Stones Bounce on Water

 Plot

Stones Bounce on Water is a story written by Dilman Dila, a Ugandan writer. It details events that take place before and after the murder of Winnie, one of the Paulsons' visitors from London. 

The story starts on a night lit by a full moon, and the visitors enjoy the scenery since it's one they are not used to seeing in London. The conflict unfolds when a firecracker that's forgotten on the lawns after a birthday party the day before goes off. It sets the stage for a foreboding that prepares the audience for Winnie's impending death. In fact, she lays bare her suspicion that her five friends: Tim Collins, Peter, Chelsea Creole, Meg Paulson and Joe Paulson are planning to kill her for their own varied reasons.

The next day, Simon, the cook, takes Tim to the pond, where he shows him how to make stones Bounce on Water. Simon also reveals that the pound is a taboo site for the locals since dead bodies are usually deposited there by murderers. When this topic is started later on back at the Paulsons' house, Winnie for yet another time claims that her friends are planning to kill her. She now claims that they will then deposit her body in the pond. She further claims that Simon may be the person her friends are planning to ask to poison her. This allegation makes Simon to angrily walk away together with the other cooks before they could prepare and serve the evening meals.

The next morning, Joe Paulson goes looking for Simon in his home and reveals that Winnie is missing. With Simon's help, the matter is reported to sergeant Pascal Kivumbi, who starts investigations immediately. In Joe's house, he discovers that some mud, probably from the pond because the whole vicinity is experiencing a dry season, had been dropped in the house. He also discovers that somebody had tried to mop the house in a view to getting rid of any evidence. When Okello, the watchman, is interviewed, he claims that he had been drugged and made to sleep from four to six.

At the pond, the cop notices some unrecognizable footprints in the mud. All of a sudden, a toe appears from the water before Winnie's whole feet also appear.

Scotland yard pursue a case against Tim, the Paulsons, Chelsea and Peter but the lack of enough evidence makes it easy for the five to win the case. Eventually, Peter marries Chelsea and Tim is the best man. However, the Paulsons' choose to skip this wedding. Later, when Tim and Peter cannot agree on the best way to share the wealth they acquired after Winnie's death, they testify against each other in court, making it easy for the court to make a ruling. 

Setting

The story is set in a poor African country, most probably Uganda. The events mainly take place in a mansion owned by Meg and Joe Paulson. Some events take place at Simon's home while the rest take place at the pond, where Tim and Simon go for their stone-throwing outing. Later, Winnie's body is also found here. 

Characters and characterization 

Meg

She's an educated native woman married to Joe Paulson, a white man from London. She's secretive and dishonest since she tips Simon to add alcohol in her cup of tea but does not want her husband to know about it. When he finally knows, she's surprised that he knows and asks Simon to explain how he came to know about it.

Joe

He's Meg's husband who helps Winnie in the running of their philanthropic organization. He's caring and concerned since he takes Winnie's disappearance with a lot of seriousness. He's ready to turn all stones to find her. He is also an honest man since the revelation at the end exonerates him from any involvement in the conspiracy to kill Winnie. He's also mad at Meg's dishonesty: her stealthy drinking of alcohol. 

Winnie

She's the founder of a non-profit making organization that helps the health and education sectors in Simon's country. She's a very sensitive and observant woman. She looks at the behaviour of her friends and correctly concludes that Peter, her husband, has an affair with her friend and business partner, Chelsea. She's also intelligent/wise since she's able to use her friends present bahaviours to project what exactly will happen in the future. Precisely, her husband is interrogated extensively just as she had earlier predicted. Chelsea and Peter get married and then they scramble for her wealth. She had also predicted this.

Chelsea

She's Winnie's business partner and Peter's girlfriend. She's greedy since she wants the business she co-owns with Winnie to herself. She, therefore, has to kill her for this to happen. She's also promiscuous since she has a secret affair with her partner's husband, whom she eventually marries. 

Tim

He is Winnie's cousin and the youngest of the friends gathered at the Paulsons. He's crafty because he's the one that's taken to the pond by Simon. He, therefore, is the prime suspect but pretends to the point of even getting involved in a fist fight with Peter in order to disguise the whole situation. He's also said to have contacted a poacher in Kenya, who's suspected to have given him the dart that was used in drugging Okello.

He, just like all his partners in this crime, is hypocritical. He pretends not to have known anything regarding Winnie's disappearance and eventual death.

Peter

He is pretentious since he has a relationship with Chelsea but pretends that there's nothing between them. He is also involved in hatching a plan to kill her own wife but does not show any signs of being involved. 

Simon

He's a retired cook of sixty years. He has been asked to come out of retirement to help prepare meals for the Paulsons. He is wise. He knows where the discussion is headed and advises his fellow cooks to leave with him before things worsen, and this saves them the trouble of being accused of drugging the watchman. He's also the one that concludes that the mud must have come from the pond. He knows that it couldn't have come from anywhere else if not the pond since the season is a dry one. 

Styles 

Humour 

Simon humorously describes her relationship with Meg as one which must involve the drawing of diagrams on the ground before establishing kinship.

Dialogue

The story involves a lot of dialogue, which helps cut the monotony of narration and also reveal the feelings characters have towards Winnie's sentiments about her death and the death itself. It makes it clear of how pretensious they are since what they say in the end is revealed to have been lies.

Irony

It's ironic that Tim is the best man in the wedding between Chelsea and Peter yet they had quarrelled to the point of almost fighting. We also don't expect Chelsea, who's Winnie's close friend and partner to be having an affair with her husband, Peter. 

Foreboding 

There's is a premonition from the beginning I the story that something bad is going to happen. The foreboding sets in when a firecracker goes off, making Winnie to reveal her fears, that his friends are planning to kill her. The revelation that dead bodies are usually dumped in the pond makes the foreboding even more pronounced. 

Suspense 

The story ends without revealing what the ruling of the Court was. The narrator simply says, "They witnessed against one another and made it easy for the court to decide." (P. 163).

Themes 

Betrayal

Winnie is betrayed by her friends because of their selfish motives. Her husband and Tim know that they stand to inherit her wealth, Chelsea will inherit both their business and her husband while the Paulsons will take over the charity organisation that Winnie started and funded before incorporating them. They kill her before actualizing these ambitions. 

Greed/materialism

Winnie's friends are all materialistic. It is said that the charity organisation was more interested in making money for them than helping the health and education sectors: "we had suspected that the paulsons were in it for money, not for the love of helping the poor."(p.148).

Superstition

The natives believe that there are ghosts in the water at the pond. So they avoid it as much as they can. Simon believes that Winnie, who's already dead listens to their conversation at the pond and that is why her body decides to appear.