THE HARD WAY,THE ONLY WAY

Authoring and publishing books has always been my most cherished dream from my childhood. As far back as the time I was doing my grade eight level of education, I ventured into the endless abyss of knitting words together and coming up with ideas that I felt duty bound to communicate to the world. Like a Tailor stitching the phonological material to put my thoughts on the sands of time, I labored night and day as I created time to rest from my academic pursuits. The first work I brought to the fore at my young age was a satire I called ‘Life.’ It went like:

           What is life if full of care

           We have no time to stand and stare

           Everything we hoped for is blown in the air

Is it because human race has abdicated his role of manning his manners meaningfully

Or is it due to human failure to harness and appreciate what nature has offered him on a silver plate

We all know that man made money

Yet we doubt the fact that money made man mad

So I say, man Mann your manners meaningfully

No sooner had I completed compiling a collection of my own composed poems, than I kept them in a wooden book case in my grandmother’s grass thatched house, the only abode I called my own since the demise of my parents. It caught fire and burnt my intellectual property I had labored for just like that. All my work became debris and ash by the time the fire was quenched.

Discouraged as I was, I forged ahead knowing that penning my ideas on paper was the only activity that filled my heart with great satisfaction as it was my only God given talent. I continued using my spare time committing ideas to paper by writing a novel entitled ‘Feat of Fate’. It took me five solid years to come up with a fictitious story of a young man by the name Lovemore whose destiny was subjected to many trials and tribulations that were to a greater extent caused by mare fate. In this story, a village boy whose world was centered and gravitated on the life of his peasant father Jackson Songolo who created for him the only world he knew. The sudden death of his father devastated him terribly, but when his paternal uncle Steve Songolo came to his rescue, he thought his destiny had been re-aligned. However, this relief was but a temporal one. This was because the very time he started enjoying the bliss of high life, his uncle died together with his entire family in a terrible road traffic accident. This blow was literally speaking too much to be absorbed without losing sanity. Indeed Lovemore ran bonkers and found himself at the market rubbish pit where he became a scavenger. This too was another ‘Feat of Fate’.

When the time came for his former classmate to pick him out of the rubbish pit, he perceived her to be second to the human savior. She cleaned and gave him not only food but also a decent place to call home. It was heaven on earth for him, not knowing that nothing in life comes for free. Everyone had the task of earning a place in life. Marjory was determined to earn marital status and the pomp that goes with it. Her only target was Lovemore who apparently posed no competition at all and this was the only ultra-motive she had for picking him from the gutter. She wanted to turn him into her husband since men were proving essential but difficult to find. Ignorant as he was on the intention of the young lady, he failed to perceive the fate that always followed him and he was equally blind to see that behind that well-meaning benevolence acts was a force pulling him to commit a heinous capital crime that he terribly regretted. How did it happen? The young man found himself in a trap when she called him to scare her boyfriend and grab his pension for them to start a new life with the money they did not earn. When he threatened the man, Lovemore was shocked that the old man attacked him in order to defend his hard earned money. In self defense, Lovemore struck with a kitchen knife which pieced the left side of Haluboono’s chest killing him instantly. Although this novel is still in progress as I am working on the third chapter, the intention is to postulate the effects of fate in human life. I must admit that I have no resources and the means to publish it.

I am proud to mention that despite my efforts not yielding much in terms of personal benefits, I have managed to complete one novel entitled Too Hard to be True. It has indeed been a long journey that has taken me twenty five years to be precise to finish my first novel. In this novel, I created a fiction story where I propagated that crime is not an entertainment in any way, and it is everyone’s battle to stay away from it. Yet not all have the wits to remain innocent and John Mopelo belongs to such a category. He has unfathomable affinity for crime. No matter how much he tries to abide by the law, the unforeseen force pulls him to the other side and is at times shocked to find himself crossing the barriers of the law. To John, innocence and guiltiness are separated by so thin a line that his nature gives him no latitude to distinguish. One really wonders why he sees it necessary and easy to plead guilty and yet feeling of victimization by the law is what always occupies his mind.

What is worse is that his exhibited character warrants a build-up of a trap, whether for the sake of money or love, the end result is equally painful for both his mother and himself. If indeed the end justifies the means then rehabilitation could not be guaranteed and obviously fate is expected to play the role of a judge. Taught by the past and convinced by the possibility and common tendency of history repeating itself, John Mopelo is set for success, especially when three pieces of diamond appear on scene. Nevertheless, he is determined to do it his own way, of course drawing inspiration from his parents who did it their way. But this decision is negatively affected by the Police prowess, agility and ability in probing and curbing crime. There is a tough time to everyone concerned when the victim’s mother stakes a lump sum monetary gain for her son’s survival and no double standard is allowed.

EVEN WHEN IT IS TOO HARD TO BE TRUE, IT CERTAINLY MUST BE SEEN THAT THE LAW OF THE LAND WINS IN THE END.

This book is purely fiction and any coincidence is not intentional as the line of the story is an artistic act of imagination. What has been highlighted is just a summary of my first complete work of art. It is my first complete intellectual property.