He had lived with his grandmother till she had passed away when he was eight years old, zell had then been brought to this woman who he learnt was his biological mother .
Well, she never acted like she was pleased to have him back and it had been so ever since, Philip was already living with their mother when he was brought back to her, it hadn’t taken him long to realise she loved Philip no more than she loved him, even though he needed the extra attention .
“He’s outside doing what he does best, building some devices or the other ,” Zell replied as camly as he could, snapping out of his daydream.
There was an uncomfortably long silence as she stopped counting and just stared at the money on the table in front of her.
Outside through an open window, he watched the sun as it slowly set over the lake below them, the yellow light from the fading sun glittered on the surface of the water, every now and then the light broke up into ripples as the wind blew over the water, creating beautiful patterns .
Zell was aware that his mother had deliberately chosen not to answer his questions, It became clear to him that he and his brother were not going to be around to enjoy these views for much longer if his fears were confirmed he also realised there wasn’t going to be a conversation between mother and himself, so he decided to go out and look for his brother.
Philip was exactly were he guessed he would be, he was in a make shift shelter as the edge of the lake which he had built out of palm fronds and plastic sheeting, it was a very hot day and Zell expected to see more kids playing in the water, Yet there was hardly anyone around .
Upstream a group of five kids in their pre-teens splashed about in the water, it was obvious they were not aware of what was happening in the community.
Downstream, a couple of boys probably his age balanced skilfully on a small canoes as they tried to cast a small net, he didn’t recognise who they were , but he waved anyway, and One of them waved back .
Philip’s shelter was just a few steps away , Zell could see the top of his head as he descended the sandy slope, Philip looked up even before zell got to him, Philip had been born partially deaf and dumb, he however had the advantage of his good sight and this had come in useful on many occasions.
He smiled at zell, and he smiled back at his brother, anyone had to be told we were brothers to believe it . Yes, they had different fathers but at least he expected to have some features in common with his half- brother .
Zell was light skinned with curly hair, and this caused people to think that his father was probably one of the missionaries who had visited the community .
Philip on the other hand, could normally be described as charcoal black, in the dark all you could see were his eyes and his teeth if he smiled. Their mother had never told them who their fathers were, and the boys had never dared to ask .
” What’s up kid bro?” Zell asked, getting closer to him.
“Nothing much big bro” Philip replied almost immediately.
As usual Philip was wearing one of his t-shirt with the number seven bodly heat-stamped on the back in bright yellow.
“With all this heat, Iam surprised you are not in the water cooling off” he said, looking ahead at the boys in the water.
“Just got out of the water about an hour ago ,” Philip replied, skilfully using the required arm and finger signals.
“What have you been up to today ?” He asked his brother.
“Nothing Important, what is there to do around here ?” Philip replied .” I played football in the morning and went fishing with some of the guys , later in the day.”
“Didn’t you go and lend a hand at the irrigation site?”
“I heard the programme has been held up because the government had run out of funds..”
“Seriously? how can they run out of funds for a programme if it’s been properly planned?”
“These politicians only come to these parts when they want votes. They come and make all sort of promises and start all kinds of projects they don’t intend to complete, ” Zell said .
“So many years on , I still haven’t graduated . We are still waiting for the money a politician promised , to get the school up and running, ” Philip lamented.
Zell shrugged casually, “this was your life, we lived in a community that was steadily shrinking in population, most of the young men and fathers had left to find jobs in the city and had never returned, and to make ends meet mother were now involving themselves in all sort of activities to make some money . They were giving their children always to total strangers , not knowing where they were being taken to, and in return they receive huge sums of money which were said to be gifts” Zell looked across the five children as they splashed in the water .
He referred to such youngsters as the ‘unfortunate generation’. None of the children hevwas looking at had ever been to school, the oldest looked about six years old and the youngest three, none of them had been born when the missionary school had been closed down seven years ago.
Some of them in the community who were given birth to earlier had been lucky to have received an education similar to that offered in the best schools in the city, the school had been run by an Italian num and her team.
Sister maria the num, had been ill with malaria and her team had decided it would not be wise for them to stay on, they had handled the running of the school over to the District Assembly and left the community, thar was the last the children saw of them .
A year later, the head of the District Assembly closed down the school claiming he didn’t have a budget to keep it running and the kids never got to know what happened to Sister Maria, and Philip never graduated.
Because of his condition , he had been tutored by one of sister Maria’s nuns who was a specialist, Philip ended up learning more than the other regular kids because of those private lessons and had been looking forward to graduating.
“What are you working on this time ?” Zell asked Philip as he carefully prepared two ends of what looked like hollow bamboo sticks.