Dysfunctional Family - Season 1 - Episode 10

Episode 4 years ago

Dysfunctional Family - Season 1 - Episode 10

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Amos had terribly failed his exams. That type of failure where one gets 9s (fails) in all his allocated subjects.

“Jesus Christ! Mr. Sinkala, are you sure these are my son’s results?”
“Are you serious? Isn’t your son’s name Amos Musongo?”
“It is..but-”

“But what, Juliet?” Donald who was seated beside her in the head teacher’s office cut her short.

She looked at him with displeasure written all over her face. “There must be a mistake somewhere. I mean, Amos can’t-”
“He can and has failed, honey, so just accept the bitter truth. We only reap what we saw,” he gestured they take their leave and said to Mr. Sinkala. “Thanks for seeing us.”
“Anytime.”


“I can’t believe this,” Juliet complained as Donald drove them home. “How could Amos fail like this? What do we even do now cause no school will enrol him to grade 10 with such results.”

“Kanshi you know? That’s nice..you want some advice, stop complaining already cause you’re only pissing me off!”
“How so? Was I the one that sat for the exams?”
“Really?” he gave her a bad eye. “Truth be told, you’ve contributed to Amos’ failure. If you haven’t pampered him like you have done, he’d be a better person.”
“You’re his parent too so stop blaming me for every wrong Amos does, you hear? Donald, isn’t the man supposed to be the one to teach his son stuff? What have you taught him thus far? Please!”
Donald opted to remain silent cause he was very angry and if he replied right away, he’d say something nasty to Juliet and they’d end up quarreling which was the last thing he wanted as Juliet could get really vulgar when angry. He too could get quite temperamental so silence was the best solution here.
Once at home, Donald angrily got out of the car and stormed into the house.

“Where’s Amos?” he asked the maid.
“In his room..” she replied.
“Amos!” Donald bellowed.
“Yes!” Amos replied before rushing to the living room where he found his angry looking parents pacing the room back and forth.
“Sit down,” ordered Donald and Amos obliged.

When they were seated, Donald snatched the statement of results from Juliet and handed it to Amos. “Explain how that happened.”
Unfazed by his results, Amos said, “I wrote the exams, they were marked by ECZ (Examination Council of Zambia) and I failed.”
“And you’re proud?”

“What do you want me to do, Dad? Commit suicide?”

“Mind what you say to your father, boy!” for the first time in forever, Juliet scolded Amos. “Such kind of failure is unacceptable! How do you fail all subjects sure, English inclusive?” We speak English in this house for crying out loud!”

“Shouting at me won’t change my results, mum and dad. I’ve failed so deal with it!”
“You hear that?” Donald asked Juliet. “That’s all your work. What a great tutor you’re, Juliet.” now he faced Amos. “Listen to me and listen good, you’re repeating the nineth grade and will pass this time around.”

“Dad! Aren’t I too old to go back to grade nine?”

“You wanna go to college then, genius?” remarked Donald sarcastically.
Amos frowned. “I don’t wanna go to school no more.. school’s crap, am telling you. All it is is a sheer waste of time and money.”

“Really? How do you think I became a doctor if not through school?”
“Whatever…Mum is a school dropout and hasn’t died, has she? They are so many school dropouts out there who are financially doing well even when compared to all these PHD and degree holders.. I’m sorry but I ain’t repeating no grade!” with that, he got on his feet and walked out on his parents.
Juliet’s jaw hung low while Donald regretted ever marrying her. The woman was bad blood.
“I see you’re someone’s role model. Well, you better go tell your son that if he wants to continue living under my roof and eating my food, he has no choice but to go back to school. That’s an order!” He angrily walked out on Juliet and went to grab his car keys. He was doing the night shift.
“These two will not send me to my early grave,” Juliet mumbled as she rubbed her temples with her fingertips, she could feel a migraine brewing.
Lubesha was having the time of his life at school. He was doing well in all the tests that his class had been given thus far and so he knew he was going to ace his grade 9 final exams. He was getting along with most of the teachers and had even made a good friend, Sylvester.

He didn’t have to deal with any bullying as Sylvester was well known and respected in school, courtesy of him coming from a rich family.

One day, Lubesha and Sylvester were headed to the library when they heard someone loudly call Lubesha’s name.

They turned in unison and Lubesha froze.
“Why would Principal Zimba be calling me?”
“Just go find out, dude..” Sylvester urged him on. “Fine!”

With so much trepidation, he walked towards where the Principal stood. He kept on glancing over his shoulder and Sylvester kept on winking at him. “Hello, Lubesha. That’s your name, right?”

“Yes..it is,” his voice was extremely low.
“Don’t be shy nor intimated by me.. Speak like a man. Let your voice be heard.”
He swallowed and more confidently, said, “Yes..I am Lubesha.”

“Better… Can you come with me to my office, please?”

“Um.. okay.”
As he followed her, he kept on telling himself that he was busted.
Once in the office, both Lubesha and Principal Zimba took their seats.

