The next few days at the quarry were not much different for Mulokozi. Every day, she arrived first and began crashing before anybody else arrived. At the end of a typical day, however, she was often short of the five silvers pile and that is when she felt cheated. Bolu, all the same, was kind to her and ensured that she left with three silvers regardless of her output. The comment he made to her at the end of the first day became a kind of parting shot on each occasion and almost made her angry.
'Mukeezi, it's not enough to be determined and hardworking. You have to be smart too.' Who did he think he was?
She had gone to the quarry for a fortnight with pretty much the same insufficient output when she took Bolu's words to heart. They were not paid for piles not worth five silvers and yet those piles were gone whenever they arrived the following morning. The quarry made silver even from the piles they did not pay for. In fact, they made more from those piles. Mulokozi had realised on the first day that the tax was relatively lower on the ten silver pile than on the five silver pile. She noticed that most of the new crashers, like herself, often left the quarry empty handed after crashing almost but not quite five silver piles. A few managed to crash more than enough for five silvers but they too fell short of the ten silver pile. That is what Bolu had been trying to tell her for all of fourteen days. The quarry paid for piles of stone and not people. The crashers simply had to pool their piles to earn more for their hard work and pay less to the tax man. That is what it meant to be smart.
The crashers were so delighted by her ingenious idea that after they received more than they ordinarily would have, they decided to give some of it to her. She was overwhelmed when she ended up with sixty three pieces of silver, enough for twenty one days with their current life style. Bolu smiled at her as she bypassed him.
'Did you see what I told you?' he said to her. Mulokozi was speechless. She tried to give him some of the silver pieces but Bolu would not have any of it.
'That is alright.' He said with a broad smile on his face, 'Silver does not rot. Thank you, the thought is enough.'
'Thank you, Bolu.' She said to him as she left. All that time, she had been trying her best but finally, she would be able to take care of Mulinzi as Nafesi had asked of her. When she found a moment, she worried about the boys, what the future held for them. Zabu was fascinated by the contraptions used to break the hill in the quarry. The thought of him not being able to dream beyond the quarry enclosure worried her. What worried her more was how Mulinzi seemed to have suddenly forgotten about Nafesi, his mother. At times, she thought it was her who had not handled the matter with the finesse it required. Children, after all, do not understand death or are not supposed to. She knew, whatever the case could be, that she had to talk to Mulinzi about Nafesi. That would have to wait because she already had a plan for the moment.
She had identified the house she wished they lived in and asked about the rent. It was seven silvers a week to be paid upfront. A little house on a hillside with a view of the sea. When the landlady told her the rent, she had thought it was rather cheap. After paying the rent for a full month, she took the boys to the market and bought them cotton clothes from the north. She also bought some cooking pots and several food items. As they walked back to the little house by the hillside, everyone's hands were full. The walk was considerable from the market to the foot of the hill and everyone was glad to have the small house within view again. It was their home.
After they had eaten that night, Mulokozi tried to talk to Mulinzi but it did not go as she had expected.
'Mulinzi, how are you?' Mulokozi asked to start the conversation.
'I am okay.' Mulinzi asked after giving it some thought. Zabu was not pleased that his mother had not asked him.
'I am fine too, mother.' He informed her anyway.
'Are you sure, you're okay?' She asked Mulinzi ignoring Zabu. Mulinzi threw himself down on mat and yawned like a kitten before answering.
'Yeah.' He answered with as little care as possible.
'What about your mother?' Mulokozi answered.
'I suppose she's fine too.' Mulinzi answered, 'And if she's not, I will make everything okay when I become the king.'
'What an idiot!' Zabu thought. Mulokozi did not know what to do with Mulinzi's answer.
'Where's your mother?' She asked him. Moments passed and he did not answer. After a while, he began snoring with his mouth wide open. Mulokozi and Zabu tried to go to sleep too but they soon realised why the rent was so low. Throughout the night, the sounds of ox hooves and metallic cartwheels grinding on the stone roads startled them awake. Mulinzi's loud snoring made it difficult for them to drift back to sleep each time they both awoke.
Owing to the disturbances in the night, Mulokozi was not the first to arrive for the first time since she had started working at the quarry. That was to be the case for all the other days and it would leave Bolu disappointed and wondering if the early riser had become arrogant because of the silver. If he had asked, he would have learned the truth but he never asked. Eventually, Mulokozi realised that she did not have to work the whole day to earn enough. She could easily make three or four silvers to keep by mid-day. She decided to dedicate the rest of the day to the boys to show them the world outside the quarry. Bolu was further disappointed and that was simply because he had not asked but simply assumed.
It was about two months after Mulokozi had showed the crashers the light. The quarry was producing about the same amount of stones but at a higher cost. The minister, afraid of being blamed and perhaps hoping to intimidate the crashers, invited the King to tour the quarry. After turning down the invitation on several occasions, the king finally agreed to go to the quarry with his minister. The minister's hope, it seemed, was that the king would see how the lazy crashers were ripping off the kingdom.
The sun was shining bright reflecting off piles of white stones even brighter. The rhythm of hammers hitting the stones filled the air with much shorter intervals for the smaller hammers and a bit longer for the sledges. Occasionally still, the humungous contraptions known as 'rock axes' were put to work to crash the hills with such force that shook the very ground. Being used to this, the explosive noise did not faze most of the workers. Some were still caught by surprise and laughed nervously to hide their fright. There were many children in the quarry mostly with their mothers. Zabu and Mulinzi were there too. While Zabu helped by bringing rocks to be crashed closer to his mother, Mulinzi mostly spent his time playing with the pebbles tossing them into the ponds.
The minister, a slender man with a thin long face, arrived first with about ten men. They moved around the quarry ordering everyone to stop working and stand ready to applaud. As he moved through the people, the minister had disdain painted all over his face, it showed more clearly as he stared at the children. The minister was about to confront a toddler who had not complied with his order when the king arrived with a little girl of about nine years by his side.
'That's not necessary, minister.' He spoke, 'Everyone, please don't mind me, go on with your business.'
'Your majesty,' the minister appealed as he approached the king, 'You're the king, they should show reverence.'
The king laughed out loud and moved on with the little girl.
'And why would you bring soldiers to a peaceful place?' asked the king, 'Please leave at once!'
'Your majesty, it is for your safety.' The minister pleaded.
'Am I such a terrible king that I must be protected from my own subjects?' asked the king. The minister could not find a proper response, he bowed his head in embarrassment. The little girl smiled. He was a good man, the king, Zabu thought but rather naïve-just like Welaba.