Dysfunctional Family [completed] Season 1

Season 4 years ago

Dysfunctional Family [completed] Season 1

Mrs. Pondamali tacked her son into bed and sung him a lullaby. She loved her son with every fibre of her being. Once upon a time, she had loved her husband George Pondamali as much as she had come to love their 13 year old Lubesha Pondamali but now her love was undivided as only her son got all of it. The love she once had for her husband had vanished. How? You may wonder. Love doesn’t just vanish overnight, does it?
The answer is biased but in Janet’s case, her love for George hadn’t vanished overnight, no. It had gradually faded away until all she felt for her husband of 15 years was hatred.

Once upon a time, yes, once upon a time again cause all the sweet memories Janet had of her husband and her were now nothing but farfetched fantasies. Once upon a time, they’d led a simple but beautiful life back in Zambia’s Lusaka City where they struggled to make ends meet as even having three meals a day was a challenge but she wasn’t complaining. Lubesha came along two years after their marriage and both George and her vowed to give him the best in life. Their son had just clocked nine years when the call from Kampala came.

“Uncle’s calling me?” George had been baffled to see the call from his uncle who owned a news agency in Uganda.
“Which uncle?” enquired Janet who was serving her husband and son supper.

“Uncle Maybin,” replied George flatly. “The one who hit the jackpot when he married that rich Ugandan woman. He rarely calls, you know.”

“That’s the more reason you should pick his call, sweetheart.” “Alright,” George excused himself and went to the bedroom where he picked the call from. “Uncle.”
“George Pondamali,” came the response from the other end of the line. “How have you been?”

“Am alive so I can’t complain. I won’t lie though, am baffled to receive a call from you.. You are the only relative I know and here I was thinking you’ve forgotten about me. But I have family now…Janet and Lubesha are my true family.”

“Don’t talk like that,” said an emotional Maybin from Kampala. Maybin’s brother had been George’s father. It’s really a tragic story how both George’s parents had perished in a house fire years ago, leaving George under the care of his unmarried and promiscuous uncle Maybin.

Maybin loved to travel and it had been during one of his many trips that he had scooped himself a wealthy widow in Kampala whom he managed to charm and later marry.
“I’ve just been making plans for you, George. As I speak to you right now, I have a job offer for you. At my company.”

“Are you telling the truth?”
“I wouldn’t bluff about such a serious matter. Your unemployed status has been bugging me a lot lately seeing as you’re into journalism, I thought I could hire you as a reporter at my company. My wife is on board so it’s all up to you to get yours on board too.”

“Janet will be thrilled! Thank you so much, uncle Maybin. This opportunity means the world to me!”

When he was off the phone, George went to his wife and son while humming a happy tune. He was all smiles as he sat. “Judging from your huge grin,” began Janet who was admiring her husband, “your uncle had great news for you.”

In response, George spoke to Lubesha. “How would you like to leave Zambia, son?”
“I wouldn’t like to leave this country because its home, Dad. I have friends here.” “Your opinion will change..” George turned to Janet and told her about his uncle’s offer.

Janet was astonished. This was the best news she’d heard in ages. “George, God has finally answered all our prayers. Relocating will be difficult but as long as we can give Lubesha a better future, I don’t mind.” “You hear that, son?” George said to his son. “Daddy will have a job and will be able to buy you that bicycle that you’ve been so wanting. And there are kids your age in Uganda so I promise you’ll love it there.”
Lubesha wasn’t happy but his parents had brought him up to obey his elders so he said, “If my parents think moving out of Zambia is the best for everyone, who am I to disobey them?”

George and Janet shook their heads in unison and without further adieu, begun eating.

Gloomily, Lubesha started eating too.

A few days later, Janet paid her sister Juliet a visit. The second Juliet saw her sister, she frowned. “What have you come to ask for this time around, huh Janet? Didn’t I just give you money to buy mealie meal the other day?”

“Hello to you too, sis. Can I at least take a seat?”

Juliet who was seated on a swing eating fruits rolled her eyes. “As if I have any choice.”
Juliet and Janet were siblings..they shared the same mother and father but for some reason Juliet didn’t like Janet very much. Both their parents were late and their death had been the final hit on the two girls’ estranged relationship.

