A Bishop had blamed the son of the gardener for stealing his gold wristwatch. The gardener too had beaten his son blue-black. Was the boy a thief? A story by Swapna. A Different Truths exclusive for the Special Feature in Different Truths.
There was a hue and cry in the morning!
Lo, behold. The wristwatch of the Bishop Antanio was lost! It was a German band gold chained wristwatch. Last year, an affluent parishioner had gifted him the watch, when he went on a foreign tour because the man had a deep reverence for the Bishop. He knew that the Bishop was very punctual, who followed the time dotted to seconds. The Bishop had sacrificed his youth to give directions to thousands and burnt his every moment to enlighten the mass. He read Bible, followed the Scriptures and preached the good news of the Bible.
He breaks the words and distributes the Holy Communion … interprets the Ten Commandments, ‘‘Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. Cast aside greed, anger and your attachment to this mundane Earth. If you don’t obey The Holy Scripture and pray for Mercy, your words of appeal will never reach to the Lord as in the case of the rich man. So be cautious from the beginning…”
In so many seating and meetings, he had to address and pray, following the tight scheduled routine. He had his formal education with the help of the missionary organisations, sat on the aeroplanes. Never ever he had any voracity for food. Not even to luxurious dresses. The only thing he loved was the tick-tock of the wall clock and the bell of the church….It so happened in the past. He had to finish the marriage ceremony with the gorgeous gown and rush to the graveyard to conduct the last funeral prayer, in the car changing the black cloak. Immediately, he had to change the tone modulation of the prayer from the garnishing mood to a mourning.
From the hospital to the graveyard, from suggestion to consolation, he had to modulate and strangulate the language. So for everything, the wristwatch was there to safeguard his time. Right from the front room to the washroom everywhere hangs a clock nevertheless even in a car, on T.V, on the shelf, table, in the balcony, different shapes, different sizes of clocks are hung.
But, as ill luck would have been that small wrist watch just a little bigger than the tamarind seed is lost since the morning. The Bishop looked grave. Anger is a sin but how come from such a safe place the watch is lost? Is it so easy to forgive the thief? Last night he had kept it on the shelf. But today it is not there … strange… a great mishap. He shouted at the chef to the helping maid. The voice rose to a high pitch. Hot breathings, followed by high blood pressure. Footsteps were faster… the four walls thundered, “May I know who has taken the wristwatch? If you confess, I am ready to forgive you, I will take it as a confession and beg Lord’s forgiveness or else or else…. Here the tiger inside the mask roared. “I will drive you out of the job…you know dishonesty can never be taken as granted in the eyes of the Lord. All were in the perimeter of the doubts but more doubt was fixed on the son of the gardener Abiyoi, a fifteen-year-old child, who was reading in secondary classes. Never had he gone to the Sunday school. Though son of a gardener, stubborn enough! Never bothered to pluck grass or prune the garden. All the time his head sunk in the book … so much pride, the small child has ….Maybe he gets the first rank in the school, so he never gets up to pay regard to the Bishop. Never even looks at anyone with slanting eyes, as if an alien of some other planet. Many times, the Bishop had shared this attitude of Abioye with his humble father. He advised to tackle the adamant boy because direct conversation was so impossible for honourable Bishop. He was apprehensive of this black, tall adolescent boy and his two impulsive bright dazzling eyes.
Suddenly, the Bishop remembered …ohh yes, just before a couple of days the gardener was asking for advance money. “Sir, my son Abiyeo is going to appear the secondary school board examination. The child is passionate for studies and retaliating.’’ The Bishop just avoided. Last night the gardener was absent because he was suffering from fever. So his son managed in absentia of his father cleaned the rooms, wiped the dinner table, and today morning, the wristwatch had vanished… The Bishop called the gardener, a rustic man of Kakanas Village, near River Orange. He came out of his small dingy quarter, begged apology, appealed on behalf of his son but the Bishop was unrelenting… straight a line, “ Bring the wristwatch or else leave the job.”
The gardener went back to the quarter, brought a hibiscus dry stem lying on the ground. In high temperature his head was blasting, the body was shivering. What a dishonest boy! Wiped out the good name of his honesty. Such a black sheep of the family. He scolded his wife to give birth to this loafer and 
went on beating the child black and blue…. “You, the black sheep. You could steal the wristwatch from a clergyman and from a Holy Reverend. How dare! Bring the watch, I will return it to the master and touching his feet will beg apology. He is kind enough to forgive us.’’ But, the son was silent, as silent as a cow. He didn’t utter a single word. Foams were oozing out from the mouth of the gardener out of anger. He fell down unconscious. His son gave water to his father, hugged his mother, cried a lot and left the house. Never ever looked back… then the gardener vacated the house and left forever to his village Kakanas, near the Orange River because according to the condition his job was no more. But, it was so harrowing to tolerate the insult. The gardener’s conscience didn’t allow to tolerate this insult.
***
The train rumbled on the parallel tracks. The aged Bishop was sleeping on his berth.
Suddenly, he had a terrible chest pain. The co-passengers could very well understand it was nothing but a deadly heart stroke. The young passenger sleeping on the upper berth jumped down, took out his stethoscope, checked the chest of the ailing old Bishop, took out a lifesaving tablet and pushed it under the tongue of the patient. The Bishop got little relief. The doctor assured the patient, gave one injection. The Bishop slept very peacefully.
Early in the morning, tired and exhausted Bishop wanted to thank the young doctor. He requested the young man, “Dear doctor you are so kind, please do me a favour. I wish to give my confession. Kindly note down in a paper and drop my confession in the box kept in front of the Church in your destination. You know, before many years I had insulted the gardener’s son by humiliating and levelling false allegation that he had stolen my wristwatch but truth was that while going to a congregation my watch was stuck in the inner pocket of my long cloak. When I got my lost watch it was too late and the gardener’s family had left for their village Kakanas. Today, in the wee hours of my life, I beg forgiveness to Lord.”
The young doctor jotted down the confession of the Bishop. By the time he finished noting down the confession, his station had arrived.
The doctor hugged the Bishop and said, “Honourable Bishop Antonio, goodbye’’.
The Bishop just stared in surprise. “Do you know me?”
The tall doctor handed over his visiting card to the Bishop.
It was written, “ABIOYE, THE SON OF THE GARDENER.”
©Swapna Behera
Photos from the Internet
#ShortStory #Fiction #Africa #Wristwatch #SpecialFeature #DifferentTruths
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