NO MERCY
1116 Words
Wandegeya woke up loud.
Taxis hooting. Vendors shouting “Rolex! Chapati!” The smell of frying oil in the air.
But inside their single room in *Bukoto*, it was silent.
Jessica was awake at 5am. Counting money again.
680,000. All in 10k and 20k notes. It was in a black polythene bag, folded twice.
Jimmy sat on the mattress, lacing his shoes. He hadn’t slept.
The cut above his eye from Day 4 was still purple.
“Today,” he said.
“Today,” Jessica answered.
They didn’t eat. Couldn’t.
They walked to *Wandegeya Market* instead. To the loan boss’s container behind the taxi stage.
The same place where Jimmy first borrowed the money 3 weeks ago.
---
*The Container*
It was a green shipping container with a padlock.
Two boys stood outside with sticks. The loan boss’s boys. Everyone in Wandegeya knew them.
They saw Jimmy and Jessica and smirked.
“Ah, the lovers,” one said. “You came.”
“Boss is waiting,” the other said.
Inside it smelled like sweat, cheap air freshener, and fear.
*The loan boss* sat behind a wooden desk. Big man. Gold chain. Phone in one hand, toothpick in the other.
His ledger was open. Their names were circled in red.
“Punctual,” *the loan boss* said. “I like that.”
He looked at Jessica. Slow. “And you. You’re the reason we’re here, huh?”
Jessica didn’t look down. “We have 680k.”
*The loan boss* laughed. One short laugh.
“I said 1.2 million.”
“We don’t have it,” Jimmy said. His voice didn’t shake. “Take this. Give us more time.”
*The loan boss* stood up. Walked around the desk.
He took the bag from Jessica’s hands. Counted it. Slow. One note at a time.
The sound of paper was the only thing in the room.
“680,” he said finally. “You’re short 520.”
“We’ll pay,” Jessica said fast. “2 more weeks. Please. We have jobs.”
“No,” *the loan boss* said.
He dropped the bag on the desk.
“See, the problem is trust. You lied to me, boda man. And now I have to teach a lesson.”
He pointed at Jessica with the toothpick.
“She can work it off. Salon by day. Other things at night. 6 months. Then we’re even.”
The room went cold.
“Don’t,” Jimmy said. He stepped in front of Jessica.
“Or what?” *the loan boss* asked. “You’ll fight me? With what? That boda?”
Jimmy’s fists clenched. “Touch her and I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” *the loan boss* cut him off. He nodded to the boys.
They grabbed Jimmy’s arms.
One pressed a stick to his back.
“Last chance, girl,” *the loan boss* said to Jessica. “Yes or no?”
Jessica’s heart was hammering.
6 months. With him.
Or watch Jimmy get hurt. Maybe killed.
She looked at Jimmy. His eyes were screaming _say no_.
And she remembered the rain. The hoodie. “I chose you,” she’d said.
If she said yes now, that would all be a lie.
So she lifted her chin.
“No,” Jessica said. Clear. “We don’t belong to you.”
*The loan boss’s* face changed.
“Excuse me?”
“I said NO.”
*The loan boss* raised his hand.
Jimmy twisted. Landed one punch before the boys pulled him back.
A chair crashed.
Then the container door banged open.
---
*Police*
“POLICE! HANDS UP!”
Two officers. From *Wandegeya Police Station*, 2 minutes away.
The younger one was sweating. “We got a call. Disturbance.”
*The loan boss* dropped his hand instantly. Smiled. “Officers! These people owe me money. They came to attack me.”
“Is that true?” the older officer asked.
Jimmy was breathing hard, lip bleeding. “No. He threatened her. He has been threatening us for a week.”
The older officer looked around. The ledger. The bag of money. The stick.
He’d dealt with *the loan boss* before.
“Everyone. Station. Now.”
---
*Wandegeya Police Station*
3 hours.
Statements. Photos. The red note from their door as evidence.
Jessica told everything. The loan. The deadline change. The threats in *Kikoni* and *Makerere*.
Jimmy showed his bruises.
The young officer was quiet. “We can’t cancel loans. But threats and assault? We can work with that.”
*The loan boss* was fined 200k and given a warning.
The 680k was logged as evidence but released back to Jessica. “For your safety,” the officer said.
When they walked out at 1pm, the sun was too bright.
They still had 680k.
And a paper that said *the loan boss* had to stay 100 meters away from them.
---
*After, in Nakasero*
They didn’t go straight home.
They sat on a bench in *Nakasero Park*. Quiet.
Jimmy’s hands were shaking.
“You said no,” he said. “To him. For me.”
Jessica nodded. Tears finally falling. “I said no. For us.”
Jimmy laughed. Broken. Relieved.
“I thought that was it. I thought we were done.”
“Me too,” she whispered.
He turned to her. Took her face in his hands. His hands were rough from the boda.
“Jessica.”
“Yeah?”
“I love you,” he said. “Not because you needed me. Not because of the debt.
Because you chose me when it cost you everything.”
Jessica cried for real then.
“I love you too, you i***t boda man.”
He kissed her.
Right there on the bench in Nakasero.
Not desperate. Not scared.
Just them.
People walked past. No one cared.
---
*That Night in Bukoto*
They went home.
Paid 200k rent for next month.
Bought food from the market: posho, beans, chicken, soda.
They put the remaining 480k under the mattress.
It wasn’t enough to be safe. But it was enough to breathe.
Jimmy made tea. Jessica washed plates in the jerrycan.
They argued over who ate the last piece of chicken.
Later, lying on the mattress, lights off, Jimmy said,
“We’re still broke.”
“I know,” Jessica said.
“But we’re broke together.”
“Yeah,” she said, and smiled in the dark. “We’re broke together.”
Outside, a taxi passed on Wandegeya road. Music blaring.
Inside, for the first time in weeks, there was no fear.
The deadline was over.
*The loan boss* was warned.
And they had each other.
It didn’t feel like tragedy anymore.
It felt like a beginning.
- Writer
