CHAPTER ONE

The only mileage that comes from living in the outskirt of a town was the early morning serenity. As he sat on a stool outside the one room hut his mother and him lived in, he wondered why life had to be so difficult for some people and then perfect for others.

The Sahel town was a well-known town where traders came in from other neighboring towns and cities to buy and sell their goods. At the outskirt of the Sahel town, was a small village, known as Ama village. As far as he could remember, this village was where he called home.

The village had a population of less than two thousand people, everyone knew each others name. They knew your family background and history.

Almost everyone that lived in Ama village engaged in subsistence farming. Some people that were lured into the Sahel town by their friends or relatives there, came running back after living in the big town for a while. They came with the complaints of how crowdy and disorganized the town was and how they preferred the village. The rest of the people agreed with them.

His wish, since he was little had been to explore the big town. That wish came through after he finished from the high school in Ama village. There was only one high school and no colleges in the village. They were lots of elementary level schools around to teach the children basic knowledge. Teachers were paid to come into the Ama village from the Sahel town just to teach the children.

He told his mama about his desire to continue college in Sahel town. At first she was against it, but after much persuasion, she gave in. She said as long as he was ready to work for his tuition fees. He kept more effort into farming and started to transport some farm produce to sell. This proved to be very difficult, since there was no good road network from the village to the town. He was able to gather some money and started college with it. He could not move into the town because of his mama. Also, they did not have enough money to get a house in Sahel town, so he settled for the commute. All these happened before his mama fell sick.

It was still too early for the farmers to visit their farms but not too early for the chirping of birds and croaking of toads.

His eyes were still heavy with sleep but he could not bear to listen to his mom moan in pains anymore. So he preferred the comfort that the cold morning offered. She cried in pain all through the night and he could not do anything about it. When this sickness started six month ago, he took her to the only hospital they had there in Ama village but they suggested he transferred her to a hospital in Sahel town since they were not well equipped.

He transported her to one of the biggest hospitals in Sahel where tests were conducted and showed that she had Colorectal Cancer. They said they needed to perform a colorectal resection; a surgery to remove a section of the large intestine, also called the colon. It is done to remove injured or diseased parts of the colon. All their savings were already exhausted after paying the bills for the test, so they were left penniless.

He got some drugs they said might help for a while before she gets the surgery but it seemed like they were not working. She was going through so much pains that he could practically feel her agony.

The villagers however, seemed to have a different opinion as to why his mother was suffering this way. They said she was responsible for his father's death and that she was a witch who was finally reaping what she sowed.

His mama told him about how wealthy his father used to be. They lived in Sahel town and he owned a plethora of businesses. He got married to his mother when he was just twenty two years old while my mother was twenty one. She talked about how his business suddenly bloomed at the age of twenty one. They were married for only three years before he died. He went for a trip and never came back. It was said that his remains were found in an isolated area of the town. His body looked like it were devoured by a wild animal. There were no wild animal around, so what could have caused that brutal death? He was the talk of the town for the longest time. His mother said his father's only friend accused her of killing his father so that she could inherit his wealth. He claimed that she was a witch and then had his father's will fabricated where it stated that all of his father's property belonged to his friend because if he were to ever die, it was his mother that killed him.

His mama was sent out of the house and stripped off all properties, she became the talk of the town and had to flee for her peace of mind. Her own family rejected her, they said she carried a bad omen with her. So she had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. She took him with her and brought them here, he was only two years old at the time. At first, she came to Ama village because of the low population of people and the proximity to the Sahel town just in case she ever thought of going back but it later became their home when they could not afford to live in a big town. Life here was easier compared to the town. She got a small plot of land with the little money she had for farming.

He heard murmuring and looked up to find two women with baskets. One whispered to the other but I could hear them clearly, "Hop on one foot, lest you might get afflicted with the evil of this household."

They both hopped on one foot as they passed. He used to find it funny when he saw people hopping on one foot as they passed their hut but it was becoming very disturbing. Were the rumors true? He loved his mama to death. She was the only family he had but could she truly be a witch that killed his father?

