PROLOGUE

Owing to a great number of factors, Ruth’s father had retired early from the army and had involved himself in trading which instilled in him a well-driven muse and desire to migrate from the main city to the remote countryside, seeking to establish some sort of business outlet that would fetch him some lucrative sources of material wealth and cash on which part of the life of the peasants dwelling there, mostly depend on.

Having settled there in 1996, he began life as an employee in some other local sawmill which already existed before he came to the town though not up to the equivalent standard to which he later built his own and subsequently found interest in enhancing his day job which wasn't sufficient to cater for his needs when he discovered the potentials and benefits of cutting wood for sale that he could richly gain profitably if he were to set up a running firm. He still held on to it tenaciously primarily because of his ambition to have a timber milling factory under his name despite having to put up with the boorish attitudes of those above his status including his boss.

He got married to a teacher living in the same town when he turned forty-five and had a nuclear family that had to put up with the intrigues of other families living in the same neighborhood and partially sustainable life in the rural areas, on which they struggle to live in since the town had low amenities and poor income from scanty firms, fully present in the town.

His meager earnings weren't sufficient enough to cover the needs of his children as well as his wife until he suddenly got fortunate to strike a secret profitable deal with one of the most popular companies in the main city primarily through the inside help of an old friend whom he knew to have gotten employed by the company some years before his retirement.

Afterward, he didn't hesitate to quit his job and succeeded in establishing a firmer mill which soon surpasses his former boss's wood factory fourteen years later after he left his work to pursue his dreams, in terms of producing and supplying quality timbers to enabling markets in the distant city where his valuable merchandise was often needed though not among the top-ranked companies involved in the same line of trade but his woods was still recognized by many buyers to be durable and long-lasting in construction works especially most of the houses situated at the central side of town, at the remote areas far off south from the seashore, that were roofed and partially built using the hard barks of his strong timber together with the use of concrete to build the house.

He used some of the funds he got from his lucrative business to erect a fancy mansion on a hilltop which turned out to be a significant eye saw of every single person living in the same town with the affluent fellow especially his workers that came visiting his luxurious manor each time to submit periodic reports of the day to day sales of his small but functional enterprise including those working in his crop plantations located twenty-five miles far inland away from town but was somewhat a short distance away from the wooden signpost with the name of the town inscribed on it.

At first, when his infant business was still yet to attain a greater level of expansion, quite a few locals in the poorly developed community who were finding it hard to provide for their basic needs were given a chance to generate some income to sustain their families members for the being but as time went progresses, his timber empire began to expand and at the initial stage, his workers were satisfied with the way they were treated at their workplace and the wages they earned at the end of the each month for having paid on time which was suffice enough for them to cater for their families especially those working in his plantations despite the harsh climatic conditions they doggedly faced throughout the year during the rainy season while his workers tending to the timbers at the sawmill under the profound supervision of Sean’s father, didn’t show any sign of insubordination with his managerial skills though partly discontented with the way he handled minor quarrels and brawls that frequently occurred amongst the poorly fed workers of the lower class secretly incited by his private bodyguards whose presence in his firm intimidated the workers whenever he paid a visit to see how his merchandise are being sold and how the operations are well handled by all the staff workers down to the least employee who does the menial job in his enterprise.

But as time went by, things slowly began to change between him and his workers whom himself as well as his bodyguards started to taunt with every little chance they get as a result of his hidden pride that started to manifest itself to everyone that comes in contact with him including his family members as his wealth grew larger though there were no complaints against his cruel management found amongst the workers since bulk of the profit gotten at the end of the month were shared at a sufficient amount to all the workers equally without any reduction in their salaries which made majority of his staff workers remained ignorant and endured his poor dictatorship in terms of prolonging the usual duration of their working hours into the night, and later adjusted it to the next day when they were supposed to resume after retiring to their abode to hibernate in their homes with their families who were getting frustrated with their frequent absence at home due to the late night working hours they frequently engage in without caring about the consequences of endlessly working throughout the week without rejuvenating their strength profoundly by resting their weary body though night shifts were set up to avoid the complete breakdown of human labor and machinery in his timber firm which would cost him dearly but it was no practical solution to the problem the workers faced every year.

Only the supervisors of his firm and those holding vital offices in his firm felt and notice the wrongdoings occurring in the enterprise which would affect the majority of workers in a sort of way that would worsen the ill conditions the workers face especially the assigned hours each worker were meant to perform their duties in the timber factory as well as the plantations and all these were secretly perpetrated by his bodyguards under his instructions as a way to enslave the workers and to reap the benefit in the end but they didn’t act on it and remain silent since the workers never showed any serious sign of total discontentment.

Although some were not happy with the way things were, the workers kept to their duty even if it means staying out all night without the thought of going home the following day, working in his plantations each time the sun was at its summit and harvesting perishable crops whenever heavy downpour of rain occurs during the rainy season. For twenty years ever since he started his business, things slowly went bad to worse amongst his workers but no one was able to say anything about it, let alone come out in mass numbers to protest against the discreet mistreatment his thugs perpetrated at the expense of those working in his plantations and his mill including the men meant to supervise his two major sources of wealth since the economic conditions were favorable for the town and they were able to fend for themselves without relying too much on the meager earnings they received from him.

Circumstances surrounding the unfavorable economic growth of the masses living in the urban areas of Ireland the following year almost crippled the standard of living of those dwelling in the rural areas which inevitably plunge numerous rural communities into a deeper level of poverty and scarcity that inflated tangible goods to the greatest heights especially the remote towns where severe drought and famine were spreading rampant around the coastal towns since the dry season coincided with the poor economy and somehow affected the lives of the fishermen whose major source of livelihoods solely depended on the fishes they caught at the riverbank as well as the estuary canals ebbing from the ocean into some of the lagoons offshore where there used to be an abundance of fishes each time the ebbing tide rises above the sea level during the wet season but much of this catastrophic effects were felt by the workers especially those working in the plantations where an epidemic which broke out few weeks after the New year was celebrated in the town, was far severe than the other areas of the mainland.