house because it changed his life totally…
how…
.
.
Uncle bayo was the only known relation of
kunle’s mother from the same town.
He was a very young man living alone in one
room,
Because he was a drunkard, he was scarcely
at home and generally broke…
Uncle bayo was in primary six when he got the
daughter of a neighbour.
So he ran off and lodged in agamo village,
briefly with kunle’s mother and father before
he got his place a few years ago.
Because he would drink and drink always,
All his income was spent on *weed*,
He often lost his jobs.
Nobody could remember his real name but
everyone nicknamed him as “Uncle drunkard…”
He would always put on one
Cap or the other, a T-shirt and baggy knickers
and sandals.
All these affected kunle’s school.
He often went to school hungry with his
uniform torn and dirty, no books, pencil nor
biro.
Whenever he had to pay his school fee, it was
always a great struggle as uncle drunkard
never had money.
He would promise and promise with little or
nothing happening.
After a while
Kunle was forced to go out after school hours
to sell tomatoes and pepper.
In the
Evening, he would go into the bush and hunt,
he might catch a bush rat or snake and sell it
and use the money to buy a textbook or pay
part of his fees.
By the time kunle was in primary five,
He was almost twelve years old.
He had had to repeat classes two times;
He failed woefully the first time
And was very sick,
He could not go to school the second time-
truly.
His uniform was badly torn and he couldn’t
pay for the exams.
Uncle drunkard did not care or bother…
Nowadays, uncle drunkard had become a
notorious and habitual criminal, and whenever
he is enjoying or smoking *weed*,
If disturbed, he would bring out his belt to
beat kunle
saying
“Am i the one that killed your parents?, dont
bother me o or do you want to kill me?, little
devil.”
Kunle would cry his eyes out,
He would cry and cry throughout that day and
far into the night.
Life was so cruel and bad for him.
.
It got worst to the extent of taking his friend’s
uniform on loan.
Bolu gave kunle his old shirt and for an
amount to be paid every monday at school.
He would manage to keep it for the first term,
then when they resumed in the second term,
bolu had calculated the three weeks holiday
asking for the total from kunle.
Kunle was surprised, he could not talk.
“we agreed that you should pay me every
monday and three mondays have passed now,
so where is my money?”
“i said, where is my money?”
He repeated shouting at him.
“but… but”
Kunle kept stammering.
“but, we didn’t include holidays, you know we
don’t wear uniform during holidays…”
Kunle intoned finding his voice back…
“that is not my business”
Bolu said and slapped kunle two times.
“let me have my old uniform back now”
Bolu said trying to remove the cloth from his
body.
Kunle started crying as bolu unbuttoned the
shirt and untied the rope he used as belt and
removed the knicker also.
Except for the torn under wear kunle wore, he
would have gone totally naked.
In shame, kunle ran out of the school and
went back home.
Never had he been disgraced
So much in his life,
He wished the ground could open and swallow
him up…
TO BE CONTINUED….
