Lost for Words

It was evening and the daylight was still affording itself the benefit of the doubt. However, the darkness that ensured was ruthless and determined to take over. By every standard, this place is the most visited in the city of Monroe. Girls and boys both working and hustling, flooded here for various purposes. For Marwolo, it was part of his daily mission to come here every evening. His mission is only known to him. Many boys who came to this club were either attracted by the many girls or possibly are being introduced by a close friend. For Marwolo, he was already a member of the club and his membership was so evident that his sit was always left unoccupied. whenever he missed the day, the seat always remains empty. In fact, Marwolo’s absence was treated as a funeral. He was missed most importantly for his jokes and plays, cunningly, those were his strength to lure and grab girls with his craws. His dimpled face and charming look which was misjudged by his prey as true love added to his advantage.

On one of those lucky days, while drinking himself beyond the limit, he spotted this young lady whose appearance most likely seemed new and her innocent face was nothing to hide. She was a ‘’Just Come’’. We often shortened this as JC. The looks on JC provided an opportunity for the experienced Marwolo to catch her in his nest.

Marwolo was a young handsome boy of tender age. His looks were misleading, deceiving, and inaccurate. His beauty was only external rather than internal. He was not a lucky one whose inner beauty was exposed on the forehead. If his internal beauty was seen, even obnoxious women would have surely refused his closeness to them. Whenever he stands in front of a million girls or when spotted from a distance by a thousand more, his smiles could seize the minds of all those girls regardless of the number. He was even attractive to ordinary people including men. His magical eyes were desperate, shining, and threatening. For most of his quarry, they were already victims before they ever knew it. He was more than a green snake in the green grass.

Marwolo was a known abuser of girls and women. He was always lucky. Many times, he worked free of any melted behavior and he prided himself on it. There were those girls who could accept his abuse. As long as they carried the title that they were with him. Some girls yielded the bitter happiness that hurts them deep inside. But those were times when many women still accepted that it was natural for men to be abusive and promiscuous. In those days, some women then accepted the venting of fury and abusive behavior on them as a gesture or show of love. It was sometimes accepted as a sign of love by society but not by law though. It was a crime. Even in cultures blamed for violence against women, it was frowned at whenever openly seen. And surely, there were well-disciplined girls who never allowed themselves to be abused. For such blunt and well-aware girls, the highest time spent with Marwolo was a week. In his mind, he never even wanted any woman for such a long period anyway. Marwolo was popular and well known. For many girls, he was called ‘’Walking Naked’’. This was in relation to his sex life as he had slept with all the girls around him and those far from him were as close as those in his neighborhood.

As he looked at the innocent girl, she was the first to wave, and with no hesitation, they both went home after clubbing without any discussions.

Being innocent, they both spent their night, happily in such a wanton haven that left an everlasting scar on young Bendu. Bendu could long remember that night painfully after she was in her early forties. That very night, Bendu conceived and brought forth twins which were all raised up by herself. She never saw Marwolo around to contribute emotionally, physically, or financially except in her dream. She has moved on in life but at the sight of the children, she could feel the heartbeat and the shock of her life. Now living in the United States of America, Bendu still remembers that not all that shines deserve the good of an innocent soul like she was then. She remained speechless and only smiles whenever she remembers the night when her virginity was stolen, dashed with twins, and made a single mother for years before she could meet a man to call her husband.

More than 30 years gone, Marwolo’s life did not change in how he treats girls. He has, in fact, become a heartless grown-up man who sees himself as unequal to all human beings in general. Even in his professional life. He remained heartless and cruel. Love for anyone was absent.

Marwolo still maintained his look. He is handsome, strong, and brave and has managed to drive this beauty from his childhood to his old age; almost sixty-year later. He remained callous and has increased his callousness in his professional life. He feels untouched and always believes that he is better than anyone serving as his subordinate.

