Cuba bound

By Dumisani khumalo

He was in Cuba at the blink of an eye .The cop that sought for him could not find him ,see him ,nor was he certain of his whereabouts so  he could get his own revenge .He saw him ten years later, after buying him a beer at a bar and inquiring if he still remembered him .He said no ,and when he told him who he was ,he disappeared once again .

The bags the boys found were in a secluded part of a bush and under a bridge. The one who first saw them claimed there maybe a case of baby dumping and caution was to be taken ,after a narration of how forensics would come up with evidence, from fingerprints or erroneously coming out of the belly of lies , that a dead person revealed his killer by copying him up into his eyes for the dictatives to reveal it with their gadgets , narratives that picked their bristles of the cat walking amongst them and if such be the case as in the bags ,would have the same kind of investigations .

The stories were not as truthful as their desire for money,smokes and beer .The three of then agreed that if they pulled the cases out they would share the loot by thel three of them and decided to put them close by the main road so access would be easy ,then in the morning ,they would be able to try and sell them 

The pernicious task of lifting them out was queer and difficult,taking more time they reached the main road at dusk .Then walking home to a silence as errie ,it made all of them go their separate ways after the his marijuana pulled them out of their skins, not a word was heard ,obviously from the fear playing on what they had seen .

Not on Martin as he checked on them and on their individual ways home ,and making his way back to a friends house close by .He told him of the bags ,and the friend obliged to carrying them with and find a buyer the next day .That is what caused the whole thing to go into another nail biting moment ,as they found out the next day that the bags were gone.

Martin took his two friends to the bags ,and found the were no longer there .After the same dictatives stories ,they all agreed ,someone must have been tailing them .

At midday ,Martin was sharing the first fruits of the money of the bags sold to a maid in the neighbourhood at $35 ,and for the two ,it was manna dropped from heaven for both of them . 

They shared $15'each ,and the five was for the beer they had all wanted lsince eaving school and fast graduating into adult life .They went to a nearby bottlestore and bought some opaque beer,and clear beer came in after that, for most, as a wash down .

The police raids were reminiscent of the colonial era ,harsh and demanding for individual particulars ,and only resembled in it the power politics of blacks in blacks as finding opposition as opponents were as good as enemies of the State.

Martins weight lighting and training's made him look big and awesome ,he was barely got scared as when the bags story was told to him ,and he took them and had the idea of how to sell them, and now he was not afraid of any police raid at all.A pack of opaque beer called a shake shake was sipped at will and put high up on the trusses for hiding as they played games on fruit machines and mini soccer .If the police came ,as they did so often ,they would all deny ownership of the pack as usual, and a band of youth was taken to the new, youth having money in their pockets ,and money to spend on beer like this .

The patrol car was there in no time, and helter skelter ,the youth ran in all directions to escape arrest and pay a fine ,failure of which was a number of days in the cells, save for Martin whose hands were stuck at the mini soccer table and looking at the goings on a little bit ignominious danger was nigh.A three star band ranked officer came out to him and picked out the pack ,which Martin denied to be his .The overzealous office then wanted someone to take him with him as an example to his subordinates .Arrests had to be made .Martin was the culprit whom he tried pulling into the car in front of his officers who had returned after a chase for the youth but could not do so by the strength of his arms and body build.

The other officers looked curiously at them and Martin gave him a punch to the face ,the officers hat going into the wind as he came down on his knees ,as Martin pulled him towards his bare knee for the final knell.

The quick realisation of rank made the other officers take him from behind,putting handcuffs on him and bundling him into the van to the police station .The ranking officer who was injured was taken to hospital.

At the police station ,Martin was chained to the wall ,and after an inquiry in his identity papers and age ,he was found to be under age to drink ,and they had no test kits to prove he was drunk ,and the politics in the station wanted him let loose because there was no evidence aganist him ,and moreover the ranking officer was a promotion through the thick of political rivalry and through political muscle,and working at the conviction of opposition members was some officers call of duty and persecution letter of employment.

Martin was literally out of the holding area when a call came from hospital that Martin was not to be let loose .The ranking officer had more he had to prove.

He arrived in the late hours of dusk and tried his hand at karate kicks and punching Martin, as Martin did not cry nor bleat  ,but demanded for a fair fight .It astounded them ,and sounded rude at the final ,it was decided that he be taken to a stops camp where both criminals ,political detainees ,and thugs were put up ,and news arrived already that a young lad had beaten his political opponent and was being brought into their holding cells. Martin was a hero when he arrived .

The chief inspector was.in the following morning,and Martin s age was of concern when other political opponents were beaten black and blue and forced into submission for crimes they did not commit ,as they too ,were being trailed in their suburbs by political opponents of the ruling party.

The high ranking officer was waiting for Martins release ,at his gate at home and revenge was on his breathe each day .Martins release was quick and swift ,he saw himself out on the street and heading home .His young brother approached him to give him a letter that he was going for teacher training interviews for those who wanted scholarships to Cuba . The idea was exciting but to Martin who had no proper clothes and a jogger shot and t-shirt ,how would he succeed. at such an interview nor get over his other pressing problem.

He would not as his cousin who had already arrived at the interviews ,started showing off ,and laughing at him and pulling a crowd of beau's towards himself for that sake..

The interviews went on until they were all told to come the next day for their results .His cousin took the information home to their parents that Martin was a total embarrassement and failure who went in to the interviews in shorts and a t-shirt ,as he his cousin wore the latest fancy suit there.

The high ranking officer was also prowling his area out for him ,,with his own troop of supporters he had to sleep at a nearby drinking hole called a shabeen for cover .

The next day Martin had heard the rumours about him but still went to hear the results and hoping . 

Knocking on his mind was the idea that he had seen the panel of judge's knod their heads continually as he came into the room .It was something to raise his curiosity as his zeal.Maybe his muscles impressed them or he was impressive enough or handsome enough to capture their attention ,as they too were being nice to him 

2000 people were interviewed countrywide ,and they needed only 50 from here. All out of 500 ,the announcement came .The names were called and the first name to come out was that of Martin Moyo ,and Martin stepped out ,only to see another lad step out like him ,making his spirits sink .

The person making the announcement said I want the one who is going to teach mathematics,and it was him ,the other person was there for biology .

His cousins name was never mentioned as Martin discovered later that Cuba was under sanctions for a long time and they did not want people living the wealthy rich kind of lifestyle as in America but those trying their best to do what they can with the little they had .

The prowling officer never stopped visiting their home until he got tired ,and ten years after the incidence ,Martin was a teacher enjoying his beer ,with less muscle to his body when the person who kept buying him his beer ,him thinking it must be one of his students parents who excelled in mathematics was thanking him for his efforts and finally told him that he thought so that he did not so remember him .He said he did ,and his host said no as he started a narrative of his predicament because of him in his early years as a high ranking police officer on the party's ticket and that trully ,he did not remember him ..

Then out of the blue he started telling of the career that ended when his party lost and how he once beat up the wrong people because of him in his youth ten years ago .Martins mouth went dry ,and he thought of the movements he was making to the toilets and back leaving his beer unattended .He could be poisoned he thought and thought again as he excused himself pretending to be going to the toilet but out into the street and made his way out of the bar never to be seen again .

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