It is not true

It is not true

Dave and his friend Ram sat in the gazebo huddled in corner. This space was their weekend getaway to unwind. They had hardly downed the first drink when Dave’s phone rang. Dave glanced at the bottles that lined the table like targets on a shooting range as he stepped out to pick the phone. His wife Mary was on the line. As she spoke, Dave could tell she was agitated in fact annoyed. “You need to come home right away, I mean right now.” She commanded her voice leaded in anger. Before Dave could get to the details of the matter, the line went quiet. When he tried to call back, she did not pick.

The two friends drove in different cars to Dave’s home. In his sixteen years of marriage, his wife had never sounded so agitated and irrational like she did in the call. “Something is wrong, very wrong,” Dave, cursed loudly alone in the car. In his mind, he considered possibilities of what could have transpired when he was a way.

“A sick child, it must be a sick child. Oh, no it is daylight robbery this country with insecurity.” Thoughts floated like light clouds drifted by gusty breeze unabated in his mind. He struggled to make any meaningful predictions each time to the negative. “You are a sum of your thoughts. Stay positive. Be calm. If Mary think you have an affair press the default button-deny, totally. ” The still voice in his head insisted.

The day had been hot, humid, and dusty. The cool evening wind that started blowing as the sun fattened into a large yellow coin hanging over the hills did nothing to Dave’s perspiration. The quail birds, which had formed a habit of settling on the trees in his compound every evening, were poignantly absent as he drove in. Dave could feel that the air around his home was eerily quiet. Still nothing quite gave it away.

In a quick scanning style like an actor in an action packed movie, Dave noticed a strange car packed in the compound. At the corner next to the servant quarter, he located Mary curled like a cat her head buried between her thighs. Standing next arms akimbo a few yards from her, he could see his brother Eli. Dave exhaled with a big sigh of relief. Whatever it was, death was out of the question otherwise Mary would be wailing. He swallowed hard to steady his nerves as he approached the duo.

“What the hell is going on? You call, disconnect and refuse to pick my calls?” Dave asked Mary. She did not answer instead she shot up and on top of her voice started to quarrel with wild gestures pointing at Eli.

Eli had previously stayed in Dave’s house. As a younger brother he almost felt like it was his birthright to stay. They grew up together within a close family setting that glued them tightly like Siamese twins. Dave had supported his brother in his job search and accommodation after he graduated. He just moved out four months earlier.

Dave turned to Eli. “I am losing my head; explain this to me like a two year old. What is going on between you and my wife? What have you been doing behind my back? Thieves only have forty days, your luck has finally run out.” Dave paused. His anger boiled over like an overheated porridge. “Speak now before I do something both of us will live to regret my brother.” He added his voice contorted and his face crumpled with rage.

“Talk, talk to your wife, she has crossed the red line.” Eli said extending his lips to point to Mary in a show of contempt. Then he added, “This is pure jealousy. She thought I would stay jobless forever and keep coming here for help. No, I have moved on to greater heights. I have papers that speak for themselves. Perhaps she cannot handle the fact that I now drive, dreaming of holding my blessing”.

At that point Ram who had been quiet, the whole evening interjected. “This matter whatever it is seam weighty. We need to go to the house and discuss it soberly like grownups. This grandstanding worsens an already emotive situation.” Ram concluded with the calmness of a counselor as he led the way inside.

In the house, Sela, Dave’s house-help was sobbing hysterically, her sighs bound in high-octane emotional hiccups. To Dave’s family Sela was like their first born daughter. The line that separate servant from employer had long been rubbed by Mary who was very close to Sela.

“Sela, I need answers pretty fast. I am getting very annoyed at everyone over this whole situation. I see tears but no one is putting facts on the table. Now calm down and speak. What happened here while I was away? What has Eli done to Mary and you?” Dave demanded. Sela hesitated. Then she fidgeted with her fingers like a teenager negotiating an illicit liaison. She began to speak in short sentences that made no sense initially.

“I am carrying a child” Sela said without elaborating.

“It is not true, where?”

“Where?” Dave repeated his question gesticulating.

“I am expectant,”Sela blatted out the words hurriedly and sealed her mouth.

“But how, I mean who is the father,” Dave lowered his voice to a whisper.

“Eli, and he has denied responsibility,” Sela answered stuttering in between weeps.

