Within the Walls of Hell (15 page)

Cain
: Those who wrote such notices were still selling drugs as well.

Messenger:
You were gaining a lot from the illegal sale of drugs but you were at the same time crippling the patient. It was not because those who wrote the notices violated them that you had to do same. You developed the habit of sending your patients to the lab even when you knew what was wrong with them and knew the drug to prescribe.

Cain
: I had to send them to the lab to be sure that I wasn't prescribing the wrong drug for the wrong disease. Through those tests, we could identify other diseases the patients were not aware of.

Messenger:
I did not say that sending your patients to the lab was wrong. But the intention for sending them there was not proper. You had arranged with the lab technicians to be collecting money which they shared equally with you. As proof that you were interested more in making money, tests conducted had to be prepaid whether they turned out positive or negative. For people who were interested in saving lives, the right thing would have been to conduct all tests and then the patients pay just for those that turn out positive. That would have been better and would have helped to save lives. But since you were more interested in making money, you fixed an amount first and patients had to pay first before any tests were conducted. You drained money from your patients by making them undergo tests which turned out to be negative and by the time you got to what they were actually suffering from, they no longer had money for drugs, which sent a good number of them to their graves. Such behavior made many to believe that the hospital was a money making institution which contributed in the killing of patients who went there seeking treatment. You inflated the prices of the drugs which you were not allowed to sell in the first place because you knew that people must buy to stay alive. You took advantage of some scarcity to inflate the prices. My master frowns at those who take advantage of desperate situations. Where did you keep your compassion? Even at this moment we are talking, the hospitals especially state run hospitals are big money making institutions. Using people for whatever reason for self benefit is wrong and failing to help or save someone in difficulties especially in a life and death situation is as bad as physically killing him or her. Can you tell us what happened to Luanga Thompson?

Cain:
He was an immigrant who came into my country under the pretext that he was running away from insecurity back in his own home country. He made up a story that men in uniform came to his village and killed many people on sight, raped their women and burnt down their villages. Those were the stories many foreigners who came to my country narrated. I believed such stories were just cooked up. The real reason why they left their countries and were flooding mine was in search of a better life. I had no problem with them seeking a better life but they would have gone elsewhere. I was not happy with those supposed refugees because they were stealing our jobs and accepting lower salaries for jobs offered to them. As a result, employers mostly employed them leaving my indigenous brothers and sisters jobless.

Messenger
: You have still not said what happened to Luanga.

Cain
: I got frustrated by the influx of foreigners and thought that it was better for them to be repatriated or killed if they did not want to go back willingly. I….(Pauses) I….(Pauses)

Messenger
: You have some problems saying what happened to Luanga. I will help you there. Since you did not like foreigners, you wanted some of them dead. You took advantage of the fact that Luanga fell sick and came to you for medical attention to imprison him in a ward and allowed him to die unattended to. As I said before, your primary mission in that hospital was to save lives and the origin of those who came to you for medical attention was not supposed to be an issue. Now tell me…do you know what happened to you before you came here?

Cain:
It was the husband of one of the women who died in my theatre room who injected me with some poison. He held me responsible for what happened to his wife.

Messenger
: The poison was the venom of a serpent. You couldn't survive but you were given a few hours. You had to go through agony and in that agony, see my Master's face and make amends for the terrible life you led. But in those few dark hours, you did not still see my master's face. What you concentrated on were the material things you were going to miss if you ended up dead. You saw only the face of money. (To all) Money has come between my master and His flock. That is why He blessed everything except money. It is the root of all evil. All of you here deviated from your missions because of money. You became mean and heartless for its sake. (To Cain) You went the internet and posed as a business man and duped a couple in a foreign country of $1000.0000.00 which was what they had labored for all their lives. Did you bother to know what became of that couple? Did you bother to think of your creator's command on coveting your neighbor's goods?

Do you still consider all what I have brought out as insignificant few which did not warrant your coming here? If you still think so, I would point out more that you did outside the hospital premises.

Cain:
(
Remains silent
).

Messenger
: My master is a just Master and you wouldn't be here if you couldn't be here. You are here because you did things which you were not supposed to do and after doing those things, my master in His compassion still decided to give you a last chance which you deliberately refused to take advantage of. What did you do with all the money you collected from your patients? You spent it in beer parlors and hotels with free girls and women. That was your life.

 

(
Messenger exits and moves towards the gate)

 

 

 

 

Still in Vladimir's room

 

 

William
: (
To Cain
) When I'm listening to what you did, I feel some relief as somewhere deep within me a voice is telling me that my case was better. What are some of the other things you did that the Messenger did not want to talk about?

Cain:
(
With a stern look, does not say anything
).

