For the Dream of 5 Years: Chapter Eight: Pool Joint

Dan was coming from his usual meeting at the local centre where young men were gathered at the Pool Joint drinking and making a lot of unnecessary noise. This place was called Pool Joint because it was the only place with a pool table in the village. The elections were due in a few days, and the pressure to act fast was getting tighter. Dan had been in these meetings a few times, but it was apparent that all the 'men' were supposed to take up some duties after the election results announcement. "We will vote as a block, the whole region in unison. Anyone saying otherwise, anyone proposing the opposition, anyone, a child or a grandmother, will burn to ashes! We retain the throne; we regain the strength!" shouted Boaz. He was so ragged, so tall, and often wore unkempt hair. He had a weird way of blinking his eyes so many times in the middle of a sentence and made an awkward pause to ensure everyone understood what he was saying and anticipated what he was about to say. He was a big boy, or rather a huge man who didn't complete school after his parents died over a decade ago when he was just 14. He looked older than his age and was always too loud and high. Although he did not take alcohol to always stay sober for the many 'tasks' he cared for his clients, he was rumoured to be a bhang user. Boaz used to be a reasonable person and once earned a lot of respect when he worked for a security company in one of the biggest tea plantations in the area. Boaz is the kind of person everyone in the village knew; even those who didn't have a direct encounter with him had heard about him. He had no family. He was an only child with no wife or children; he was a free bird. He did not keep friends, even though some people hinted that rogue police were always seen with him. No one accused him of anything, theft or any other crime. However, people always whispered that he was a dangerous man, although they couldn't put the finger on his crime. "We retain the throne; we regain the strength!" shouted back the 'men' in the Pool Joint. Around a hundred young men frequented Boaz meetings in the past three months. There were free drinks, free bhang, and free money for every meeting attended. Dan was not a drug user but often went for the money. He needed the money to upgrade his phone and maybe purchase a laptop once the final payment was made after the 'task.' "People will burn! The Georges and the Samuels think they are learned, and now they want to tell people to be reasonable and use logic in their voting, huh? Is sticking to 'our person' illogical? Has the opposition paid them? What developments have they been promised? How certain will there be any development if we change the leadership? It is better the devil we know than the angel that they are preaching day and night! Their blood will seep into the ground! Their bones will burn to ashes! If you are man enough, go and give them my warning before I hear they voted wrong!" Boaz warned from the corner of the pool room, with an expensive cigar in his mouth, that many wondered how he'd acquired it. A handful of young men aimed and hit the billiards balls on the pool table. There was smoke all over the room; people were smoking, others were drinking beer, and all the tables and seats were occupied, leading to most of them finding comfort in standing against the dusty walls. Most of the guys were standing against the dusty walls, minds far away from the meeting, worrying about their miserable and hopeless lives, patiently waiting for the meeting to end so they could receive their pay for the day. "We need a leader who will give us youths jobs! Who knows how to use a gun, huh?" asked Boaz moving around the room, one hand in his pocket and that other pointing at the people while holding the cigar between his index and middle finger. His weird blinking was so persistent this time and his pause so uncomfortable that it left some people raising their hands so that he moved on to the following sentence. However, Boaz did not let go of his long pause and made stern eye contact with some people who raised their hands. The tension was so extreme that some guys dropped their hands and cowed back into their positions, leaning against the wall again. Boaz looked at the young men, and there was an awkward silence; even the guys at the pool table stopped aiming and hitting. Everyone was quiet. After making a few rounds in the dim room, Boaz headed to the door and set off on a motorbike waiting outside. "What just happened? How about our pay today?" someone asked, wearing a disappointed, hungry, but drunk look. Someone threw a bottle to the ground shattering it all over the place. He didn't have anything to take to his sick mother tonight because there was no pay, not even the drugs she took daily. Some people stormed out with frustrations; for three months, they had had a constant income just by attending the meetings. "Tomorrow, same time, same place," ordered one guy who was believed to be the Boaz's errand boy. Like the other days, Dan wore his cap to conceal his identity, kept quiet, and left the first after Boaz. He feared that his parents would hear of his involvement in Boaz meetings, participating in his plotting against the Georges and the Samuels. So he made sure that not even his cousin, who also attended these meetings, knew he was aware of such a gathering. Besides, Dan was very young and hoped his future would be bright. He wanted nothing to do with Boaz, but he heard that some politician had given him a lot of money to recruit young men into instilling fear in people that wanted to oppose the re-election of the sitting president. Dan thought he couldn't let taxpayers' money be divided among people and not get a share. During the subsequent meetings, Boaz was specific about the people that would be targeted, those that would have the guns, the machetes, and the arrows. There was no much talk during the last few meetings, and every conversation became like a coded language. Not many people knew about the happenings at the Pool Joint. Dan wondered how naïve people could be, children plotting to finish an entire village under their noses. Although this rarely happened in this village, it has happened in other villages and had been plastered all over the news with no one taking caution or seeing a red flag in their villages. "A machete it is..." thought Dan removing a sharp machete from inside his clothes. He had stashed it between his body, hiding it under his clothes the moment it was handed to him by one of Boaz's guys. As he walked from the meeting toward home, he felt it warm up with his body heat. He moved his bed to reveal a carton full of his old books. He picked a bunch of them and placed them on the floor and placed the weapon on top of his chemistry exercise book, which by the way it looked, was neatly covered in brown paper and the writings "Dan Kamau, Form one B" still legible, suggested was an organized person. He remembered the day he inked those writings, on his first day in high school. When his dreams were lively, he imagined a handsome, rich Dan in a big mansion next to a beautiful wife, children running up and down the stairs, and one of the servants cleaning his fleet of cars parked outside. Even though he hadn't finished school yet, he knew that would not happen; it hadn't happened to anyone he knew, not his parents, relatives, friends, or anyone in the village. So, he had settled on the idea of a decent rented two-bedroomed house and a beautiful wife. "A bike would still be okay," he thought. He took the books on the floor and placed them back on top of the machete to conceal it. That night, Dan did not have an ounce of sleep. He wondered what he could do with the machete. He was not offended by anyone; even if he was, the machete was not the way to resolve a conflict. He didn't know what his cousin got; he could not believe that his cousin would do such a thing as attend Boaz meetings and not tell him. He didn't tell him, so maybe it was for the money. Days passed; Dan heard about Michele's coming and did all he could to avoid meeting with her. He wanted to block her on his phone but hesitated and changed his mind. "Michelle doesn't need to get involved with a criminal. She is way too soft and innocent. She is fragile and has a bright future," said Dan, walking to the polling station. His heart sunk when he saw Michelle and her mom coming from the polling station. He pretended to have not seen them. It was better that way.