Devastating The Obvious

• coming of age

  Posted: August 20, 2008, 5:14 pm by dobvious

  
  

  
  He positions himself as a last of his kind. And as such takes some amount of pride in the fact that his demise will etch a mark in the history pages of his family memoirs were they ever to be published.   Being the eldest living son he also basks in a limited space of being the head of the extended tree, something which can make his claim to be a monarch of sorts is greeted with limited or little resistance.

  His trademark salvos often draped in off beat satirical humor have gone from being  heroic - from the  toddler days to irky - the teenage years to wisdom - these years . Looking back it all fits in place and it’s in this regard that we understand the why and how he is what he is today.

  Translated - his name literally meant - of war or born of war. He tells us that grandfather (rest his soul) had this gift of garb (no guessing which son took it) and that he used to be the designated story teller while they were fighting the war for a female monarch who the closest they ever got to meeting was only her face engraved upon a bronze coins that they were given as gratitude upon the end of meaningless war. (And yes it’s her who received the news of his father’s demise while making merry on a hotel built upon trees) This to them actually was a turning point in their lives since they were able to travel across the water stretch farther than their rafts and dhows could carry them.

  Coming back to new born babies and family responsibilities they almost had no problems in finding a naming scheme for their young. They were and had to be referenced by the time and war it was. But he did not take it this way – to him his name was much more than war – it represented an adept brain capable of mastering strategy something which he was an expert in and thus that time period – though ages ago was actually being crafted to his time. This was even before Ms Bryne had her take on the theory and law of attractions , were it not then it would have definitely come from the sham that is the work of the missus named at the start of the sentence .

  **

  It’s been six years since we had a one on one talk. You have to go back to that year when it was all falling apart. The retreat year. The falling apart year for those who remember.  Funny thing he never showed any signs of aging. In another forum I will ask him what the secret of his vigor is. In his trademark shorts and new leather open shoes - made from his weekly slaughtered goat - a tradition he also claimed came from his father. Growing up he always had a liking for long hair but that was long gone, today he wore a balding head which did little to hide the black scar beneath his ears. The hair then was used to hide this birthmark but I guessed he no longer was afraid of our childhood insults. If you ask me right now - were we to ask him about the legend of his scar then all bets would be that it too came from his father who took it from his father.

  I was just about to make an improper comment about his now visible scar before his daughter interrupted. With her arms wide open she approached, a beaming smile on her face, beaming with the joy of seeing a long lost uncle/godparent. I lift her up and we engage in a hearty embrace. Do they grow fast I say to him. His face beams off with an equally radiant smile as I see it laced with beads of perspiration pride. He tells me that his mother couldnt make it, the nine month angel isn’t feeling well. Maybe next time I tell him as I put the young one down. It’s by no means an easy feat, all props to you - I tell him as we sit down to catch up. Now tell me all about the shoe that you have decided to buy.

  I smile and begin.

  –

  An excerpt from an untitled working piece -

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes