Few hours on the road and another half day to cover we reached a small buzzing town. I pulled over to a roadside motel for a lunch. I was behind the wheels carrying four cousin sisters and my little niece. From the overhead mirror I saw everyone was fatigue from long distance and they wanted some rest. As I put off the engine I saw nothing much had changed in the area. It was ten years ago where this particular place had saw me grow to an adolescence.
The school nearby the town was supposed to groom me to a fine human being with the best of education and values in life. More than attending the classes I had roamed day in and day out in the town. I did not have friends except few who shared the cylinder of dopes with me. I spent much of the nights in video parlour smoking marijuana and often engaged in crusade of fights. At first I was surrounded by few local boys empowering me and bruising my face. I kept standing on, hunting down the roving vagabonds to settle the course. Once I was fully intoxicated when I caught hold of a boy. I took out the bicycle chain from my waist and whipped him until I was bushed. I had to keep strict vigilance from thereon but it was not surprising when they approached me to join their group. I stayed away from them and they made choice not to disturb the demented me. I saw them fighting with another group as I rejoiced in tipsiness of unwanted substances.
I let my sisters take a table asking them to order the dishes. A young man with a girl took a table near us. They lit the cigarettes fuming the small room with smoke. Their conversation was loud containing vulgar and filth. I had to ignore at first but glanced at them signalling them the presence of us. She took the water jug to wash her hands. When she returned back she was intensively shaking her hands the water droplets splashing at us. I saw my sisters feeling the driblets in their faces. I pulled back the plate from my little niece who had started to eat then. I placed a new order for her pretending to be deaf to the conversation of the couple.
Two young boys entered the room and joined them. They too shared the cruddy moods. Another round of smoke and they started to giggle only to break with sudden roar of laughter. I saw one boy stealing a glance at my sister and whispered something to his friends. What they spoke next was heard by all. It was hard for me and I was annoyed. A girl took out the hash, burned it and smoked with lots of obscene words from them. When we were done with the lunch I shoved my sisters to the car. As I waited to clear the bill there was another foul languages used to my sisters. I went straight to them and warned to behave in the crowd. A boy stood up to raise his voice as another pulled him back. I looked hard at them and as I walked away from them they called me with names. I heard them calling me a pimp.
Everyone was serious in the car. I drove them few meters away from the hotel and stopped on the pretext I would buy some snacks for them. Whereas I ran back straight towards the boys, grabbed a throat of a boy and pushed their table toppling upside down. The girl started to scream shouting at me in English. She claimed he was her boyfriend. That came as good news to me. Her boyfriend was suffocating in my hands and when I released his neck I pushed him towards the girl. One boy caught hold of the water jug and started to swing at me. I kicked the nearby chair which hit him in his knees bringing him down. When I made sure they saw enough of me I asked them to come forward. There was reluctance from them but one managed to tell me their status in the local area. I wanted to tell them who I was ten years ago but I remained silent. I was disturbed nothing had changed from the days I spent there. I apologised to the owner who by then had remembered me. There was some gratitude in his words for what I had done. I told him about my life which came as surprise to him. He said he was happy to see me again. I was touched when he told me he did not expect I could become a fine man in the society. I bought few snacks and bid goodbye. When I left I told him he could decide to tell them about me.
Therefore, another half day's journey was resumed with reminiscences I had not expected in my life.
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