BECAUSE OF A WOMAN

"Daddy," said the little boy, "I also want to buy a car when I grow up.

Alfredo had been amazed at the little boy's ambition and desire to possess a car. He thought Esau resembled him and had similar features like his. Alfredo even remembered he had similar ambitions in his childhood.

"Don't worry, my son." He told the boy, "When you grow up, you may even buy better things than this car. May be even a plane or watch, who knows?"

"Would I be able to buy a plane and a yatch? Dad, that sounds wonderful! I will be the first to fly the plane and navigate the yatch."

"With great determination, my son, nothing is impossible. Sure, you can buy a plane or a yatch if you really want that. Only that you must really want it and the fire burns in you."

The boy was happy at the encouragement. He was delighted, too, because his father was very fond of him. And he was always encouraging him.

Truly, Esau never missed anything. The boy had whatever he wanted but never knew his father had been divorced from his real mother, who later married a Ugandan and had left with the man to his native land.

The following year, Esau joined Braeburn International Primary School. Few black parents could afford to take their children to such a high-profile school whose pupils were drawn from all races.

There were Indian, Arab, European, Japanese, and American children. Alfredo had deliberately taken his son to Braeburn to expose him to competition and people of other nationalities. He even made sure the little boy was always smartly dressed in his school uniform.

Braeburn boasted of a highly qualified staff whose members were mostly Asians, Americans, and Europeans. There were only a few black African teachers. The school had many good and modern equipment and facilities which included a large swimming pool, musical instruments like pianos, saxophones, trumpets and playgrounds for different games.

Esau turned out to be a very intelligent pupil who did extremely well in school as he competed against the other pupils. When he joined Braeburn, he was quite shy and even feared the other pupils. This made him sit farther from the rest until the day a black boy joined their class.

From then henceforth, Esau began sitting closer to the new boy; Karamu. But there was also a black little girl of his age who sat in front of them.

Her name was Gloria, and she had bright shining eyes like the sun. She sat in their class for a few weeks before being moved to a different class.

After settling down at school, Esau began mingling freely with the rest of the pupils. He no longer had fear, especially after discovering he had similar problems like theirs and could perform as well as they did.

Time moved on. Then, the most amazing thing happened when he was in his fourth grade. He was among the top ten in his class.

It was actually a joyful moment for Esau and his father when the boy was awarded a prize for best performance in history during the school's parents' day. But Alfredo had another surprise for the boy when they reached home.

He called their regular supermarket and ordered for one children's bicycle to be brought to his house as a gift for his brilliant child. It was delivered immediately.

"I will even present you a greater gift if you continue performing as you did. You've proven you can beat them in history," Alfredo beamed as he looked at his son's report book and went on, "Well, try harder and beat them in other subjects as well and maintain a top position. That will make us very proud of you."

"I'll come tops again, dad." Esau promised, "I know you despise laziness and lazy people; so I'll work even harder."

The young boy knew exactly why he was saying that. He had observed how his father always stayed late at night working on some of the files he carried from office and realised how hard working he was.

He had also seen many books on his father's bookshelf on management, law, business in his study room where Alfredo usually retreated to after supper to read for an hour before watching the late evening movies on television.

Another thing the young boy had noticed about his father: Alfredo had an eye for details. He kept records and wrote down whatever little money he had spent on any item he bought. And he remembered overhearing his father urging Lucinda keep good records as that was a real mark of prudence.

"You'd better, my son. You can beat them all! It'll give me great pleasure. Their parents are bad," Alfredo said in a low tone, which sounded bitter.

"But dad, why do you say that? Some Indian, European, American boys, and girls are good and extremely wonderful. Some are my best friends who even bring me gifts like biscuits, pens, cakes and pencils. Why do they say their parents are bad?" asked Esau, who seemed surprised by his father's fits of bitterness.

Alfredo felt trapped. He knew he had never liked Indians and Europeans since he was a black racist wallowing in xenophobia. He was aware of his problems in his own life and now wanted to shift these to others.

His divorce had made him a bitter man. But as he heard the young boy speak in defence of his friends, he decided to camouflage his feelings and tried to be realist.

"You're quite right, my son. Not all of them are bar. Some of them are very good, in fact. Even at my office, there are some good ones. And some of our fellow blacks are very bad; even worse than them." Alfredo said as he paused before concluding, "I think it's only fair and better to say that among all races or people, there are always good and bad people."

Alfredo took note of his son's great intelligence and spirit of hard work. As he appreciated Esau's efforts, his mind walked into the past and remembered Jacob. Now, he wished Jacob was around to share in his brother's delight.

He began to wonder how the boy and his mother were fairing on. Was he as clever as Esau? Yes, he thought happily, he must be. It would have been more joyful to have the twin boys take the lead in academics in the multi racial school.

Then Alfredo did what he had not done for a long time. He said a short prayer for his son, Jacob, and asked God to keep him safe.

He had heard of Angela's departure to Uganda with her lover. His only hope was that the boy would one day come to him and enjoy life with Esau. It was his birthright.

Indeed their society was quite a patrilineal one; a son was required to take his place in his father's home, come and build his house where his father lived and even inherit his property when he passed away.

Like her husband, Lucinda was quite thrilled by Esau's performance. She also encouraged him, "If you shine again at school, I'll prepare a nice cake for you and even tell daddy we go for a holiday abroad. The Seychelles Islands or Mauritius would be a good holiday resort."

And so it was that Esau worked even harder knowing good rewards would be waiting for him if he did well as he always strove to maintain his top position.

But then came an incident, which made Esau wonder about the acts of the school administration. Esau's name was left out of the list of top pupils during a subsequent prize awards ceremony.

The school head just said after the awards to the other pupils that Esau was required to see him. So while the other pupils' names were read out for everyone to hear during the awards ceremony, Esau's was not; this irked him since he had done very well.

Instead, the school head gave him the prize in his office and claimed the Prize Awards Committee had forgotten to include his name during the prize awards ceremony on the school's parents' day.

Was it done deliberately? The young boy wondered. How could they forget his name? Esau was unhappy he had not been required to come out like the rest on stage to claim the prize but instead collect it in the school head's office the following day.

The young boy could not hide feelings. He expressed his disappointment almost immediately, "Dad, the headmaster left me out. Why was that so?"

Alfredo found an excuse to hit at those he disliked; an opportunity his son had earlier denied him and replied, "Never mind, my son. The fucking bastards! They aren't happy that you're one among their intelligent pupils. But don't worry, you have received your prize, after all."

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