MAURICE TOBOSO - BROKEN MIRRORS

​My name is Toboso Jacob Maurice, born on 20th May,1991. I am a third born in a family of six. I started writing poetry in form one of my high school education,in the year 2006. I joined maseno university in 2011to pursue a bachelor's degree in education, specializing in English and literature and graduated in 2015. It was while at the university that I took to writing short stories and at the same time improving on my poetry. I have a large collection of poems a few of which are published in online poetry sites like allpoetry and poemhunter.com. I intend to publish my collection of these poems and short stories, and a novel that I am currently working on, soon. 

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                                         Broken Mirrors


​Adongo threw away the dirty dishes, artistically made from strong leaves, and incessantly begun looking at them. Every turn of her neck provoked painful trembles in her emaciated body. One cannot avoid wondering how life, in three days only, could change for the worse and sweep off all the fond memories that had been deeply rooted in one's mind. Adongo tried to think of these presumed fond memories but for every futile attempt, the current situation dislodged those distant memories. She tried to spit on the grassy floor but what came out was nothing but bloody remains of the wild vegetables she had struggled to swallow.
She lifted her body off the wet grass and ventured out for the third time since she unceremoniously entered this cruel but peaceful abode. She wondered whether it was the knowledge that she was safe from her pursuers or the fact that she was at the point of starving that touched her  spirit. She instinctively hid behind the bigger pole when she thought she saw a figure resembling a human being some two hundred metres away. Was it a human being or was she hallucinating just like she had been these last three days? Adongo froze. That must have been a human being, a human being! She tried to engage her tired and famished mind but withdrew the effort knowing well that thinking was now an illusion. Her mind was fed up with horrific images of incidences that should not even happen in the world of fiction.
Yet her slow mind reminded her that indeed she had witnessed all those horrible impossibilities. Now she was the subject of the most well-coordinated inquiry and all the police machinery and some drunk leaders were trailing her, separately. But she knew for her own good that the two groups were both baying for her blood, for different reasons.
'That being must be coming this way!'Adongo exclaimed rather loudly. She checked around to confirm that no tree was within her range to overhear her. A simple blunder and she would easily join her slain family. And why should she think of this cruel topic and this time when she wanted to consolidate her mind at this oncoming tragedy? She shuddered under the wait of her thoughts.
I must be courageous, my son's survival depends solely on mine. One simple mistake and both of you are crashed in the same way as those three doomed children of yours,and that ill-fated husband of yours were crashed by the long arm of the  force. Don't be stupid? Your family was not crashed, you crashed it. No, you slaughtered them, not really so, you butchered them when your second born son recorded  with the police a statement unraveling your outrageous slaughter of your ill-fated husband when you learnt that he was planning to relinquish the millions of shillings you two had stashed in anonymous accounts, and those fat acres of grabbed land you had transferred to your mother. I heard that it was forest land. You have to die, you economic rapist and saboteur. You must die, you must and I think if it's not now then it must be the next second after now.
'Hey,Adongo,please focus. Stop thinking about unreasonable things. Stay focused,' Adongo reminded herself. Her thoughts just stopped resonating in her head at the right time for her to see that what she had seen  was indeed a human being!
'Death! Death! I am smelling you!' Adongo shouted rather loudly again. She was also very observant, for she was able to make out that it was not one human being coming. Neither were they two or three,they were five or six,or seven?!
Adongo, you are very intelligent indeed. For how could you even have noticed that those seven men are coming towards you? For you? When we thought they had blinded you,those doomed children of yours, and that ill-fated husband of yours, when you drew forth your pocket knife to slit open their thin throats? You are not blind, not blinded by those heinous adventures of yours? Oh Adongo, you must be a very strong woman indeed!
'Now Adongo, why are you being so cold and callous? Look, those human beings are coming for you! To kill you, to murder you, just like what happened to your family!  They were murdered, killed for the sins they knew nothing about. Because of you they lost their lives. Yet you are here thinking about unreasonable things instead of planning your escape, and your son's! Have you forgotten that he is now maimed and it's only you who could save him? You don't even want to look at him right there on the wet grass floor in this traitorous structure? Afraid? Shivering ? After this far and you are shivering,Adongo? Get up, act and save yourselves because if you die now you will die with the truth and everybody  will believe in Adongo the criminal!' Adongo reprimanded herself as she tried to make quick possible calculations of her escape.
She looked around. The poles of the 'hut' were frail and thin. They could not support her six year-old  lying desperately on the ground. She looked at him and realized that in that six-year old's eyes, there lay a strong will to live. Those poor  pure eyes were yearning for a miracle to see them out of that trap. Adongo tried to think. She thought, quickly.
