Wrote a 200-word story: Izra's vengeance
“Life was different back then,” old people say. But Izra's life seemed to mirror mine. A vigorous young man in his twenties, Izra was poised for the next leadership position in church. However a series of events tarnished his reputation, and it would be forty years before he was cleared of his “bad name”.
A death in his family meant that Izra was called to the funeral. There, a female church-goer approached him and then, over several nights, inundated his family's telephone with calls. (There were no personal handphones in Izra's time). Izra's father, annoyed, instructed him to put an end to the calls. Izra did so, but little did he expect that the female would later unleash a vicious rumour that Izra was a philanderer who had used her and disposed of her.
Soon Izra's colleagues in church began changing their tone towards him. Try as he might, the rumour proved difficult to quell. But, eventually, he got married, and four decades later, at a reunion with his ex-colleagues, a lady said: “Now we know you are a good man”.
I, too, have been slandered. But Izra teaches me: “Time and Patience are the greatest warriors known to Man.”