Instructions: Read the short story and once you’re done (scroll to the end of the story) VOTE on whether this story should be turned into a novel or novella. And if you don’t think the author should keep going, we have a choice for that too.
“PA LAMBOI AND THE WICKED CHIEF”
Episode One:
After spending three decades-and-half teaching in higher institutions overseas, Pa Lamboi was deported to his country, with a disorder of the brain and settled in his village called Taiama in Moyamba Chiefdom (the land of Pa Lahai the wicked chief).
He left his wife and daughter overseas. A knowledgeable man with wisdom, who was incurably addicted to foreign foods and ways of life for years after landing in his country. He preferred his salad and spaghetti to that of the cassava leaves, okra and krain – krain.
He returned home with lot of money, expensive boxes of clothes and other items that any rich man could possess. He had a dress code of wearing short trousers, a shirt, and a necktie with a jacket at the top from Mondays to Fridays. His best shoes were pointed shoes of which he had dozens of them.
On Saturdays, he used to put on expensive polo and jeans with footwear such as Reebok, Adidas and Nike. It’s hard for him to be seen without a book on his hands. What was so unique about him, was his addiction to ambiguity of words and spit of jargons with humor. It was as if he was the most learned individual. He spoke fluently in a rate that words never lost from his mouth.
He had a command over the Queen’s language and nothing seems to baffled him. Most times he even devised words of his own to sweeten a conversation and made his audience burst into laughter. Hence, he was called Professor Pa Lamboi (the man with words).
Every month, his wife and daughter residing overseas sent him money to take care of himself. His stay in that village became a remedy to many villagers who couldn’t secure a daily meal.
He was a generous man who was always open to help the poor with what he had. Even though he was so addicted to foreign food and drinks, yet he was always giving money to cook and give to his visitors.
For that reason, his house was always crowded from morning to 6P.M. and sometimes even till night. Both the young and old, were always curious to hear new words and stories that Pa Lamboi would dish out to them.
He would told them about beautiful cities in the world and even showed pictures of him when he was in America. He would even took out his DVD player to play movies for them. His fluency and telling of stories is another thing the youths never wanted to miss for a day.
But he never encouraged one to sit with him, if they had other things to do. He was patient enough to ask everyone what they had to do for the day. And for the school going children, they were only welcome to his house during the weekends. With so much to say to everybody he had a conversation with, his last words were always; “Do unto others the same you would want them to do to you.” To the young ones, he would say: “Work hard today and enjoy your tomorrow.”_
Off course, he was loved by everybody and every household in the village, with the exception of Pa Lahai – the wicked chief who hated him for his truth and show of generosity. Pa Lahai was said to be ‘The Lion of the Gbema tree’. He was the most feared human, because he slaughtered his crowned chiefs who ignored to give their daughters to him for marriage at the Gbema tree. Whenever he called for someone, people were terrified and worried of what would happened to the person.
Episode Two:
Pa Lahai was leading from afar off absent from his subjects, so mean and brute to them. They suffered like slaves from his insensate regnant. After every harvest, it was obliged for every farmer to offer a half portion of grains to the chief’s household, without even considering the yield they obtained.
Whosoever, that was found guilty over a quarrel suffered a scar from Pa Lahai’s hot knife; which was always placed in the fire. Twenty-four strokes on tiny buttocks was a daily meal from Pa Lahai for any Taiama child, who nosily dazzles in his compound. This inhuman behavior became a sore throat for the people of Taiama village. They were caught between the Anvil and the Hammer. For a protracted period, their voices boiled over with outrage.
This was hard for Prof. Pa Lamboi to bear. He thinks of Pa Lahai not being a chip of the old block, as his cruelty was a bit thick on vulnerable villagers. This became a thorn in the flesh for Prof. Pa Lamboi and was desperate to redeem the villagers from their close-fisted. He is not for once ready to play along with the chief’s dogma.
Hence, his journey starts to devise a plan in order to stop the chief from such barbaric and diabolic acts towards the villagers. How to execute the plans become a perplexed contemplation for Prof. Pa Lamboi.
He said to himself; “How can I merely confront this black man feared by almost everybody in the village? Just imagine, he’s 6feet 3inches tall with notched scars all over his face.
His eyes are reddened like blood cyst with broad chest and six pack abominable muscles like those giants who were guarding King Pharaoh. Oh! I Wonder if such a man is not a demon in disguise. He seems the Pharaoh of our days.” Since then, he made up his mind to look into every move of the chief.
The chief was secretly having sex with young girls in the village. He sleeps with married women and always threatens to kill them, if anybody knows about it. This demonic and abominable happenings, came to the ears of Professor Pa Lamboi.🤷🏾♂
Credit to my late mum: Adama Bakortu Brima Menjor
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