You are seeing this because you have not yet updated your iBlog. Click on settings to edit...

Thou shall not be caught....!

“Mufundisi you have done well over the years to teach your flock to observe the Ten Commandments. But unfortunately the flock is human and has strayed regardless of your teachings. You did your best Mufundisi but the devil in your flock made them succumb to the desires of the flesh, taking comfort in the false belief that, ‘thou shall not be caught’. But believe me that ‘devil given eleventh commandment’ does not work. As long as you commit crime, thou shall be caught. The long arm of the law will inevitably catch up with you and the consequences are too dreadful to contemplate. As is the case now, the law will take its course. Constable Fatima take them away and press charges,” ordered Tongai in conclusion.

“Before going away, please allow me to say one or two words that I may not have the opportunity to say with all of you present. I am not going to try to exonerate myself from the crime that I am being perceived to have committed. Whether I committed the crime or, not I will leave that to the courts to decide,” said Mufundisi. “You are free Mufundisi to say whatever you may wish to,” replied Tongai who was now in full charge of the proceedings.

“It is part of my past that you would probably never come across unless I tell you myself. I would have wanted to say it in a different scenario, but given the situation as it is, I may have to say it here and now,” informed Mufundisi his expression suggesting that he had something very important to say. Then moving to sit up straight and resting his back against the back of the chair he closed his eyes as if to enable him to remember every detail of what he was about to say.

“I was born and grew up in a relatively well to do with family,” Mufundisi began. “My father was a business man who owned a couple of flourishing retailing stores. Measuring by the standards of those times, my family was considered to be rich. Because my family could afford, we always had a couple or more house help in the home to assist my mother with the raising of her children.” Change had come over Mufundisi’s voice. He spoke thoughtfully and with emphasis.

“Logically, being a business man, my father was never home on time to help my mother with the raising of the children hence the house help was very convenient. It gave my mother the time to do other things she otherwise would have not been able to do without the help,” narrated Mufundisi. “That also gave us the children time to play with friends as we did not have to do much of the housework ourselves. A few of my friends were quite much older than me, but they accepted me into their midst, as I look back, because of my family background. But that is my personal assumption and I could be completely wrong. In any case there was no reason why they could not accept me just as I was, notwithstanding my family background.

“In my youth, I was fortunate to own a number of possessions my friends probably would have never known at their age, let alone dreaming putting their hands on such items. I had a bicycle, from which many of them leant to ride. I owned a football that we used to spend all afternoon playing after school. I had a few other things that my childhood friends took advantage of,” related Mufundisi.

“As we grew older, our conversations gradually gravitated towards girlfriends and the fantasy of making love. My older friends would steal my imagination as they talked of their ‘imaginary exploits’ with their girlfriends to be. I guess as one grows up you inevitably have to travel through that part of life. It is the opportunities parceled out to you at birth that would eventually determine whether you sail through safely or you emerge bruised and battered.

“In the process of the various conversations my older friends somehow coerced me to venture into love making exploits with the house maids,” recalled Mufundisi. “Of course as you may imagine, it was not an easy thing for a boy of fifteen to go home and tell a housemaid of twenty years or more that I wanted to go to bed with her. Another thing was, my mother was a no nonsense woman and such a strict disciplinarian. I would not risk her hearing that I had solicited something like that from her ‘daughters’ as she liked calling the housemaids. But my friends nudged me on, proposing a number of ways through which I could convince the maids to agree,” related Mufundisi.

“With time I eventually found myself talking to the housemaids. I started off by asking silly questions about men and women and how children were made. Soon I was teasing them that they did not know anything about love making. It was not long before I was reporting to my friends my experiences of making love. The older boys became very interested in my exploits and asked me to try this, that and the other. Yes I tried everything and even more. Basically, what I am saying is, one of the maids had decided to give me practical lessons in making love,” explained Mufundisi.

“A few months later, when I came back from boarding school on holiday I was greeted with the news that, ‘my tutor’, who had taken it upon herself to mentor me on making love, had left her work to become a mother. I was very devastated by the news to say the least. I inquired if anyone knew who she was going to marry or where she was. But I never got the kind of information I needed,” recalled Mufundisi.

“It was not until Christmas time and I was on school holiday helping with the work at the store when one afternoon my mother sent for me. I went round and when I walked into the kitchen where my mother was, there she was with her baby son. I leant that she had come to show my mother her baby. I also leant that she was not married. I could not ask her who the father of the baby was, as I thought that would be embarrassing her. It was an issue best left alone. My mother then instructed that I should take her with me to the store and provide some clothing, blankets, and a few other things for her and the baby.

“I did as instructed. I packed the goods in a bag and took her back to my mother to see what I had provided. My mother later gave her some cash and advised her to come back as and when she was in need of any help. For some reason I had the impression that my mother felt she had a responsibility to provide for her ‘daughter and grandson’,” recalled Mufundisi. “When she was leaving she came to say goodbye and I left what I was doing and walked her to the bus stop.”

“It was when we were at the bus stop that the bomb shell came,” said Mufundisi. “She asked me if I had looked at the baby very closely. I said no I had not and of course I had not. That is when she said, and I still remember her exact words, ‘He has a birth mark like yours. Look, he looks exactly like you. He is your son, but I never told anyone. I wanted to tell you first. I called him Tongai, because you said you wanted your first son to be called Tongai’. Whatever she said thereafter, I never heard it. I was taken aback. I wanted to run away, but I could not. I was just at a loss and thunderstruck. I remember helping her to get onto the bus when it eventually came and she left.

“That was the last time I ever saw Thandiwe Maganga and her son Tongai. I later tried to locate them, but they were nowhere to be seen. I prayed that Thandiwe would come back as my mother had suggested to her, but she never did. She just vanished with her child, you my son,” said Mufundisi opening his eyes that he had kept closed all along.

Turning to Tongai he added, “The first time that I heard you were here, I thought it was just a coincidence of names, but when I saw your birth mark,” he said pointing to his own birth mark, “I knew you were the Tongai I had been looking for.” Then Mufundisi kept quiet as if to allow what he had just revealed to sink into the minds of all those present. It was at this point that everyone in the room decidedly took notice of the likeness of Mufundisi and Detective Chief Inspector Tongai Maganga.

 Though Tongai was a little lighter in complexion than Mufundisi, the resemblance between the two men was very striking. Also, the revelations appeared to have hit Tongai like a jack hammer. As he sat there, he seemed to be lost in memory and oblivious of those in the room. Suddenly, there was an unmistakable air of calmness about the picture in the room. Anybody not privy to the earlier proceedings of that afternoon would have concluded that a great conspiracy was in the making.

The revelations of Mufundisi had made those present tranquil as if to give them a deep memory for the long and tiring years he had spent searching for his long lost son. Tongai gradually became aware that his long and lonely journey in search of his father was unexpectedly over. Many times he had asked his mother of the whereabouts of his father but she had never told him. She had preferred that he did not know him and she was happy to leave it at that.

“I had thought I would get some opportune time to call you home and break the news to you, but it looks like everything has been overtaken by events,” continued Mufundisi a while later. “When you talk to your mother next time tell her, I am very proud of you. In case I go to prison, I would be very happy if she could get some time to visit me. Constable Fatima that is all I wanted to say. Now we can go, I am ready,” said Mufundisi Siyazvitema standing up.

Find the book on

www.pombodo.com