Saved by the Village

Saved by the Village

Am sitting at the bar having a drink with my uncle when a black sports car comes into the parking lot, the driver looks aggravated and asks for the manager to the fine establishment who’s a friend to my uncle. They get into some sort of argument and the driver gets back into the sports car and speeds off. My uncle calls the manager and asks what’s up with the guy, and the manager explains that the young man wanted a special designated spot with a security guard to keep off people from touching his car and messing up the polish. So the manager told him that he couldn’t have bought such a pretty car coz people will want to touch, take pictures and hell, even steal it and that’s why he got mad and took off. We laugh it off and my uncle asks us if we want to hear a crazy story, and this is how it goes.

So this black Toyota Landcruiser chews up tarmac like a juicy steak as it heads to the local market and Sitting at the luxurious backseat is a mother and her teenage daughter whom hardly shop at the market; after all they have servants in their upscale mansion to their disposal. But not today, the mother feels bored and the market seems like a good place to kill some time with her lovely daughter. They start at the vegetable market and she bargains on everything like her life depends on it embarrassing her daughter and puzzling the merchants but the poor fellas have no option but to sell at a loss for business is very slow.

She goes to the meat section and makes havoc arguing with the butchers, it’s either the meat doesn’t look soft enough for her or the one eyed butcher doesn’t appear honest to serve her. She makes everyone feel small just as she does at her company. There’s a buzz in the market and some of the vendors recognize her as the only daughter, and the sole heir to the biggest tea factory in the region. Her teen daughter asks why she’s bargaining while she could buy the entire market at the snap of a finger if she wanted to, and she casually answers, “look at these people around, then look at us, they should feel privileged that we are shopping here, just lazy farmers and fishermen out for no good, I regret coming here and the smell disgusts me”. The daughter feels so humiliated at the remark, she turns red.

The driver packs up the bags and they head to ice cream Parlour in the Mall cool off her nerves, she pays and asks the cashier to keep change. The daughter spots a newly opened fancy restaurant just as advertised on the TV and they get in and ask the waiter for the best table. They order a wildly priced meal and leave a hefty tip for the waiter, both excited; they go for a shopping spree in the mall.

Tired from all the shopping they decide to go home and on the way they encounter a truck ferrying construction cement that’s lost control and the truck driver flashes the lights and honks, warning traffic to make way but it’s too late for their driver to react and the truck slams the Landcruiser on the side sending it off to a cliff, the vehicle shuts down and all the doors and windows lock them inside. They are lucky the Cruiser gets tangled in between trees and branches on the way down, in the mean time, a crowd from the local area soon gathers around the scene. Now the truck had hit some cars on the way creating traffic snarl up before it finally crashed to the back of another truck and lay to its side blocking the entire to way traffic road. No recue can make its way to the Landcruiser in time before its weight wears off on the supporting trees on the cliff. The mother and daughter frantically call everyone high up in society, from the police commissioner to the governor, high ranking government officials and close friends but none come to their aid. They all say that they’ve called the rescue team which is on its way.

The local farmers and fishermen assess the crash and realize that it’s just a matter of time before the trees and branches give way and the car goes crashing down. So they take action and tie huge ropes together, go to the edge of the cliff and securely hook up the vehicle, after all they’ve grown up on this terrain that leads to the river a few hundred meters down below where they fish. By now the village has gathered and they start pulling the huge ropes attached to the vehicle and they get it safely to the roadside. By the time the police and rescue teams arrive through traffic, the mother and daughter are all hugs and kisses thanking the locals for saving their lives.

As we order another round my uncle tells us “Moral of the story is, never despise or look down upon anyone, regardless their nature, background, color, rich or poor etc. Because, well SHIT HAPPENS”!