The boy racers

The boy racers

Bob couldn’t wait; he was counting the days when he turned fifteen. Mum and Dad promised him his wheels. It was twenty more days, and Dad had already signed a cheque made out to Turners’ car auctions for four thousand dollars.

“It’s not very much but you won’t be getting a rust bucket,” said dad.

“But all my friends have better cars, Dad,” protested Bob.

“Sorry, mate, that the best I could do. In my days, I had to work to buy my own car,” replied Dad.

“That’s right; you count your lucky stars that we are giving you a car. Four thousand dollars could get you quite a good Japanese Import,” added Mum.

The day came, with the cheque in his hand; Bob went with Max and Sam together with his parents, Dave and Hayley to Turner’s Car auction at Penrose to auction for a car, not any car, but his car. Dad registered himself as a buyer as Bob didn’t have his license. After test driving a few cars, Dad recommended a Nissan Sunny. Bob was more interested in a sporty car but beggars can’t be choosers, he settled with the Nissan Sunny.

“If you work weekends, you could top up your savings when you sell your Nissan and buy a better car,” suggested Dad.

Bob passed his written driving test and got his restricted driver’s license. Bob had been secretly driving his mum’s car for two years and was never caught by his Dad or the traffic cops. In fact, he was so car savvy that his mum preferred that he was her chauffer when she had to drive him.

When Bob came home with his restricted driver’s license, Mum gave him his car keys.

“Make you don’t take any passengers unless they have a driver’s license,” warned Mum.

“I will, Mum. Don’t wait for me; I am taking my mates for a celebration. I promised to shout them when I got my driver’s license,” said an impatient Bob.

Bob revved his engine and skidded up the driveway and almost knocked down a young boy riding his bike on the footpath.

“Jesus, watch where you ride your bike, you could get yourself killed,” shouted Bob.

Bob raced eighty kilometers in a fifty kilometer residential road. He had the windows winded down and his CD player blasting loudly, he imagined himself driving a red hot Ferrari and his long blonde hair blowing in the cold winter wind. He screeched down to Avondale to Max’s house.

Bob had bribed Max’s eighteen year old brother Pete to buy seven six-pack bottles of DB beer for him.

“That’s an exorbitant price you are charging, you rip-off merchant, Pete!” argued Bob.

“Do you want the beer or not, try getting someone else to buy you the beer then,” retorted Max.

Max jumped in the passenger seat and Bob zoomed the Nissan west to Henderson to pick up Sam.

“Hang on, I have a text on my cell phone, its from Amanda. She and the girls are waiting impatiently for us at Henderson Shopping Centre,” said Bob.

“Gee, you look like having trouble texting with one hand and driving with the other, are you ok?” asked Max.

“Of course, people do this all the time,” replied Bob.

Bob sped the fifteen kilometers to pick up their girl friends, Amanda, Julie and Sarah.

Amanda slipped in the front passenger car seat and started taking photos of Bob with her cell phone, touching him so that he would look picture perfect. After that, she started canoodling him.

“Hey! Cut that out, we are in the back seat looking at you?” Said Sam.

Amanda deliberately gave Bob a long kiss and ruffled his hair.

“Stop distracting Bob, will you? We are getting nervous.” Replied Sam.

“If you don’t like it, you can get out, this is my car.” Said Bob.

Amanda turned around and gave Sam her middle finger. An argument followed, but was so forgotten.

They began opening the bottles of beer as Bob drove to the park at Hillsborough. They parked the car and listened to their Heavy Metal music and drank their beer. With their empties, they smashed them against the volcanic boulders leaving thousands of glass smithereens shimmering in the moonlight.

Too much beer and too little self control led to puking inside the car by some of the teenagers all too young to drink legally.

“Jesus! Mind my new car!” lambasted Bob.

“Shucks!!!! It is just an old Jap Import; you think you own a Merc convertible.” Sarah joked cheekily.

“Don’t like it, just get out!” shouted Bob.

“Ya! What’s the big deal, it’s just an old bomb.” Julie added insensitively.

“Why do you shut up and enjoy the ride, we are lucky to have a car to ride in.” Max cursed the girls in support of his best friend, Bob.

Bob drove to the Otahuhu industrial area of South Auckland. In the past, they could only salivate as other boy racers raced their wheels down the deserted roads in the wee hours of the morning. Not tonight, they got wheels and it was to be Bob’s inaugural race. It was the first race of the night. The organisers chose Steve, a seasoned twenty year old racer with a far superior and newer car, a BMW 325 to pit against Bob.

Both cars were packed with their supporters, none of them had their seat belts buckled up. Bob and Steve revved their engines and burned rubber. At the first stretch, they were even-steven. With testosterone pumping, and the alcohol impairing their judgement, they drove faster and faster in a zig-zaggedly fashion.

It was then, where the men were separated from the boys. Bob lost control of his car and sent it somersaulting a couple of times and landed “bellies up.” Max his best friend and front passenger was flung out of the windscreen like a human catapult and landed head first in the middle of the road. There were chaos, and cries and the car burst into flame.

Some of the dastardly spectators and racers slipped away quietly before the police came. Others rushed to help the victims in the burning inferno and by a stroke of luck, they managed to get the four passengers seated at the back of the car out before the car get off like a bomb with such a loud bang that workers working on the graveyard shift could hear them five hundred meters away. It was ironic that their lives were saved because they were not wearing their seat belts.

Fifteen years ago, Bob’s mum Hayley cried and swore at his dad when she delivered him in the National Women’s hospital. Fifteen years later, she cried and swore at his dad for giving him the car. Her precious boy was retrieved from the burnt out wreck and was lying in the morgue waiting for them to identify.

Numbed and unable to speak, and unable to touch his charred remains, Hayley bit her finger nails until her fingers bled. Then like her worst nightmare come true, she had to come face to face with Max’s furious parents.

“You bloody middle class parents, why do you give a killing machine to your son?” railed Max’s mum Jill indignantly.

“If you bloody want Bob to kill himself, why did you let him drag Max along?” Joshua’s ireful words still stung in her ears.

The next day, there was media concentration on these wayward youths. There was a call for the restricted license to be revamped. A fifteen year old kid was not competent enough to handle the steering wheel. The horrendous accident was reported, and the police were asked to be more vigilant about boy racers in industrial areas. Some in the conservative quarters even asked for a curfew of youngsters. The radio talkback DJs were busy and callers asked the law makers to have moral courage and integrity so that the lives of these two boys would not have died in vain.

Switching Identities

Switching Identities

The year was 1907, Pearl Lee and her slave Little Flower boarded the steamer at Hong Kong to sail down the Pacific Ocean to Singapore. Pearl’s parents accompanied them from Canton to Hong Kong and said goodbye to their precious only daughter.

“What you reach Singapore, you will have a better life. Seng’s parents are very very rich.”

Pearl had been betrothed to Seng as a baby. Seng’s parents were rich rubber tycoons in Singapore. The betrothal was a common practice among the rich people in China at that time. When the children were in their late teens, they were wedded irrespective of the protests by the kids. She had never seen Seng and she went on this trip reluctantly.

Little Flower was born to a very poor peasant family.

“Not another bloody girl!” her grandmother and father exclaimed.

Before her mother could get up from her bed, Grandmother had snatched the baby and sold her to the mid wife who earned more money as a baby broker than delivering babies.

Pearl’s parents wanted a slave girl who would be a playmate for Pearl, and as the slave grew older, she was expected to do chores for Pearl. And in an extreme custom which would be frowned on in today’s world of woman’s lib, she would have to sleep with Pearl’s husband at the whim and fancy of Pearl.

Fate had Pearl and Little Flower growing up in an upstairs-downstairs situation. They grew up really close and surprisingly, rich little missy, Pearl wasn’t spoilt brat. She had a kind heart, and shared her food with Little Flower. Pearl’s parents were quite liberal and let the girls go out chaperoned by an old slave girl, Peony to the shops and the parks.

On one of the excursions when they were fifteen, they went past the village school. Pearl met Tiger in the school ground doing chores for the school master. Tiger’s parents were too poor to send Tiger to school. In exchange for lessons, Tiger had to do chores for the school master. Tiger was carrying water when Pearl and entourage came by the well to have a drink of water. As a perfect gentleman, Tiger give them some water from his bucket.

It was love at first sight for Pearl and Tiger. It was really silly of Tiger to even remotely dare to talk to a rich girl, far less to say to fall in love with one. Peony was not only a chaperon, but a spy as well. She reported to Pearl’s parents about Tiger.

They decided they had to act swift and fast before a scandal erupted. They went to the shipping agent to book the next available passage for Pearl and Little Flower to Singapore. Pearl got Little Flower to smuggle a note to Tiger to inform him of their pending departure. Little Flower returned with the message from Tiger that he would sell himself to a consortium that was offering free passage in return for three years of labor in a rubber estate.

On board the steamer, alone in their cabin, Pearl made a pact with Little Flower.

“Little Flower, let us switch identities, I, Pearl would become you, and you, Little Flower become me.”

“Are you sure?”

“When we land in Singapore, you will marry Seng, and I will wait for Tiger to come to Singapore.”

“It is a good idea and nobody would know if we don’t tell anyone. I am very happy to be in this situation.”

Little did Pearl know what lied ahead of her.

When they arrived in Singapore, a rickshaw pulled up.

The driver said, "Missy, please sit. You, the slave will have to walk."

It was hot and humid in Singapore. Pearl, now the slave girl had to walk, and she had to walk fast to catch up with the rickshaw. They walked miles and miles, and Pearl's feet were blistering.

They arrived in Seng’s mansion, Little Flower enjoyed her role as the future madam of the house. Seng’s family was not as generous as Pearl’s family in Canton. Besides serving the madam, the slave had to help the other three slaves in the household chores and the garden.

The older slaves had their own hierarchy and they bullied Pearl and made her do the difficult chores of carrying tanks of water and chopping wood and emptying all the potties. One must bear in mind, it was 1907, there were no proper sewage system and piped in water. Poor Pearl, she had never had to do any work back in Canton. Doing the laundry caused blisters and her palms soon became callous.

