his juniors at his workplace bore the brunt of this tactless hurriedness the most; subordinates always at the receiving end of hurried decisions done without properly and thoroughly going through issues, which resulted in rushed judgments, and harsh punishments. And they feared his temper, as did many people, maybe except his wife for word had it that Asilo was under petticoat government.

But by not giving a damn to mind or tame his explosive rage and tacky tongue had also coated him trouble. But of them all two stood out, one evidenced by a scar on his upper lip. It resulted from a heavy punch inflicted a certain month by a tenant. That time Asilo ridiculous arrogantly took a probable tenant trough a tour of one of his rental houses, though still occupied. The reason was that the incumbent had given him one excuse after another for failing to pay up rentals on time. Asilo never cared whether the excuses were genuine or not. The occupant failed to contain her seething anger. She had wreaked a deep cut on Asilo’s upper lip. The second standing out clutter was the one he had lost one of his teeth. That day Asilo had crossly mocked a friend who gave 200 kwacha in a form of 20 kwachas to someone he had refused to help. He had hilariously said that if the friend was licking his fingers to count 200 kwacha then if it were 1000 kwacha he would dip his whole hand in a pail of water. The resulting brawl that had knocked out his tooth had left him in a real seizure of rage, but not more than he was this day he had cruised wrathfully from his parents’ compound.

His car now cruised dangerously on the village dry weather road. Furious crowds of dust rose and chocked pedestrians. Asilo never minded. Even schoolchildren that excitedly waved at him at his former primary school were unceremoniously ignored. He instead pressed more on the accelerator. His car whined a protest for the umpteenth time that day and sped more precariously. It missed a cyclist by a whisker who shouted insults at him. But again he never minded, or he would have minded had he heard the insults. He continued cruising away from the village, the village he had taken close to nine years without visiting, save returning only for funerals.

He had stopped coming when Awong’o, his father, had roundly reprimanded him then when he had called his sister ‘stupid’ for reasons better known to him. But having attained a Master’s Degree in Administration he proudly visited his village again and anticipated a massive party from his father, an owner of herds of cattle and goats. However, Asilo was hugely disappointed. He felt his reception was scrap; only a small gathering where only two goats were slaughtered was arranged. During his speech Asilo self-importantly and irately told the gathered, using every bombastic word he could muster, that he had forgiven their sins for arranging a skimpy party not proportional to his greater achievements. His relatives, his father in particular, did not take that sitting down. He again chastised him, prompting Asilo to discharge heavy abusiveness before speeding off.

He was still fuming when he inconsiderately cruised towards a corner which was before a long stretch that formed part of the boundary between the village and Chididi Game Reserve. Suddenly a car from the opposite direction, doing a reasonable speed, appeared but a head-on collision was miraculously avoided when it was forced off the road. However, as Asilo zoomed passed it he heard the shout of ‘Gorilla’ coming from the other driver.

Asilo’s temper boiled over. He instantly turned towards the other car and within seconds managed to shout vulgarity that even the devil envied him. After being satisfied that he had executed the nastiest judgment on the ‘baboon’ in the other car, he had turned his eyes back to the road. But alas, he was a micro-second too late; just in front of him stood a giant Gorilla that had strayed from the reserve. It drew on Asilo too late that the other driver had intended to warn him of the Gorilla he was about to smash, but since he was insensitively cruising the only warning the other could manage was to shout ‘Gorilla’, which he took as an insult.

Tyres screeched as Asilo desperately tried to avert the impossible. A quarter of a second later so huge was the impact of the collision between flesh and metal. Asilo died instantly. Per his word some moments ago, he was never to set his foot in his village again!