A short story is always about issues of society
that is usually important to mankind. There are so many problems around us that
can be written as a descriptive article or in creative genres. To make it a
short story a writer created a fictional story (or even a true story). A story has
characters and interactions of characters (mostly through conversations or
dialogues and monologues) . What happened to them and the sequence of events is
known as the plot
Recently I wrote a short story
to speak on environmental crisis. It was about the cry for a healthy ecosystem, the concern of my people over
the conservation of green forest and natural heritage. My country’s independence and transformation into an industrialised economy had resulted in denuded hill slopes, polluted
rivers and contaminated air especially in urbans centres. Water quality is
declining alarmingly owing to sewage, animal waste, siltation and even heavy
metal emanating from improper factory waste disposal.
I began the story with a
murder of a lumber tycoon, unfolded by his daughter, whom I named Dayang Suhana, The injustice and evil
deed of money the loggers was revealed through her nanny, a daughter of a headman who had risked his
life in the struggle to preserve their forest. The story had been submitted for a competition
and not allowed to be published in full before the result. Below is an excerpt
of the short story.
On weekends that I am not away on official duty, I will travel one hundred kilometres to be with nani. After three weeks of not seing her I received a message from nani asking if I could come to see her. When I arrived at her brother’s house, he told me nani is resting in her room. I walked to her room. From outside I could hear her coughing. She saw me and smiled “Come in little Ana” . I smiled the best that I could to conceal my surprise and sadness at seeing her in that condition. She signalled to me to close the door tight.
After hugging and kissing I pull a chair close to the bed. She soon get serious and to the business as to why she wanted to see me this weekend. “After a series of tests they confirm that I have tuberculosis” Nani said. “Tubercolusis? Don’t believe it . The country has been declared clear of the disease”. I said. “No it is back again. Several people had been attacked .Be careful dear, when you eat outside. Do chose your stall carefully. Many stalls are employing foreign helps who could cough deadly germs into your plates”.
. “Don’t worry Nani, this disease is treatable. Just take your medicines. Please nani don’t give up. Please cheer up. I won’t be happy if you are not happy”. I said as I stroke her hair and massaged her scalp carefully. I reached for a comb and combed her hair.
“Little Ana, please listen. Nani said seriously. “I am feeling too weak to go on. I am feeling weaker each day. You know that I used to live in the jungle. The forest was our live. One day a group of people came to see my father who was the headman. They showed papers that they had obtained permit from the government to cut down our trees. My father and his men drove them away. They told us to think about it as they would definitely come back.”. ,
Nani spoke weakly, “I could remember how our people gathered in my house that night. They swore to remain united to protect our home ground. They will fight anyone who come to cut their trees. Cut the tree over my dead body. I heard my uncle said. He was my father’s younger brother, and the deputy headman”.
“They came back the following week in ln larger numbers. One of them was a handsome young man who did most of the talking. He talked softly telling the people that they would be rich if they just allow some trees to be felled. My father would not give an inch. He was brave and strong because his men had sworn to stand firm by his side” .
“But he was wrong, soon there was a rift in the group. Some began to believe in what the man said. And that broke my father’s heart. He said he would fight even if he had to do it alone. My father refused to sign any papers and that gave much problem to the company who could not commence their operation without my father’s signature of approval. Then one day my father disappeared in the jungle. The tragedy for our family was a joy for the loggers. The next headman signed all the necessary papers and the disaster began. Immediately the logging company turned up with large bulldozers, lorries and excavators and began to cut down the forest. They had no respect for the villagers or the village council. They built bridges over the river and contaminated our source of drinking water” .
“At that time I already had four children aging from two to ten, only the eldest was a girl. One day my three boys were down with fever and diarrhoea. I learnt it was typhoid. There was an epidemic which had killed many and I lost all my boys in less than a month. I cried day and night. My spirit died with them and. I did not want to get back on my two feet again. My relatives and neighbours tried hard to console me. They made me think of my surviving ten year old daughter. She looked strong and and more beautiful each day”.
“So life had to go on with me, my husband and our beloved young girl. She gave me the reason to live until one evening she was missing. We searched everywhere. It was a horror to find her where she was, stiff and naked with legs in mud and blood. We immediately knew what had happened. What happened to her had happened to many girls in the forest. They were raped by the workers of the logging company. With her death, I lost all reason for living. I did not know and did not care about my husband. A few months later they brought the news that he was run over by a timber lorry. I had no more tears to cry and I did not know and did not care whether I was still breathing”.
Good sisters and brothers took care of me for nearly ten years to get me back to life and felt the breath of our polluted air. Since then I recalled what happened clearly. What happened to my children had happened to many children in other territories. Even what happened to my father had happened to other headmen of other tribes who refused to sign agreements with the logging companies. I could remember clearly the face of the gentleman who came to talk to my people. He was the devil that broke up many tribes into rivalling factions, so that the timber company could make money from our trees. He made way for all the greedy men to flock in to our forest that had once been our live. I have watched him with my cousin and we both hate him. We had watched and hated him from the very start . I have lost my children. So was my cousin. Together we sworn that we would kill the evil man if we have the chance to do so”.
“ I lived in bitterness until I took the job as your nani. I grew to love you and you brought joy back into my life. But I soon find out that the man and the poison of our life and the man I had sworn to kill was none other than your father. One day my cousin visited me in your house. He soon realized who your father was. My cousin knew that I did not have the courage and the heart to do commit a murder. He plotted the murder quietly. He came to the house several time until that horrible night.”
Nani had spoken more than enough. She broke into a terrible cough. I could not help her because I too was feeling sick and started to tremble.
