Short Story: Even Doves Have Pride

Short Story: Even Doves Have Pride

This piece has not been edited by the ShortbreadStories team.

Kato was six years old when he first witnessed his father practice his supernatural powers. They were having supper in the courtyard like most families did on a moon-lit night. His father was seated on a stool while the rest of the family sat on beautifully woven mats that his mother had made a few months back. His mother was always knitting or weaving something in those days.

They had a vehicle turning into their drive-way and his mother had anxiously turned around, then looked nervously at her husband.

“It is Obote`s soldiers,” said his father getting up. He put his plate on the mat before him, licked his fingers and then slowly walked around the circle made by his family three times. He then ran to the side of the house, disappeared around a corner and re-appeared at the other corner. He walked back and sat down, picked up his plate and continued eating.

“What do we do, husband?” Kato`s mother had asked.

Taking time to chew and swallow his food, his father had eventually replied, “Go on eating, they will never see us.”

Kato did not feel like eating anymore, though his mother had prepared his favorite dish of smoked beef in groundnut sauce and cornbread. His heart was pumping fit to burst and he thought everyone could hear it beating. His hands started shaking and he instinctively inched closer to his mother.

A minute later, doors banged and they heard the spine-chilling sound of jungle boots on hard packed earth. The sound got louder as the soldiers came nearer. Soon they were in view, walking around the house without seeming to see it. One or two even came perilously close to stepping into their food but stopped an inch away and turned to walk back.

That was when Kato burst into hysterical screams, hiding under his mother`s tunic. Afraid that his father would spank him or yell at him, he was surprised when his father said in a soft voice, “Kato, don’t be afraid. They cannot hurt us.”

The men conferred amongst themselves and then left. Later, Kato had learned that they had wondered why there was no house yet their informant had assured them there should be one. They had been speaking Swahili and later his father had assured them they had only been seeing trees in a forest and that if they had tried to enter the `forest`, they would be attacked by a `leopard`.

Twenty four years later, his father passed on the last four, Kato had inherited his father`s powers and used them to heal people or protect their property. He had also inherited his father`s old Peugeot 504. It was barely recognizable as a vehicle but still brought in a few thousand shillings because he used it as a Public Service Vehicle. None of the older traffic cops ever bothered to flag him down as some knew of his father and his powers or personally knew him as the heir of those powers.

That held true until they posted a new cop on his route. The man stopped him and started rattling off offences: Tires without grip; no third party insurance cover; no driving license; cracked windshield; no side mirrors; no flashers and no wipers. He asked Kato to get out of the vehicle, wrote him an express fine totaling one million forty thousand and asked the passengers to disembark. He turned a deaf ear to Kato`s pleas of leniency and forgiveness. The cop had made up his mind.

As Kato and his passengers started flagging down passing commuter-vehicles, the cop called a tow-service (probably one he owned) and Kato and the rest of the passengers boarded an almost empty vehicle.

Thirty minutes, the tow vehicle arrived. They attached chains to the undercarriage and tried to drive off. The Peugeot would not budge. For two hours the two men kept trying everything but the car refused to move, like it had a mind of its own.

This went on for four days and involved three different tow-service companies. The Peugeot failed to move. Even the doors would not open to let anyone in. Passing passengers who knew the Peugeot very well told the cop and the tow people not to bother as they would never drive or tow that Peugeot away, unless Kato wished it. They advised the cop to let the man take his ramshackled car before something bad happened.

When Kato received word that he could pick his car, he turned up the next day. Without saying anything to the cop, he got into it and drove away with one turn of the key.