Marwolo’s journey in life has not been that easy too. A mix of his behavior has staged him as a complicated hero and a hidden coward. His shrewdness and his character all bumbled and made him something else. He is well known, louder by his character when worked with closely and he is a hero if seen or heard of from a distance.

At twenty-five, Marwolo was working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Monroe City, Liberty Land. One early morning, he was seated in his office when he received a call that the minister wanted to see him. A comfortable and confident smart young man of his time, he walked upstairs and met the minister who was trembling for his life. In those days, the political regime was monstrous and could kill any minister based on rumors. The country was becoming ungovernable and the president never trusted anyone, not even his wife. If he ever trusted people, it was very few men and women. The minister was afraid because a traitor was in his ministry without him knowing and now the president has discovered it through an unknown source. He could be seen as an accomplice and he and the traitor could be killed together.

Standing before the minister, Marwolo was asked several questions as the minister wanted to confirm his identity. The calmed young man introduced himself with vigor and heroic. He looked innocent and relaxed. My guess, one could see how well trained he was.

After a short interrogation, the minister informed Marwolo immediately that the Minister of State for Presidential affairs wanted to meet him at the Presidential lodge. Accompanied by Special Security, together with the minister, Marwolo met the minister with some other national high-ranking intelligence officers sitting and waiting for his arrival. It was then that he was identified as one of those planted opposition informants. Marwolo was an activist during his days, trained as a special mercenary and radical freedom fighting through a secret colonial mercenary organization. He has disguised himself with little information flowing about him in the foreign ministry for more than three years only to be discovered at last.

While the minister was trembling, young Marwolo was stable and quiet, facing a cycle of ministers who were shocked by the kind of young man standing in front of them. They even became speechless and concerned. With his looks, they could judge within themselves that such a young man was not ordinary and that more could be behind his bravery. But they needed to do something. They could not jail him and they could not allow him to stay in the ministry.

He was summarily dismissed. Thereafter, Marwolo joined the civil society. After years of building his skills, he became one of the key national staff in a charitable organization. In this organization, Marwolo has managed to climb the ladder to an officer position; a senior staff with huge powers. This was during the tough years in his country, there was war, disease, and hunger and nothing was close to peace for everyone. Under this chaos, he was leading a team. He became one of the best staff, trusted and given enough power to recruit and dismiss. He has earned this on merit. He was not just handsome, but smart too. If he ever used his cleverness for good, it always turned out better. Whenever he became a devil, the victim suffered heavily.

In his position as a Non-Governmental Organization leader, he was honored. He equally earned himself some respect. His cunningness could hardly be seen. So good at his evil that he could be seen as a savior while being the actual perpetrator.

After working in the country for more than Eight years, Marwolo’s organization had a management meeting to discuss staff benefits. This was a huge policy review and strategic approach towards a transition from emergency to development within the organization. The organization was repositioning itself and so, they called for this planning meeting where tough decisions were supposed to be made.

This was key as a normal saying goes ‘’ that a monkey will never leave its black hand’’. There were only two national senior staff among ten expatriates.

Kpoto is also a national staff with a similar rank to Marwolo. When the discussion on how much should a driver receive as Daily Sustainable Allowance, Kpoto was on the Humanity side. He was in for equal treatment of staff regardless of position. Marwolo stood up and justified that he as an officer who employs a driver cannot be treated in the same vein as a driver. He demanded a differential treatment. Kpoto and Marwolo fell apart in this meeting and by the time the meeting ended, Management made the decision that differential treatment will be practiced. The justification was to manage a budget. Kpoto felt sick and could not forget this event even in his old age.

Two years later, the organization experienced massive corruption and needed to reduce the number of staff. This included national staff. However, after investigation, it was confirmed that all the malpractices happened under the eyes of the country director and so, he was sacked. This helped the organization to save enough money to maintain local staff.

