Chapter Three : Escape
One question my friend! Have you ever climbed or tiptoed barefooted uphill on a mountain that is known to harbour the most deadliest snakes and baboons in the region whilst water and all cyclonic elements erase every footstep you make forward? It's a big no huh? Well it was my first time and unfortunately not my last too. You see l knew the terrain better than a blind man could ever rely on his walker to see the environment and believe me,l saw shadows of things ruining past me instead of towards me! It was like Noah had made the boat allover again and a few species had to make it there before the great flood began again. Everything knew naturally that this phenomena was a force of nature that even fangs and claws couldn't save you from! It felt like walking on glass whilst on a cow's yoke as l strode up the mountain carrying my baby girl on my shoulders. I was tired and breathing like a steam engine but l didn't stop. Finally,l made it to the pinnacle of the mountain and as l put my daughter down to catch my breath and check behind what was happening, l was traumatized!
Cattle,goats,chickens,ducks,pigs, you can name it all,the cyclone took it all away!Wealth in our culture is both monetary and quantity in livestock but we lost all our net worth in single night. The advantage of where l was standing was that l had an eagle's eye view of the whole village but l couldn't help them or scream enough for anyone to take heed and run for their lives! One by one the houses fell and were swept away. You could hear cattle trying to moo for help but the water choke-slammed them deep inside the cold and silent darkness! Boulders fell from the mountains and crushed entire generations in some huts in a single hit of impact. As the water continued to rise,the screams and sounds got quiet ,only bubbles filled the place as living organisms took their last breaths submerged! It was like someone had opened a fizzy drink on small anthill and it overflowed spreading the bubbles and spillage everywhere untill all the ants drowned!
People usually know how to explain things especially when they have studied them or gone to high levels of personal experience to attain them but l tell you today,no one can explain this to you or even worse, to me! I watched everything l grew up knowing being flushed away in a matter of hours and people that weaned me and leaned on me die and l didn't know who was more lucky,me or them because being alone already felt like a death sentence itself! North,east,west and south,l check every direction for any sign of life but all l could see was a memory of what was once was and now is! It was me and my pale daughter in the dark and cold horizon. My little one was catching a cold and if l am being honest, as clueless as a 2 year old child can be,she knew that something bad had happened and she had scars to prove it! I chewed some non-poisonous shrubs and rubbed them around the hand she had lost her two fingers just to physiologically ease her mind into feeling less pain but that was what itt only was, temporary ease not miracles!
A long sweater, vest and a boxer short,this was what l was wearing at the top of a mountain that had cold temperatures as low as 1 degree celsius and to make matters worse l was losing my sweater to the wounded and fragile princess!Being a father doesn't prepare you for such things but a parent must surely sacrifice the best of themselves for their children without hesitation! As l wrapped the sweater turned blanket on her,she looked me directly in the eyes as if relaying a message to me.It wasn't a look of fear or pain like before it was a look of compassion and weird comfort. In that moment l began to cry as l got numb because in that small sweater pocket l felt my wallet. The only thing that survived the cyclone and the only thing that had the picture of my family!