Arts
Acid is arrested
ACID SERIES BY DR. ASHRAF SEMWOGERERE
My friends and funs hope you are doing well. Thank you very much for your comments and likes. God bless you all. I wish to continue and end Acid’s story in this episode…
“I saw Morin in real pain and some smoke was coming from her chest. Remember, this was concsulfuric acid, not at all diluted. I felt happy that my mission was complete. I decided to run.
It was coming to 7.00p.m. All this happened in less than 30minutes. As I reached the gate uncle’s car was approaching. I could not go back and I had no were to hide. He had brought Jimmy (their kid with Morin) home, before proceeding to his clinic, as usual.
I pretended to open the gate for him but on tension that the maid would be coming having heard her master coming.
Uncle just gave Jimmy to me and turned the car round to go back. He was in such a hurry. I was surprised he didn’t know about my husband’s death. He just said to me, ‘Tusanyuseokulaba, njakubuuzaedda’.
He drove off. I remained with Jimmy looked at him thinking of what I had done to his mother and felt slightly bad. I cud not allow him to see his mother in my presence.
I took him to the neighbourhood about 300meters away. I bought a soda for him and told the lady in the shop that I was coming back to pick him soon. All this time I was wondering where the maid was hiding.
I switched on my phone, and called uncle. I told him that my husband had committed suicide but the cause was Aunt Morin. ‘Uncle l am very sorry that I’ve revenged and burnt Aunt Morin with acid. She is in pain at home where you left me’. I hung up and switched off the phone before he could say anything.
I boarded a bodaboda and went to Wandegeya, it was around 8.30p.m. All this time I had not eaten anything since morning when I went to Kisekka Market. Sum used to take me to Tipsy Take, at Wandegeya. I went there ordered for chips and liver with juice.
‘Hajj Abaasi, I ate as if I had not lost a husband and committing murder. I tried to convince myself that the death of Morin wouldcompensate for my husband’s death. Acid was now very happy when she reached this part of her story’.
After my meal I reflected on my next move. First, I saw no friend that would ever stand there for me. My best friend was dead. Uncle, who at least could, now couldn’t because I had murdered the mother of his son.
I decided to take myself to Police. As I was walking to the Police, I decided to call my mother-in-law to inform her. I told her that,‘I have killed the woman who deceived Sum that I was HIV-positive. I have taken myself to Police’. I didn’t allow her to say anything back before I hung up.
Inside the police station, the officer at the reception asked me which criminal I want to see. He smiled and said that,‘We at Police don’t get visitors’.
I told him ‘I want to report a case’. He opened that big book to record my case. I told him that I was the criminal. He looked at me with my big tummy in disbelief.
He said, ‘Madam, we are not here to play around’. He was beginning to get annoyed. He called a lady Police Officer to handle me. The lady politely asked me what had happened. I told her that I had poured concentrated acid onto somebody. She also looked at me in disbelief. She asked me what happened.
I narrated the whole story as I have told you, Hajj Abaasi. By the time I finished tears were running down her face. She recorded my statement which took over an hour. She asked me whether I was hungry which I answered in the negative.
She recorded my money which was 12.2million shillings, and she gave me a receipt to acknowledge receiving it as she locked into the safe. I thought she was taking me into the cell, but she took me to her Uni-port, gave me water for bathing, and she gave me her bed before she went back on duty. Time was 11.30p.m. She told me that I was safe. It didn’t take long before sleep overtook me.
The lady woke me up at almost 8.30a.m. She had already prepared breakfast for me: a boiled egg, bananas, bread and well-spiced African tea. The lady was so very good to me. ‘Here, I saw tears of joy in Acid’s eyes. Munange, Hajj Abaasi, that Police woman has visited me here for the 12years I have so far spent here.She is like a mother to me’.
After breakfast, she sat me down and told me that my husband was to be buried today and the lady I burnt with acid with was actually dead. The body was still at Mulago Hospital. And the Police has begun to investigate. ‘We have told them that we have you here’.
‘Abaasi, I suffered chills all over my body’. ‘Acid,’ the Police lady told me, ‘you know what it means to kill a person. But be firm, okay. We have to save that baby,’ she continued as she excused herself. I sat in the Uni-port alone thinking of what I had done. I smiled and waited for the next.
The officer came back and told me that they were taking me to Butabika for a medical check- up. She was doing everything very fast; that they wanted to check my brain whether I was normal. I told her that I was not sick. She told me to follow her as we entered the big building. The patrol car was parked just near the door. There were many people outside.
When I appeared they shouted at me; Omutemuuuuwuyoo,mumutuwetumwokye. Somebody threw a mineral water bottle which hit me. The Police protected me and sat me in the front seat of the Police car. I saw uncle breaking down; he was among the crowd. I felt very very bad. Why should I have punished a man who was so good to me like that?
All in all the lady officer was so good to me that even my file didn’t take long to reach the DPP’s Office. The investigations were rushed. The lady wanted me to appear before the judge when still pregnant to attract the judge’s sympathy. I was five months pregnant. I spent just three months on remand before I was sent to the High Court. There, I never wanted to waste the court’s time since I knew I was guilty. I didn’t want to live because I had no love out there. I wanted to die.
That day, the court was packed with Morin’s relatives and friends, all my own, and uncle was in one of the corners with Jimmy. I never looked there again but looked at the judge only.
To cut the long story short, when I was asked why I did it. I narrated the whole story from the time l started staying with Morin to the time I committed the offence. The court was so quite you could hear a pin drop when some people were not weeping; others wiping tears.
When I pulled out the medical forms of my parents, even uncle wiped tears. The lady judge was also touched. Uncle refused to testify against me and even the maid never came.
On the judgment day, the judge asked me whether I had something to say. I told her that I didn’t deserve to live; that the world hated me.
She sentenced me to 15years in prison. I’m left with just three years, but I like this place more than out there. I gave birth to a boy whom I named, Sum; he is now 12years in S1. He stays with his jjaja, my mother-in-law.
The Police lady helped me to open a fixed deposit account in my names, brought the papers which I signed from here and they deposited my 12million shillings.And Mom added three million shillings, to make it 15 m.
That is my story Hajj Abaasi.“
Friends that is Acid’s story. How would you have sentences Acid, if you were the Lady Justice? Please, continue with your likes and c dislikes.
God, bless you all.
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