Twisted fate

PROLOGUE

Kanua Village, Zambia; January, 1991

There was a murderous glow in the eyes of the ten year old Luyando Chimeko as she stood watch over her drunk and passed out father snoring away on the mat inside the tent that a good Samaritan had lent to them which they had come to regard as their home for the past one week.

Luyando has had enough of living like a destitute at the hands of her vagabond father whose own life seemed to be rotting away ever since the untimely demise of his wife a year ago. On that day, the ten year old had not just lost her mother, she had lost her father as well. The man she was now looking at was only a shell of the man she once called dad…and she had had enough of watching him waste his and her life away like someone who no longer had anything more to live for.

Luyando wiped away her tears with a rage that was beyond her years, her gaze still fixed disapprovingly on her father.

“What about me!”

Luyando cried, her hand hitting her chest. “Am I not a good enough reason for you to want to live?”

As if in response, Bernard Chimeko stretched in his sleep and wiped at his drool before turning to face the other way.Luyando took in every piece of his being; the dirty sandals on his feet with enough holes in them that defeated the manufacturers original purpose of production, the tone jeans and the oversized sweater with a colour she was convinced could not be traced on the colour wheel.

“Every single day….” the ten year old cried harder, no sound, just barrels of tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Over here mum!”

Luyando heard a boy shout from outside the tent. She turned away from her father to slightly open the tent so she could peep outside. Not far from their tent was a family of three; father, mother and son.Right away Luyando could tell they didn’t belong to that compound. It was the first time she was seeing such immaculately dressed people in the market and all the people crowding around them trying to sell things to them told her everything she needed to know about the kind of people they were.
Luyando’s eyes rested on the boy who appeared to be her age as he cheerfully pointed to the things he wanted his parents to buy for him.

“This one too mum…and this one…ooooh look at this dad?” the boy was pointing at items that ranged from foodstuffs to boys wear.His parents watched on the side as their boy tried on different hats and not seeming to find one that pleased his eye.
What if that was my family? I wouldn’t be suffering here like this. Luyando thought.
If Bernard could see the envy glowing in his daughters eyes, he would have picked himself up and gone out to do whatever it takes to give her the kind of life that she most desires.Luyando moved to the other side of the tent so she could take a look at what was happening behind and she found exactly what she was looking for; the fancy car of the rich family was parked in the distance under the oak tree on the side of the main road.

Closing the tent, Luyando’s gaze immediately focused on her father who was still snoring away his life, oblivious to whatever was happening around him. With a sudden conviction registering in her eyes, Luyando grabbed her dirty backpack and started throwing some things in there; some of her clothes and a few text books that had been lying on the ground in the corner. When she was done packing, she started her search for something else that she couldn’t seem to find but just when she thought all hope was lost, her father moved his leg in his sleep and down where his leg had been she saw the knife she had been desperately searching for. Luyando grabbed it and stared at it for close to a minute as she contemplated what to do with it, her eyes shifting from the knife to the figure of her father lying there before her.
Very suddenly, Luyando raised the knife into the air, closed her eyes shut and brought the knife down to her wrist, leaving a deep cut across. She winced in pain and covered the wound with her other hand, quietly jumping up and down in an effort to numb the pain. And again, she raised the knife and passed it across her skin, this time making another deep cut slightly above the first cut. Using the blood flowing from her cuts, Luyando rubbed her hand over specific parts of her face leaving red vivid spots there. She then grabbed her bag, put it on her back…all the while wincing in pain and taking one last angry look at her father, she ran out of the tent from the back.
Once their shopping was done, the Mulenga’s settled back into their car and Mr Mulenga was ready to drive off when something…someone…a little girl covered in blood and bruises jumped in front of their vehicle and was waving her arms about to grab their attention.