On the other hand, Little Flower, the young madam enjoyed her new role to a T. She joined other rich young ladies in their daily mahjong sessions. She didn’t have to lift a finger. There was however, one thing she didn’t like about this new pampered role. It was Seng, he was obese and had an obnoxious odor and very unkempt. He was a sex maniac. Before Pearl and Little Flower arrived, he had been a frequent patron at the brothels. The prostitutes there hated him for his sadistic addictions, but they had no choice or they would be beaten by their mamasans.

Now he had two women at home at his disposal. Appalled by his uncouth ways, Little Flower was crafty by fending a headache and a fainting sickness. She pretended to be frigid and asked Seng to make one of the many rooms in the mansion for Pearl.

Seng went to Pearl for his conjugal rights now that Little Flower had denied him his rights.

“You are my slave, you do anything I want,” Seng said gruffly.

Initially Pearl would fight him off, but after suffering his whipping and hair pulling, she gave up fighting. Everynight, after being used by Seng, she cried herself to sleep.

“When Tiger comes, things will be better.”

But things never got better. Tiger never came. To make things worst, Little Flower and Pearl got pregnant at about the same time. Little Flower gave birth to a boy. He was treated like a prince. Pearl gave birth to “another bloody girl.” Though Seng was the father, he did not acknowledge her to be his daughter. She lived her life as a slave girl.

Something Sinister

Something Sinister

The people of the mountains were divided. Their age old tradition of retaining a clairvoyant psychic was debated. The old toothless, shaggy-haired, and thin as a bone clairvoyant not only practiced mystic ways. He was the teacher of their boys, and a doctor to all their illness.

But not anymore, the clairvoyant’s role in the mountain was usurped by the arrival of Father James. He was a white priest, a tall brown-haired man from the invisible God. He had money and got the men to erect a building with a sharp spire for his church.

When it was finished, it doubled as a schoolhouse for the young boys. The parents were told by Father James that their sons could only enrol in his school, if they, the parents were baptised in his faith. They had no choice but to be converted and to embrace this faith, and soon the boys went by the names of the white man’s religion, John, Tom, George and so on.

"They even have to give up their own names," George’s grandfather complained.

One day out of seven, the children didn’t have school but were told to invite their parents, uncles and aunts and grandparents to come to the church. They listened and watched this white man, in a flowing robe with a purple cross in front of it, perform his rituals and mumble in a tongue, which he didn’t normally speak.

The clairvoyant argued, "It’s all mumbo jumbo, how can you worship an invisible god?"

The people put it down to his jealousy. The priest was also a shaman to the people.

The White Shaman had magic pills and liquid in little bottles, which could help cure headaches and stomach ailments. They no longer have to be subjected to the whims and fancy of the clairvoyant when they went to him to seek treatment. The new Shaman’s potions and pills were all free of charge and didn’t have a bitter aftertaste when his patients had taken them.

The mountain people were won over very quickly, "That’s the power of white man’s invisible God."

The clairvoyant remained in his little hut, "You short sighted people, you abandon our ancient customs of worshipping our deceased ancestors, they will be angry, mark my words.

When the boys had finished their primary education, Father James arranged them to go down to MioMio town to have their secondary education. The boys came back twice a year during their holidays.

Suddenly half-white and half-brown babies were born to the women. They sought Father James’ medical advice. They thought these babies had some sort of skin disease. But it wasn’t just their skin tone, it was their facial features as well. These babies were ostracised because it was thought that they came from the evil one.



Father James had another explanation, "Not to worry, the Holy Ghost had appeared to the mothers; they are the chosen ones."

The clairvoyant exclaimed, "Holy Ghost! my Foot! Something sinister is happening and I am going to find out. I warned you all, your ancestors are rocking in their graves."

The village chief asked, "What are we to do?"

"First everyone must come to my hut, and we will have a cleansing ceremony, every family must bring a rooster."

A bonfire was made in the centre of the clairvoyant’s compound. He had a sharp machete. He called the head of each family and his wife to come with their rooster. In one split second, he cut the head of the rooster, and dripped its blood over the couple. Then he collected some blood, spat into it and made the couple drink up the blood. Then he threw the still live rooster into the bon fire.

The procedure went on until every family was exorcised from the curse of their angry ancestors. The mountain stank of burnt feature, blood and chicken meat while they turned into charcoal. The clairvoyant led them in a possession to jump into the river to cleanse of their bodies caked with chicken blood. The river turned red.

The White Shaman stood at a corner, sniggering to himself, "How stupid of these people to believe in such primitive beliefs."

Much to everyone’s dismay, another mixed child was born.

The clairvoyant explained, "That woman was already pregnant when the great cleansing was carried out."

True to his words, babies born after the cleansing were brown babies. The people rejoiced and the clairvoyant became popular again. But they rejoiced too soon. The women were giving birth to mixed babies again.

During the holidays, Tom came home from the town school, and having learned quite a bit of biology decided to investigate these weird phenomena. He had two sisters, the older, Ma’ata was married and had a mixed child.

Together with the clairvoyant, Tom sat in the dejected healer’s hut.

Tom told the clairvoyant, "According to my sister, Ma’ata, and my cousins who have mixed children, the White Sharmanhad told them that they were the chosen bride of the Holy Ghost."


"Did he?"

"He said, if the Holy Ghost chose them and came to them, they must keep this a secret otherwise the Holy Ghost would be angry with them. On the night before their weddings, they were invited to a special room behind the church.

“It was late at night and there was a funny smelling smoke. The girls felt drowsy and they don’t remember anything after that." This also helps to suggest that the priest was incapacitating the girls before having his way with them.

The clairvoyant shook with anger, "I knew it! I knew it! The scoundrel did it."

"What are you talking about?" Tom asked.

"That White Shaman is not man of God. He is the devil. He’s been raping our young brides on the pretext of the Holy Spirit visiting them in his church the night before they were married."

"How can you be sure?" Tom asked.

"Have you noticed, all these mixed children are born within one year of their marriage?"

"We have no proof, what are we going to do about it?"

"Let me go to a retreat, and pray to our ancestors for help.

On a full moon, the Clairvoyant kneeled facing the sky. The owl was hooting. He wore only a loincloth. He had smeared his face and his whole body with ashes. He used the charred end of a stick and made markings all over his body. He prayed to the spirits of his ancestors to help him save the mortality of their descendants. Then he got up to wait for Tom.

"Tom, our wise ancestors have told me to beat the White Shaman at his game."

“How?"

"First, We will pretend that your sister Sisa is getting married."

"She is just a baby."

"This is just a pretend wedding."

"Will my father and mother agree?"

"They will have to, sooner or later, she will be raped by this evil man."

"We will get one of the boys to marry her. So we need your parents and the boys and his parents to know our plan."

"How are we to catch this bastard?"

"We will get your sister to dip her hand in tar before she goes into that damned room. When the ‘Holy Ghost’ comes to her, ask her to touch him all over his face."


"If it is genuinely a Holy Ghost, we resign our fate that we have mixed children forever and ever. But if the ‘Holy Ghost’ is actually the scoundrel, we will beat him to a pulp and he won’t dare set his foot here again."

The clairvoyant invited Tom’s parents and his friend’s parents to a meal in his hut. There he told them what he suspected and his plans.

The bastard, I want to take a machete and lop off his head," Tom’s father Orm said as he stormed out to find the White Shaman.

"Don’t be hasty, listen to our wise old clairvoyant first," Tom’s mother caught hold of her husband’s hands, "You are always such a hot headed man."

Tom’s friend Anak said, "I am very happy to be the bridegroom to catch this wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

The plan was made carefully, the wedding date was set five days time.

"We must plan it so that the wedding preparations would look genuine."

Invitation was by word of mouth, and the whole mountain was busy with food preparation. Nobody apart from the planning group knew what was actually going on.

The white shaman laughed to himself. He went to talk to Tom’s parents that the Holy Spirit could come to Sisa that night.

"Please get Sisa ready and dressed in white and (missing ask her to) wait in the little room," Father James told them. He smiled to himself.

On the eve of her pretend wedding day, Sisa’s parents and Tom reminded her to touch the Holy Ghost’s face. The clairvoyant had given her a potion to counteract the effects of the smoke Father James used to make the girls fall asleep.

When the ‘Holy Ghost’ came in the little room, Sisa was waiting. Sisa was all over him, stroking and patting his face. He thought he had struck gold with this little girl actually reciprocating his sexual advances and he was highly aroused.

In his aroused state, he had not noticed the door open, and when Tom and his father slipped in. Orm and Tom had a big stick each, and they clubbed Father James on his head.


"Call on to your Holy Ghost to help you," Tom and Orm said in unison.

"This is for my sister Ma’ata," shouted Tom.

"This is for all the girls of the mountains that you have raped," yelled Orm.

"This is for all the cheated husbands who thought their wives had betrayed them," screamed Tom.

"This is for all the mixed children whose lives have been ruined and ostracised through no fault of their own," said Tom and Orm.

"Tom, Orm, you (missing have) got to stop. Otherwise you will kill him," Ma’ata said.

"Yes, she is right, the White Government will jail you for killing one of their white man, " The clairvoyant urged them to stop.

Father James crouched in the corner. His face was covered by tar, a proof of his crime when the white man’s police came for them.

"We have the perfect medicine for him," The clairvoyant moved his loincloth and exposed his penis, and sprayed a stream of hot pee on him. Tom and Orm followed suit. Tom never felt so good relieving himself so good. The hot pee stung the bruises and made them hurt like hell.

The pretend wedding became a real wedding. Anak had secretly been in love with Sisa, and asked his Mother to ask Ma’ata if he could have Sisa’s hand in marriage.

There was even more to celebrate. Afterwards, the girls who had mixed children were welcomed back to the fold.

