none yet

The bloated old man had a half empty bottle in his hands and a large roll of lit cigar hung from his cracked caramel lips, his undershirt was out grown and his belly stood out like that of a pregnant heifer, and it rested on his weak knees which wobbled as he walked, as if he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. His aura was filled with anger and failure, spite and laziness, as he wobbled down the hill past my stationary carriage. His stench was like he bathed with a mixture of old gin and rotten onions. As I clenched my nose with a grimace of disgust and was firm with the grip making sure it didn’t squirm loose, I wondered if he had ever had a bath in his life, “hmm, I guess not”, I said and I humorously added, “the perks of being a homeless drunk”.

As the old man staggered away, I heard the neighing of the horses as the driver picked up the reins, he had stopped to tighten the nuts of the carriage wheel, the transport system in the town was subs-standard, most transport firms used cranky and old carriages for passengers, it was because of the ongoing war in the south, all the industrial materials were used solely for the creation of war machines and the newly invented machine guns. The mayor promised change in the next few months and reduced the price of leather as part of his propaganda and as things were the change never came.

“All set to go sir?” the driver asked aloud. And then I reached out and tapped the carriage door through the window twice, as a signal that I was ready. The stench of the old drunk still stung to the air and I could still perceive it as I reached out through the window. The carriage cycled down the dirty hill road, it was almost noon and quite sunny, but there were dark grey clouds in the sky, “good thing I’ve got my umbrella”, I said to myself. I was late for the previously adjourned meeting with the town’s parliament, but not to worry, I was confident that I’d be the first attendee as the parliamentarians were fat, turkey necked politicians who made a living on looted funds from the town’s treasury and were lazy in carrying the basic responsibilities that they were given by the constitution. I got into the meeting room, the chairs were empty as I expected, I thought I was the first to arrive until I saw the actual first person, a woman that seemed to be in her early twenties, caramel colored half caste, with black curls that complimented her oval shaped head, she wore a very beautiful smile as she walked down towards me, “Hey, I’m Anna”, she said, her voice was soothing like the sound of a wind chime in a gentle wind. “I’m Alice’s substitute for the meeting”, she added, “well, nice meeting you, I’m Matthew”, I added with a smirk, “but...you can call me... Mattie”, I carefully picked my words, “well nice to meet you Mattie”, she replied with a rather stern voice and a stern look to compliment it, though still smiling.

I was the youth representative for the town, and I had an assistant, Alice, we both had to be in the town parliament meeting, not really adding anything to the meeting but just to be present to fulfill what was stated in the parliamentary constitution. The meeting went through, new bills were passed to ‘cater’ for the homeless and the orphans in orphan homes, and I, knowing that those bills were not going to be put into consideration, as it was a meeting routine to say some stuff about the lesser citizens and say ways that they can cater for their needs and not do anything of such manner, I then remembered the old drunk I saw earlier, and wondered “are these people better than the old drunk?”, I felt very sorry for the man, “it wasn’t all his fault”, I thought to myself, the bridge between the rich and the homeless and poor had been widened over few years, corruption and segregation was increasing fast in the town, “are we heading towards a kind of feudalism?”I thought pensively.