Guilty or not guilty

(image:Pixabay/Illustration only)

"Guilty or not guilty?"

"Gritty"; came the faint reply.

"You see, I did not know what those words actually mean, until I was thrown into jail. Nobody bothered to explain what these words meant. The corrupt police did not help matters in any way. They made it worse."

"Well, what did you think those words mean before you blutted out that response?" I enquired.

"Ooh, I thought they meant: 'to let him go or not to let him go'

A policeman had told me, the night before the trial, to say just that, and I would be set free."

He narrated how a corrupt policeman, who connived with his accusers, had instructed him to say GUILTY!!! ..and to smile, when taken before the judge. He would be set free at once, after saying those magic words. But only too late did he realize he had been tricked.

It all started when he had refused to heed warnings to change his nocturnal habits. He had had a workplace accident, few years before. He had some dislocated joints but still managed to keep on fine. Though the pains were always constant. Perhaps because some people jeered at him or even made mockery and ridicule of his grotesque movements, hence why he sometimes chose to avoid people and became so much in love with nocturne habits. He was a former body builder and a wrestler, back in his hey days. But now just a shadow of his former self. He had to take up carpentry, to erk out a living and to survive.

On this fateful day, he had gone to buy some provisions, after returning late from his carpentry job. The hour was late, but still he was not deterred. The owner of the provision store had for-warned him to stop his nocturnal disturbance and his nuisance. But he had refused, only because he had grown too familiar with the couples who owned the provision store. He sometimes joked with them freely and was used to taking things for granted. Even serious warnings.

He kept banging on the store for them to come open and sell him some petty items of provisions that he urgently needed. He did not realize today would not be as friendly as the other days he had known with the couples.

He had refused to take "no and go away",  for an answer and continued banging on the door of the provision store, which was attached to the main building where the owners lived.  His continued banging and the annoyance he was creating, prompted the owner to call the police, even when they knew he was harmless, but just obstinate at getting what he wanted regardless of the hour of the day or night.

He continued banging and calling the store owner to come sell him some provisions, until armed policemen arrived and arrested him. He was detained, accused of theft and burglary and finally sent to jail, where he did a couple of years.

..>>(to be continued)>>>

NB: this is a real life story....

(First published in 2014, Republished with edited Title in 2020)