Kath and the Au Pair

Kath and the Au pair


Kath was fuming. Fuming was an understatement, she was furious and outraged. The Au pair from Germany was feeling jittery. Kath persuaded the fifteen year old Gertrude from Germany that it was an excellent opportunity to come to New York. It was a fantastic way to see the world and learn another language and experience another culture. Now, instead of coming when baby was three weeks old, Gertrude was coming a week late, and this meant that Kath won’t be home to settle her in and to assess how dependable she was with a new born baby as Kath had taken only four weeks off from her high power job as the credit controller of multi national company. She couldn’t afford to take more time off because behind her back, there were many ready to stab her back and take her job.

Kath was awared that she was not academically qualified for her position. She had started as a junior clerk, often filling in anyone who called in sick or away on holidays. Kath had the gift of the gab, and the credit controller called her to assist the credit clerk. Kath loved her job, being persuasive and effective in talking to the clients when their repayment failed behind. Her employers were very impressed with her, and when it was politically correct to have coloured staff in senior positions, Kath was the ideal candidate who fitted the position of the newly created position of the Assistant Credit Controller.

The rest of the staff were jealous of her promotion. They were bitchy and shot arrows with their eyes. They, especially the credit clerk refused to co-operate with her. As far as they were concerned, Kath was one unqualified African American bitch who sucked up the boss and did favours for him. The credit controller was glad to get some one to do his work and sat in his office watching the computer screen, looking at the ups and downs of his shares.

Kath was unfazed, she worked hard and she produced results. The employers knew they made the right decision to promote her. The debtors list was shrinking by the day. They were generous when Kath requested for time off so she could go to university to get her formal university degree. They knew it was important for her to get her paper qualifications to stop all the vicious gossips about her. They knew she performed her duties just as well without that piece of paper diploma.

Kath worked hard both at the office and at the university. She put in long hours doing the work of three: The credit clerk and the Credit Controller. But she did not complain, lest she invited gossips that she wasn’t coping. Her biological clock was ticking, she was approaching the big four O and had never been kissed. Kath was also inheriting her mother’s pear shape. She was looking matronly, and was now nick named the old maid.

One morning, Kath was busy on the phone, and looking at the computer screening, multi tasking as usual as was her efficiency style. The credit controller Ted knocked on the door of her cubicle.

“Kath, this is Joe from the city community college. He is our intern for ten days. Show him the ropes please.”

Kath looked up, here was her black stallion. His eyes glistened, and looked like Eddy Murphy. He had the charm of Eddy and Kath wanted to swoon at his feet.

“Hi, Ted told me that you are the employee of the year every year for ten years until you were disqualified from being nominated because you won it too many times.”

“I have to work doubly hard, as the sole African American staff; we have to prove ourselves to dispel the stereo typing that we are lazy and incompetent.”

It was a whirlwind romance on the part of Kath. Kath had never had a boy friend before. Joe was impressed with a successful African American woman who owned her own apartment in a good neighbourhood. Kath was not to know that he was a useless bum failing every examination he had ever written. He was in the community college purely because he was in a special program designed to give under privileged kids a chance to break out of their poverty trap.

To Joe, Kath was his ticket out of the ghettoes. He ignored the talks of the girls that Kath was a cradle snatcher. Joe was twenty, and Kath was approaching forty. That didn’t matter; she had her apartment, her nice car and probably lots of shares. Joe came to the office with roses, perfume and chocolate. He was placing himself in as close proximity to Kath as possible.

Kath was infatuated with her Eddy Murphy look-a-like. They worked late because Kath had to much back load since she had to teach Joe who was rather slow in comprehending the ins and outs of credit controlling. He found talking to the clients rather daunting and became tongue tight.

On the last day of Joe’s intern training, Joe was packing up his back pack.

Kath told Joe, “As a reward for being such a very attentive pupil, I am going to drive you to China Town and treat you to a delicious Chinese meal.”

“Thanks, I love Chinese food, not that I have eaten much.”

Kath ordered Peking duck, lobsters cooked Chinese style, chicken chop suey and roast pork chow mein.

The waitress in her long red Chinese Cheong Sum gown came with a bottle of expensive champagne and two champagne flutes. She popped the bottle and poured the champagne into the flutes.

“Now to celebrate the making of a promising credit controller, let’s us toast.”

“I toast to the most successful African American credit controller in New York,” added Joe.

The Peking duck was rather fiddly to eat with chop sticks; they took a long time to wine and dine. Anyway nobody was in a hurry to go anywhere as it was a Friday evening.

Kath felt the heat flushed in her body by the champagne and the close attention by Joe. It was rather late by the time they left the restaurant. Not after they were politely chased out by the little Chinese man.

“Ex se cue me, you want to ol da some more, the kitchen al leady closed and the cook wants to go home.”

“Oh so sorry, we were enjoying the food so much that we forgot the time, we will leave when we get our fortune cookies,” said Kath.

The Chinese man came with the two fortune cookies.

“You take first,” said Joe.

Kath was rather nervous as she cracked open the cookie, she needn’t be. She got the best prediction she could wish for.

“The journey is many miles long, but the God of fortune is smiling on you and you will not walk alone.”

Joe read his, “Your luck has changed; your life will never be the same again.”

“I am glad I brought you to this restaurant, it has brought good luck to both of us. It’s rather late for you to catch the subway home, would you like to spend the night in my apartment. There is plenty of room.”

Joe didn’t wait to be asked twice. “Yes, please, it’s rather cold for me to walk from the subway station to my place.”

Kath drove Joe to her apartment. Joe couldn’t believe his luck. Kath had her own car park. They went up the elevator to her apartment twenty storeys up. It wasn’t the pent house, but it was pretty posh. As a matter of fact, Joe never dreamt that he would be staying the night in such a luxurious apartment.

“Wow! Sista, You mean you live here all by yourself?”

“Yes, every dollar used to buy this apartment comes from me. I worked hard, and I didn’t spend money on anything else.”

“Wow!!!! You done good sista!” exclaimed Joe.

“Champagne?” asked Kath.

“Am I dreaming or what?” added Joe.

Kath took out a bottle of champagne and two champagne flutes and Joe popped the bottle. They sat down on the settee drinking. Kath couldn’t handle so much drink as she normally didn’t drink so much. Joe was very attentive, and she was flushed and her face turned crimson from the alcohol. Joe started kissing Kath and she didn’t resist. She kissed him back. She’s never been kissed by a man in a romantic sense and she welcomed Joe’s tongue flicking inside her mouth.

Joe laid Kath on the settee. She didn't have a good body, but that didn’t matter. Kath literary offered herself and it suited Joe just fine. Here’s the ticket out of the ghetto. When it was finished, Kath thanked him.

“Christ! I won’t have done it if you had told me that you were still a virgin, I am sorry!”

“Don’t be, I wanted you to do it. I never had a boyfriend and had never slept with anyone before. Boys found me too ugly to go out with me. Did you like it?”

“I love it, I love you.” Joe replied lying through his teeth.

Joe fantasized that Kath was the belle of his old school, a pretty young chick who had snubbed him.

“I am sorry I am not experienced, I haven’t done this before.”

“You are excused, just try harder.”

“I am sorry.”

“You have done good. Now I am spent, and need to sleep. Where’s the guest bedroom?”

“You sleep on my bed, Joe.”

Joe crashed on the crimson satin bed sheet in his birthday suit.

“Never in my wildest dream did I imagine myself in such a beautiful king size bed and such smooth sheets.”

In a matter of minutes, he was flat on his back and snoring away like a runaway train. Kath sat on the bed looking at her Adonis. He was so handsome, and so young. He was her tall, dark and handsome prince. Yet he didn’t mind an old maid like her. She was ecstatic. Looking at his lean body without an ounce of fat, his torso was sculptured as though he was advertising an abs machine. He must have spent a lot of time in the gym. Kath didn’t sleep a wink that night. Her eyes were glued to every part of his body. She wanted to touch him, but was afraid to wake him up.

She got up at nine and started preparing a breakfast fit for a king. She had egg Benedict, bacon, and muffins. Joe still didn’t stir so Kath got into bed to snuggle into his beautiful body and finally fell asleep.

At noon, Joe got up and woke Kath.

“Wakey! Wakey! Sleeping beauty.”

“Oh! I was up and wanted to make you breakfast in bed. I guess we will have brunch instead.”

Kath brought the breakfast in two trays and instructed Joe to go to the fridge and get a bottle of champagne. Joe thought to himself, she had planned all this. I am not going to feel guilty since she threw herself at me.

They sat in bed eating a long breakfast .Kath believed in the fortune cookie. They didn’t get out of bed the whole day just touching and caressing each other.

“Are you hungry? Joe, shall I call for a pizza?” asked Kath.

“That’s fantastic. You are making me live as though I am in seven heavens.”

Kath had rung for a jumbo supreme seafood pizza, garlic bread and chicken pieces. She was amazed at Joe’s appetite. He literary wolfed down the pizza and Kath fed him her wedge of pizza. Then he ate her big tub of Hïagen-Dazs ice cream. Joe had never had such good ice cream before.

“I am so full that I want to sleep.”

Before Kath let him sleep and waste the evening, she suggested she gave him a full body massage. She thanked her fortune God for bringing this special gift to her. With her tender loving care, Joe was ready to play his game and pretended that he loved her and let her be consumed with passion.

On Sunday, Kath asked Joe if he wanted to go out. Joe took it that she was asking him to leave.

“No! No! I am not asking you to leave. I thought we might like to go out for a while.”

“I would rather stay in and watch TV. “

On Monday morning, Kath got up to get ready to work. She left a note and a spare key for Joe so he could go and come when he wanted. She also left two hundred dollars for him to do some clothes shopping.

At noon, she called her apartment, the phone rang a long time. Kath thought Joe must have gone out. Just as she was about to hang up, Joe answered the phone.

“Sorry love, I was in the bathroom.” again lying in his teeth. He was still sleeping when she called.

“Go and shop for your clothes before I come back. I have made reservations in a French restaurant.”

The game of courting with cash incentive to entice Joe to stay on went on and on.

“Joe, would you like to move in?”

