#club100😄🎉|| CONTEST ENTRY || STORY TIME || 09-05-2022 || My Begotten Son, James 😔

Greetings to all and sundry. I have great conviction that this post will find you in good health and happiness. With response to the contest advertisement on the steem-ghana platform by @nattybongo, I would like to submit my entry on that for you to peruse through. Before then, I hope your steem-life has been moving on well. Let's all support the club initiatives by the steemitblog and make our platform a better place to be. Personally, I am a testimony to such initiative and I have great conviction that, you would love this initiative too.

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For all avid readers across the globe and to story lovers. This story line was taken from power overflow of feeling I had, and you would love every bit of it. I would like to exhibit my writing passion and prowess to this great community.

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The light peeped through the cracked windows of the ancient building. The room looks scattered with old clothes, overused shoes and tattered jeans. It hasn't rained for the season, and no one could tell what such omen implied. The last time this was seen was in the last two decades when Opanin Amoah was the King of the Asuman village. By then, the building looked strong and full of life. After the death of Opanin Amoah, the whole village was deserted living the few old women who could not walk for long to the nearby town.

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Asuman village was trusted for its hereditary lineage. Opanin Amoah gave birth to only one child. He had fathered a lot of children, but they all took the ghost as a friend. The only child he had was James. James was the only child of the old king. He was the old child that brought enough joy to his father.

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Opanin Amoah wanted to find the best of life for his child, James. In the whole village of Asuman, James was very discipline and was the darling boy of all and sundry. He was the gold of the village. Most young ladies loved his bravery and the beauty that couldn't leave him alone. He was pulchritudinous by description and adores by all. Whenever he decided to go to the field to check on his father's plantations, he usually saw ladies stealing their eyes to look at him. Opanin Amoah lost his wife during labour. That episode brought James. His wife, the queen, was opened up during the village traditional surgery. Since then, James has being the life that existed in his father.

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Asumah village is noted for it's farming activities. It lies on the edge of the valley of the forest of Nsem. During the season of rain, there is frequent landslide and most farmers loose most of their produce. Every Traveller who visited the village then, described it as the land of hope and hardwork due to the sight of industry that covers the village and its plantations.

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Opanin Amoah decided to give a better life to his son by investing in him in order to have a good future. Opanin knew of instances where people have travelled to the city and made living for themselves. James was his only hope and leaving him to strangers became a nightmare for him. He wanted the best for his son.

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One faithful morning, as the moon was retiring duty. Opanin called James and advised him on his journey he wants him to embark on, and instances he has heard about people who have made it there were opened to James. He knew his son was capable, so he gave him the trust to embark on the journey the next morning before Akwa market day. Opanin advised his son about hardwork and why he should desist from bad friends as he travel. Opanin talked at length to his son.

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That night Opanin was so heavy. He couldn't rest on his raffia bed. He knew his son's absence will bring old age back to him. That night, Opanin cried his worse. It has been long he did that after his wife's death eight years ago.

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The next morning, James packed his belongings into a small sack and folded it neatly into the hole of his armpit. Opanin couldn't enjoy the sight of his son's travel and had to pretend he was fine. He gave him his last two shillings he had from the last groundnut season for his upkeep. A good son should be able to know when his father is in grief. No sign was seen on James' face.

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His father couldn't walk with him for too long to escort him. He walked on the tinny aisle that stretched below the valley of the town to the east and didn't turn to watch the sorrowful face of his father. The hands Opanin lifted to say goodbye to his son was statued and couldn't come down.

Nothing could be heard through the village in the morning accept for the cockcrow at the far end of the town and the morning birds that sang the uniform hymns. Asuman village slept on...

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Long after James went, old age crippled Opanin Amoah. His source of life and strength was gone. He went back to his walking stick and from time to time, he lost strength and couldn't farm again.

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The news of James' coming after six years sounded all over the village because, messages were sent to Junior through the only car that travel to the city once every market day to James to come see his father before he passes on. All letters were not replied and no one knew whether it got to him. Opanin wanted to stay for long, but he owed death some days. Old Amoah passed on.

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After his death, the whole village wasn't a place to be anymore. The place was desolated and abandoned by the natives. They left to the nearby villages. They couldn't live in the village without a king.

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One morning, the tattered look of a disappointed young man appeared through the valleys the stretched to the east. Every sign showed it was James. He was dirty all over and still hold the old sack his father gave him. This time, it was tattered. He couldn't understand the views of Asuman and couldn't notice the new people who inherited the town. There was a new face of the town. They all didn't know him. He became an alien to the land he was one's a king's song. The only thing he saw was the dilapidated ancient building that he slept in many years ago, fall down like an old wawa tree.

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James brought nothing. He was only noticed as a pauper. He went to the city to gang with the niggas of the city and lost focus. He had lost a home and the people he could've ruled over are all gone. James' eyes was filled with pool of water. He kept on hitting the old building that was left for him. The passers-by couldn't understand him and always described him as a mad man. He was seen always with a disappointed look at the old ancient building.

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Things To Note From The Story

I hope you enjoyed this great piece. James became a liability to society at the end. We should learn to make our family and community proud of us. So whatever we do, we must always remember that it may affect others in future. Let us be disciplined and credible and be very industrious. Hardwork pays. If James had come with good news to meet his father, he would have lived a bit longer and the society would have benefitted from him. James lives his readers in a sad 😔 mood at the end of the story.

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Thank you for your time.

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_{This Post was written and posted by @juzkid. All pictures have been properly referenced. Editing was done with pixelab}