Before this saga, the organization has about a year ago advertised for a position of an expatriate who should be locally recruited with limited benefits. Three persons applied all qualified and fit for the job. Kpoto was again involved in this recruitment. After doing the shortlisting, he sent the final list to Marwolo to make a choice as the position was to report to him directly even though with a higher salary.

The first candidate was called by Marwolo and told that the position is for him verbally. However, the only way he was going to get the position except he agreed to share his salary with Marwolo. The man trusting his skills, refused. Marwolo reported that the first candidate refused the job.

By this time, one of the applicants was a Dutch American Businessman who came to Monroe but lost all his money during the war. In fact, Betch was now living in a ghetto and his life was such that he could do anything to survive. When he was contacted, he never hesitated to agree to pay Marwolo $ 1000.00 United States Dollars every month. He did this for more than one year before the sacking of the country director took place.

After the sacking of the country director, the headquarter management needed to appoint someone as the country director within the team. Three names were provided which included Marwolo, Kpoto, and Betch.

By qualification, Betch was selected as the new country director.

It was a hot sunny day, being on leave with limited resources to have flown out of the country for a vacation, Betch had decided to stay and continue to save his little shared salary. While on the beach enjoying the sun, he received a call that he was needed in Monroe city for an urgent management meeting. Immediately, he left and boarded a UN Helicopter that normally transported aid workers from the City of Sun Shine to Monroe city.

Betch arrived late, went to his hotel, and got himself a nice rest. In the morning, as he entered the office, he was briefed, and immediately, he took over as Resident Representative and Country Director of his Charity.

Betch was kind and soft. He did not sack Marwolo but changed his assignment and directed him to report to Kpoto as of that day. Then, he began to investigate files having financial dealings from Marwolo’s project. It was there that Betch realized that most of the corruption scandal was linked to Marwolo’s project but there was no evidence to link him as a direct accomplice. Kpoto was careful and felt that he was being used towards Marwolo. This he never wishes for and will resist any such practice. He was equally confused about why. Betch called him one day in his office and narrated the story to him. Kpoto sat there for more than three hours speechless. He could not imagine that such a man could be wicked. But it was enough to have known that Marwolo was wicked.

At his age and position, Marwolo had no wife though he had more than seven very grown-up children who only knew him when most of them have passed their teen ages.

A few weeks later, Marwolo resigned and went to a nearby country where he met a young lawyer and both of them formed another civil society organization to fight against human rights abuses. Till today, no one knows what happened between them, but they have since fallen apart and the world is still waiting for them to tell their story.

Betch remained Country Director until he died. Betch in fact married a sixteen years old girl later from The City of Sun Shine. He built her a house fenced and decorated to meet his old age needs. However, during the time Betch was in the Ghetto, he got addicted to drugs and when he married the sixteen years old girl, he introduced her to drugs too. Mar, as she was called, became a victim throughout her life. After the death of Betch, Mar could not maintain the house, became a drug addict too, and lost every single investment left behind including a security company Betch left for her.

After five years in exile, Marwolo returned to Monroe city. This time, he created a local civil society organization as founder and executive director.

While running this organization, Marwolo got a grant from an international organization that hired a young man to monitor the grant and provides technical support to Marwolo’s project. The young, industrious man was just below the age of thirty-five. He was flexible and kind, not necessarily because Marwolo was a good person, but because of the love of the nation and those other young people who were working with Marwolo. The young man supported Marwolo, built the team, and gained influence and respect without asking for it.

Marwolo was now old but unchanged. One hot afternoon, he called one of the girls working with him and asked her to look in his face and tell him if she does not love him. Astonished, confused, and out of her mind, she went back to crying to her friend; one of the elderly women working with them.

When the young man heard this, he could only advise and told the girl to remain brave and stand up to him.

However, the young man resigned. On this fateful day, the young man called back to find out how the team he has built was doing. Only to learn that Marwolo has removed the young lady from the payroll with a flimsy excuse that there was no budget line to pay for her position. The young man was lost for words.