William
: I'm sure that if any of those book makers who love telling stories were to be here to listen to your deeds down there, they would go back and produce encyclopedias. Your case is really heavy. (
The rest burst into laughter including Cain
) jokes aside…. We were all businessmen while we were down there. What I mean is that we had different occupations but in practical terms, we were businessmen.

Stone:
I was a businessman in the true sense of the word. That was really my occupation.

Sandi
: I was no business man.

William
: Ah yes…..you were the religious soldier-dreamer. But the rest of us turned the places we were into business premises when we were not supposed to. We are just reaping the fruits of our labor now. We deserve what is happening to us. We did not do the right thing and this is the price for failing to do the right thing. Why don't we go and see how Carlos is doing? He has not left his room ever since he learnt that he could not go back to his palace.

Stone
: I think that is a good idea.

 

(
They all exit except Cain
)

 

 

In carlos' room.

 

 

(
Enter William, Stone and Sandi. Carlos watches them with a surprise look on his face
)

 

William
: Hi Sir, we have come to find out how you are doing.

Carlos:
You have just addressed me Sir and that means that you know me.

William
: That is true. I was your loyal subject down there. You could not know me since I worked more with the minister of justice down there. I helped to send most of those people who were a threat to you either to prison or to the grave.

Carlos
: Were you a uniform officer?

William
: No Sir. I was one of the masters of the law.

Carlos
: So you are a master of the law and you couldn't say anything in my defense when that Messenger was tormenting me with all those very challenging questions?

William:
But Sir, you were head of the judiciary while we were down there and by the normal trend of happenings or stratification, anybody at the head must be better than his or her subordinates. With that in mind, I said nothing, knowing that you could better defend yourself without me. Besides, you decided what was right or wrong or what punishment anyone had to be subjected to while we were down there.

Carlos
: That is where you are wrong. I might be better than you in status but not in matters of the law. I did not go to any law school though I made myself head of the judiciary and passed sentences on those I saw as enemies. Is there anything I wasn't made the head?

William
: I'm sure you can now see why the people always wanted the judiciary to be independent. There was no need saying anything to defend you since we are all condemned.

Carlos
: That is the problem with this place. No one can hire a lawyer and they know everything.
(
Brief silence
)
all I ever wanted was to serve my people and to continue serving them.

William:
Sir, I don't think the word ‘Serve' is an appropriate one to describe what you really wanted and did. Anybody who wants to serve does not need to do so with the use of force or fraud. Of course the people are the meat in every politician's soup. They always claim they want to serve the people when in reality they are out to serve themselves. No servant would want to serve using force. Are you sure you really wanted to serve the people?

Carlos
: On which side are you? Are you here to criticize me or to support me?

William
: I am here on my side. I am trying to help you come to terms with your deeds. The earlier that happens, the better for you. Do you like the state of mind in which you find yourself now?

Carlos
: What do you want to tell me?

William
: What I want to say is that before you became president, there were others before you. They helped in putting in place laws after concerting with the people. They respected those laws because they were actually out to serve. When you came and after serving your two terms which were catastrophic, you refused to go. You wanted to change those laws which your predecessors put in place and respected. Most of the people were against it but you unleashed the uniform officers on them. What did you still want to prove that you couldn't during your two terms of office? If you were really out to serve, you would have respected the wish of the people and stepped aside. The truth is that you were there to serve yourself. As proof, you built a very magnificent palace for yourself. You spent most of your time in the rich countries in very luxurious hotels. In most of your trips, you had an entourage of sometimes more than 40 men and they had to lodge with you in the same hotel. The least time you spent on any of your trips was a week. The amount you had to pay for your hotel bills was the equivalent of 30 million of our local currency per day. Calculate all that for the two weeks and sometimes three months you spent out and then multiply by the number of times you went out. Can you tell us here a real figure? I don't think so. That was not out of your salary….it was the tax payer's money you went spending lavishly like that. Yet there were millions who survived on less than a dollar a day as the human rights campaigners always said. You tested power and saw that it was sweet and you wanted to remain there. It was wrong….very wrong.

Carlos
: What do you mean by my two terms being catastrophic?

William:
What I mean is that during your term of office, more people did not get jobs. Instead, thousands sunk down into poverty. You kept telling the population that the money they contributed went to pay debts incurred by your predecessors but that was not true. You and I know that. If you were actually paying debts, you would have come out with figures showing how much debt there was, how much was paid and how much was left to be paid. None of that ever happened. The money was going into your numerous private bank accounts. In addition, over taxing forced many companies out of business which caused many layoffs and no companies were allowed to come in, except they agreed to surrender a percentage of their profit to you. That scared many who went elsewhere. You thought that the only way to make the people worship you was to keep them poor. Trying to change the constitution was the worst thing to have thought of.

Carlos
: If I wanted to change the constitution, it was because majority of the people were behind me. Each time I said I was going to visit an area, they came out in their numbers to welcome me and they did so in songs. They might have been poor but they loved me.