Dr Fixit (4521 - 4530)

 

4521

The crowd moved back and the figure

of a woman, tall and of robust stature,

was seen leaning on the protector

of a louvred window and the proprietor

of the cyber cafe paraded the thief

towards her. Their greetings were brief.

The cafe owner asked the woman:

‘Please, ma. Do you know this young man?’

She nodded and said: ‘He’s my son.’

‘We’re here for something bad he’d done.

4522

‘A phone our customer charged and forgot

he took with him instead of a report

he could’ve lodged and kept in our custody

the item. The owner returned and visibly

fumed in my shop over the stolen phone

and as such degrading acts aren’t known

where I operate, I decided to the root

of the matter to get and marched my boots

to someone who the crime fast could uncover.

The ukang initiated brought us to this shelter

 

4523

‘and the phone in your son’s bag was found.

As custom demands, there is an amount

the native doctor asks for his services

and if not met forthwith, the angry blazes

of the mob here could be poured on him

and these we’ve all along held back with vim.’

‘What’s the amount?’ the woman weakly

did ask. The cafe owner said stiffly

all the native doctor had recited.

When he was done, the woman responded:

 

4524

‘It’s a bad child who brings reproach

on his family but my approach

would be to settle this right here and now

and warn him for the last time that his renown

for humiliating himself and us

since joining his gang quite unserious

grates my nerves. This is the last time

I would bail him out of any crime

and this crowd remains my witness.

His bad ways henceforth he must address.’

4525

The woman left the window and soon again

did appear and above a glass pane

passed wads of notes to the cafe owner.

Done counting, the man thanked the mother

of the derailing young man and turned around

to caution him: ‘My friend, the ground

and all those with us here bear witness

that your mother openly frowns at the disgrace

that you and your bad company bring upon

yourselves and your families. The gun

 

4526

‘is next for the man who plays with the knife

and jail is home for he who loves strife.

Be warned.’ As the crowd did murmur

and disperse, of course the rumour

would spread from one cranny of the town

to the other with addenda to make you frown

or smile as every talebearer was wont.

Nearly reaching the street we heard the grunt

and blabber of a man asking for the whereabouts

of his motorcycle. It seemed a mahout

 

4527

had sat on it and rode off. The tale thickened.

A thief seeing another thief being threatened

 thinks it's a bad day for the first stealing.

You don’t watch such a scene with mouth gaping

or desperate flies would jump into it.

Having the last laugh was another bandit.

‘My brother, we just saw the native doctor

and what he did so ask the proprietor

of the cafe to help you contact him

and I assure you, your lost bike he’d redeem,’

4528

a believer in tradition did opine

to the motorcyclist who did wail and whine.

Though he complained at first about the fee

but then buying a new bike wasn’t a pee.

He begged another cyclist to help him chase

the native doctor or cafe owner who did race

off on motorcycles some minutes ago.

Our unwitting carrier without hullabaloo

after witnessing with his whole being

the mystery spun by a native doctor’s string

 

4529

of abracadabra was eager to see

and hear more so he took a bike with a plea

he should race back to the business centre.

‘Ukang,’ my aide repeatedly did mutter

to himself as a new term he tried to commit

to memory but quite swift

I intervened to let him know the term

wasn’t English but it wasn’t out of game

to borrow the word as one quite apt

I couldn’t find to describe the art

 

4530

whereby you uncover with a mojo a theft.

‘The English Language is bereft

of an apt word if the practice is not known

to the natives around the English throne.

So it’s not unusual for them to borrow

the word about the new reality and sow

this as a new seed in their lexicon.

It’s incumbent upon you to coin

a new word for a new concept or reality

if there’s no word in the dictionary