(Short Story)
BY JOSEPH SOBOKA
“Where else is a better place to live?” asked Ashebir.
“Oh, to my knowledge, there is nowhere in the whole wide world free of troubles,” angrily responded Wakwaya looking the other way as if expecting someone to come. “After all, why do you ask me such a question?”
Ashebir unable to figure out why Wakwaya answered the way he did, he chose to be silent for a while. In his mind he drifted back to their childhood, the time when innocence dominated their relationship. When there was no school, particularly in summer vacation, they had their leisure time to be together uninterruptedly.
They would meet in the morning when their parents were away for their daily routines to make ends meet at least for the day. These two peers were free unless they were occasionally running errands. They would run back to their homes before their parents’ returned. They grew up together in this manner sharing the good and the bad without holding grudges.
Those were the days when they slip out of their homes and walk to town center and walk around to see things that they thought would be new to them. Shops, tearooms which greatly appealed to them because of the pastte (white flour dough boiled in oil) and sambusa (a kind of lentils roll boiled in oil) which they could only see and salivate since they did not have money to buy and eat them.
They always felt sorry for such thing happening to them. It was Ashebir who regretted for his parents were poor and unable to give him money at least to buy and enjoy pastte and sambusa, the delicacy boys longed for. Their schoolmates always talked about how they couldeat them every dayas their parents were giving them money. It was not a big deal to give money as the cost of paste and sambusa was only ten cents at that time.
Ashebir suddenly jumped up as if awakened from deep slumber by some force.
He turned to Wakwaya and said, “I was thinking about the time when we were children, how we would meet and go to different places talking, laughing and running about without even thinking where we were going. We thought life would go on free of care like that forever.”
“Do you remember that day when we came face to face with your father?” asked Wakwaya. “The shock that ran down my spine stays with me for as long as live,” he added.
“For that matter, the beatings I received by strap that night, the pain always lingers with me hitherto. The scars are still visible.” said Ashebir shaking his head with sorrow.
In response, Wakwaya said, “How harsh were our parents for punishing us cruelly like that. We did not commit big mistakes to be treated ruthlessly. Teachers tell us how parents should love and provide for the children. But what we see is reality is entirely different from what is supposed to be.”
“Things in life do not work out perfectly the way we think. Think of us how we honestly believed everything people were telling us. We took things for granted without questioning. We thought all people were honest and truthful,” said Ashebir in philosophical tone, while deeply agitated.
The situation disturbed him so much that it caused him anxiety at least for a brief moment. He did not think he would be carried away like that for things that had happened to them in their childhood.
After attentively listening to what Ashebir said, Wakwaya cleared his throat, as the day was quite chilly, and said, “Thank God; we have survived the situation even though it rather looked deadly. Just imagine, Ashebir, what could have happened to us in the face of the cruel parental treatment and the poor diet that made us remain stunted? We could have been long dead; but by the grace of God, we are alive to witness our past.
“Well, we should know that we have developed resilience, the quality of quickly recovering from our past condition which harshly crushed us. Nevertheless, now we should know that what our parents did to us was not out of evil intentions; they had no ulterior motive in the relationship they had with us. It was poverty and ignorance combined that made them behave and treat us the way they did. Now we are, more or less, on our own to decide which path of life we should follow to arrive at our preferred future even though it is not easy.”
“What do you mean by preferred future?” enquired Wakwaya.
“Well,” said Ashebir, “it is the time when things work out good for you and when you make the best out of them. For example, your business booms, you make good money and you rapport with the people you happen to be with easily, as money is power even to win friendship.”
“Now I get it. That should be what we all need to have. I, for one, always dream to be in such life situation in which I do not have to bother about amenities of life,” responded Wakwaya having a good grip of the idea.
“Why in the world all people do not reach such state of future? As we both know, not many are as successful as you said. Comparing the size of the population of our country, virtually very few people proudly speak about such success. Many of them, for that matter, live in dire poverty, including us.”
“Why do you think the world finds itself in such an awkward situation? Is it because the resources are scares or something else?” asked Wakwaya eager to know.
They discussed at length that so far as the modern world is concerned, literally there is nothing taken for granted. Things, due to political or economic reason, keep changing. The situation considered reliable today suddenly evaporates into thin air impossible to retrieve it. The decisive will of the people has little power to bring it back. It rather appears as if the situation itself refuses to offer its blessings.
This seemingly retaliatory reaction indicates the punishment humans should bear because of their refusal to comply with the proper edict the situations demand. There is always a price one should pay to tap into opportunities the situations present. As much as we are eager to enjoy sweetened circumstances, there is always a bitter side of it that should be embraced no matter how difficult it is.
The world is not always a rose garden. There are thorns that parallel them to prick and alert us for step forward. How hard we try to achieve our goals, there are ups and downs that pull us back from reaching the end of the race – our goal. Holes, bumps and thistles are on the long way to success.
An undetermined contender might drop out for he easily yields to the difficult circumstance. Nothing freely offers itself without wrestling with it. Life is full of difficulties that man has to out-triumph it. There are always trials and challenges without which man is unable to succeed; they test our stamina.
Our vigor and enabling power will be put to the test and we should be persistent to any length the situation takes us. It takes working hard for a long time; hit and run, the very act of laziness cannot be condoned in this situation. A sincere follow up is highly demanded of each of us if positive results are desired.
Some of us are set to work with spiritual exuberance, yet, no sooner than discouragement surfaces we abandon everything and hurry away from our responsibilities.
Each of us have dreams in life. The dreams may or may not be materialized as exactly as we see them. There are stumbling blocks everywhere how hard we try to avoid them. Utopia, the imaginary and perfect social and political system, has been what the great thinkers ever aspired for. It is supposed to be a system in which everything good and desirable presents itself without being asked for the benefits of mankind. But nothing this sort has ever happened in this wretched world. It never materializes whatsoever.
The two friends, Wakwaya and Ashebir, after exhaustively analyzed situations, came to the conclusion that after all, absurdity rules the ways of the world they live in no matter how hard they try to edify and beautify them. It is all vanity.
The Ethiopian Herald December 12/2020
