1 Chapter 1
"You are now free," said the prison Warder.
"What?" asked the prison inmate.
"I said get out of here" retorted the Warder.
"Me?" asked the inmate.
"Yes. You are inmate number Js09876tbs, right?" The prison warder asked.
Jose stood still. He had ceased to be a person with a name. For a name, he had a number. And now he was leaving the company of friends with whom he had become identified for a long time. He was freed but was not yet free.
"Get out or I lock you in," said the prison warder.
"No. I don't want to go" said Jose, "You can lock me in."
"Look here my friend, your jail term has come to an end and we have no reason to keep you here. Go" said the warder.
With a haggard look on his furrowed face, José left the dank and putrid cells of the maximum-security prison unsure of his next stop. It must have been prison service that shriveled his muscles and put those lines on his face. I am certain about this, that acts by the hand of God drew his eyes into their sockets and bleached parts of his mustache and hair to render of him the countenance of a lanky solemn man, he now was.
The land before him was barren and denuded.
Prisoner's counseling and guidance before his release notwithstanding, he scanned the landscape contemplating the merits and demerits of his newly found freedom. A land, not God-forsaken, because He'd never come this way and therefore had nothing to do with it. It was his land and he was starting all over again from here. This was an opportunity.
Jose's mind was fertile.
Jose was born in a small village in the countryside. That day, heavy clouds obscured the early morning rays of the sun for prolonged periods. When the heavens broke, his home shook as the ferocious rain with peals of thunder and lightning tore through the sky threatening to tear it apart.
Jose's mother, Tesky Tikombe knew that her house was strong, having survived worse storms. Her heart was even stronger. Had she not passed through the fiery testing of barrenness? At last, her shame was taken away. This was all that mattered. She gave birth to a baby boy in the face of a regular down dressing from her co-wife who was also a sister. You can imagine her joy at the birth of this child and him being the 'apple of her eye', she was careful not to offend anyone.
Visitors to this great occasion came in droves. They brought gifts and never lacked advice to this elderly couple.
One particular visitor who had a prophecy to announce was hushed surreptitiously by a section of the multitude. They argued that children born to elderly parents were 'the bullets that a gun fired at dawn' and because men fire blanks at dawn, no one expected there to be a variance. And this phrase became the newborn's tease word right through his childhood.
Distancing from him, his entourage left discreetly. His public shaming was a stinky affair of which they would not want to partake. This guest left. He, nevertheless, handed over a special gift to Jose's father. He was a sage.
Tesky's husband Mr. Tikombe, like most husbands who were getting to be counted as fathers, took all the unsolicited parental advice with a lot of patience. This was expected of him. Even though he had a colorful bookmark for a gift to his son, his own life was decorated with colors that were dull and drab. Both the bookmark and the wordless book had colors of the rainbow.
With time, the youngster is named after his uncle; an uncle you have already heard about and from whom you will hear a lot.
José-the newborn baby was born to a family of renowned singers. Music was second nature to this family. No one would be surprised to find Tesky and her husband Tikombe singing or humming as they went about their work. He started school when he was seven years old.
One day at mealtime and seated with his stepbrothers, his mother wished to know what it was like at school, he put it this way.
"My teachers are kind to me". Quickly adding "We are taught how to do sums and to read."
His stepbrother said, "The teacher sent Jose out of class." He added, "Let him tell us about that too."
Feeling hurt by this Jose responded, "I was sent out of class. But I can read and do sums faster than you."
"Nobody asked you about that" his stepbrother retorted.
"Neither did anyone ask you about my classroom
routines" Jose answered back.
Jose could hear music in his ears. A fistfight broke out.
Tesky knew her co-wife was going to make a great deal out of this brief scuffle. She, therefore, reprimanded her son and thereafter, assigned some simple tasks to both of them, then let them go out to play. She taught her son that there is a difference between what people say and what they mean; that not only do they cry when they are sad, they also cry when they are happy. They laugh when they are happy but also laugh when they are angry and that their smiling faces never always tell the whole truth.
As they returned home from school, Jose conversed with his stepbrother as follows "Look at that?"
"What?" asked his stepbrother.
"It's a snake," said Jose.
His stepbrother ran away very fast.
When Jose reached home, this is how he conversed with his mother.
"It looked like a rope as it uncoiled itself from the branch of a tree where it rested. It had two small eyes at the top of its V-shaped head. It's shiny beautifully patterned skin slithered effortlessly from branch to branch. Its wavy motion together with its forked tongue popping in and out of its mouth took away your breath, giving you shivers. We were hypnotized."
His mother said, "You must never call him by name –that is the snake."
"What do I call it?" asked Jose.
"Call him anything but the name snake," said his mother.
"It's a snake," said Jose.
"I know that. We belong together. You must learn to obey me - your mother always," said his mother.
Later, Jose conversed with his stepbrother as follows,
"Mother said we must never call him a snake."
"Why?" asked his stepbrother.
"She said it's disrespectful to do that," said Jose.
"My mother said that we must hit its head hard," said his stepbrother.
"Why?" asked Jose.
"If it finds you, it will bite your heel. The Bible says so" said his stepbrother.
This was part of Jose's fading childhood that was now called to memory, as the road they drove on snaked through the rugged mountainous terrain to his upcountry home. His bus ride finally came to an end. This trip had no excitement.
