SECRETS

Chapter 2: Strong Willed Jimmy.

On his fifth birthday, Jimmy was spending quality time with his parents in their two bedroom house. The 3 J's; Jenny, Jimmy and Jack, the latter being his father's name were having supper in what seemed to be a rather small room reserved specially for dining - on occasions, for this was Jimmy's birthday. However poor the family was, they never wanted the child to miss his happy days.
Jack was only a gardener, too his wife. They would wake up at cock crow to till the gardens for a living, and food for the greater part of the produce. But the poor couple was never relenting no matter what. They had decided to take turns as one would remain at home in their small shop while the other was away, either looking for what to eat from other people's fields or in their own garden.
These were bad years indeed. The cost of produce, if any was there, was very low compared to the energy that one would insert. On small occasions, Jenny had implored her husband to look for something else other than wasting time and energy on fruitless fields. But Jack saw no other opportunity. He was a poor, illiterate man who never had a chance to step in a classroom; only a man with hands to use for his stomach.
But very soon the family fell into greater poverty. They sold the only smallest remaining plot of land they owned in the world; the small shop was more - nowhere to lay for the night - and nothing to lean on - and no one to offer help for the family relatives were as poor as the poor church mouse.
'What should we do, man of mine? What should we do to protect the child?' Jenny lamented. But Jack was tongue-tied. He knew not the smallest idea of what to do next. Over the night, he was contemplating on two options - to labour tirelessly for rent - or to go around begging from whoever had land for farming. There, he would take with him the small family and they would stay there.
But the former option soon died in thin air. Nowhere in the world would he get the fifty thousand shillings for rent every month. The child was growing and demanding; soon he would start school; and would impatiently require expensive scholastics. Jack knocked off the idea before it ran him mad.
Suffering had not quashed the child's spirit. He had this amazing ability to transform what looked like a heavy log into nothingness. His mother would stand and stare blankly at the child as he dug with all his efforts and would surely shed a tear. Such a strong willed child! Jimmy was a blessing from the spirits.
'I need to go with Dad tomorrow. I need to see where he works' Jimmy told his mother one day when they were going down to fetch water. Drought and recent sunshine had made most of the wells and dams run dry; the only source of rather muddy water was river Jana. The whole countryside used it now as their only piece of hope.
'You would my child if you were strong' Jenny responded without looking at her child. She was trying to stop the tears that were now pricking her eyes and threatening to fall. Words of her child were do stinging. They reduced her to dust - to nothing. She saw in him an intelligent, strong willed man of importance. But how was that going to be possible? Thriving in this poverty life seemed never to cease sooner. Had poverty barely no eyes to see what the child needed? Had the spirits no mercies for the struggling family? If a mistake was made by ancestors, then surely we can redeem with greater faith on their behalf.
Jenny summoned her cries unaware of what to do next. The season had failed to sprout what the land owner required and had reluctantly chased the small family.
The reader should be informed that this was now the third place of stay for the small family after leaving the small town. They were moving from here - and then there - looking for where to spend a night; dig for the stomach's cause; and suffer from there; for nothing else could be done.