“Oh thank you. I love you and I want to make you happy,” again lying in his teeth.

The credit controller retired and it was a natural progression for Kath to take over his job. With the new responsibility, there was the unspoken company rule that a woman had to be unmarried in senior management positions, however, there was nothing to say that she couldn’t have children.

Kath often wondered about the motivation of Joe staying with her. He was just a toy boy. She knew that she couldn’t keep him for long. Her body clock was ticking, and soon she would be forty. She would have him sire her kids. Despite all the lovemaking, even working at it overtime, Kath was not getting pregnant. Out of frustration, she made an appointment with a fertility clinic. Tests showed that her ovaries were not producing enough eggs and IVF was recommended. She hated the injections she had to take, and Joe was not helping either. She was supposed to abstain from sleeping with Joe and he wasn't co-operating. After two failed IVF attempts, she was forty three, and the third time lucky, she conceived. The gynaecologist had recommended that she abstained from sex to stabilise the pregnancy.

So at forty three, she became the proud mother of Joe Jr. Her employers weren’t too pleased, but there was nothing they could do if they didn’t want to face a discrimination law suit. Kath promised to be back after four weeks. She arranged for an au pair from Germany. Gertrude was rather young at fifteen, but there wasn’t much choice. Not many girls wanted to work for employers of another race. In short, an African American.

Joe went to the JFK international airport to pick Gertrude up. Gertrude was a blonde lanky girl and spoke with a heavy German accented English. Kath had taken a day off to orientate Gertrude with the requirements of taking care of Joe Jr. during the day when she was at work. After dinner, Gertrude was free to go out and meet with other Au Pairs provided she was back at ten pm.

In theory, it was an excellent arrangement. Au pairs were cheap; they were not paid but given some pocket money. But in practice, it wasn’t exactly a piece of cake. Gertrude often quarrelled with Kath when she got back at mid night. She was sloppy with the baby. What irked Kath was Gertrude would come to tend the baby in her sexy negligee. When asked by Kath to wear a dressing gown, she rudely replied.

“You told me to tend to the baby the moment the baby monitor beeps. How do you expect me to go to the baby quickly and waste time wearing my dressing gown.”

Other times when Kath had to work late, and Joe was no where around and not answering the mobile phone she gave him, she returned to the apartment to face a sulking Gertrude.

“My contract doesn’t say I have to work over time. You are lucky I didn’t take off and leave the baby alone.”

Kath was also getting frustrated with Joe. He was acting as a prima donna. He was still a student in the community college without passing any paper he studied for. He was behaving as though he had provided a stud service for Kath and he expected to be paid for it. He was entitled to expensive shopping sprees. He was upset that Kath would not give him a supplementary credit card. He accused her for not marrying him and he was used as a toy boy which was a humiliating thing.

One day, her neighbour Jean told her that Gertrude had been taking Jr out despite that it was the middle of winter a couple of times.

“Such little babies should not be taken outside in the cold,” advised Jean.

When confronted by Kath, Gertrude denied ever doing so and accused that Jean was lying and resented that Kath had made used of Jean to spy on her.

One day, much to Kath's chagrin, her employer had asked her to attend a five day conference in Washington DC.

“Do I have to go? I have a baby,” asked Kath.

“Haven’t you read your job description? Travelling is expected? We have been very tolerating with you, you as a solo mother isn’t exactly giving the company a good name.”

Reluctantly Kath came home to pack. She pleaded with Joe to be home in the evenings and offered Gertrude one hundred dollars if she didn’t go out that week Kath was away.

As the saying goes, when the cat is away, the mice will come out to play. The first night Kath was away, in the middle of the night, Gertrude knocked at Joe’s door.

“Joe, come quick, there is something wrong with the baby.”

Joe came out of the master bedroom in his birthday suit and followed Gertrude to the nursery. Jr was fast asleep. Gertrude bent down and told Joe to feel Jr’s breathing.

“I think he’s stopped breathing.” and helped Joe’s hand to Jr’s nose.

“He is breathing OK,” and he suddenly realised that he didn't have his pajamas on and Gertrude was wearing her sexy negligee. He tried to retrieve his hand but Gertrude held it tight. Joe could feel the stirring in his groin. He could see Gertrude’s cleavage from her low cut negligee. She was deliberately bending over so he could see her. How different youth was. Here was a fountain of youth like he was.

“Come in to my room,” offered Gertrude.

Joe followed blindly. He was to play the same game he had played when he first came to the apartment. Only now, it was with someone he had wanted to for a long time, not with the wrinkled old prune. In the light, Joe saw what a beautiful body a white girl has. He had never had a white girl. She was all peaches and cream, and her blonde hair so light

“I will make you the happiest girl tonight.” whispered Joe.

“What are you doing shacking with an old hag?” asked Gertrude.

“Let’s not talk about her, tonight belongs to you and me. Talking about her will only ruin our fun.” Suggested Joe.

“I have been dreaming about you the day I came to this apartment.”

“The dream is mutual, I wanted you when I picked you up from the airport.

For five days, it was like a honeymoon for the two. They ignored Jr’s crying as long as they could. Only when they were hungry, did they remember to feed Jr and change his diapers. They did not bath him, and just used lots of wipes to clean his pooey bottom. Soon Jr’s bottom was red and covered with diapered rashes.

Kath was shocked to see Jr’s diaper rash and rushed him to see his doctor. He said Kath was lucky to bring Jr in time. He was not only suffering from a severe case of diaper rash, he was also badly dehydrated. Jr was a case of baby abuse and made Kath feel guilty.

“Mothers should decide what their priorities are. I won’t report you this time, but I make it clear that I don’t want this to happen again. You should never leave a young baby under the charge of a fifteen year old. She is a kid herself.” Admonished the doctor.

Kath went home seething, but she could not reprimand Gertrude or Joe. The words of the doctor were stinging in her ears. She couldn’t give up her job now, if she wanted to give Jr a good living. Joe had spent so much of her money the past three years. Money, that she had prudently saved and invested. She was unaware that Joe was giving Gertrude money to subsidise her for the poor allowance that Kath was giving her for her services in bed.

Meanwhile when Kath was at work, Joe and Gertrude were doing their carrying on. Joe had not bothered to go to college. It suited him fine when Kath was less demanding in bed. She was always busy and stressed. He was giving all his energy to the hungry sex kitten down the corridor. They even progressed their escapade the master bedroom leaving the door ajar so they could hear Jr.

To add variety to their repertoire, Joe up loaded hard core and child pornography on to his lap top.

“This lap top is the best gift from Kath to me. With this, I don’t have to leave the apartment the whole week.”

Joe taught Gertrude to imitate the porn stars they were watching. Sometimes they added sadistic acts and Joe loved it when Gertrude became a dominatrix.

One day, Kath realised that she left an important document at home, and she drove home in the mid morning to get it. When she unlocked the front door, she could hear Jr screaming. Gertrude was no where to be found. Then she heard giggling sound from her own room. Kath crept quiet as a mouse to her room. She froze as she entered the door.

Gertrude and Joe were in her bed in the middle of their steamy love making. But of them were stark naked totally unaware of Jr screaming in the next room and Kath standing at the door.

“Out! Out! You hussy!” Kath screamed hysterically, and grabbed things to throw at them.

Gertrude ran out of the room and slammed shut her door.

“Sorry Kath, Gertrude tempted me, she came to the room naked and I did what any hot blood male would do. I promise it would never happen again.”

“You realise she is just fifteen and under-aged? You could go to prison for raping her.”

“I didn’t rape her, she raped me. We could send her back to Germany.”

Kath went to Gertrude’s door.

“Gertrude, as soon as I can get a ticket for you to go home, you will go home.

The next morning when Kath went to Jr’s room, Jr was sleeping quietly. She left him to sleep and went to have her breakfast. Before she went to work, she went in to check on him again. Call it a woman’s intuition if you like, Kath felt something wasn’t right. He wasn’t screaming for his morning feed as usual. She turned him over and she shrieked,

“Joe, come quick, Jr’s stopped breathing.”

Joe came and dialled 911.

The ambulance came quickly.

The medic said, “Sorry, Mam, your baby is not breathing, I suspect he is in coma.”

Kath and Joe went in the ambulance. Kath was shaking uncontrollably.

At the Accident and Emergency, they rushed Jr to have a scan. Kath and Joe waited outside.

“Are you the parents? I am the attending doctor at the A & E. I am afraid your baby is suffering from shaken baby syndrome. He is still in coma and will slowly slip away. There is nothing I can do for him. I have to make a police report. Are you the sole carers for him?”

“It’s Gertrude, I am going to kill her!” shouted Kath.

The police came the next morning to take Gertrude to the NYPD to be charged for killing Jr. In giving her statement, Gertrude admitted that she had shaken Jr violently in the heat of the moment. She was bottling a lot of pent up frustration, Kath was a terrible employer, Joe had raped her over and over again knowing she was a minor. He subjected her to watching hard core and child pornography.

The German Consulate was informed and Gertrude was taken to their care.

Joe was charged with rape of a minor and also the indecencies he had inflicted on her. Joe like the murderer Michael Blagg thought he could destroy evidences of his pornography by deleting the disgusting pictures. Like the police in Michael's case, the NYPD found on his hard disk thousands of obscene and illegal porn pictures.

Enough to nail him and send him to jail for a long time.


After Jr’s funeral, Kath returned to her cold empty apartment. Kath sat in her settee, Jean brought her a cup of tea.

“I am finished, I was a stupid woman to think a young man would love me.”

“Hush! Kath, treat it as a bad dream. Joe is bad blood. It is better Jr had died because he probably had bad blood too.”

Susan and the other woman.

Susan and the other woman

Susan gasped in horror, she began to breathe convulsively. She couldn't believe her eyes, she couldn't believe her ears. The door of their home office was ajar, she could see the screen of the PC and the side view of her husband. She froze, and her eyes couldn't blink. On the screen was a sexy brunette woman gyrating obscenely. Her husband moaned and groaned. Then he flopped down on the chair. Susan quietly and quickly jumped into their king sized bed and pretended to sleep.

