7. AN
OLD FARMER
Three days after, Bale and his
friends were released to go back home after being forced to perform the
necessary community services. They had all became very hungry and dirty. But on
getting back home, Bale found out that his parents had packed everything out of
home. He saw no one to question, not even any of the domestic maids, they all
too were gone. The suspense was becoming unbearable, so he quickly rushed to
their animal farm and discovered that there was none of their enormous
livestock there anymore. The poultry, the manger, the piggery and the stables
were all empty. The place was totally deserted.
While still in the king’s custody, he had
planned to foment trouble with his parents when he returned home. Their
inaptitude to intervene and prevent them from serving the new chief's
punishment had given him a bad image before his friends. They had called him a
liar for boasting too much about what his father was really incapable of
achieving. And they swore not to be around him anymore after that event since
his father wasn’t so important as before. But the thought had disappeared with
the present situation he met on ground. “What is going on?” he found himself
asking loudly as cold fluid flowed through his spines, “Where are my parents
and my siblings? Where are the domestic servants?”
“They had all gone to the next
Kingdom,” an old man's voice replied somewhere within the woods. He turned back
and saw a frail looking old man coming out of the woods with a bucket filled
with animal excreta in his hand. “My son,” he continued as he advanced towards
him, “you see, two days ago, the owner of this farm sold everything he had on
it. I even heard he had also sold his house too.”
“But that's a lie!” retorted
Bale, “my father will never do any thing as stupid as that!”
“Your father?” asked the man. “So
it was you!” “What?”
“My son, I am just a poor old farmer
from the neighboring village. Onimototo village to be precise, so you see, I
don't know much about this village. But according to the news I heard from
those around, they said that your father complained that the king refused to
acknowledge the presence of a rich and important man like himself in his
kingdom. They said his last humiliation
by the king was unbearable. So he thought that it was better for him to leave
to a kingdom where he would be better recognized. But was it true that you got
detained for being dirty?”
“Who told you that lie Baba? Who
did?” The boy asked angrily.
“Sorry! I don't mean to provoke
you, son. But that was what I heard during the auctioning of your entire
father's farm tools. Honestly, I would have loved to, but I was so poor that I
couldn't even buy any of his fairly used farm tools - not even the worst rake
or cutlass.” Bale became even more
furious as shivered the more. He looked at the old man's hand and asked, “So
what do you have in that bucket you are holding there?”
“Don't talk like this son,” the
old man replied smiling, “Slang is for children, while proverbs belong to the
adults. I believe you are only joking.
No prosperous farmer's son like you would deny recognizing the sight and odour
of animal dung.”
“And what do you intend to do
with the animals' wastes from my father's farm?”
“The land in my village is
reducing in its fertility year in and out. And that is negatively affecting
crop production. I intend to boost the fertility of my own farm-land with the
little manure I can scoop out from here.”
“And do you think that it will be
got for free old man?”
“Yes! This is the only thing no
one bid for. All the chickens, goats, cows, pigs and even the farm tools were
sold in my presence. This was the only unimportant thing no one wanted and I
was lucky to be present to take them for free.”
“No, old man!” shouted Bale, “I
can't just let you take them for free. You have to pay me something!”
“That must be a joke.”
“I am very serious old man!”
“But I'm just a poor old farmer
from the neighbouring village.”
“That is no excuse Baba. I have
lost everything because of the new chief in this village. And if this is the
last thing my father left behind that someone else needs, then I can't just let
you take it for free like that.”
“Does the housewife ask her
husband to pay her after delivering his child?”
“And what is that suppose to
mean? Or do I look like a pregnant housewife to you? I'm sorry old man; I think
you will have to drop it!”
“Honestly I would have loved to
pay if you insist, but I have nothing here. I even learnt that it is always
discarded as wastes on the streets. And the people are often scared to complain
that it generates an obnoxious smell and
also makes the environment filthy”
“But that's a lie!” Bale protested.
“My father always does that to fill the holes on the streets. And yet he wasn't
appreciated for that by the king and the people, so they ganged up against him
and replaced him. How I wish I could avenge the injustices that had been done
to us!”
“So what do you intend to do
now?”
“How I wish I knew!” Bale said looking
confused, “I thought my father had a plan, but now it's obvious he also seems
helpless too. How I wish I could do something to make him proud of me wherever
he is. Then, he will come back home and together we can laugh at the follies of
the king and chiefs!”
“But talking of wishes, I think I
have a pebble here in my pocket. Let me confirm.” He touched his pocket to have
a feel of it.
“What is it for?” Bale asked
excitedly.
“You just tell it whatever you
wish for and it happens just as you have wished on or before the next market
day!”
“If that true, then I want it!”
“But I have two left. I have one
here and one at home. Five of them were handed over by my grand father to my
father. My father in turn handed three over to me before he passed on. And now
I have used just one in my lifetime and want to pass the remaining two to my
two sons before I pass away too. That is the family tradition. Only that it is
advised to be seldom used, only as the last resort. I used it stupidly the
first time it was handed over to me. I was just a boy. There was a woman of my
dream that wouldn't even bother to look at me for a minute. I wanted her so
badly that I wished for her hand in marriage and it happened just as I wished.”
“Then I want it Baba,” asked the
boy eagerly, “just give it to me and go with whatever amount of dung that you
want!”
“Listen son,” continued the old man, “I paid
dearly for my stupid mistake. My lovely wife died in the course of bearing me a
pair of twins.” “Sorry,” said Bale coldly, “but you must be an unfortunate man.
My mother said I was born lucky. Now will you handover the one here to me? At
least you said you still have one at home. You can throw a coin to decide which
of your sons gets the last one.”
“But I foresee that you want to
use it for something evil. It doesn't work that way. I found out that it is
best used to assist others.”
“Old man,” said the boy more
firmly, “whatever I use it for is none of your business! Now will you give it
to me so that you can take whatever amount of manure that you want?”
“Yes…” slurred the old man,
“because I have no choice.”
He
dipped his hand into his wrapper and brought out a black shinny pebble, then
handed it over to the boy who collected it eagerly, admired it with a smile and
said, “I just hope you are not telling lies old man, because if you do, the
next time we will meet again it shall be hell!”
to be continued ...
No comments:
Post a Comment