The room fell silent. The breeze that had been blowing dead leaves on the corrugated roof abated. The sun had eventually sunk and in its place, a silvery moon was rising in the horizon in the east. Sela stopped crying suddenly perhaps in anticipation for a quick fix. Eli who had been singing a tune about “Kuna watu na viatu” had stopped the distracting off-tune chorus. Ram who had acted chair of the meeting looked blankly on the far wall ruminating. Dave and Mary bullishness fizzled and deflated like a punctured ball. The couple fixed their eyes on the floor bowed and beaten. Then tension started creeping in to fill the void. One could hear a pin fall in the emptiness of this silence clothed in mistrust.

The awkward silence lasted long enough to allow Eli to build on his defenses.

“I can’t tell who the father of that child is neither can any of you.” Eli spoke with authority of a good barrister then added for a good measure. “She is only a house servant. She could have messed herself with anyone else,” he said pacing the room with shifty eyes like a caged leopard. His tall frame was gangly like a heavyweight boxer.

Eli was not done yet. He added, “This must be some kind of a mistake. Tell your wife to open that padlock at the gate. I need to drive off. I must leave without any further delay unless you people wants me to lose my job. May be that would be your pleasure.” Eli concluded while moving towards the door to leave.

“Wait a minute. What? You are not going anywhere until this matter is fully resolved, “Dave said mustering his very best of courage to remain collected. The vain on his neck however bulged, gorged with blood and stiffed like the neck of a crowing cork. His Adams apple swelled and reddened. The fold on his brow furrowed with grief and the huskiness of his voice betrayed his otherwise good restraint. Ram sensed the danger and cleared his throat to step in but Mary beat him to it.

“Hee what kind of man are you. In your turf, in your own house another man demeans you like this. Is this a husband or what? This cannot possibly be true” Mary yelled directing her wrath this time to Dave. “You have defended your brother each time I raised my finger to complain about his overstaying his welcome. It is your can of worms” She added, then made a spitting sound but there was no spit. Dave twisted uneasily in his chair like a maggot on a rotting carcass but words did not come out of him.

“Brothers and sisters, Ram started speaking with a rare audacity that held everyone’s attention. Then he appealed to their routes. “They say in our traditions that he who defecates by the wayside on his way to a journey comes back to a bunch of noisy flies.” “Very true, very true,” Dave interjected. “Our forefathers also say Chien Kiyany- in other words no sane person abuses his past and gets safely to his future.” “That is also very laudable teaching right there, “Dave concurred. “The truth shall come to light in time-in our time. Open the gate and let the young man go.” Ram concluded.

The gate opened with a long suspense sound as Ram pulled on one side as Dave held the other. The white car reversed with a screeching sound of an overworked clutch then sped off into the night. Dave repeated the words of his brother song as if weighing them over for veracity-“Kuna watu na viatu- really?”

The following day sela parked her belonging and prepared to leave. With a voice still filled with sadness she said to Dave and Mary, “I am deeply sorry for the pain and division I have caused in this family. My conscious cannot allow me to stay here any longer. I have to seek a fresh beginning elsewhere. I shall pray that the rift that my faults have opened shall be shown back together in time”. With a heavy heart, Dave and Mary bid farewell to Sela.

Ten year passed and neither Dave nor Mary heard from Sela. One day on a quiet evening, the early part of the month of October, the gate bell rang and Dave answered it. I white saloon car strolled in. a plump woman was driving it. “Ahhhhh,wolo,lolo.looo Sela! I cannot believe this. You look stunning and you are driving. Who is this little girl? Where have you been? - Come in. I can’t wait to hear the story of your life.” Mary said in welcome to Sela.

Dave and Mary sat of the living room their faces beaming with pride as Sela started to tell them the long story. “First things first,” Sela stated laughing in a relaxed manner. “Here next to me please hug my daughter Grace. This pretty girl is the one your brother rejected. The question of her paternity no longer matter. We are very happy together.” “My, Oh my, I have no words to describe what I feel now, am going to cry”, Mary said. She leaped and grabbed the girl tears of joy falling fast from her eyes.

“Please tell me what happened to your life you look like you are doing very well.” Dave asked after gaining his composure. “It is the blessings. God has been kind, very kind to me. I found a sponsor, a Christian organization that deal with mothers in distress. I completed my course. Then they helped me set up my own shop. My business is doing well. I came back to thank you. I am grateful for all that your family did for me in my formative years.”Sela said her face beaming with happiness.

Mary stood up, her eyes welling with tears. She summoned Sela, Grace and Dave to the center of the living room. They held their hands to make a circle. With a voice chocked in emotional joy, Dave’s wife said, “Let us pray.”

 By Chrinus Otieno Genga