The Fall of Man 2

‘Crap!!! Total crap!!!’ Tenga watched his father pace around the living room with his small radio practically glued to his ears. ‘Why? Who the fuck do they think they are? They want to come and spoil our only source of livelihood ehn? They want to sack all local doctors because we did not go to school in Ukraine? Or because we do not have foreign certificates? Stupid people, goddamn fellows everywhere’ Tenga watched in amusement as his father fumed, he could practically see smokes coming out of his ears. ‘But father, you’re not all that local, you went to the best medical school and trained as an intern abroad. You’re much of a doctor as anyone else is sir’ he intoned. His father looked at him angrily ‘Tell that to the government son, I asked you to become a doctor so you would train abroad and make us proud, no!! You refused, you wanted to become a reporter instead. Is reporting giving you money now? No!!! Now we’re all going to starve, I hope you’re happy’ Rubbish!!!! Tenga thought, he was getting angry too but he tried his best to hold it down ‘how would studying abroad make me a better person? You do not realise its not your time anymore, do you? You do not realise its not about the money, its about the passion. You keep shouting abroad like its some big deal, if it was that big a deal why did you come back home to practice your profession? Why didn’t you do it there, atleast we’re all citizens of Germany. I’m just trying to be a good son and respect you father, you better appreciate it’. His father chuckled, a painful chuckle. ‘Of course, Germany citizen, you’re now 20, you can talk to me anyhow and tell me the difference between money and passion. Some guts you have there boy, disrespecting me and telling me you’re respecting. This generation though, so corrupt, if it were in my days….’ Tenga groaned ‘there we go again Father. Your time this, your time that. When will you realise its not your time anymore. When? You should have let us stay back in Germany sir, we were doing fine there. Now that you’re here and the government is retrenching everybody, I hope it’ll finally enter your head to let us go back’. Dumbfounded, was his father. Such guts, imagine his son telling him his time was over. God of Abraham and Isaac!! An African man being talked back at, worse still by his son. White man’s lands, really? His son had to be turned to one who could talk back at his father? Anyway that was the least of his worries, this one that the government was planning to fire a lot of workers, what was he going to do? Going back to Germany was out of the question, staying in this town to was also out of the question, there would be nothing left for him. The only option left was for him to go back to Banta – his mother land, he was sure his family would refuse to go. Those ones, those ones that had been spoilt by Germany sun and snow. ‘We’re going to relocate to the village’ he whispered, loud enough for Tenga to hear. He screamed, yes! Tenga screamed. ‘Why would I want to go to your goddamn village daddy, you want me dead?’ ‘If its going to kill you, you had better die now. Die before I kill you with my own hands, you bloody fool’ his father shouted back, angrier than before. ‘Will you two keep it down? Shouting as if you’re the only ones in this house. Why can’t both of you go a day without all these bickering and hammering’ Tenga’s mother stood at the doorway with her hands crossed over her chest. She was a huge woman and was the striking older figure of Tenga, only she was taller. Her face was bare of any makeup whatsoever, she didn’t need it anyway, she was beautiful. Her slippers sounded round the room as she came inside, her huge figure was intimidating. ‘Mom, its father….’ ‘Darling, your son…’ They both started off at the same time and stopped only when they saw the look of anger on her face ‘You boys should keep quiet and let my ears have some peace, I will not die because I have two men in my house’ her voice was low, but loud enough to give the idea that she liked authority. ‘Darling’ she turned to her husband ‘what’s wrong?’ He sat down as he narrated everything ‘and then he said he wouldn’t go to the village. Your son was politely insulting me, adding ‘sir’ to the insults’. She tried so hard not to laugh ‘If we must go to the village then so be it. I was getting pretty tired of this town anyway’. ‘But mum’ Tenga whined, I will not survive there, what about my sister – Sandy?’ ‘She’s not coming back into this country anytime soon so leave her alone’ her voice boomed through the whole house ‘I’m not going either, I’ll go back to Germany, I’ll go back to full time reporting’ he stamped around. ‘We’re moving to the village son, and that’s it’.