The vehicle was heading for what used to be the football park for their school, this was a huge plot of land which now served as both a market and a dumping ground for rubbish, this was another development which led Zell to wonder what the function of the district assembly was.
Who allowed rubbish to be dumped in the open? Even more worrying was the fact that food was being sold right next to the growing heap of Filth, the assembly was led by greedy politicians who had only two interests, riding in air conditioner four wheel-drive vehicle and finding creative ways to pocket money meant for development.
Another loud noise shattered the quietness, this time it wasn’t a bus, it was their mother.
“Boys! Boys! Come over here” she shouted across, signalling to them from where she stood on the back porch.
“Run to the house” Zell suggested to Philip, this time around.
He looked towards the house, their mother was looking in the direction of the bus, Philip had been partially right about getting visitors, even though they hadn’t come directly to their house.
“Sure let’s run in” Philip replied back.
The boys dashed down the knoll, childishly while eager to find out what exactly was going on.
“What is going on mother?” Zell asked eagerly.
“It is time for you boys to leave” she said casually, as If she had already told them that they were going to somewhere, ” pack up whatever you want to take with you and go to the bus parked at the old school park”.
“Where are we going to?” Philip asked, a worried look on his face.
“This is no time for questions” their mother replied coldly.
“We have nothing to pack, unless you want us to pack our old toothbrush, sponges and tattered clothes along”
“Are you going to see us off?” Philip asked, before their mother could respond to zell.
“Did you understand me when I said no questions?” Their mother responded harshly.
It was then Zell realized that she had no idea where the boys are being taken to, their mother was just trying hard not to feel guilty by trying not to be part of this ‘ going away’ ceremony, he was already getting nervous at the sudden realization, ‘ what If something bad happened to them? The question flooded zell’s mind again.
Was this woman really their mother? Could a mother actually be this cold?
Zell notice Philip seemed to have accepted what was happening, he was there there were a million things he would have liked to ask if he could speak, but their mother was no good at sign language and though she had lived with Philip more than he had, she never bothered to learn it properly.
Well if Philip was not anxious, why should I be?” Zell thought.
A few minutes later, they left their home and headed towards the bus that was to take them to the unknown, Zell wondered whether he should turn and wave at their mother, he turned but she wasn’t even standing at the window to look out after them.
Although it had been very sudden, he was surprised at how surprising calm he was the day they had come for him and his brother, Zell thought he would rant and rave and be an absolute pest, but he had done none of that, Philip looked like he was just excited to be getting out of what was rapidly becoming a ghost town, or village in this case
There were ten other children already gathered when they got to the bus, Zell noticed there was no girls in the group, three of the guys had their mothers with them to see them off, one lad actually had both parents with him, Zell wondered what deals these parents and his mother had made with whoever they were going to meet.
“Hey! Are you guys on this trip as well?” Kenny, one of their mates asked, directing the question at zell, more than at Philip, he knew Philip was a perfect lip reader, once he could see your mouth moving he doesn’t need translation, Philip high-fived Kenny, he then signed at zell who translated for Kenny.
“Philip says he can’t wait to get out of this place, he thinks anywhere would be better than being here” Zell translated.
“I wish it was an excursion to a Faraway place and we would then be back in a week or two, you know a break from the norm” Zell said to Kenny.
“However, not knowing where we are going to or who we are going with also add to the adventure” Kenny replied heartily, not at all disturbed by the mystery surrounding their departure.
“Our mother collected a hefty sum of money to give us away” Philip contributed.
“I actually walked in on her counting the money” Zell said and sighed, at the same time which was what he tired to do to allow Philip to be part of the group discussion, ” what is your story?”
“Iam sure my folks collected something too” Kenny said, ” in just two weeks their lives had changed drastically, a new motorbike for my father, a new gas cooker for my mum, and I even learnt they are actually having the old leaking roof of the house torn off and a new one out on”
“Does anyone know exactly what is happening?” Zell asked, thinking aloud.