Pete went to their ensuite bathroom, flushed the toilet, brushed his teeth, and lay down his side of the bed, In no time, he was snoring away like a runaway train. Susan stared at the man who has suddenly become a stranger.

She had married him for thirteen years, with whom they had two beautiful girls, Amelia eight, and Lena five and twin boys Lenny and Johnny aged two. She thought they had a perfect marriage. They were university sweet hearts and they married as soon as they graduated. He worked in business management and her in pharmaceutical sales.


As soon as they finished their last exams, Susan suggested they got married. Pete was reluctant, it wasn't that he had a footloose and fancy lifestyle. He said, he was just too young to be tied down. He suggested they could just live together.

"I don't want any salacious gossip from my church going friends," said Susan.

Eventually Pete agreed to the wedding. He gave Susan an engagement ring with a small solitaire diamond. They went to Susan's small town of Kingsville, and her parents arranged for a small town wedding. They drove across the Niagara Falls to New York for their honeymoon. Susan enjoyed the shows at the Broadway, they took a ferry and went to the Statute of Liberty, went up the Empire State Building and walked around the Twin towers and the Times Square.

They both got jobs in Toronto. Pete in a small business firm as a trainee manager, and Susan in a pharmaceutical company. Susan was in marketing and she had to travel the whole of Canada to meet her clients of chemists and supermarkets and departmental stores. Three out of four weeks in the month, Susan was out of town. Soon she was very tired and heading for a burnt out.

After a hectic five years, Susan was ready to throw in the towel and was glad Pete got a new job as a manager of a factory that operated twenty four hours a day. With his steady income, they decided they were financially well of to start a family. Pete often had to be called away in the middle of the night if there were problems in the factory. He even had to stay over night in the factory to help fix what he said was a gigantic problem.

Amelia came, Susan and Pete decided Susan would be a stay home mum.

"I earn enough for my wife stay at home and to take care of the family."

Susan was busy with Amelia, and drinking cups of coffee with other young mums at play group. Then Lena came, and Susan started taking Amelia to a dance and movement class. Then unexpectedly, she got pregnant with the boys Lenny and Johnny. The pregnancy was arduous, Susan had high blood pressure and placenta previa. She had to be hospitalized and be in complete bed rest from the sixth months of her pregancy. Her mum Kelly came from Kingsville to help baby sit the girls. The boys were born by cesarean section and Susan took a long time to recover.

With the busyness of two toddlers and two little girls, Pete took a back seat in Susan's life including her romance life. It was too hard to get a baby sitter to come in because not many people wanted to be responsible for four little kids. So they hardly went out as a couple.

Pete went to the bar with the boys on Friday nights. Anyway, he was very busy and was always working over time. If not, he had work at home in what they called their home office.

After settling the kids to bed, Susan was usually too tired to do anything but to hit the sack by her self because Pete was busy in the office.

That fateful night, Susan woke up thinking Lenny was crying for her, but it wasn't. It was Pete's groaning noise as though he was having sex. The door was ajar, and she crept quietly. Shock! Horror! He was masturbating whilst watching his computer showing the obscene video. Susan froze for a moment. She felt sick in the stomach.

"No wonder he has not been intimate and sleeping with me," thought Susan.

He was always saying, "You are tired! Or I am tired."

Susan stayed up tossing and turning that night, wondering how long he had been doing this.

The next morning, after Pete had gone to work, and the girls to school, Susan went to their little home office. As she was not a computer savvy person, she had hardly gone to the computer. By clicking the mouse, she found hundreds of pictures and videos. Most of them were images and obscene conversation with the same woman she saw the night before. She couldn't believe the monster she had married.

Susan wondered if it was her who was partly responsible because she had been so tired with the children.

Susan didn't know how to confront Pete, so she decided she would observe Pete's pattern. It was his nightly escapade, at around ten pm, when he thought that Susan was sound asleep. He had not bother to shut the door because it was stuffy in the windowless home office which was a small space for a walk-in wardrobe.

One night, Pete had a phone call from the factory and had to leave urgently. He left the computer on, he was chatting online with a "lover". Susan found old chats of seductive chats and also obscene photos of his "lover".

This lover, Crystal was a brunette. She was the woman Susan first saw. Crystal didn't look any much better than herself. But she talked dirty and Susan was appalled by what she saw and heard.

Pete came back to find Susan sitting in front of the computer. When Susan confronted him, he denied any knowledge and said, such sites popped up when he was surfing information for work. Then Susan said, she knew everything, he got mad at her and raved and railed.

"All men watch."

"Who is the woman that you are viewing and chatting to?"

"Cyber lover, that is exactly that, cyber! There is nothing physical"

"I have talked to our pastor, such obscene pictures are bad news."

"Do you believe that?"

"Even Oprah and Dr Phil say that viewing porn is bad. You have a big problem."

"How long have you been watching?"

"From the time you were busy climbing the corporate ladder traveling the whole of Canada selling your drugs. It's all your fault, you were never there for me."

"You are a sick whacko!"

"I will delete them and not watch again."

A leopard doesn't change its spots. Pete was so addicted and he continued to have his escapades. Susan knows because he locks the office in the evening. But during the day, when Pete is away, Susan went to the community college and learnt to become computer savvy. Susan finds out Pete was still indulging in his dirty habit.

A cold war developed between Pete and Susan. When he finished his dinner, even before kissing the children good night, he hides himself in the office. He knew Susan would never leave him because of the children. Susan cried herself to bed every night. One evening, Susan over heard him talking dirty on his phone. She realised that his cyber lover was a real person.

One day, Pete left his cell phone on the Tall Boy chest of dressers in the bedroom when he went to shower. Susan was tempted to check his cell phone for text messages. She was petrified, among the usual "I luv U" texts, there was one extremely disturbing. "I luv your little girl. I can't wait to do it again."

"The bastard! How am I going to confront him?"

When Pete got out of his shower, Susan confronted Pete about the text messages.

"They are harmless, I told you before!"

"But what about the one about our little girl?"

"You are just being paranoid, it is nothing!"

"Who were you texting? Are you having an affair."

"Yes, I am having an affair. It is all your fault, you always too tired, you don't expect me to be celibate in my 30s."

Susan issued an ultimatum, "Choose your other woman or the kids and me."

Susan was at her wits end. She didn't know what to do? She rang her mum Kelly at Kingsville. When she picked Amelia and Lena back from school, after giving the children their cookies and their glass of milk, she took Lena, Lenny and Johnny to her next door neighbor, Alice. Alice had often babysat for free because she understood how hard it was for a young mother of four.

In the privacy of Amelia's room, Susan asked Amelia if anyone had touched her in a way that she didn't like.

Amelia said, "Yes, mummy, remember the day you had a bad stomach ache and Alice babysat Lena, Lenny and Johnny and Daddy took me with him to pick up your medicine?"

Susan replied, "Yes I remember."

"Well, Daddy took me to this place with a bed and got me a big ice cream cone. Then when I was eating the ice cream, a woman came with a bag of marsh marrow for me."

"What happened next?

"First they kissed, and they took off all their clothes and went to bed. They told me to watch TV."

"After that?"

"Dad said, be a good girl and join them in bed. They took off my knickers and started to touch me down there."

"Oh My God! What else?"

"They kissed me down here and touched more. The woman rather hurt me, Dad told her not too deep."

"After that, they washed me and gave me a mars bar. They told me that this was our secret."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I wanted to tell you but when I got home, you were asleep so I didn't tell you."

"Oh my God! Oh my God!"

When the children were in bed, Susan confronted Pete about what Amelia had told her.

"She's a lying kid."

"Explain how she got to describe so vividly?

"She came into the office one day and saw me watching child pornography on the computer. I didn't realize she was there until she watched for about ten minutes."

"You sicko whacko!"

“She is so young, she won’t remember anything,”

"I am leaving you, and I will report you to the police.

"Do that, and I will kill you." Pete threatened and yelled at Susan.

Susan couldn't sleep a wink. She rung her mum Kelly and kelly told Susan to leave Pete. The next morning, Susan quickly packed her bags, and the children's clothes. She wrote a note, "You will never see us again." and left it by her dressing table. She had intended to go to her mum's and get settled before she decided what to do.

They never made it to Kingsville, not too far along the freeway, Susan's station wagon veered to the incoming lane and had a head on collision. The impact was so bad, there were a million glass crystals lying on the road. The cars were in a mangled heap. All the occupants in Susan's car were killed on the spot. The driver of the other car was killed too. Only his front passenger lived to tell the tale after she got out of the coma of how Susan's car for no rhyme or reason veered unto their lane .

The police went to Pete's office to inform Pete. Pete lying through his teeth told the police that since the birth of the twins, Susan had been suffering from post natal depression and was doing things out of character. He produced the "You will never see us again." note and the police initially took it as a suicide note and Susan had deliberately made the collision to look like an accident.

Susan's car was taken to the crimes scene unit. Detailed investigation showed that external reasons were not the responsible factors: the weather was fine, the traffic was fine that morning. There were no drugs or alcohol in both drivers' blood. The mechanics found that the braking system in her station wagon was tampered with. Some one had deliberately wanted to cause an accident that day.

The Toronto police went down to Kingsville to interview Kelly. Kelly confirmed that Susan had rang her to tell her about Pete's other woman and cyber addiction and how he had threatened to kill her. She also suspected that Pete and his lover had sexually molested her grand daughter Amelia. They confiscated Pete's personal computer. Pete thought he could fool the police and destroy all evidences of his cyber crime. Little did he know that though the images were deleted, they remained in the hard disk and could never be destroyed.

The police recognised Crystal as the other woman from the computer images. She, was arrested and in her bargain for amnesty, agreed to testify against Pete. She had been seeing Pete whenever they could, Pete would sneak to see her pretending that there were problems in the factory. Pete introduced her to hard core pornography and child pornography.

