THE GRAVE OF LOVE
BY

NABENDE EMMANUEL
LEONARD CHIPUKIZI


CHAPTER ONE

All his life Lukombii desired a metamorphosis of his life from sorrow to joy and jubilation. His life was characterized by only tears and fears that had piled in his Gishu heart. It was the need for true love that made Lukombii’s life miserable and a dustbin of love; Lukombii, a young man in his early twenties, strong and determined to hold his future. His life has been all the same throughout his primary studies even up to university. All he meets along his way is but heartbreaks, disappointments and regrets only. He kept on wondering whether he was misfortune himself or he had a lot of misfortunes. When he delightfully expects joy and victory, what come his way are nothing else but sorrow, sadness and tears. Before he sat for his Uganda Certificate of Education, a young lady who was one class behind him studying in a different school delightedly swept him off his feet and caught his eye. She lived in the same village with him. A short brown chocolate girl whose dimples and fat cheeks made her the most beautiful in her village. Many young men desired to be her fiancé but only her nature never gave them a chance to do so. She was such a quite, short tempered lady who would not wait for her words to cook up before she says them out. Dorcus was the first born of Mr. Alex whose wife was working in Lampaka city. Alex’s family was a stead of its own nature.
One cool evening, the melancholic Lukombii decided to walk along himself deep in the thick forest near their village, he had wanted to buy some sugar cane to quench his thirst. It was the same path that most natures of his village passed to collect their firewood, graze animals and do their farm work. After longing his piece of sugar cane, he walked back sluggishly and dumped his disturbed life under a cool greeny tree to chew his cane under its shade. Shortly later, without dilly dallying, Dorcus is seen walking along the same path carrying watering can heading to their farm which was just a stone throw from where Lukombii was sitting. She glances at him and happily walks towards him forgetting about where she was heading to. Her face was bleeding sweat mixed up with joy because she had finally met the person she had longed to see for a number of months. One could see the smiles that collided on her face as she tried to gather courage to face Lukombii eye to eye when she was surely ready to face him; she drugged her legs on tip-toe like a cat in order to meet him uninformed. She stealthily came by the back and closed Lukombii’s eyes in game-like style and breathed the following song in complete joy and jubilation.
“I found you Again
The long awaited morning has come.
It has come to pass.
I have seen you again.
My dead dread has resurrected
And moved to the seventh heaven,
My tears have ended.
I know I will no longer go tired
Wiping the over flowing tears
From my tiny spherical eyes.
My visage is happy to cry happily.
The long awaited afternoon has come
It has come to pass.
I have seen you again.
I have come out of
The coffin of loneliness
And death will never again
Storm my demanding heart
My friends are good
And indeed very good
But you are best and excellent
Please, my lost one
Clap hands for yourself.
The long awaited e evening has come
It has come to pass
I have seen you again
The dimpled piggy cheeks,
The shiny well created eyes,
The gorgeous happy face-
A face never gloomy and sad.
The warm gifted bosom,
The soft palms of your arms,
And the succulent lips.
I will kiss again
Because you’re the chosen Mary
Among the virgins.
You are homely welcome
And the rest I don’t know”.
Turning in front of him, in a moderating less speed she said;
“Finally, I met you!”
Lukombii mingled his face in bid to manufacture a short-lived smile for her in agreement to her words.
“Here I am, happy to meet you Dorcus”
They then looked at each for about five minutes or more without breathing any word. There was a dead silence within their confines as their eyes short directly into each other. Joy could be seen plastered on Dorcus’ face to have met Lukombii. For a number of times Lukombii had swum in total irritation that he had concluded, all ladies are the same. Whoever approached him explained their own reputation through the words they speak and the actions they do. With all the evidence and experience that Lukombii had bathed in. He knew that, ladies are more or less like flowers that blossom for a short time and wither whenever drought befalls. Dorcus happens to be one of them seeking for love which she now thinks she will obtain in from Lukombii. His eyes begun burning with secrete tears that he tried to hide away from her by blinking rapidly and wiping his face with a handkerchief as though the sun had come nearer to the earth.
“You are the apple of my eye”
Dorcus vomited happily as she sat beside him to engulf him in her arms. Lukombii felt to small and confused at such five that had just begun burning near his heart. Past memories begun falling back into his heart reminding him nothing but the pain that he underwent.
