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Chapter Thirty-Nine
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293 Chapter Thirty-Nine Antony’s excitement at meeting Mercy did not end with their separation in Tetseale. Back in Sigili-Mundu he thought of her constantly. She had let loose a flood of long suppressed emotions in him, he found himself completely obsessed with thoughts of her. Her image became for him a kind of talisman, the one thing which took his mind away from the painful realities of his life. He wrote to her often without caring to wait for replies to letters sent. Even before his removal, his work had taken on a peculiar pattern. He came to school only when he liked. After all, he thought, nothing could be worse than what he had suffered already. If he found excrement on the teacher’s table as he quite often did, he placed his hang bag on the nearest desk in the front row of the classroom, and taught the four, five or six students who could withstand the stench and sit in. He never cared any more to find out how many students were absent. He merely noted the names of those who were present in the appropriate column in the register and went away, never finding out afterwards what was done to those who were absent. In the past he used to bring a lot of pictures and cuttings from magazines to aid the students’ understanding. These he completely abandoned and took to the prescribed textbook, never bothering to find out if the children understood or not. It was no longer his business if a student entered the class with his cap on or smoking. Whenever he felt that the lesson should end, it ended and he went home. And so with the students’ natural propensity to take advantage of situations of this sorts, over half the handful of students left literally boycotted classes. Now unrestrained by the burden of honest hard work and with only his sweetheart to think about, he found himself with so much time that he decided to take to writing again. This time he decided to write a novel in which he would use the names of corrupt 294 Linus T. Asong government officials as titles of the chapters in which he would narrate stories of atrocities the individuals had committed. This, he thought would be the best way of laughing at the past which had threatened his very existence. With this new decision he found SigiliMundu a good place to work in – until the Ministerial Order was received. *** He was still in Sigili-Mundu when a radio announcement invited him to Likume. It came from Dr. Mandieg. He knew it had to do with Eru’s sickness. He went straight to Dr. Mandieg’s office as soon as he arrived. “We finally received the analysis of the specimens we sent abroad concerning our friend’s illness,” Dr. Mandieg began. Antony folded his hands and sat back. “So what does it say, Doctor?” he inquired worriedly. Dr. Mandieg tapped his pen on the table several times and said: “I am afraid he has Lepahan, just as I had feared.” “What is Lepaham, doctor?” “I tried to explain to you before, but perhaps because we were as yet uncertain about it I could not really say much. By the way, do you by any chance have any idea about your friend’s sex life?” “I don’t quite understand, doctor.” “Was he the type that enjoyed the company of women?” “Why is Dr. Mandieg going into all this?” “Because Lepahan is a complication that usually results from sexual promiscuity or permissiveness.” “My friend enjoyed nothing else on this planet but sex,” he said half-smiling. Dr. Mandieg gave a sharp grunt. “At any rate, what is Lepahan, how dangerous is it?” “It is a form of cancer, cancer in any form is dangerous. But that in itself does not constitute death. I guess that it all boils down to the individual’s constitution and his power to combat it. If his system was already disabled, perhaps by the delay in detecting intestinal complication, then we are in for trouble. But by the way, was he generally a sickling? [52.91.0.68] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 02:50 GMT) 295 Stranger in his Homeland “I wouldn’t say so. He was a gentleman who enjoyed himself very much. I know that he had a very delicate system, would suffer from indigestion for a whole week, was very choosy about his...