The sky was becoming clearer, he stood up and went inside to get his cutlass and a hoe. The plan was to do some weeding, he would harvest after three days to sell in order to get his mother's drugs. He dropped out of college a month ago. He could not afford tuition, the money he got from selling the farm produce were now spent on drugs so he had not been able to save up for the tuition. Also, his mother's sickness had worsened, so he needed to always be there for her.

He had become a laughing stock in the village. They mocked him for starting a school he was not going to finish. They mocked him that instead of him to be hardworking in the farm like their sons, he decided to further his education. As for their own daughters, they were married off after high school to a man from a neighboring village or if they were lucky, a man from Sahel comes to ask for their hand in marriage.

He heard his mom groan in pain and knew she was still awake, "Mama, I would be heading to the farm. I promise to be back early."

"Okay my son," she said weakly.

He was about to walk out when he heard her call, "Ben?"

"Yes mama?"

"Happy Birthday," she breathed.

"Thank you mama," he said as he made his way out and towards the farm.

Even though, he had never celebrated any of his birthdays, she had made it a tradition to wish him a happy birthday for as long as he can remember. One time when he was eight years old, she called him and said, 'Happy Birthday my son'. He asked her how old he was and she told him 'eight years old'. Ever since, he had been counting down every year. If his calculations were correct, he should be twenty one years old today. It was the sixth of January, as usual, there was nothing special about it. He just got to hear his mama wish him a happy birthday. Even while she laid severely sick, she still remembered his birthday. This woman meant the world to him. She was his everything.

He had been given an opportunity to mingle with people from higher social class because of college. He saw how happy and well groomed they looked. He couldn't help but wonder if his life could ever get better. A life where his mama becomes healthy and they move back to Sahel town and live there happily. A life where he is able to make friends like a normal guy. A life were he get freed from poverty and wretchedness. He honestly did not think he was asking for too much. He just wanted a life where he is able to comfortably eat a three square meal. A happy and comfortable life.

He did not realize a tear had slid down his cheeks as he got lost in thought. He wiped it off with the back of his palm. His jaw dropped open when he got to the farm only to find out that the crops he had been growing for months were gone. It was predicted weeks ago that there would be a locust attack, so farmers were advised to get some biopesticides. He could not afford to get some and hoped the prediction would not come to pass. Just look at how wrong he was.

He looked at the damaged crops in front of him and broke down in tears. He was weeping for the loss of the produce. He was weeping for the money loss. He was weeping because his mama just took the last of her drugs last night. He wept because there were no other options. He wept because I had no other hope. His mother was going to die. Her life depended on those drugs, she would have died long ago, if not for the drugs since the surgery was long overdue. This was the end for them.

He was tired anyway, he was tired of looking at boys his age living a healthy, happy life while he tend to his sick mother and struggled to feed once a day. How long was he going to live this way? Wasn't it better if he just ended the whole thing? His mother was going to die anyway, let them just die together, he thought as he looked around for 'Uru'. 'Uru' was a plant that was well known for its poisonous potency in Ama. All it requires was a bite of the plant.

He spotted it under a big oak tree and he scurried towards the tree like my life depended on it. He confirmed that it was in fact the one when he discovered the textured, hairy surface. They were in a group of seven leaves with one by itself at the end.

This was it. He was finally going to put an end to it all, he wiped off the remainder of tear from his eyes. He needed to do this with courage. He could feel how puffy his eyes had gotten from crying.

"Forgive me, mama. I have to do this. I pray we meet in a better place," he sobbed even after promising himself that he was not going to cry anymore.

"Forgive me. I can not keep up with this. I am tired. Maybe I can finally get to meet Papa. Maybe you will join us and we can become happy together in heaven. This world has got nothing for us. Let's just end it," he cried even more.

Taking a deep breathe, he stretched his right hand and uprooted the 'Uru' plant.