“How did the last Shkulu Mululu boss die?” was the most mysterious thing that puzzled the society in Drundla .Dumas always enjoyed thinking about it. He would love to lie to himself about it. “He should have watched his diet,” he would say. Then he smiled.
In yesteryears, smiles were prohibited by the gang. The restraining order was passed not only for gang members but also for the people in town. Why? Nobody knew. Even if you see a cripple stand, carry his wheelchair, and run all of a sudden, you cannot smile. The gang did not want to see hope on anybody’s face. Hope is a crime in the town’s gangster bible.
Anyways, what did Dumas do to the last Shkulu Mululu boss? It was officially whistle blew that he died diabetic. He wasn’t careful about his meals and drinks, which he gobbled and gulped down respectively into his mouth all day long. All day long, because his illness was the famished one. “Diabetes is one of the gangster diseases, which human beings have ever had”, said Donko, one of the loyal whistle-blowers of the gang in town. He is unpacking his expertise on diabetes so the Towner’s will take in the news with a great deal of concern.
“There are two types of diabetes”, he continued. “The famished and spoiled diabetes. The hungry one will eat you alive if you don’t eat on time. Of course, you will get hungry all the time and you have to eat all the time. Some of you lazy people won’t survive it. Those who are hard working to eke out a living may survive it.
The spoiled one is quite the opposite. Whistle-blowers let you know that you cannot eat whatever you see on the table. You have to manage the sponge in your stomach. All you have to do is, take your diabetes drugs on time; avoid salt from your dishes and anxiety, vexation and insult from your life; stay calm all the time; so many rules for this spoiled disease,” he said this and stopped suddenly.
“So, which one was it?” the wise towner Dobe Kumsi would ask. Donko, the whistleblower didn’t understand the question and would ask back “What do you mean?”
“Which diabetes killed Dungas?” Dungas was the last Shkulu Mululu boss that Dumas succeeded. “Oh it was the spoiled one. He wasn’t careful regarding his meals. He ate a lot of salty meat the day he died,” Donko lied and left the small bar that the wise man and his friends usually hang in. Dungas was of course found dead with a knife stuck on his back in his house.
Dobe didn’t buy this story of Dungas dying of spoiled diabetes. He remembers that Dungas was healthy and athletic and most of all always careful with his meals. He would never eat whatever he found on the table. He was a very suspicious man that he wouldn’t even let his wife cook his meals. He always cooked for himself. He always thought people would poison him not stab him from the back.
Dobe tried to tell people that Dungas was murdered. He told them to wake up and try to find a real truth at least once in their lives. But they didn’t listen to him. Whoever listens to a wise person in a small town? And there was this foolish reason to it. First, a small town never produces wise men. If it did the town wouldn’t be small and full of poor people. Second, if there was a wise man he wouldn’t be fool enough to stay in a small town, which is taken over by a gang group. Third….oh what was the third one? Yeah ….third, if Dobe was wise, he wouldn’t doubt what the Shkulu Mululu whistle blew about the death of Dungas and most of all he wouldn’t go public with his doubts and uncertain scenarios of his own.
The new boss didn’t regard it but the loyal gangsters of the group, for they always wanted an excuse to execute someone with such anarchist ideas, were very alarmed. In gangster politics, it is always the lower rank members of the gang who would like to take small matters seriously and ruin everything for the bosses. They want to prove their loyalty in every occasion. The wise man and his daughter would be in trouble. These loyal gangsters would always find out a way to turn things upside down on an innocent towner.
However, Dobe’s daughter, Dooly was always in the eyes of Dumas, almost forever. She was so pretty. Where to start? Oh she’s got this stunning red skin, which resembled the setting sun of an eastern highland. Drundulu was one of the highland towns in the east.
The eastern highlands of Dundla have very much fascinating sunrise and sunsets. When the sun rises in the summer it is on a grey sky and it is always astonishing to see how it clears the foggy sights of the sky and makes it completely blue. Elderly people enjoyed the blue sky with the bright and warm sun.
The new generation that loved to spend the nights drinking hard liquors never liked the morning sunlight. Their dehydrated body and skin never resisted the sunlight. The afternoon was so scorching for them, even while they were inside a bar where they were cooling themselves. That’s what they called the morning drink, cooling. They drink cold beer to cool themselves and chase the hangover off. They think it will maintain their mood for their daily business.
Most of the young men would start cooling by early morning; the last-night drink hangover would be chased off and a new good mood would take over their brain. Then it would be midday. This time the drinking will be joined by hot conversations. They would start about the inflation, expensive life, shortage of jobs and illegally fleeing the country. The conversation would be prolonged, and they would forget that they had worked to do. They always sat the whole day complaining about the government not doing anything to avert economic crisis.
When the sunset, there was this amazing red color it made on the western sky. Just like Dooly’s skin. She’s got red, apple like, fat lips. The boss, Dumas, grew up always wanting to kiss those fat lips. But her father Dobe was always protective and Dumas as a child was not charming and attractive that she was never interested in him. Of course they went to the same school and same classes as well. He always tried to talk to her. She was never rude to him but he never made her laugh or his topics of conversation were annoying.
It is amazing how fate shapes the future of every one. Dooly went to college and graduated being a doctor while Dumas quit school and joined the army. Dooly got job in the one and only clinic in town while Dumas left the army and become Skulu Mululu. There was this quitter nature in him. But now he is the boss and his eyes always on her. Her father’s big mouth always talking bad things about the gang was a threat to her. Could she be in trouble? Could the boss be bossy or romantic? Or he would quit on her too. She was on crossroads.
BY SHAMA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 23 MAY 2024
