Last year, when my mom died, we arranged the burial, and every one of my brothers and sisters was around. They came just to make the burial arrangements. We organized the compound in the form of a mini-party. My family members were also on the ground to foresee the arrangements and to seal the burial date.
My mom has three boys and four girls. I'm the last born in the house. My immediate elder brother is just the goat who refused to be like us. At the mini get-together party, which was for my mother's burial arrangement, my immediate elder brother, Mat, came in and started creating a scene. He began to shake the tent, which we raised unjustly. Our eldest brother asked him, “Mat, what's wrong with you? What's all this?” He began to display his already-known talent for disturbance. Everyone present ran for just that moment until he was calm.
After a few hours, he left while others came back to deliberate on how the burial was going to look and how we were going to go about it. The date was fixed, and the total amount of money we were going to spend on the burial was shared among the seven of us. Immediately after we were done with the mini-party, Mat came back, and he seemed calm. He began to ask what our conclusion was.
“You asked where you were supposed to be with us. Did you know that you would have ruined the deliberation?” I asked him.
“That’s your thinking, but I have done my best," my brother said, just to match his timid way of thinking.
When it was December last year, we all prepared for my mom's burial. My husband, kids, and I traveled home for the burial. We got home and met my brother, May, sitting quietly as if he were always like that.
As the party was about to begin, Mat, who was just sitting, came by and started talking, just like someone who had got drunk. Even the drunkard was better than he. He initially sat quietly, and after a few minutes, he flamed up and started talking, just like someone who had offended. He was particular about my elder sister, as they were not in agreement. My elder brother came in and told him to keep quiet, but he refused. His talking tactics were just uncalled for, and then it turned out to be giving him a dirty slap.
The slap, I guess, controlled his talking and misbehaving habits. He became quiet and was behaving fine.
Two days after the burial, we had our family get-together. It was just like a coincidence, as we always have our get-together every December, except for this month when the cost of transportation increased. During the family get-together, we prepare a lot of food just for everyone present to eat and get satisfied. Out of the meat we used for the burial, we left some just for the get-together.
In the process, we all gathered, and Mat came as expected. Although we were all avoiding him just because he would ruin the party, He came and sat without talking to anyone. It was just as if it were his character. My eldest sister came and sat down. This got Mat to flame up and stand up. He began to talk without seizing. His words were meaningless. Maybe he was sent to ruin the get-together; who knows?
My elder brother came and shouted at home, and yet his words were still burning, echoing just like someone who was quarreling with someone. His words were non-stop, which left my uncle and other members of the family who were present in anger. The words we were supposed to deliberate on were left unattended.
The food we had prepared got spoiled because we could not eat it all.
It was a bitter ending.
