The sun rose in the east. But there was no sound to be heard. It was a cool and quiet morning.

“Am I the only creature to be spared? To remain alive? Why me? How special am I? What can I do all alone in such a terrible village?” I asked myself.

“A swallow does not make a summer,” I thought to myself.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spied a gun that my grandfather had given to my father. When I saw the gun my heart pounded with the thought of whether to end my life or not.

Suddenly, I heard something coming close to my door. Quickly I grabbed my gun and pointed it at the door. I was terrified by the sounds I heard.

This thing was using all its might to break open the door. As soon as the door burst open, I fired my gun. My eyes were fast closed. Two minutes later I was awake. I couldn’t recall what had happened. There were people around me. They were mourning.

“Not again,” I said it as I woke up in my bed.

“What is it going on in this world? Who is dead now?”

The gun was still on my hand.

“Are you okay, son?” Chief Vladimir asked, then added, “Nobody is happy with what you did.”

“What have I done, chief?”

“You have terminated the life of two people, son.”

“Why? But why? And how did I do it? Which people have I killed?”

“With the gun you are now holding, you took the lives of Mr and Mrs Carlton, the parents of the singers, Takondwa and Shinah.”

The chief was very sad. I cried because the day had started beautifully – there had been silence and no crying had been heard before. So, on this day I was responsible for the tears.

“I will kill myself,” I said.

“No more death!” the chief ordered.

“I sent the people here to find out if you were alive.”

It was Sunday and there were no more cries. I saw Takondwa going towards the river. I was afraid hence my mind was blocked, so confused.

“A man can die but once.”

I followed their footsteps for an hour but they were nowhere to be seen.

Tell us: What do you think the man meant when he said ‘a man can die but once’?