Home | Contest | Write A Book | Write Ebooks For Cash | Be A Travel Writer | Write Children's Books Write For Newspapers | Write An Ezine | Write A Blog | Writing Skills & Tips | Novel Writing Software Please take a moment to bookmark this site and join our free hot tips list. Read & Rate Our Writing Contest Entries! See what other people have written, and rate them on a scale of 1 to 5. This is an opportunity to view a wide variety of short stories and see what kind of original material is being submitted to us on a daily basis. After you rate an entry, you will be randomly redirected to another entry to rate. You may read and rate as many entries as you wish! The user-rating system is simply a fun way for writers to receive a public opinion of their work, and does not affect the judging for the cash prizes. If you wish to enter the contest, you may enter for free here. Rate This Contest Entry: Contest: June 30th, 2005 Author: Gideon Matungamidze The Tuesday night was horribly dark in my location. My hair was twitching as passed through a bush as if I was crossing a path in the most feared cemetery. It was scaring. A week had passed without electricity supply and the authorities had blamed it all on a machinery breakdown at one of their generating capacities. The citizens knew something else though, the authorities had no foreign currency to pay for the borrowed electricity. Papers had had officials promising a quick solution, but here I was, walking home in the darkest evening despite it being on seven when most homesteads and a countable number of streets would normally be still lit up. I was a hundred metres away from the village and noone was in the vicinity when a crackle disturbed my peace. It was from the ground I was stepping on but sounded as if it was right in my ear, fear was gripping. The area had had daily reports of muggings, rapes and murders lately and the respective authorities were yet to catch any of the thugs. I decided to run but on second thoughts, running would sellout my fear. I walked on, increasing speed with every step. My fear subsided as I got to the village with noone having chased me up, my prayers had been heard, thank God! As fear transformed into happiness, sorrow overwhelmed me most, placing my shortlived happiness under curatorship. With the darkness, I had not noticed what lay ahead of me just after crossing a road. The stench and greasiness was enough to drown my just acquired happiness as I struggled to swim out of the sewage streaming in the open drain, a sewer pipe had burst emptying its contents into the open drainage canal in which I now swam. It had been three weeks, I later lent from my rescuer, with that burst pipe. Authorities were yet to attend! My wife was disgusted, as she first thought I had wrought the mess. She was soon to hear it all and apologise in the most sincere manner I had never known of her. In the darkness, she served my food straight after I had taken a shower. As I ate, Prim, my wife, laughed and said, "You are very lucky, there was no water the whole day, you could have slept with your grime." The water supply system had been erratic for many months, with most residential and commercial areas going for up to two continuous weeks without the vital liquid. I slept and 'enjoyed' my nightmares. It came as a reverie that one day I will be free from bugs that gnaw at me with friendly canines that are so cunning to make me unaware of them! Bugs that ruin systems and never mend them! I dreamt that one day, my community would have plenty fresh tap water, plenty maintanance facilities for ammenities and would always be lively and lit up! The night rolled into dawn, as I snored and dreamt on. Morning came with the much awaited for light, thank God! I got up to start preparations for work but the thought of what lay ahead of me brought my preparations to a halt. First, the papers had also reported on the scarcity of fuel, that meant a long coiling snake was waiting at the bus station, in the form of a queue. Obviously I had to brace for a labouring scramble if I had to get on the only available bus. Second, with chances to my favour, I knew the bus would be charging double! What with the excuse of having bought fuel on the black market! Third, I was going to work, yes and lucky me I was employed, at least. Most in my community and country were not! I was employed, but the taxation was geared up to consume better than me from my paltry salary, leaving me nonetheless poorer than before payday when I could borrow. Who will lend anyone money knowing their payday? I went and worked though! Still, friendly bugs were on for my flesh. Lunch time came and we all customerily filed out of the factory. Our destination - the big tree behind the factory and our mission - to eat our airpies over a game of draughts! Soon lunch was over as was the working day and again, the ordeal of what Prim could have cooked came, she had used the last mealie meal last night and .... hope she managed to scramble for it, if ever it was delivered! Humming my favourite tune, I got home to the now usual smell of smoke from the township fires, whose wood was being supplied by beneficiaries of a revolutionery farm taking, and whose wood was not from dead trees! Prim was not home, a neighbour had announced on my arrival. She had taken our child to the clinic for some ailment he developed in the afternoon. At the clinic, she had been referred to the hospital for further attention as the clinic had no Doctor nor the required medicines. Without wasting anything on the chronograph, I hurried off to the hospital breathing my highest. On arrival, the first person I saw was Prim sitted with Vallery, our daughter. They were in the middle of a coiling snake! I prayed this was going to be the last phase of queues, possibly the dispensary queue. Shock was awaiting, it was the queue to the paediatrician, who was, after all yet to come! He finally came and did his toil. He prescribed drugs and the hospital had none. We left in the small hours of dawn with our ailing daughter getting worse. Friendly bugs were still biting. With no hope, we got home to wait for the earliest opening pharmacy and albeit the balloons for prices, we found the drugs and our daughter got the aid. Another day was on, and the bugs bit on! 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