Zimba said, “I hear from many teachers that you’re doing well, academically speaking. I just wanted to congratulate you and urge you to continue working hard..”

Lubesha relaxed after hearing that.
On the other hand, Principal Zimba was just curious and wanted to bond with the boy whose aunt hated so much…As far as she could decipher, Principal Zimba decided Juliet Musongo was the one with big issues as Lubesha was simply likeable..toxic even, in a good way.

“What did she want?” Sylvester enquired from Lubesha when he emerged from the Principal’s office looking happy.

Lubesha shrugged. “Nothing much..she was just congratulating me for my hard work. Let’s go study, man.”

Three weeks before the end of term 1, Principal Zimba received a call from a strange number.

Sceptical, she picked up. “Hello..”
“Principal Zimba, it’s Juliet.”
She rolled her eyes. “Hi, how have you been?”

“You want the truth? I’ve been waiting like a fool! What’s going on? How come you’ve not called me and why is that Lubesha still in school?”

“It’s just the first term, mama..Relax. I’m working on my ploy, trust me. How and where did you get my number by the way?”
“That’s not important.. Principal Zimba, I lack patience so you better do something soon.”

Principal Zimba heard the line get cut.
“But kwena this woman is shameless,” she loudly mused.

Back in Lusaka, Alice had continued going to her old school and was doing well in her eighth grade while Amos hated his life and cussed his father silently almost everyday. He hated the fact that he had to repeat grade 9 and the fact that most of his former classmates dissed and called him names whenever they got an opportunity was excruciatingly painful.

Term 1 came to an end and Lubesha went home for a holiday. As expected, Juliet’s wickedness resumed but the boy silently welcomed it with open arms.

The results came out, Alice did well, Lubesha extremely well and Amos? He failed. Came out last in class.

Donald opted to remain silent this time around.

“This boy will not make me go to hell,” he would tell Juliet.

Term 2 commenced and Lubesha went back to school.

Five weeks before the end of the term, a furious Juliet gave Principal Zimba a phone call.

“Why do I feel as if am waiting for Jesus’ prophesied second coming?!” she yelled into the phone without preamble.
“Exercise some patience,” replied the Principal calmly. “I’ve been thinking about a better idea. Look, Lubesha has portrayed an excellent behaviour ever since he came to this school and has also won many teachers’ hearts. What am trying to say is him getting in a scandal will seem odd and so will me expelling him.. Here’s my proposition, we wait till term 3 until he writes his final exams, that’s where I’ll come in. He’ll fail the exams, Mrs. Musongo.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You mean you can make that happen?”

“Not I can…I will.”
“Wow! That’s a brilliant idea!”
“Thank you.”
When she hang up, Juliet felt afloat with joy. She just couldn’t wait to see the look on Donald and Lubesha’s faces come December or January when the results were likely to be released.

Time flew such that Lubesha was now in term 3.
“You do realise the exam is just around the corner, right?”

Sylvester who was busy writing a love letter didn’t bother glancing up. “So?”
Lubesha sat up in his bed. “So? Quit writing useless letters and study!”
“We study too much, Lubesha. No, you study way too much. You need a break…come on, write a letter of your own. You know that Mercy chick is into you, right?”
“I don’t give a d--n! And I’ve told you times without number that am only 14 and don’t need no girlfriend!”
“Coward, that’s what you are. Practice makes perfect, don’t you know?”
Lubesha shook his head in disdain and got off the banker bed. He grabbed a couple of notebooks and a pen. “Speaking of practice, I’ve gone to practice how to write a composition.”


“As is if you even need practice, Mr. Reporter. I know you just doing this to leave me all alone here. Go, see you later.”
“Yeah, see you.”

On the first morning of the exams, Lubesha knelt down in his dorm and folded his hands in prayer. He then said a long prayer and asked God to guide and bless him.
After two weeks of writing the exam, Lubesha was 100% certain he had done himself justice and that his results would make his uncle proud.

Several weeks later, the Musongo family, Lubesha inclusive, arrived in Livingstone where they planned on having their Christmas celebrations from. They had just checked into a hotel when it was announced that the grade nine results were out.
“We have to go to Hillcrest and collect them results today,” Juliet told Donald, eager to witness Lubesha’s downfall.
Principal Zimba had assured he he’d fail.
“Why are you suddenly interested in knowing Lubesha’s results, huh Juliet?”
She pulled a fancy red summer dress out her bag. “I’ll wear this..Let me get dressed and we’ll go.”


The whole family went to Hillcrest but only Juliet, Donald and Lubesha entered the Principal’s office.

A man was seated in Principal Zimba’s seat and Juliet was tempted to ask where Zimba was but she refrained.
“How may I help you?” the man asked.
Donald told him why they were there and after several minutes, Lubesha’s statement was in Donald’s hands and his face was expressionless as he studied the slip.
Losing patience, Juliet literally snatched the slip from her husband and looked at it intently. A feeling of Deja vu swept over her…And she screamed.