First, she looked out. A miscalculation! Those human beings were fast approaching! She must think quicker than  the footsteps of those beings. She thought again. She was not yet tired of thinking because that seemed the only thing she could do, albeit the difficulties.
Adongo reasoned quickly and for the first time tried to push the wooden poles. If only they could be strong enough, she could climb up and hid on top of the rotting branches making the unsteady thatch. The first pole she held almost gave her away!
'Be careful Adongo. This pole is completely rotten. And with those termites all around, do you think it can support that heavy body of yours? You think you are weightless, because of your emaciation, wrong! You are twice heavier due to your fear! Relax and think Adongo because you are lucky. Otherwise try to explain why you didn't fall out when that rotten pole broke,' Adongo continued with her thoughts as she assembled herself again for the suicidal task ahead.
Hahahahaha! Adongo the murderer,trying to trick death again? You must join those you slaughtered this time. You think you are intelligent, tell me then, why is it that you have not carried your bundle of a son and run away immediately? Those men coming are wielding some beautiful sticks in  their arms, and if they are not guns then i give up the fight, you are more intelligent they. Run for your life Adongo!
''No Adongo, not now. Do not bow down to fear at this eleventh hour by running away when you need to relax, think and hide and let those hunters pass. You cannot even walk,leave alone running for your feet are sore, bleeding and swollen because of the three days' episodes. Don't listen to the enemy,those voices in your mind are sure enough going to destroy you if you listen to them! Think!'' Adongo's thoughts came clear to contradict the strange thoughts. She thought.
'' These two poles at the corner are comparatively strong,they can support your rather unnecessarily big weight for about five minutes. If only you lie on top well. That other corner can support Moses. He'll survive,you'll survive. If you believe. '' Her thoughts advised.
She looked at the ghostly human beings coming and saw much to her shock that they had doubled their pace. They seemed to be in  a hurry to quench their thirst. And why not? Had they not sworn to silence the killer? She calculated the pace of their steps and the distance remaining and knew it will take them about five minutes to get to their destination. Five minutes of destruction or survival. Adongo Thought.
'Adongo, if you are still hoping of surviving, think big. Those poles cannot support your weight for so long. Think. Until it's appropriate, remain standing beside that saviour pole. No,take your son, your son? Up very first! And don't walk, crawl,crawl, crawl faster on your belly! Good. Get off those clothes, they will give you away. Good. Roll them into a ball. Good.Don't forget to go up with them later. Now  pull Moses, still on your belly, up to that other corner. Good. Stand against this pole and carefully place him on these two bigger branches. No! Discreetly! The poles and the branches should not feel his wait, don't ambush them. Yes, slowly like that till they get accustomed to his weight. Good.Come down,slowly.Crawl back to your side.Faster, Adongo Faster! You have less than thirty seconds to be up at the pole there. Good. Now climb vigilantly the same way you placed Moses. Across, that way the branches will share your weight evenly. Excellent, I think you are a bright girl. Now wait for your fate for the human beings have arrived! Good luck and remember to pray,don't be foolish! In heart! Good.'' Adongo waited for her turn.
'Stop! Don't get in all at once. Such simple things always bring with them luck. Don't dismiss it too early. OK. The two  front men, in! At the middle go round from your right.You two at the rear do so from your left. I am following from the door. Shoot anything on sight, confirm later!'' The human beings planned their ambush well in advance before approaching 'Adongo's hut.'
The human beings went in, round, touched the structure, shook it with rage and disappointment and cursed bitterly.
''The fool! That idiot! She thinks we can't get her. We will. I will! My future lies with the success of my present mission!''
''...And those CCTV cameras clearly showed the phone she made away with took the video of the entire episode...!''
''If she escapes to the neighboring countries, she'll surely show the entire world that it was the force that carried out that botched mission!''
'Her name will be cleared, and she'll surely come back to vie.''
''That's not the issue! The problem is that we shall all be jailed for murder!''
''And we can't even say we were executing  our boss's and the Hon.'s orders!''
'You fool! Can't you see that he won't be still Hon. for opinion will turn back to this stupid woman? Who will not be swayed to vote for her knowing that she is innocent and that her family was murdered because she was strong enough to release the dossier about land grabbing and  massive misappropriation of funds in the country? The same issues you have been trained to weave them afresh to implicate her?''
Meanwhile, Adongo shook with fear, at every word uttered, she shook with rage, at every revelation, her weight doubled with the trembles. The hut collapsed a thousand times in her fears, but her strength came back when the human beings shook the poles but nothing happened as her anticipation for a mighty final fall grew dimmer and dimmer. God's Power! Is the greatest!
About three minutes had hardly elapsed when Adongo and her son came tambling  down in a mighty fall! What an escape from the claws of death! Adongo was only able to see the corporal and his force disappear down in the valleys as she rushed to nurse Moses whose endurance was now tested by the new injuries. Let him cry, he can at least cry as the corporal and his human beings continue with their search . As for them, what they only needed was a little endurance to crawl for a few miles into the peaceful neighbouring state within their reach.