WHEAT AND WEED

A YOUNG LAD GETS RICH QUICK BUT LEARNS A LESSON ON TRUST.

And so in a ranch, proximal to this city I once worked as a house boy to a jolly hearted Belgian. She was of middle age, graceful in aura, gentle in speech and warm of a touch. Everyone else in the farm complained of her scanty emotions, tough restricting rubrics and also her risqué apparels.  I knew not why such an angel of a lady would fall a victim of such murky reproofs.

With the rising and setting of the sun, she insisted on brooding over me, treating me as though I were her own son, spoiling me with gifts of void significance.  And even when I overlooked some chores, she wouldn’t mind doing them herself. My salary, unlike anyone else’s came with a sleeping allowance, sitting allowance, fare allowances and even yawning allowance and in addition, I had a scooter on which I ran errands and a classy handset by which I called my in-laws to insult them. What else would a servant ask from their master? She gave all than I asked for, and should she have asked me to pick her nose for her, I for sure would; yet it still wouldn’t be consummated to the bounty she bequeathed.

Now one evening as I stride down the flower garden, I see not so yonder a frozen congregation of low talking people, bent over to form a formidable sphere of secrecy. I draw near and cough to earn their attention; they stiffen up and look at me. Sighing with relief and disgust they bend over again and continue to talk, even in louder voices and agitation.

At the epicenter of this human disturbance roared Meredith. She too was my accomplish. Underneath the brood of Ma’am Amber were her and me. We enjoyed the warmth, and protection from the other jagged workers. But now it was she that the workers listened to more than Ma’am. Twice that week she commanded a go slow, secretly though; then slid back right under the brood. Then I now hear they plan to attack Ma’am, loot her kitty then disfigure her.

“Shame to womanhood!” I reflect. Who then shall watch the other’s back when men with alien and rushing blood twitch in lust? By then the crowd grows bigger. Even the ancient multitude in the farm rivet into the congregation. Their minds seem mashed up into one blood thirsty agenda. I feel like joining them, but I get held back by my uncalled for loyalty. I presume that all the goodies I had been receiving are but a blindfold.

Not all, I pull my wit together. Even the wheat that borders this flower farm receives better sprays than the lawn at the backyard. “Because to whom much is given much is expected”; Ma’am had always echoed that verbally every day. Though the throng that chanted their way into Ma’am Ambers castle that night was mixed in ages, most of them were the old men and women. Those who for long knew the saving and merciful hand of Amber as well as her wrathful and bitter arm.

She was long gone when they came; and I was the new master in charge henceforth. It was a dismay to see people turned beasts. Of the nature of the cycle they had metamorphosed through I couldn’t fathom. But it was so quick and marvelous, just as seeing wheat and weed grow together then vividly uproot the unwanted.

I dialed the Sherriff’s hotline and said unto him with a smile “Let’s go weeding!” 

(BY-Alaka B…ADAPTED FROM:;;.Ferns Too Are Flowers and Other Short Stories)