There was temporary calmness when someone from the crowd showed his powers. A dauntless young man walked briskly towards Mbila who was lying down with his hands tied at his back and said to him demandingly, “Now, man, speak. What’s your name, and where do you come from?”

“I… I… have – a family there,” said the trembling Mbila.

“This is really an evil omen. Take him there! Now! Take him out of here!” Bellowed the big bellied young man, who was said to be the son of a chief.

“Let me… Sir…”

“Shut up!” snapped the snarling young man.

“Hell out of here, I say!”

Mbila was dragged to Mpilo village by a roaring mob with varied feelings. Some were shouting mockery. Some were shouting that Mbila should be beaten up.

Some were saying that he was such a bad man, evil spirit possessed and should be thrown into a flooded river. However, others maintained, sympathetically, that he should be taken to his people unhurt.

When they entered Mpilo village, Mbila at least felt a bit of a relief, despite all the mess he was in. He knew that the people of Mpilo village would obviously tell the mob that he was not mad. After setting their eyes on Mbila, the Villagers were equally mesmerized and some joined the mob dumb-founded.

For the following villagers it was an unsightly situation. For them to keep an eye on Mbila for a second was unbearable. Yet for them to leave Mbila in the hands of such an angry mob would seem much unconcerned.

So the deeply touched fellow villagers followed behind, trying to convince the people in the mob that Mbila was a normal family man.

“Look, he is a sane and family-loving man. He is a good farmer and a famous fisherman admired by so many residents of our villages,” said an elderly woman to an elderly man who seemed most adamant that Mbila should be severely punished.

“I hear what you say lady, but we need to see where he lives and his family, if ever he has any. I can’t just believe you after all I have seen of him,” replied the man.

Finally the mob arrived at Mbila’s home and they couldn’t believe their eyes. A good home and a well-looked-after family! Mbila’s wife, at the sight of her husband, burst into tears and screamed with bitter shock. She didn’t understand anything. The mob also didn’t understand anything about the whole drama.

“My husband! My – – – oh! Ooh my hus…! Why are you…?”

“Stop crying my dear wife. What happened is really a long story,” said the sorrowful Mbila. “It’s a very long and shameful story; very sad indeed. I need time to explain everything,” added the pale-looking Mbila.

Adding more confusion to the fuming mob, the situation got much more difficult to handle. The angry mob resultantly melted away, with people leaving individually without a word. The last from the mob to sneak away was the bald-headed man, who was then convinced of who Mbila was.

Mbila’s wife took her husband into the house for some rehabilitation. Mbila was nervous to narrate his embarrassing story. But because his family needed to know what exactly had happened, he had to give it to them. As he was narrating his unfortunate story, Mbila felt a cutting pain take his heart into halves. Beads of tears rolled down his pale, oblong cheeks and this made both his wife and children shed tears of deep sympathy.

Although the family had desperately been waiting for fish, everybody felt very sorry for their father for all he had gone through.

Very unfortunately for him, Mbila was taken for a mad man yet the real mad man went free. The mad man was the happiest man in the world that day. Mbila, on the other hand, was the saddest degraded and humiliated man in the village.

[The End]

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