THE FIVE YEAR PLAN

Chapter 1

I call my mum every Monday to catch up on her weekend stories. I think she keeps up to catch up on mine. She wants me to meet the "right guy" and settle down. I have been meeting guys since high school, and I just don't see myself introducing them to her yet. My mum is the kind of woman who probably has my wedding already planned. I am her only child, God knows why. And to think she could have named me some flashy name I am Bwalya Bwalya like the world was short of names.

My parents own a farm near Mkushi, a 34km perimeter, 10km of which is the Lusemfwa river bank. I grew up there riding motor bikes and tractors. During harvest I was next to dad in the combine harvester listening to Phil Collins or some great country songs. When I was not in the combines I was checking on the poultry with mum and Aunty Malita the 40 Year old virgin as mum always said. My mum said the craziest things I worried that she hurt people with the things she said but surprisingly people loved her for her candid ways. Especially dad. They had been together over 30 years by whole life and some bonus years, often their day started at 5 in the morning they went off on errands till 9 and met at the breakfast table. Then back to work and met at dinner again. Life was like clock work on the farm, everything happened at an appointed time. I missed that routine in my life, common people were so unpredictable.

I worked as an assistant Internal Auditor for Toyota Zambia against my parents wishes. My dad wanted me to stay at the farm and work on his books but that didn't sit well with me, I wanted my own name not to always be shadowed by my parents. I wanted to be my own person. The best version of myself. Growing up I was never that free to be who I wanted, like dad used to say I was a Bwalya and there was nothing I could do to change that. I went to the best schools, and got the best. I studied Accounts from Oxford. I had everything I wanted, but I wasn't happy, not staying in Mkushi.

When I came back from university I moved to Lusaka to do my internship with Napsa then I landed a job with Toyota and decided to stay. Lusaka was new for me, very different from life in the farm. The air was much more stale and the environment much more noisy. Dad insisted I stay in the family house in Kabulonga but it was exaggerated, too big for me. So he set me up with a plot in Meanwood where he built and furnished a house for me. My dad never did half measures he went all out. He always found a way to involve himself in my life. He bought me a Jeep Wrangler to congratulate me for landing a job with Toyota Zambia against my wishes. The car was a very new model I loved it but I could not drive it. It would intimidate everyone around me not to mention it was built for adventure. He would not hear of it, he claimed my Nissan Xtrail was not road worthy, trust dad to know. I only drove the Jeep to keep him happy. But the Xtrail was my to go car.

Much to my mother's disappointment I was not dating. I went out often, never lacked the attention but just seemed out of tune with the male species, some of my friends said the independent girl act was intimidating, I was planning to hide the money and just put up a needy front see how fast I get to the aisle.