"It was Pete's idea to sexually molest his daughter Amelia. He arranged to take Amelia to the motel and I just went along. Pete is a very sick man, he got worst and worst, his cyber addiction got so bad. I am very sorry I tagged along and indirectly caused the death of five innocent lives."

When the head of the jury read his note, "GUILTY" Kelly and her husband Raymond said, "The monster should be locked in jail with the key thrown away."

Kelly and Raymond went to the city cemetery. In the snow covered grounded, five new graves stood up like sore thumbs. They were covered with fresh flowers. Friends and strangers have come to mourn for these five innocent lives, plucked away by the evilness of a man.

Kelly sobbed, "Susan, Amelia, Lena, Lenny and Johnny, if you are looking down from heaven today, you will know that though your deaths were avenged, I will never be the same again. Too many pieces of the puzzles have been snatched from me. I should be the one lying in the grave instead of you. It is not right, it is too cruel. Friends tell me they admire me for my courage and fortitude at this sad time, but what do they know? My heart is broken a million pieces, it is as if a zillion arrows are piercing into it."

"Rest in peace, my darlings. I will make sure the beast will never come out of prison." Raymond vowed.

He wiped his tears away and helped Kelly up from kneeling in front of the graves.

Infatuation

Infatuation

Sally remembered the first time she met Jason. It was love at first sight. She was a first year business student and he was a third year engineering student. It was a Saturday afternoon.

He had just finished his basket ball practice and she, her aerobics session. They were at the university gym fountain queuing to quench their thirst. Both were dripping with sweat but they didn’t mind. He was just ahead of her, and as a perfect gentleman, let her drink the ice cold water first.

It was like magic, they were drawn together like a magnet. He swept her off her feet. He was a six foot alpha male, ash blonde and blue eyes. She was five foot seven, long blonde hair and blue eyes. They were a Barbie and Ken pair. If they entered a beauty and a man hunt contest, they would win first prize. But Sally was a church going small town girl.

Sally was heels over in love with Jason. She was a small town girl, who has never dated because her church going parents had told her to be careful and wait for the right boy to come along. Some how, in the small one horse town, the guys and gals were more like brothers and sisters rather than boyfriends and girlfriends.

“What are you doing tomorrow?”

“In the morning, I go to the Baptist Church and in the afternoon, the young people hang out doing various fun things.”

“What about skipping that and join me for a ride in my new car, we can catch a movie and have a bite to eat at pizza hut.”

Sally was in a dilemma, she had never skipped church. She was ecstatic and proud that such a handsome and popular guy was inviting her out. She didn’t want to say no, in case he would never ask her out again.

“Yes, I would like to go out with you.”

That morning at ten, Jason came with his red sports BMW convertible. Sally was in awe, she had never been in a convertible before. Jason sped along the motorway and smiled at Sally who tried to keep her long hair in place.

“Don’t worry about your hair; you are supposed to let it fly in the wind.”

They stopped at Pizza hut, and took out a Hawaiian pizza. Jason drove off to a park. He opened the boot of his car and took out a six pack beer. Soon the two of them were drinking and laughing away. Sally was drowning in love with Jason. Jason played his courting game with expertise.

At the drive in cinema, both sets of eyes were not really looking at the movie screen. Sally got very excited when Jason first touched her on her arm. She did not stop him when he leaned over to kiss her. All her inhibition were thrown out of the window. She encouraged him to touch her all over.

They became an item, her infatuation combined with the right chemistry the stars sparkled in the sky. Susan had not dated anyone before, and she was over the moon. She rang home to tell her parents and siblings about Jason.

“He’s got such gorgeous looks, the kind to die for, he’s also got charm, and he’s got charisma,” babbled Sally excitedly.

“Does he go to church?” asked her mum.

“Yes, mum, I made sure of that,” lied Sally.

Pete gave Sally his college pin and proudly showed off her off to his mates like a prized trophy.

Sally was a member of the new wave movement of committing herself to one partner and only after she was married. She signed a pledge with her group of young friends. However, she was blown away by love, at one of their dates, with their car parked in a secluded corner of a public park along the Detroit River, she succumbed to the temptation when he touched her and kissed her on the lips. She gave herself to the testosterone pumping Jason. She loved Jason and she wanted to make him happy. Sally went through dilemma, She had done something out of character, went against her pledge. But now she has tasted the fruits of romance, she loved it and she didn’t want to stop. She was also afraid of losing Jason. All the girls were envious about of her. They warned her about Jason’s infamous reputation that he was a Casanova.

“You are just jealous.” Sally told them and rolled her eyes.

True to their words, the next Sunday, at the same park, after a few bottles of beer, Jason leaned over and kissed her. Then he touched her all over and up her skirt. Sally did not resist. She kind of enjoyed it. The inevitable happened. Sally lost her virginity to Jason.

“Hey! You didn’t tell me that you were a virgin,” exclaimed Jason very proud of his prowess.

“I thought you knew I belonged to the group that has pledged herself to the man she marries,” Sally explained.

“You liked it, did you?” asked Jason.

“Yes, and I want to be with you always.”

“Go down to the family planning clinic and get the pill, this that way, you won’t get pregnant, and if we don’t tell, nobody will know.”

Sally stopped going to her afternoon group and church on Sundays. Susan felt hypocritical going. She told her friends she was busy with university work. She was spending as much time as she could in Jason’s car or in his apartment.

They went on long drives and always making out in the car s before they left for their respective flats. Sally drew the line about Jason sleeping over in at her flat because she didn’t want her flat mates to be suspicious. If they she kept her bedroom door shut, her prude flat mates gave her scorching looks.

As soon as they finished their exams, Sally suggested they got married. Her burden of feeling guilty was taking a toll and she felt that getting married was the best solution.

Jason was very e reluctant, "It's not that I have a footloose and fancy lifestyle. I am just too young to be tied down."

“I don’t want any salacious gossip.”

Before she knew it, Jason was calling her less and less. He was giving reasons or rather excuses that he was busy with his projects for his final year. He wasn’t even answering her telephone calls. Sally knew there was no rhyme or reason why he was avoiding her. She loved him very too much to do anything to offend him. In fact, she bent over backwards to please him.

Margaret, her flat mate heard a rumour that Jason had a new girl friend, a redhead. She came and told Sally about the rumour. Then other girls actually saw the redhead with Jason showing plenty of public display of affection.

“But, he’s my boyfriend. He gave me his collage pin, and I gave myself to him.”

“Well, this is just infatuation on your part. You might as well cut your loses.”

Sally cried herself to sleep. She realized that she had been a young puppy in love and she had only herself to blame.

Reader’s comment:

Your story had a good follow though. Some of the tenses were wrong as well as certain sentences that need to be restructured properly.

I found the story to be a good short story. Be careful to stay with the proper names of the characters. Keep up the good work

The Substitute Teacher

“No! No! No! I am never ever going back there again.” Stacey told her daughter Karen when Karen came to check on how Stacey was doing on her first day back at work after a hiatus of thirty years.

“Sorry it didn’t work out for you, Mum,” said Karen.

“You said it would be good for me, I almost had a panic attack,” sobbing and wiping her tears on her sleeves.

“Come now, I will make us a cup of tea and you can tell me all about it.”

*********

Stacey was trained as a secondary school teacher, and was a stay-home mum after her daughter Karen was born. Her husband Bob was a successful real estate agent and later manager. They were financially well off and there was no need for Stacey to return to the work force even when Karen had left home. She was happy with her charity work and volunteering at the neighbourhood senior citizens’ home.

Then Bob dropped dead from a severe heart attack. Stacey mopped about at home refusing to go out. She missed Bob, the one and only man in her life. Her whole life had evolved around him, and without him, she was at a complete loss. When Karen came to visit, most often, she found Stacey still in her dressing gown staring blankly at the television screening with its volume at full blast.

“Mum, you can't sit around the whole day like this. The matron of the rest home had been asking when you were going there?” asked Karen.

“Karen, please give me time. I don’t have the mood for anything else.”

Karen rang Stacey’s pastor and asked for help. John came with his wife Sue.

“Stacey, you might enjoy going out once in a while,” suggested Sue.

“I don’t know, I have been dependent on Bob for so long that I am at a loss in what to do.”

Karen suggested, “Perhaps you can try substitute teaching one or two days a week. You were a very good teacher before, Dad used to tell me.”

Karen rang an employment agency and found Stacey a job substituting in a school two days a week. It was quite a distance away, and it would take Stacey almost an hour to drive there.

*************************************


Stacey arrived in the school and was ushered to the staff room. Nobody talked to her. She felt very nervous. The class teacher who she was substituting for rushed in.

Jan said, “Sorry! Stacey. I am on release and have a meeting. I will introduce you to the class and then I am afraid I have to leave you.”

The class was a new entrant class of five year olds. Some of the children had just started the day before and a third of the children were International kids who didn’t speak any English. The kids were a pack of rascals, and the situation became chaotic. The children were supposed to be sitting on the mat, but they were standing up and moving around.

“Children, please sit down while I do the class roll,” Stacey implored them.

“I want to go to the toilet,” shouted one kid.

Suddenly, they all wanted to go.

“OK, one at a time,” said Stacey.

“But we have two toilets.”

“No! just one at a time,” said an emphatic Stacey.

A teacher came in, she was a specialist teacher who took those kids who didn’t speak English to her special language room

“I am staying in your room to observe one of my children,” said Diane.

'Blow! I was not told that I would be observed by another teacher,' thought Stacey.

The children behaved better when Diane sat on the chair near them.

'Diane doesn’t approve of my handling of the kids, I can see she is trying to look neutral.'

Then Stacey noticed the two girls sitting right below nose had gone.

“Diane, will you please find them for me.” requested Stacey.

Diane looked all over the school compound for these two insolent girls. She reported to the office, and the school manager put through an announcement through the inter-com to look for them. The school prefects went out to search.

After a frantic search, the two girls were found hurdling together at the sports shed, hidden from the view by some flax bushes.

The deputy principal took the girls to Stacey and Diane and made them apologise for the worry they had caused.