He apportions the whole blame on those ladies who never came to him in their true colours. All seemed to have been chameleons that change time and again depending on the state of affairs. Matters in Lukombii’s heart here not really easy ones to debate. He wondered why it’s his heart that labours the pain of love. In a harsh loud voice, he shouted and said
“You are a liar Never deceive me”
The tears that pretended on his eye lashes immediately had begun rolling on his cheecks making stripes like the road of a snail. It was a pool of tears that made his shirt as wet as a victim of torrential down pour.
In Nambakwa village, it was a rare thing for girls to approach boys especially in matters of love. Ladies were regarded inferior and shy, and therefore it was known that they do not have the guts and boldness to mention the word love to a man. That afternoon was a moment of mind-shift from such beliefs to what the world ignores. Dorcus, full of burning passion, pulled out her handkerchief while crying as well and wiped his flooding face. Lukombii took about ten minutes for more sobbing and mentioning the word “No” all through.
“Calm down please, Lukombii calm down”
She said in a timid hushed tone sympathizing with his situation. She hugged him and held him tight to her chest in bid to make him happy again.
“I don’t want any woman, don’t want; leave me alone, please……………”
Lukombii was a kind a man who wished to meet someone who could understand his feelings well, who could always be there for him, give him company, and understand his social, financial, home and emotional background. Someone who could laugh with him at the time that he wished to laugh. A lady who could freely join him in his tears and always hold his hand whenever he fell down. However, all ladies seemed the same: They joined his world happily and decidedly and after some moment of either satisfaction or dissatisfaction, they fly off like birds from their nests.
CHAPTER TWO
Day and night Lukombiissss spent time thinking and considering when he would get a really fair, true and understanding woman. He was ready to do anything he could to make her happy. He was ready to sell anything of his if it meant making a lady who would understand him, the joy, hate would be the first to come into his mind. To him, all friends looked like enemies because whenever he thought of having company, the only thing he discovered was destructive loneliness and emotional poverty. His way of life had turned out a really unique one in the entire village, that even a fly almost knew his problem. He looked at all pieces of advice given to him as poison since none of them brought a woman of his heart to him. He then lived his life independently looking for the real definition of love. A definition that would be worth the real meaning of the word love. At a moment he had regarded everything to be foolishness and madness of the highest degree that no human being would eradicate. Definitions such, as, love is a war, a song, journey, a road, joy and over definitions that he was able to come up with, all seemed to carry no sense because he had never been a victim of such. If indeed such definitions stood to defend the truth in the words defined by them, then he wondered why, he had never involved himself in any war, journey, or a song or road that one can be physically seen walking on.
All these were but pain and bitterness calmed in his heart. All over a sudden he comes up with his definition stating that;
“Love is confusion between two fools”
One evening while seated under eucalyptus trees, he remarked in a few words with a very withdrawn tone and a very judgmental statements saying;
“If hate was the name of life,
Then no one would temper with it,
If excess was the name of love,
Then there would be not hate,
If aggression was the name of my heart,
Then there would be no peace,
If forgiveness was the name of the blowing wind,
Then no tree would ever break,
If mercy was the name of the sun,
Then there would be no coldness,
If accidents were predicted,
Then no one would wish for it,
If fortunate was the name of misfortune,
Then everyone would be fortunate,
If death was the name of friendship,
Then no one would wish to be its friend,
Because death never tells lie,
But its lies are true facts.”
Two months later Lukombii heard that, Dorcus whom he had had a conversation with, had been swept off by another gentleman’s love; and that she escaped from their home in order to leave with her husband in peace whenever they wished to be. Her husband’s name had not been mentioned in the rumours that swept the village like heavy winds. Alex her father had looked for her in vain, reported the scenario to the village police post, her disappearance from home even reached the Newspaper and broadcasted in almost all television stations. Dorcus was nowhere to be found, she had gone to a place unknown to her father. Her father tried to trace perhaps who had been in a relationship within the village, but she couldn’t find since almost all the village natives feared him; He was such a harsh, strict brutal man that no teenager would temper to approach his daughters. Nobody was able to give him the whereabouts of his daughter Dorcus. She had registered for the national examination that year, a bridge that was to connect her to the world of elites: Here future was then forfeited by her own wisdom. All the resources that he had invested in her seemed a great loss to Mr. Alex. Stranded and no go-ahead, he engulfed his head and ate his own tears in regret and wonder.
Nambakwa village seemed to very ceremonies: It was as if what befell Alex was what they awaited. Almost all people including children feared at him; and said all tribes of bad things. It was evident in Nambakwa that, Alex was an excellent womanizer who mixed daughters with their mothers. On one side, he was in a relationship with the daughter. The natives wondered why then he became too serious and disturbed when his daughter fell in the same boat, for the usual game that he passionately enjoyed.
