THE PARABLE OF OROBO AND LEPA (SHORT STORY)

* THE PARABLE OF OROBO AND LEPA*

They were friends, living together in a village. Orobo was fat, chubby and healthy looking. He had a bounce in his steps and was quite brilliant. He was envied by all because of his ruddy cheeks and eloquent speech.

Lepa, on the other hand was thin and did not look healthy. He walked with a wobbly gait and looked like he would crumble the next minute. He also stammered to utter his badly spoken language. He was usually given the pity-eye whenever he shambled past.

One day, they both embarked on a journey through a footpath in the forest. Lepa struggled to catch up with Orobo. He huffed and puffed in short, fatigued breaths, while Orobo increased his pace, sometimes to show off, sometimes to mock Lepa.

And it happened that when Lepa caught up with Orobo and tried to plead with him for a little consideration, Lepa's unlettered, oxygen-deprived stuttering would be drowned in the no-nonsense oratorical shouting down of Orobo. No sooner had this lopesided conversation taken place, Orobo would once again quicken his steps and Lepa would painfully hurry behind.

It seemed one of them would not complete the journey. Do you know who it would be?

Suddenly a wind storm arose and the clouds grumbled and darkened. It was about to rain. The two friends had to look for cover. There was, in the distance, the protruding mouth of a cave. The wind grew violent and whipped through the forest in ferocious anger.

Both friends ran as fast as they could to get to the cave. Orobo got there many minutes before Lepa, who was almost dying of exhaustion on his arrival.

The rains came down thunderously and the wind was still blowing furiously.

Opposite the mouth the cave where the two friends took refuge, stood two trees. One tree was very thick trunked and had healthy green leaves shooting out from its sturdy branches. The other tree was very slender and dry, with no leaves upon its cracked branches.

The friends waited for the storm to calm and the rains to subside, that they may carry on with their journey.

It first came as a loud cracking sound, followed by a swishing through the wet air. The two friends watched in utter disbelief as the huge healthy tree unable to stand the force of the wind any longer came crashing down in a mighty fall. The dry, slender tree stood unperturbed and seemingly untouched.

Instantly, the storm retired into the heavens and the rain shed its last drop. Serenity quickly returned to the forest.

Stepping out of their temporary shelter in the mouth of the cave, Orobo's jaw dropped in disbelief and a certain befuddlement appeared in his eyes while Lepa brushed off the dust from his face and smiled expressionlessly.

The drama that Nature had played out before them had taught them a great lesson.

"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls". -1Corinthians 10:12

GOD BLESS YOU.

KUNLE OMOPE.

No sooner had Orobo and Lepa stepped out of the cave than they saw a huge rock rolling down the hill, resultant to the shift in the earth after the heavy rain and thunder. Instinctively the two men dashed back into the cave that had given them shelter and protected them from the effects of weeping and coughing nature. The more they pushed back into the cave the more they saw the boulder roll towards the mouth of the cave. Just as Orobo was thinking of apologising to Lepa for having been rude and Lepa on his part was wondering how he could add to his weight, a flash of lightning blinded their eyes for an instant. The rock came to a halt and got jammed at the mouth of the cave as if it were an imitation of the stone that was rolled on the Master's borrowed grave to halt his threatened resurrection from being witnessed by the public.However the fallen trunk of the huge tree blocked the rock from completely sealing off the mouth of the cave, leaving a small gap that barely fitted two rabbits in tandem. Lepa and Orobo looked at each other in silence as they had no licence to negotiate with nature. When calm came over the land and the birds began to sing again outside, signaling that all was well and those in hiding could come out of their hiding and enjoy the fresh air that usually inherited the space left by the rains, Orobo went to the tiny opening and tried to get out. While his head barely got out of the gap, his massive shoulders got jammed such that he could not get out. Much as he tried to push, the rock did not budge an inch or centimetre. After Orobo h ad convinced himself that he could not fit in that crack, he sad back, dejected. Lepa got up and dragged himself to the tiny opening where he wriggled and wiggled and eventually got out of the cave. Granted he had bruises all over his body and was bleeding slowly, seeing as his tender and thin body was not made for bleeding profusely, he was nevertheless outside the now deadly cave. Orobo's eyes dropped and his tears began to flow as he realised that his obesity had become the thing between him dying in the cave or gaining freedom on the other side of the fallen rock. It was after months of searching that the remains of Orobo were positively identified by the local headman who had been at the circumcision ceremony where Orobo had been marked into manhood before his days of plenty saw him leave the ranks of the bony boys.

A SPONTANEOUS PART 2 WRITTEN BY GILBERT MZENZI MABASA.

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