The drama didn’t end there. For the rest of the day, it was one trouble after another.

“Jan, I never had such a terrible day in my life,” Stacey reported.

“I am sorry you were given such a bad class. Life as a teacher these days is never easy, and we don’t get paid enough for all this trouble. Tomorrow will be better.” reassured Jan.

'Tomorrow? Wild horses won’t drag me here. I won’t be coming back.'

********

“So Karen, I am not going back. I don’t need the money, I don’t need all this trouble.” said Stacey.

Karen gave Stacey a kiss and a hug, “Sorry, mum, I am sorry I cause you so much distress, may be you should just go back volunteering.”

The Voodoo doll

The Voodoo Doll

It was the early colonial days on the island of Minau. Minau was known before the white man came to conquer them as Land of the Head Hunters. Even though the white rulers had outlawed this gruesome tradition, the mountains were remote and the rulers couldn't do a thing. The people believe in animism, vampires, mystic and spirits. Casting voodoos were rampant on people who upset you and they continued to chop people's head off.

Christopher Granada was one happy man. He beamed and grinned to himself. He was just promoted to be one of the youngest school principal in the country. Though the school was up in the mountains, it was his school and he was the principal. It was a primary school of forty children. His new wife, Nancy was posted to be the teacher and school matron.

Christopher and Nancy packed their luggage, emergency first aid and medicine and boarded in the motor boat for a two day's journey.

"The school is very remote, after the motor boat ride, the head man, Chief Waretini will wait for you in a long paddle boat at the town of Kano. He will take you to the school." Advised Alfred, the education officer.


Christopher and Nancy sat in the motor boat looking at the other passengers. They were natives from the mountains and had tattoos on their arms, legs and face. Their lips were darken by the tattoos. They were also sharing the boat with ducks, chickens and dogs. Some of the passengers looked fierce and Nancy wondered if their decision to move up to the mountains was a right one.

When it was mid day, some of the passengers opened up their food parcel of dried fish and taro. They offered their lunch to the new school master and his wife.

"Thank you, we brought our own," and quickly stopped at there. Alfred had reminded them that the natives were very hospitable people.

"Make sure you accept food offered to you, otherwise it will be seen as an insult and they will think you are snubbing them. But you offer some of yours in return."

Christopher and Nancy took a bit of the fish and taro and ate as though it was some gourmet food. Then Nancy opened her picnic basket and offered the fellow passengers some of her chicken sandwiches.

When they eventually arrived in Kano, it was late afternoon the next day. Nancy was quite happy to get off the motorboat and stretch her legs on the tiny jetty.

"You must be Mr. Christopher Granada, I presume!" Said the fifty something grey hair man.

"Yes, I am, you must be Chief Waretini, this is my wife Nancy." Replied Christopher.

"Welcome to Kano, Sir Granada and Mam Granada. Tonight, we sleep in a communal rest house, and tomorrow we paddle up to your school."

Nancy had not expected to sleep in the rest house. In deed, it was communal. There was no separate sleeping area. Thin mattress were rolled up like futons and kept at a corner.

"You may like to take the right hand corner, and I will take the left hand corner. I suspect some of the passengers will be sleeping in the rest house as well." Said Chief Waretini.

Chief Waretini took them to a small coffee shop where they had their dinner and then back to the rest house.

Nancy felt quite amused having to sleep on the floor. Never in her wildest imagination had she thought of how primitive the place was. The thin mattress didn't give any cushioning and Nancy didn't sleep a wink that night.

The rooster was crowing at the break of dawn, as though it was saying, "Welcome to the mountians."

"I did tell you that we were going up to the mountains. You don't expect a nice soft warm bed and a nice hot bath." Said Christopher.

The next morning, Chief Waretini brought them two hard boiled eggs each.

"Eat up! We start rowing as soon as you have finished. We need to travel a full day."

The Granadas or now known as Sir and Mam quickly ate their breakfast and packed up their luggage and followed Chief Waretini to the jetty. Waiting on the jetty were two boys about the age of twelve.

"These are two of you oldest students, they have come to help paddle the long boat."

Chief Waretini helped the Granadas load their luggage on the tiny long boat with no roof. Then he gave Nancy a big conical grass hat and a paddle.

"Do I have to paddle too?" asked Christopher.

"Well, if you want to reach the school before sun down."

So Christopher and Nancy each took a paddle and tried to synchronize with Chief Waretini and the two boys.

In a jovial mood, Nancy started to sing "Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver." And Christopher joined in making the rowing less tiresome.

They didn't stop for lunch, but just passed around more chicken sandwich and hard boiled eggs. The boys ate the chicken sandwich ravishly.

Eventually, they arrived at the jetty of their school. It was some fifty feet from the jetty and some girls were waiting to help them unload their luggage. The school was tiny, but The Granadas didn't expect it to be this tiny.

"It doubles up as the church chapel on Sundays." Chief Waretini told them. It is a Roman Catholic Church. The school was built by the mission. Sir, you are the first lay person to be our principal. In the past, we always had a priest."

"Behind the main school building was another rectangular shaped building. The end nearest the school is your living quarters, in the middle is the mess, and the far end is the kitchen."

The Granadas followed Chief Waretini on the grand tour of the school. In another smaller block was the dorm. The dorm was divided into two, one end for the boys and one for the girls. Again Nancy noted there was no bed. Thin kapok mattresses were rolled up and placed against the wall.

"We don't have a cook, the older girls will help you, Mam to cook for the children."

Nancy felt aghast, no where was there written in her job description that she was to be the cook. But it's too late now, Christopher was so enthusiastic in taking up the job that they forgot to check everything. She brushed back her tears and pretended that something got into her eye.

"The generator will provide the electricity in the evening. Make sure it is lights off at 8.30pm."

"What about us? Do we have to have lights off too?"

"You have a powerful torch light."

"Have we gone back in a time machine?" Asked Nancy.

"You have everything here, once a week, I will come with the food supply and the district health nurse will come once a month." Said Chief Waretini.

The Granadas worked hard in their little school. Both of them were liked by the students and their parents. They did not expect the extra added bonuses of eggs and chicken when the parents came to visit.

Christopher wanted to have a vegetable garden, Chief Waretini organised a community project and the parents, uncles and aunties and grand parents came for two days. Such co-operation was heart warming and soon they were self sufficient in vegetables, and starch roots like, sweet potatoes and taro.

Nancy was happy knowing that Christopher was elated. One day when the health nurse came, she confirmed that Nancy was pregnant. They were happy but Nancy was not overjoyed.

"How am I going to bring up a child in this remote place?" Nancy questioned herself, but she did not let Christopher know of her apprehension.

Nancy became sick, the health nurse suspected she had a miscarriage. "You work too hard here."

Much to Nancy's chagrin, Christopher didn't seem too upset, "Don't worry too much, we are both young, we can have another."

Nancy became pregnant again, but tragically she lost the baby again. She didn't recover physically from the lost. Her system got muddled up and she was constantly having cramps in her stomach and her hair was dropping in clumps.She feared she was turning bald.

Chief Waretini's wife came secretly to Nancy. "I don't think your health problems are due to natural causes. I think there is something supernatural about this."

"What do you mean?"

"I think some one cast a hex on you."

"Why would they want to do this?"

"I am not sure, I can ask our clairvoyant for you if you like."

"Christopher will never agree to witch craft."

"Do you value your life or not?"

In desperation, Nancy heeded Mrs. Waretini's advice. On the pretext of visiting a student's home, Nancy went with Chief Waretini's wife to the village clairvoyant.

In the clairvoyant's hut, lined against the wall were many shelves. On the shelves were bottles of magic potion with insects and herbs in them. She had darkened teeth, and covered her hair with a long black scarf. But bits of fizzy white hair could be seen sticking out at her forehead. She lit some red candles.

The clairvoyant gave Nancy some homebrew and asked her to spit out part of it on the floor. After saying some mumble-jumble words, the clairvoyant fell in a trance and prostrated on the floor. When she came through, she looked horrified.

"It's evil. Some village girl is jealous of you as the wife of our handsome young Sir. She wants you dead so that she can be the new Mam."

"What can we do?" asked Mrs. Waretini.

"The evil girl would have gone to a witch doctor and got her to cast a voodoo on you."

"How do I get rid of it?" Asked Nancy.

"We must find the source of the voodoo, she must have hidden a voodoo doll some where near the school, when you find it, you bring it to me, and I will remove the spell."

"Who could do such a hideous thing? I will enlist my husband Waretini to help."

"Please keep this a secret from Christopher, he will think I am superstitious to believe in this voodoo thing"

"When you live in the mountains, where most people are animists and not Christians, you have to believe that people resort to voodoo." Said Mrs. Waretini.

Chief Waretini scoured the whole school compound especially about the dense bush that surrounded the school. After two days, he struck gold. He found what he was looking for. Hanging upside down was an eight inch voodoo doll wrapped in red cloth, and bounded tightly in black string. Without touching it, he saw thorns stuck in the abdomen area. Parts of its hair had been pulled out leaving bald patches.

"No wonder the Mam had been losing her babies and getting bad stomach ache and dropping her hair."

Chief Waretini quickly got a student to rush the clairvoyant to come to school. They told the students to remain inside the dorm. The clairvoyant said her prayers, and removed the thorns stuck to the voodoo abdomen area, unwound the two metre long black string and the red cloth. Then she poured some kerosene and set the voodoo on fire until it became ashes. She swept up the ashes into a little gourd.

"That was a good job you located the voodoo doll. Now your job is to catch this vicious girl who wanted our Mam dead."

Every day and every night, Chief Waretini hid in a bush waiting to catch the culprit red handed. For ten days, he had no success and was about to give up.

"No, Waretini, you must be patient. For the sake of our beloved Mam, you must persevere, her life depends on you. " Said Mrs. Waretini and the clairvoyant.

