ONE

          He was a secluded and solitary young man. Perhaps he was busy with his own thoughts reflecting upon what was best for his life. He had a neat and pretty figure, and his nature was quite feminine. May be this was what made him selective in the sprawling beauties of the world. In short, Eugene was a connoisseur in the selection of the beauty and he opted for all flowers in any pile in the world. Yet this beauty could not be reached by child play, it could only be accessed through the narrow path of diligence. Consequently, Eugene Simiyu vouched to pursue the narrow path; he would rather visit a mortuary than a villa in his life.

          He was created for success and success was created for him. But such ambition without diligence was utter fantasy. Naturally, Eugene matched virtue to diligence. Virtue was diligence and diligence was virtue. Having received from Okoro numerous warnings about the bitter realities of poverty, Eugene made relentless efforts to save himself from it. Diligence was one such an effort.

          He was of slim built and of brown complexion. His voice varied from tenor to baritone, but his personality fluctuations from introverted to extroverted denied many a chance to hear it.  He was an awful combination of pessimism and optimism, but the size of his ambition could never tolerate the former. He was a winner, no doubt; his conception was sufficient proof. If millions of his comrades had missed the target in his mother’s fallopian because of him, then Eugene was a winner. Whenever this thought crossed his mind, his despair would rapidly melt into optimism and his ego would fly high to tour the red roses of happiness beyond galaxy. He saw himself as a young man of great potential in his own way and strutted about on the winding paths of Okoro with airs of great esteem.

          He set free his knack to discriminate and became select in the choice of friends. He looked down upon belligerents who impeded his path of ambition with utterances of defeatism and singled them out as foes who adulterated his object of pursuit. His rather impolite manner of talk gave him ill repute in Okoro. Many a villager pitied him that he was wanting in politeness and humility but whatever they said Eugene would prosper; Eugene would succeed. He swaggered with a brisk step, one of the estimable gang that plotted the downfall of misery in Okoro.

          In his mind’s eye, Okorians were more dead than alive. A hamlet in which a family tasted a cup of tea on Christmas, a village in which possessing a radio cassette diverted regiments of jealousy against you; a hamlet where paths were rugged gullies to hell, a village in which dissipation was the major occupation of the year; such a village was in the very centre of poverty and urgently needed the saving hand of diligence. For Eugene, it was a sepulchre with corpses that died before their death. Agonizing experiences had so enfeebled them that they could not face their cruel world on a sober state of mind.