I grunt with disgust as I hear them squiggle, their
offensive odor irritating me almost to the point of puking. I am talking about a set of omnivore animals called Pig, Eshi, Alede or Swine amongst various dialect
of the world. One thing that is in agreement with all about this set of animal is they are unclean and quite
annoying. My
vendetta with them emanates from no other source than past experiences with them.
* * *
My Uncle had insisted that I travel along with him to
supply some of
the big restaurants in the capital city live pigs. The demand for pork is had
sky rocketed as it is a favourite on the menu of most of the big restaurants in the
capital city especially the Chinese restaurants, foreigners will give just anything to
have the lively taste
of pork in their mouth. As much as it is a favourite among foreigners it is also a favourite of
most local people but certainly not my favourite. I hated the idea of traveling with
my uncle in his truck and most of all the idea of staying with him in the first
place
after I had lost
my both parent in a fire
incident
but had no choice since no one else was willing to shoulder my responsibility. Tending to these creatures
was tormenting enough but traveling alongside them was the most annoying experience
of my life. I was better-off with my uncle traveling the length and breadth of
the country making
his rounds of supplies by himself but this time I had no choice. He had been the one taking care of me, since I lost
both parents to a ghastly motor accident. The most annoying part of the journey was when my
uncle pulled
over to urinate and asked if I was coming along, I decline because I
wasn’t feeling
pressed because it was obvious I was traveling because I was compelled to or just returning a
lifelong favour,
just
then one of the
pigs pushed its snout through an opening and began to smear my shirt with its
offensive snout. I freaked out and almost burst out as I reached for the log of wood my uncle use as a wedge to hit it but had to
stop half way before descending the blow as my uncle was approaching the truck.
I remember that one; it was one of those pigs I had had an encounter with. It
was probably its way of paying me back in its own coin for what I did to it two
weeks back, perhaps it was just saying goodbye, glad that I’m leaving you for
good.
* * *
I had just finished washing the new shirt my uncle bought for
me from the capital city and spread it on the cloth line to dry. I was suppose
to wear it to Kamal’s birthday party, he had been kind enough to invite me,
though he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he treated me no different
from his other rich friends, he isn’t like
the others who dreaded me like I was a plague because I help my uncle
in rearing pigs. I knew it was going to
be a big event, so I got prepared for it. I decided to take a nap while the
shirt dries only to wake up minutes later
to the worst
night mare of my life in the day. This black stubborn pig had lifted itself standing on two
legs, drag my shirt down from the line with its mouth, immediately the others came rushing as if
my shirt had become food.
“Yea!” I
screamed and reached for a big stick beside me racing towards them. It was rather too late;
they had dragged my shirt in the mud and were already ripping it apart. I gave
them the beating of their life especially the leader of the park, I didn’t feed
it for two days, I locked it in a separate compartment in isolation for two
days for ruining my chances of attending Kamal’s birthday party. It was lucky that my uncle
came back before I set it free and now it is beginning to try my patience a
second time.
“What’s the matter?” my uncle asked
opening the door.
“Nothing, I was just weighing the wedge” I lied seeing
the questioning look on his face. I knew he didn’t buy into my cheap lie. We continued
our journey in silence few kilometers from the capital city, when we heard sounds of tires
screeching, cars bumping into one another and decided to pull over quickly, only to behold the
worst sight of our lives. The pigs had busted open the back door of the truck
and stupidly ran into the busy highway. The damage was grave, I suspected as
much that it was that black devil of a pig that had led the park into
causing such a
disaster, it was obvious they knew they were not coming back once they
reach the capital city; where they will end up in the mouth of customers, tooth picks picking
out the rest of their ugly remains from the customers’ teeth. As cars tried to dodge them and
maneuvered they bumped into each other, the last straw that broke the camel’s
back was that
one car had tumbled with the passengers sustaining serious injuries. Out of
panic I shouted;
“Uncle see blood, Oh! My God what have we done?”
Two persons were confirmed dead and as we were cuffed by police
officers, I knew
we might not be seeing day light until a very long time, a v-e-r-y long
t-i-m-e.
15th August,
2010
09:09pm
From my forth coming book: Oaks from a Penthouse Orchard
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