It was a full moon night. At mid night Chief Waterini was getting sleepy. He heard a morepork hooting melancholy and he looked up. He saw the morepork sit conspicuously at a nearby tree. As a child, Chief Waterini heard that when this owl hoot melancholy, it had been with the spirits and something bad was going to happen. He felt the air suddenly become cold and the atmosphere become eerie.He even smelt the smell of death.

Out of the bush came Tania, the belle of the village. She was considered the most beautiful girl in the village but her pride had led her to reject all the suitors from near and far. She confided in her aunty that these local men were not good enough for her, and she was waiting for her knight in shiny armour.

"So she had decided that Sir was the knight, and so evil had she become that she was willing to kill Mam to get Sir."

Chief Waretini threw his fishing net on Tania so she couldn't escape. Then he bound her hands and legs with rope. He found she had a bottle of formic acid presumed to be used to splash and dissolve the voodoo. In such a terrible act, she had intended to kill the Mam.

In the mountain way of justice, he marched Tania to the clairvoyant's hut. The clairvoyant told Mrs. Waretini to cut off Tania's hair and smear charcoal and ashes on her face. Tania was to be the clairvoyant's slave for as long as the clairvoyant deem necessary and after she felt that Tania had become remorseful.

Christopher still dismissed the voodoo doll as mumble jumble. Miraculously Nancy recovered with no medical intervention. Her hair grew long and luscious.

Not too long afterwards, she had twins, a boy and a girl. Chief Waretini and his wife hosted a big party where they symbolically became the twins' grand parents.


Reader's comment:
I enjoyed this story. I do feel like you set me up though. I expected more from the husband. He is an educated man. He should have been suspicious. I also feel that the Nancy cared more for Christopher than he did for her. I would like to see more investment in the emotions of the villagers. Christopher needs to have some interaction on a personal level with Tania. Otherwise their forbidden love (one sided of course) could not even be imagined.

The Immigration Offender

The Immigrations Offender

The small town people of Aloh avoided Pearl's family like avoiding the plague. They alleged that Pearl and Jake were so unscrupulous they would swindle anyone who had the bad luck to come in their path. They cheated customers, defrauded suppliers. They broke their promises to their investors high returns in the little grocery store.

Their family stood by them refusing to believe all the allegation and gossips. It was until Pearl cheated her uncle and her first cousins. Then they believed the rumors and decided that was it and have nothing to do with this black sheep in the family. Pearl had purportedly ripped off her own uncle.

"Her father's own brother, Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!" Everyone said disapprovingly.

"Lock, stock, and barrel." Pearl told her uncle. "Everything in this store is yours."


"You are getting the best bargain for my mini market. Others have offered a much higher price, but since you are my uncle, I am offering it at a basement discounted price." She gave her uncle and aunt a brief tour of the store.

Despite being warned by friends and relatives about this wolf in sheep's clothing, the nave uncle was tempted by the rock bottom price.

"After all, would a niece cheat her uncle?" Her uncle assured his wife.

As soon as the deal was signed, Pearl and her husband Jake absconded. People suspected they were hiding in a very remote part of the country. It was so inaccessible that creditors didn't bother to go after her.

Her creditors came round to the store and insisted that the new owner paid Pearl's debts. Despite the uncle's protests that he was the new proprietor and he was not responsible for Pearl's debts, the creditor controllers of his suppliers threatened that they would not supply any stock until he cleared Pearl's debts. To make things worst, the stock on the shelves did not tally with the books. Pearl had inflated the quantity of the stock by forty per cent. On close examination, a lot of the cans and boxes were reaching expiry date. Pearl had been buying from shoddy sales representatives stock that was almost expiring at a cheaper rate.

After their flight to Chaltem, they took a bus to Kanza town . Kanza town was almost as remote as Timbuctoo, Pearl survived on their swindled money. Life in Kanza was like going back in a time machine set forty years back in time. There was no electricity and tap water. Pearl didn't like her plight, but she knew she couldn't go back. She befriended women who came to do her laundry and cooking and house keeping for a token. These women were happy to come to listen to her radio, and cassette tapes and drink her instant coffee.

A leopard doesn't change its spot. Pearl was bored in this one horse town. She persuaded her husband that it was safe to go to the town.

"Nobody would recognize us."

They wore big sun glasses, and Pearl's husband Jake stuck a false mustache, they took the rickety bus to the nearest town. At the shanty pub, she met a man who seemed flashed with money. Jake treated him a local beer and asked what the news was in the big town.

"My name is Angus McFarlane, and I am a consultant for a very rich country Sirdindia." Angus handed Jake his business card.

"What kind of consultancy are you involved in?"

"All sorts, business migration and labor recruitment teams."

"What do you need for business migration?" asked Pearl.

"You will need half a million dollars out front and you need to deposit the money in the country. Then you have to operate a business in Sirdindia."

"I don't have half a million dollars, what about labor recruitment?"

"For ten thousand dollars per head, I will arrange for you to enter Sirdindia to work. It is very lucrative working there. In five months, you can earn double your investment."

"Wow! That's a good deal. Let me go home and get the twenty thousand dollars."

Jake and Pearl went home, and took out all the money they had swindled and arranged to meet with Angus. Angus drew him a map of Uranga district of Sirdindia they were to go.

"Remember, when you arrive at the immigrations, you tell the officers that you were touring the country. Make sure you have one thousand dollars and your credit cards when you arrive so that the officer would not suspect you were going to work."

Jake and Pearl went by bus and took the plane from a neighboring country, Chaltem.

At Sirdindia, the immigrations questioned them because they didn't know the language and didn't seem to be tourists, but there was no reason to stop them from entering the country.

"My friends say that Sirdindia is a very beautiful country."

"Why are you visiting in winter?"

"We come from a tropical country, and I want to see snow." lied Pearl by the skin of her teeth.

Once out of the airport, Pearl and Jake took a city bus and went to the downtown bus terminal. There they boarded a bus to the small town of Condor in Uranga. The foreman met them at the bus terminal and drove them to the orchard.

"You are not to leave the orchard until your three months is up."

"I thought we were going to work for five months."

"Sorry mate, you are in the country on a social visit pass, you can stay only three months and you are not supposed to work, so you make yourself very "small" when you are here."

"The bloody Angus, he lied and cheated us."

Pearl was assigned to work one shift in the orchard and to cook for fifty men and do the dishes for all the three meals. Jake had to work two shifts and do the maintenance of the equipment. Earning the promised money was not easy. Work was arduous, Pearl and Jake had never worked so hard before. But it was too late, they had to work otherwise Angus had reminded them that their twenty thousand dollars would be forfeited.

Pearl lamented that her fingers were getting callous from doing all those dishes. Jake said he was in no better condition than her. They said living in boring Kanza was heavenly compared to their situation then in Uranga.

When their three months were up, they vowed they would never be back to this hell hole. They took their plane to Chaltem country, boarded a bus and arrived at Kanza. There in Kanza, they lied to the people what a fantastic holiday they had in Sirdindia. The women were happy again to come to work for Pearl.

Six months later, they saw Angus again in the pub.

"I have been looking for you!" shouted Jake.

"I have been looking for you too!" echoed Angus.

"Thanks very much for sending us to a hell hole. You bugger!"

"But you earned a lot of money, didn't you? And did I ever promise you that Sirdindia's roads were paved in gold?"

"Oh forget it, what are you looking for us for?"

"I have a better business proposition?" said Angus.

"It better be good."

"Jake, you don't have to go this time, you just have to find ten women to go with Pearl,"

"What do I get in return?" asked Pearl.

"For each woman, you get five thousand dollars, and Pearl doesn't need to pay her ten thousand dollars."

It took quite a while to convince ten peasant women's husbands to let their wives to go with Pearl to Sirdindia and for them to find ten thousand dollars. Many had to borrow from friends and relatives. Jake promised them that it was very safe and they would be away for only four months, and when they came back, would be rich. Eventually, after all the formalities were done and passports issued, they were ready to go.

The peasant women whom Pearl felt embarrassed to be with were behaving like country bumpkins.

"You gals don't do the talking, I know the language, and I talk." Pearl was very proud to have picked up smithereens of the Sirdindia language from the three months she was there before talking to the other workers.

They were a bunch of nervous looking women when they arrived at the immigrations, they were interviewed one by one. Pearl was interviewed first.

"What are you coming here for?"

"Holiday."

"We suspect you are here to work."

"No! no work, holiday."

"Were you here in Sirdindia before?"

"Yes!"

"What were you doing then?"

"Holiday!"

"Did you work?"

"No!"

"No? You are lying, we have in records in our IRD. IRD means Inland Revenue Department. You see, any one who works in Sirdindia has records in our IRD."

"What's going to happen to me now?"

"We will deport you on the very next flight back to Chalthem."

"Those ten women, are they with you?"

"No! I don't know them."

"You are lying again, they all said you asked them to come with you, and they have the same address that you were going to."

"They wanted to come themselves."

"You are lucky we stopped you, vulnerable women like you have been sold into prostitution."

"Oh Bloody Angus."

"Did you say Angus McFarlane?"

"Yes, Angus McFarlane!"

"He's been arrested for being in a syndicate for bringing illegal workers to Sirdindia."

But the time, the immigrations officer had finished with Pearl and her band of ten women, they had been in the airport for six hours.

"I am sorry there is no flight for you to be repatriated back to your country. You have to wait for three days. I am sorry there is no room in the airport for you. We have to send you to the Nukau police station. They will lock you up in the holding room so that you don't escape."

Pearl and her ten friends were hand cuffed and driven in a paddywagon to the Nakau Police Station. They spent three days in a police station holding cell together with prostitutes, druggies and thieves.

When they got back to Kanza, before Pearl and Jake could pack up and abscond again, the whole village torched their little hut and warned them, "Don't you set foot again in our village and abuse our hospitality."

Pearl and Jake did not learn their life lessons. They tried again to enter Australia without the right documents with the intention to work. They were stopped at the immigrations because Sirdindia had an agreement with Australia to share information of illegal aliens. They were jailed two years. In jail, they reflected on their actions, and thought of the life lessons they had to learn in a hard way.