Janet loved her sister but it was the obnoxious and selfish Juliet who made things difficult. Juliet was so selfish that she believed Janet had come along to steal her parents’ love.
“I wanted to be their only child,” Juliet had told herself several times.
Now she was married to a wealthy man whom she had given two kids.

The underprivileged Janet sat beside her sister and said, “I didn’t come to ask for anything.”

“That’s new. Now you know you’re not my favourite person so you better tell me what you want.”

“Fine,” Janet shyly put her hands on her laps with a sigh. “George found a job as a reporter…in Kampala. I came to inform you that him, Lubesha and I will be relocating to Uganda in a month’s time.”

“Good for you. Is that all?” Juliet couldn’t help feeling jealous as she always found pleasure in Janet’s pitiful state and learning her sister was finally going to have a taste of the finer things in life, she was infuriated.
“Why do you hate me this much, sis?” “Here we go again,” groaned Juliet who crunched an Apple into her big mouth. “Janet, I’ve told you times without number that what I have for you is natural hatred so nothing you say or do will change anything. Now go, gerrout!”

A teary eyed Janet stood and gave her sister a forceful hug before dashing out of the compound. At least she had tried to bond with her sister, she consoled herself as she hailed for a bus.
The Pondamali family moved to Kampala a month later where as promised, George found a job waiting for him.

After working for a year, the Pondamali’s started enjoying the finer things in life. Lubesha went to a good private school and the family stayed in a nice house that suit them well.

But the problems started after George worked for three years. He now owned a car and had bought one for his wife but he started chasing skirts. It was easy for Janet to decipher from George’s new mannerism that he was cheating on her. He started coming home late and on some nights, he never even came home. When Janet confronted him about the latter, this is what he said to her, “I provide you with everything you need so you whining just shows how ungrateful you are. Show some gratitude, Janet!”

George’s bad behaviour went on for a year and to be honest, Janet was getting fade up. One night, she waited for Lubesha to go to bed and then she sat in the living room clad in her gown, waiting for George to turn up. Hopefully.

He did turn up but only after midnight. She opened the door after he knocked and could smell alcohol from his breath but at least he didn’t look drunk.

“My food,” he hissed. Shaking her head, Janet gestured towards the dining table where George begrudgingly sat. She sat opposite him.

He was halfway through his food when she said, “Why have you changed so drastically, George?”
He spared her one hell of a scornful glance. “Because people change. I have money now and wanna enjoy my life so you just play the role of a good wife and quit nagging me. You don’t work after all so all you should do is take care of my son and I and quit complaining!”
That hurt Janet to the core but she swallowed the lump that had developed in her throat. “Bad company ruins good behaviour,” she lamented. “Meaning?” fumed George.
“Nothing,” she shrugged. “If being rich means one has to develop stinky behaviour, I’d rather be poor for the rest of my life!”
“You ungrateful wretch!” George leaped to his feet and for the first time in their marriage, la!d a hand on his wife by slapping the living daylights out of her. “Its because of uncle Maybin that we are even where we are today so I won’t have you indirectly insult him!” with that, he retired to bed but not without angrily kicking anything and everything in his way.


Janet sat at the dining table holding on to her cheek, not believing what had just happened. That had been the beginning of her hatred for George.

George hit her six times more during the course of the next several months and though Janet tried so hard to hide the bruises, people did notice. Lubesha especially.

“Does Dad hit you, mum?” the boy abruptly asked his mother one day. “No..” she shook her head. “Don’t mind the bruises, your mama’s just clumsy.”
Lubesha didn’t buy the lie.

“Why don’t you just leave him already?” he asked Janet another day when he came back from school. His parents had had a ferocious altercation the previous night which Lubesha had witnessed. The fight had been over meat. George had wanted meat for supper and was pissed when he found fish instead. He picked a bone with Janet, called her names, they quarreled and he beat her.
“Are you sure you are ready to leave all this?” Janet asked her son as she massaged her sore cheek with a bag of ice. “Are you ready to go back to living in poverty?” “If that means you’ll get to enjoy your life again, yes. This is how much I love you, mum. All these riches, I didn’t grow up with them. And am 13 now so I am no longer young…spouses are getting killed everyday, mother. I wouldn’t forgive myself if you were to become a victim.”


Hearing her son utter those words was relieving to Janet. She had long since fallen out of love with George and had only stayed in this abusive marriage for her son’s sake but if the son was willing to walk away, so was she.
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