Chapter 1
The mourners crowd into the private living room space by the farmhouse to discuss the apportionment of the estate. Over twenty people occupy the room with the main speaker been the eldest male member of the family. The men occupy the sectional couch with most of the ladies settled on the carpet.
‘Settle down everyone.’ The octogenarian speaks softly, ‘though we have just laid to rest our brother and wife, we sadly have to do this now to allow everyone who needs to travel back to do so appropriately.’
‘eh..he.’ a murmur is head from the crowd. The three children send disapproving looks towards the area of the sound.
‘Firstly, we need to review the assets and items, and then we can go further.’
Nods go all around the room, when an uninvited party interrupts the discussion as a formally dress lady steps into the room. ‘my apologies for the intrusion.’
‘Natasha,’ Bupe, the middle child to the deceased speaks up, ‘it’s a family meeting. You’ll have to excuse us for a bit.’
‘Yes. I understand. My apologies everyone, but I’m actually here from Kapesa and associates to make the will of the deceased known. I was informed the isambo lya mfwa was today, and wanted to make their wishes known before anything is decided.’
‘this is improper.’ One of the matrons speaks up, ‘Shikulu, Ba Elijah, speak to this child.’
‘come.’ Ba Elijah calls Natasha to one corner of the room away from prying eyes. Accompanied by his son, they review the documents and allow her to take the floor.’
‘Everybody, lets give the lady time to read us the will of bashi Nana and bana Nana.’
‘but shikulu, this isn’t our tradition. This isn’t how things are done.’ Bana Shanice, the earlier outspoken matron speaks out.
‘Be that as it may be. This is their will and the law trumps tradition. So settle down and let’s hear it.’ He states settling down onto the seat as room is created for him. All eyes land on Natasha as she extracts a folder from her briefcase.
‘My condolences on your loss.’ She addresses the crowd. ‘this hear reads the last will and testament of Francis Chibwe.’
As this is been read, it clearly means I am dead and as suprising as such thoughts may be to me, now as I write this, I do it with the best intentions in mind. To my family, you were the reason for my everything and it’s heartbreaking that I had to leave you in such a state.
As I write this, the value of our estate is close to two and a half million kwacha. I can only imagine the crunching of numbers in some peoples’ heads of how much they
Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG Tag der Veröffentlichung: 11.04.2018 Alle Rechte vorbehaltenImpressum
ISBN: 978-3-7438-6512-9