THIRST IN HELL

CHAPTER 4

I made some friends among the workers, or so I had thought. There was a farmer known as Mr Droopy . We didn't have much time to interact seeing he was a busy body and a talented rumormonger.

He was also allergic to adopting new methods of agriculture, such as water harvesting and irrigation, stubbornly clinging to the outdated ways of farming like a tick clinging to a dead cow. He therefore kept spreading news of hunger, uncertain weather conditions and of course the persistent poor yield.

Then there was the pastor Wacko. His work was to teach (and force) the other beings to follow the religion.

The workers were encouraged to obey and to believe the doctrines being taught without questioning and to persevere all difficulties without complaining, to be contented with the little that they were given and to actively contribute towards the endless projects using their earnings.

"Those who always conform,"
the pastor promised,
"will some day gain freedom, bountiful and delicacies, in a sudden strange way."

Any worker who dared to resist, question or even doubt the pastor was threatened of some fore coming calamities. Others were physically and mentally tortured, branded names and stigmatized so as to be an example to others.

All workers therefore tried to apply the teachings and those who could not make up to the expected standard turned out to be very good actors as far as playing hypocrisy is concerned.

The pastor himself was an exemption, he used to say that he is an overseer and not a follower. He was never contented, he was very greedy and immoral. His slogan was that every shepherd has a right to quench from his flock. So on that basis, he kept to himself every pretty willing girl and also crept on some of his followers' wives.

He also made tithing compulsory or else he would withhold some of the services entrusted to him or when he did offer his service to they that do not contribute, such as preceding a burial rite, he would charge very exorbitantly, only to end up talking very ill of the deceased before the public, therefore ruining the ceremony and putting the mourning family to a great shame.

Nevertheless, he was quite a good looking man, very well groomed, wealthy, sweet talking and very persuasive, much like a beautiful cover on a filthy book.

The closest of all was a medium aged popular lady known as Miss Wanton. She was a caretaker, looking after the other worker's infants and toddlers who were too young to attend the learning cave.

She was good with children especially because she had been restricted from punishing any child, after she once broke an infant's rib when she stepped on it as a punishment.

However, her abusiveness and vulgarity were beyond all imagination. She could just utter any word regardless of who is listening. At a time, I heard some children trying to pronounce her fond words and I kept wondering what they would grow up to be.

Unknown to me was that this lady had another peculiar night business and a long list of misused and dumped mates who were observing my moves with her. In fact, had I been advised, I should have avoided this lady like plague but I was yet to learn the ways of the underground.