Near the Mpira Recreation Field was a tree that many of the kids in Jua village worshipped. Every summer, this tree would be a reason for many fights between the little boys and girls in the village. This ‘divine’ tree was a ‘Chewing’ Gum tree, one that produced tasty chewing gum fruits or more aptly, gum seeds. As they were passing by it, the three friends did not even glance at it since it was not the right season. However out of the corner of his eyes, Mwana noticed something! He saw that the tree actually had two pieces of ‘gum’ on it. Immediately, he made the wise decision to move on and come back for them later.

Unfortunately Cheza had been watching him intently after asking a question and waiting for his answer. Indeed Mwana and Cheza were true best-friends, soul mates even, but this isn’t always a good thing. Despite Mwana not giving any external signs, Cheza still noticed it! Seeing that the secret was out, Mwana tried making eye signs at Cheza to silently communicate with him. After all they could still share the two pieces of gum as long as Nyaga didn’t know.

As the two were still silently communicating, they heard Nyaga’s excited voice, “Ah, there gum on the tree, lucky, lucky me” as he headed to pluck it. Cheza and Mwana didn’t hesitate anymore and bolted to take the gum before Nyaga could. It was every boy for themselves. Unsurprisingly, Mwana as the fastest of the three got to the gum first and they immediately got into an argument over it with everyone claiming to have discovered it first. However, as they were still squabbling, the gum suddenly disappeared from Mwana’s hands!

“Give me that.” The culprit was so fast or maybe so silent that they had not even noticed him. Cheza and Nyaga turned towards him with grievance ready to fight but suddenly shut up. It was not that they were scared, just that this was a person they did not like interacting with at all.

However, the gum was still in his hands so they couldn’t help but argue for it. The culprit seemed angry simply because people he had stolen from dared to complain. “You un********* brats dare stand in my way?” He said with an extremely condescending tone adding an unpleasant insult that left the three boys fuming.

This culprit was Jua Uchoyo, who was older than them by 2 years. This age difference might not be much to adults but to kids their age, the difference might as well have been exponential.

Uchoyo, known by many as the stingy guy, continued berating the three as if he was in the right before finishing, “If you are walking down the path and see me walking in the opposite direction, you will stand to greet me and stand aside to let me pass. Is that cleaaaaaar?”

This signature statement had probably come out of his mouth hundreds of times to the point that he got nicknamed, Mr. Cleaaaaaar. Needless to say, he enjoyed bullying kids younger than him.

The three stood aside as they watched him swaggering away but suddenly Mwana burst into laughter. “I got him.”Nyaga and Cheza were surprised hearing this and did not understand exactly what Mwana did.

“What did you do?” Cheza couldn’t hold his curiosity anymore.

“I placed a delayed thunder charge on them, hehee.”

“What!” Both Cheza and Nyaga exclaimed at the same time before similarly bursting into thunderous laughter.

“Oh my god, that’s so bad. What if…”

“Stop being such a coward Nyaga, that egg-head deserves it for swaggering all over us.” Cheza quickly stopped Nyaga’s worries.

At the Mpira Recreational Field, a group of boys that looked around nine or ten years old were gathered together. Among them was Jana, Mwana’s little cousin, who had snuck away while Mwana was getting scolded by their third aunt. Beside him was another boy his age, Jua Mwanga. This was Nyaga’s little brother who was younger than him by one year. Not only was he taller than his older brother, his strength was on par or even slightly stronger than Nyaga. He was a true genius! Mwanga was dressed in white like a priest with golden bracelets and rings on his hands.

The golden radiance coming from him was brighter than even Cheza’s and his eyes seem to emit light as though torches in the dark. However, Mwana still noticed how Mwanga’s eyes were a bit dull compared to how brilliant they were in the past. He knew the latter was still mourning since the two brothers had also recently lost their father. As such he decided not to tell him about the gift his mother got from him so that it remained a surprise for the eight year old.

There were two other boys beside Jana and Mwanga. When they saw Mwana and his friends, they immediately came to greet them by bumping fists with each other. These two were Jua Duma, the boy whose brother they had just been gossiping about and Jua Tembo, a large stocky boy who was more on the fatter side.