There was once a daughter of a highly-paced person, executive manager of a certain big firm, who was not satisfied with the type of life she was leading. When it comes to life necessities, she had everything at her disposal; literary she lacked nothing that the modern world could offer. She started driving at the age of twelve.
Her father bought her a car of the latest model of the time. She had a driver of her own until the age of eighteen. She went to one of the prestigious schools in the town she was living in. Sometimes, mostly on Saturdays and Sundays, she walked to school under the pretext of going to the library. She was seldom seen with one of her teachers on those rare occasions.
Many girls of her age and from the same status envied her for something they could not explain. The way she walked and talked, and her natural qualities of mind and character were the kind that nobody could resist; a matchless being. She was a girl with a cheerful disposition; she was a special creature whom everybody liked and cared for. All liked to be around her; her companionship was cherished by all at all times. She was a girl of limited word but well-thought. Her power and manner was so calculated that she would easily drive her points well to the point she wished.
Appearance wise, she could be placed among those labeled as extremely beautiful. She was tall of stature, anyone who beheld her, enjoyed the amusement of attraction and pleasure to his mind. Her wavy hair gently roles from her shoulders and hastens down to her hips. Her pleasant looking dimpled-cheeks with straight nose gracefully rising between them render her a beauty of rare quality.
Such beautifully intimidating sight, placed before the eyes, particularly of the lust-driven young people, whisks their soul off their body frame and even of those reputed for self-control, integrity and strict moral discipline. Shrouded by lips, her evenly planted white-snow teeth are briefly exposed by the spark of her smile.
The aura of her presence involuntarily entices into its fold. At this junction all heads turn to where she was and all eyes without any inhibition stared at her; she was in command of all happenings around her without anybody to claim ownership. Despite the numerous positive physical attributes and hosts of social appreciation and support, there lurk the sting of dissatisfaction, despondence and disenchantment. She could not cherish them at all. There was something painfully pricking inside her.
“What’s life after all?” she said under her teeth, yet expecting no answer for he relief at least for the time being. The long and sharp teeth of lamentation pierced deep into her fleshy keen conscience, the inescapable judgment; for the shrew, it is the source of back biting that earns them a joy of humiliation. The scenario of the whole narrative was better kept secret for it wounds the hearts of the innocent listeners. Nature sometimes allows unrestrained happening without considering its repercussions, a far reaching and indirect bad effects on the unfortunately implicated person.
Tiblet, could not bear such a dreadful burden of the conscience that kept gnawing her whole being. The vice of the modern population explosion and the unrestrained human trafficking from one place to the other intensifies misfortunes that have befallen some unfortunate individuals.
Tiblet happens to be among them. She did not willingly bring it upon herself, but found herself engulfed by it unnoticed. How hard she tried to free herself from such bondage, the outcome was futile. She could not share it to her friends; even if she did, she felt it would not be of much help except spreading it to those who would not be able liked to know it.
Nevertheless, her friends and others were always puzzled by the way she conducted herself. Having to sit stiff for a long time with her friends without uttering a word would always make them doubt or question about her mental state. She was fidgeting with whatever she had in her hand. She appeared absent amidst the crowd. The relentless efforts of her father to make her happy by supplying everything she needed, including money, meant nothing to her.
The driver who was taking her to school felt rather ignored by her for he did not understand her situation as she had never had a lengthy talk with him except reminding him of the time he would come to pick her up. He would at time start conversation which she would hush him to his utter disappointment. Her situation always remained a mystery to him. He would attribute it to the arrogance of her parents’ wealth, looking upon him just like an object, with no desire to relate to him.
But to his amazement, out of nowhere, suddenly calling his name, she burst into a gush of uncontrollable tears. He did not know what to say or what to do. Jumped out his front seat of the car and came round to her side, the rear seat. He stretched his trembling hand to her upon which she clung to it. Having gained courage, he asked her what her problem was. Indistinctly she mumbled some words which were not clearly audible to him. He wished she talked loudly and clearly so that he could be of some help by offering comfort to her smoldering fire that had been in her heart for such a long time.
“Tiblet, please tell me what’s bothering you so much.”
“Simachew, I know how you feel about me. All the time we’ve been together, I kept reserved not because I was despising you but the burden in my heart made me behave the way I did. Now, I have reached the point I cannot continue like that. Even though I was hiding it from you, I have observed your reliable quality to keep secrets. You never complained to my parents”
“I’m honored to hear such commendation coming out of your mouth. The Year-long grudges I have kept against you went up in vapors,” he confesses.
“Thanks for your honesty. I thought you wouldn’t positively react to my impulsive behavior. I’m sorry for treating you the way I did, but you are a real gentleman. I can rely on you for everything hereafter. You will be my confidant; I have a secret to confide in you without any fear and doubt.”
“I’ll indeed be your confidant as you have just said. Trust me, for everything you will tell me; I promise to keep it confidential for as long as I live.” He vowed.
Following this, she unfolded her innermost secret that she had kept only to herself for years. Everything about her love affairs with her cousin Asgedom, the son of her father’s younger brother, who had been abandoned by his father.
“It is now two years since I overheard some people talking about my friend. They said that his father, Nega, had affairs with a certain woman around the time he was about to marry his present wife. It is customary that wives do not like to marry a person who has an illegitimate child or a bastard, so to speak. Therefore, to keep the interest of his legal wife he abandoned Asmerom. His mother, as soon as she came to know that Nega was to get married to another woman, she fled to another town. The secret was known to a few people. “My parents did not know anything about it at all and there was virtually no mention of Asmerom’s name in our house.”
Asmerom, thus, with the help of God and the determination of his mother, grew up like any other poor child without any support from his rich relatives whom he did not know. Like every Ethiopian child, he went to school, finished high school and joined college, there finished his education with first and second degrees. As a chance, he happened to be my teacher and we both somehow fell in love and he proposed to me for marriage. And thus, he has been my fiancé for the last three years. My brother, under normal circumstance, I’m going to be a wife of my cousin.
“I am in a fix. It is unthinkable for me to marry Asmerom, and yet I am deeply in love with him to dump him,” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.
How could such intricate problem be solved? The driver had no readymade solution to it. With a heavy heart he just listened to her. She knew that nobody would come for her rescue.
“Nevertheless,” she said, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know who holds the future.”
The driver started the car and they headed home quietly each inwardly thinking of what to do next.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 29 September 2019
SHORT STORY BY JOSEPH SOBOKA
