It was 01:59:13 Zhrakosan standard Time that my mother found herself screaming in room 44 in the labour hospital floor. Thirteen woman were giving birth that that early morning-night. Father was away like he was always, away for a gig outside the country because that was the only way for him to bring food on the table or he would have to rejoin the Army and kill as many Zhrakosan fathers, children and brothers even mothers and daughters to please his president general, Sibanda Silva Chigwenya. Our ruthless president whom in his take over he has seen to it that more than a hundred Zhrakosan children have been killed, both woman and child raped or killed and fathers thrown into foreign countries to fight wars sided with their sons. My father chose different, he's always been a coward especially towards doing what was right but I do not blame him, how could I? What would he do alone to such a country like my own, even the Euphorean powers cannot convince the monster to take a moment and think what he has done through. How many Arkadians have shared their remorse and regret for not intervening when it was most convenient? How fathers have died since? How many daughters and mothers have been raped since, impregnated with illegitimate children?How many sons and brothers have to be beheaded or chased out of the country or given the gun to fight not against their country but outside it? How much blood must be shed before someone can realise enough is enough? All we can hear is the violation of woman in our neighbouring countries but what about the deaths of our families and fathers on a daily basis? What about them? How are we children supposed to survive in a country like Zhrakos or a world full of hypocrisy and political lies? They say the truth is what guides us but if we speak openly. The truth is what we make it. Everything is a delusion, a lie to keep their faces disguised.
But will they hear our cries outside these lies? The wars and violence brewing in their countries? When will that day come? Where there is peace among man and peace among my own people? I live to wonder if that day will come.
Life is painful for those living in Zhrakos even for the known and respected soldiers cannot have a normal life for their families without a sacrifice. And my father chose otherwise, but again I say, I do not blame him— The only person whom my mother said was there was my father's sister Elisa. She held her hand the entire time, letting her know she was there and she would still be there after I would be born. Elisa was younger than my mother. She was the only one in my father's family who adored mother. My sister must have been with the family as a result I was born without her presence.
"Do not give into the pain mama, be strong for the boy." Elisa had said to my mother. It was hard giving birth to me for some reason. Four hours and still she struggled to give birth to me that it came down to whether they cut me out and mother dies or they lose us both but my mother argued for none but to go on even if it was killing her. Aunt Elisa took the decision to call every nurse into the labour room and she forced them to pray because the doctors claimed nothing could be done to bring me successfully to this world without one of us dying. My mother said to me, "I felt the heavens open and the hand of God pull you out of my womb like I was in a dream." It was a Saturday evening and I was four by that time when she was telling me how I came to be. "You are a very special child Okka, and your mother loves you very much." She kissed my forehead and my father had came just as she kissed me. The rain was pouring. It wasn't the worst or the best Saturdays we've had but nothing was exciting more than the stories mother told me while my sister sat in the kitchen with a candle lit so she could do her homework apart from the darkness that there was.
"The Rain's pouring my love." Father placed a takeaway of spicy chips and bread on the table before coming over to us. He gently embraced my sister then lit another candlelight since there was no electricity. "Hello my soldier boy." He took me to his arms as he sat by our mother, "Daisy come over here and eat with your family." He called my sister over who nodded her head no word coming from her. "Come on, you won't fail because you missed homework, rather eat then finish your homework." He encouraged her and she came over with a smile taking four-water-rinsed glasses from the sink and the coldrink in the refrigerator. She sat on Mama's lap and we all ate together enjoying what would be our last happy sup for what would follow would shutter our father and change our lives forever.
If only I knew the future and knew what would happen on a Sunday morning-night. I do not know what I could have done. I am not a god, and I am surely not like father or as strong as he was at four years old. What difference could I have made at four years old, I couldn't kill a man worse six heavily armed and military trained men who broke into our happy home while we slept. I was only a child but maybe I could have warned father about what was to come that night
—It was 02:12:07 that as the nurses and Aunty Elisa were praying that my mother screamed her last breath and I was born crying and mother had fell into a deep coma.