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RATS ON RAMPAGE (1)

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  THE TIMES WERE TOUGH and this day was particularly rough for me. We had gone to our boss at the end of the day’s work for the week’s wages, as it was the weekend, but he was telling us something about how lack of fuel in the accountant’s jalopy had not let him get to the bank for the money needed to pay us. For a very long time, only the accountant’s car had been on the road. The others – the site engineer, the supervisor and the contractors – had parked theirs. Some masons and menial workers (including me) trekked long distances to work and most were now sleeping on the site to curtail the hassles and exorbitant fares of commuting daily. Everyone’s story was all too familiar – across the length and breadth of a major oil-producing nation, with the status of having its own refineries, there was a scarcity of petroleum products. Those in government thought it was cheaper and wiser to import fuel while the refineries were left to rot. The petrol station owners and attendants, con...
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WHAT THE NANNY GOAT TOLD HER KIDS (CHAPTER 15)

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  CHAPTER 15   THE GOATS’ BLEATS gradually became weaker as the hours went by and there was not one Ransom in sight who could help sort out their problems. Grace herself had become weak from hunger and at a point when her kids had tried to feed, she had unconsciously butted them aside. ‘But ma you said Mr Ransom is a bad man?’ the irascible young he-goat had said. ‘Do you still ask? Can’t you see he is?’ Grace replied to the kid hotly. ‘I have doubt if he truly is. When he was around we were eating round the clock!’ said the same he-goat. ‘If only we could break the door, we’d have food in surplus in the wild and eat it without ropes on our necks,’ Grace asserted. ‘And where we’re going is far, isn’t it?’ asked the young nanny goat. ‘It is,’ Grace replied and curiously looked at her. ‘We’re hungry and weak. Won’t it be punishment dragging us on such a long journey?’ asked the young nanny goat again. ‘Well, whosoever thinks of achieving a great feat must consider hunger and de...
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WHAT THE NANNY GOAT TOLD HER KIDS (CHAPTER 14)

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CHAPTER 14   THE PIVOT OF THE RANSOMS’ HOUSEHOLD was down and regular activities got drawn to a standstill. Someone let out the chickens but forgot about the goats and Grace waited and waited, staring at the door to see who would open it to receive her headbutt. She looked and listened hard but it seemed the normal activities in the Ransoms’ home were drastically changing for that day. Did someone eavesdrop on her chat with her kids or did they read her mind? She had resolved what to do and no one would change her mind. Though it sounded like things she heard in her dreams but if they were real, she wondered too about the loud banging sounds. Definitely, someone was up to no good and the facts she soon would know if she would wait a bit longer in the pen. But an uprising was about to happen in the stall and no one would dare stop her. She scratched her horns on the nearby wall to show what would happen soon to the scallywags. She remembered too she had heard sounds like someone was...
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WHAT THE NANNY GOAT TOLD HER KIDS (CHAPTER 13)

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CHAPTER 13   MR RANSOM STOLE OUT OF HIS HOUSE and then slipped down the path to the area of his fish pond where he buried his shotgun. He had taken his shirt off to veil the light of his torch but waited and listened for some minutes, put it on, kept it close to the ground and crawled till he reached where the gun was buried. He put the torch off and dug the earth with his bare hands till he could grab the gun's dismantled parts wrapped with polythene sheets. He pulled the bundle out, unwrapped it with great care so the polythene sheets did not make any sound, listened awhile, put the torch on and put the pieces back together. Done, he slipped a cartridge into the gun, put the torch off and crawled back to the path; then he stood up and gingerly walked to the fringes of his home. When that bastard made that rotten statement, Muscle ran around, barking and dodging as they had been trained. At the same time, Bone slipped into the farm and slunk between the stems of corn, cre...
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WHAT THE NANNY GOAT TOLD KIDS (CHAPTER 12)

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CHAPTER 12   EVENING ARRIVED AND THE ROOSTERS all over crowed to say goodbye to a day already spent and welcome the unpredictability sneaking in with the gloom. As Mr Ransom quietly untied the ends of the ropes and the goats rushed into the stalls with the dogs hanging around and monitoring them, Grace resolved with what she would implant into her kids’ minds that night, the tale of goats by tomorrow would take a resplendent twist. When their door was locked and they huddled together, Grace knew there was no room for any excuse anymore. She had to reveal the true make-up of a free life to her kids. She listened to the familiar sounds. In the other stalls, the goats and fowls thumped the planks and rustled their feathers seeking comfortable positions that would afford them excellent night rest. The Ransoms were banging doors, chopping wood, sweeping the floors and letting water gurgle into containers; Mr Ransom was calling out to someone this way and Mrs Ransom the other way was tel...
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WHAT THE NANNY GOAT TOLD HER KIDS (CHAPTER 11)

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CHAPTER 11   MR RANSOM BOUGHT HIS FIRST GUN when he invested heavily in farms and the wild animals almost made him run his business at a loss. He had cleared and planted with his family and hired hands hectares of land he rented from the village. He planted cassava, melon, corn and leafy vegetables. They were fast-selling items as people from all the nearby big towns came to the village to get them. But the corn seedlings were being mowed down as if with a sharp machete, the newly sprouting cassava stems were being dug up and those still standing were at the mercy of zillions of caterpillars. Mr Ransom complained to experienced farmers and they told him what was happening and what he needed to do. Some had even suspected envious farmers were turning to the animals and destroying rivals’ crops so they alone could continue in the lucrative food business. Mr Ransom, who got substantial financial backing from his wife, was desperate to do anything to deter the destroyers wh...
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A Long Love Song (025 - 038)

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  025 The road ahead is far where I’d join a boat, Hop on a cab, a train and if need be, a plane So the essence of love in places remote And near we would assess, learn and explain;   See if we could separate real from fake And that our thirst eventually we would slake Like with a drink on a journey you make – A break right now nearby I must take.   There’s a log where people rest at a crossroads And a set of three posts people keep their loads.   026 I draw close to the log and sit down But I hear creaks of metals approach me; They’re familiar sound and right up in my crown I needn’t task my brain to tell who that could be.   The tapper emerges into view and I greet him; He’s glad to see me and so gives me a beam. He stops at my front and asks where I’d been; Then asks if it wasn’t me earlier he’d seen.   ‘Well, we met earlier but the light was dim.’ Then my intent straightaway I give to him:   027 ‘I’m going on a long tour, sir, to find out What is l...
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