Lukombii was not only grateful to have survived that or deal but also strengthen his nation that ladies are the same. These did not just make him stressed but also built an enormous bridge between those who come to bleeding words of love and himself. He wondered whether the world had lost the rest meaning of the noon love. He didn’t know exactly why, ladies were greed at preaching love but instead practice hypocrisy. He thought whatever he had gone through should be considered enough if the world understands the meaning of sympathy. He really thanked God that nobody had spotted him with Dorus before her departure two months after. Nights were burned and days were born, memories were burned and new thoughts were conceived. Months passed, Dorcus was never found, and Lukombii had not adjusted. Confusion was still the order of the day.
It was now time that Lukombii should go back to school for his advanced studies in another school. Rochwa high school was situated in Rochwa district; One of the biggest school in that district, it had the largest population and quality education. He calmed his luggage and a recommendation letter to secure a place at Rochwa high school. After a journey of about nine hours or more, Lukombii landed in Rochwa district in the evening when the sun was travelling back home before night would fall. He then picked up a motorcycle to take him to his aunt’s residence, where he would stay until he finishes his advanced studies.
Rachael and Judith welcomed him warmly that evening. He found them engulfed at the five places patiently waiting for their evening meal. They were inexpressibly happy on seeing him. They both seemed to be in the seventh heaven. Their beautiful faces were colliding with joy mixed with uninvited sweat that suddenly flooded their faces with nothing but admiration. They pounced on him and swallowed him off into their arms. The kitchen was filled with laughter that part of it had nothing to do apart from escaping through the windows and the spaces that existed within the house.
“Luko………., you are not good at all!”
They shouted looking straight into his bright mobile eyes. Rachael and Judith felt it was too long to say his full name; the only alternative was to shorten it to Luko.
“I am all sorry cousins”
He agreeably said bouncing back a very expensive smile.
“You are welcome dear brother”
They hugged gain and congested the entire room with laughter and excitement.
“Thank you, thank you”
They then led him to the main house where he immersed himself into a posh sofa and then spread his flimsy hands across it; he took a deep sign of breath, pulled out his handkerchief and wiped the dripping drops of the escaping sweat through the face. He took off his sweater and in a low tired tone requested for drinking water which Judith brought as quickly as possible. He then lay on the sofa as the two dashed back to the kitchen to make their hands busy on something to eat. You could see their hands cooking like oiled pistons. Being a business woman, Aunt Joy came back late that night. It was not their habit to sleep late, but the fact that Lukombii had visited them, their mother wondered why they were still awake that night. Before she entered her house, she stood aloof her house and heard noise like birds welcoming a new day. She then knocked; Judith frantically rushed to open since she knew her mother had come back from the work place.
After welcoming Lukombii and cooking together words for about an hour or more, she bade them a goodnight and went to her bedroom to imitate death on her bed.
The following morning was a Monday and so Lukombii had to prepare for school to pick admission and a list of requirements needed for him to join advanced level of studies. His cousins woke up very early that morning since they were to go to school as well, they prepared breakfast, enjoyed it together and then set off to school. His aunt did the same and left him preparing himself to go to school. After all that, he picked up a motorcycle to rush him quickly so as to avoid congestion at school since it was a very busy school. Fortunately, he didn’t find anyone queuing in the office of the director of studies. It happened that he was the only one there asking for the vacancy.
“Good morning Sir”
He said humbly as though under custody for a crime. The director of studies then asked him to take up a seat on his left hand side on a bench that lay opposite his personal seat.
“Good morning, how are you Lukombii?”
“I am quite well sir, well done” he said politely.
“Thank you, Mm!! Where did you go after senior one, you just disappeared from Rochwa high school, you are welcome back”
“If to blame, my dad deserves. He forcefully made me to study in Amaka secondary school, where I did sit for my “O” level national exams. I am back fully to take up a place in senior five until advanced level is completely done.”
He then submitted his recommendation letter and given and form to fill in. After that, he was given a list of the requirements needed for him to join advanced level. Among them was the school uniform which was to cost about thirty five thousand shillings only, books, a bag, plate and a pair of black leather shoes. Lukombii then pulled the money he had come with paid off and promised the director of studies to report to school the following day, a Tuesday of that fourth week of first term.
© NABENDE EMMANUEL LEONARD CHIPUKIZI