INSPIRED BY A REAL LIFE STORY.
I remember how everyone turned around that night, covering up their noses, the moment the police opened up the gates to load up the body. The most ironic thing was that I was part of the group which had watched in horror…as my own corpse got heaped onto the back of the Land Cruiser.
I stood in the middle of the crowd…wearing the same bracelet I was wearing when that knife went through my body. Funny enough, that scar was still on my body…but I wasn’t bleeding. I just saw through myself. Also, what I discovered was that you left Earth with only what you had on your body.
“YOU’RE NOTHING BUT A SHITTY SON!” it echoed in my head again…right before that knife was driven into me. Before I could react, the last thing I tasted was my own blood…blood I once donated…blood whose red blood cells were suddenly destroyed within, and all around me blacked out for a moment…until when I woke up to a hospital bed.
This time around, I woke up to the middle of chaos.
Women who gave me utilities and knew I was going to pay them back, suggesting I should use boiling hot water to deal with bedbugs and save money…weeping in serious pain over the sight of another young Kenyan whose body is now going to be buried six feet under much earlier than the seventy-six-year old drunkard who knows which houses are busy furthering biology in the name of sexual desire.
Confused young men who knew me stood by and watched aghast, as the situation sunk in. Sibling rivalry in Kenya was now at the level where blood was no longer thicker than water…it now was easily shed and forgotten about.
As I stood in the middle of the group, which was now reacting in shock, some even shouting their disgust at who the true shitty son was…shouting their bottled-up disgust at how a once-respected young army officer destroyed himself to smithereens through shady deals…and all it took was his younger brother’s statement right in his face, for him to commit murder.
He had run away from the house after his deeds, and then after a few days, the neighbours discovered with horror what had taken place, after noticing I was missing.
The media channels had covered everything, and the news channels had been told everything about who the fugitive was. As I watched one neighbour tell the news reporter everything, I couldn’t help but feel sad about how my Diploma in Journalism had gone to waste thanks to an egoistic decision which now had changed everything.
“Maybe in the afterlife there are news channels…” I thought, noticing how another neighbour had already called one of the stubborn relatives who never picked my phone calls.
“It took my death for them to take me seriously…The level of hypocrisy…”I wondered again, watching the chaos.
My killer was now a fugitive, and both the press and the DCI had his full details. I knew one thing was for sure…the moment everyone saw the news story…they were going to pause everything and for the briefest of moments, remember how deep domestic violence, child abuse, toxic family members, and shells satisfied with temporary pleasures existed. However, I couldn’t help but wonder…since I was no longer on Earth,
If my name was any different…what would my life have been like?
Events took place in my life I couldn’t control, and some things I missed out on because fate was preparing me for events I never thought in my wildest dreams I would face and persevere through, like living in a literal shell of a bungalow alone with no power and being expected to feel at home in it.
If my name was any different… would I have stayed in one specific high school, like a multitude of Kenyan kids out here, and done my KCSE exams there, and gotten a higher grade in the end?
If my name was any different… Would I have grown up with both parents together? Would my late mother have even returned to the Army? Would she have become an alcoholic?
If my name was any different… Would I have ever looked at a picture and realized I was the only one alive?
Meanwhile, everybody…
ZEBRA, THE SIXTH NOVEL IN THE MOMBASA RAHA, MY FOOT SERIES IS NOW AVAILABLE AS A PAPERBACK EDITION FOR ONLY 14.99 USD!!!
FOLLOW THE AMAZON LINK TO GRAB YOUR COPY TODAY!!!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1JD792Y?ref_=pe_93986420_774957520
SYNOPSIS:
THEY ALL KNEW… In 44 days…
A presidential candidate must be rescued from a kidnapping to bring him back ahead of the General Elections, an owner of a private ranch will join forces with the Pirates of Zanzibar, the kidnappers of the presidential candidate, in harming animals for more profit… and ultimately, the greatest of decisions will be made in 44 days.
© HAROUN RISA 2023. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Haroun Risa 