a well deserved break
Posted by Social Matters , Monday, November 11, 2013 7:51 AM
A
WELL DESERVED BREAK
Peter seemed relaxed on the journey back
from Mombasa.
‘Mambasa!’ they had
teased each other. ‘Mambasa.’ They
had sung all the way from Nairobi to ‘Mambasa.’
Peter a couple of months back had somehow dated a young white lady.
‘I
prefer the Kenyan ones.’ He smirked a bit arrogantly.
They had met at one of those days when
Lisa his best friend took his to one of the Java kind of restaurants, a simple
meal set him back by a thousand shillings.
‘I
might as well use the toilets.’ He retorted. ‘At least I will leave something big that will have made my 1000
worth it.’
‘Rest
room…’
she corrected him. ‘Or you can say ladies
or gents.’
He gave her one of his playful looks.
‘The
food was great; you can at least admit that.’ She said.
‘Yes,
but the quantity was wanting.’ He told her. ‘And their clientele as you can see…ni wazungu and very rich Kenyans.’ He
cast her, a goofy face. ‘And let’s not
forget the ‘I seem to forget where my social class is’ Kenyans.’
‘I
love the ambience.’
Lisa smiled, defending herself as they looked around, Peter seemed to notice
the young white woman with blue eyes and blonde hair, she smiled at him, he
blushed. Lisa noticed the sparks as Peter turned quickly.
‘I
love her.’
She announced, leaning towards him. ‘She
made you blush, you the typical African male.’
‘Hebu
I go to the post office, I have some mail to drop.’ He started to
leave.
‘Post
office, toilet, gross!’ she said.
Lisa glanced at her purse; she had
enough money just to get her home. She had hoped Peter would be gentleman
enough and offer to pay, but that never happened. He had even joked at some
point that since she had invited him, she needed to pay. She had met Peter in
Campus and their relationship had blossomed into a wonderful, warm friendship,
she could not tell if Peter liked her, or he just loved her as friend. Everyone
kept telling her, that Peter was never going to love her like she loved him; he
seemed to see her as a sister.
‘Maybe
one day he may change his mind and decide I am the one he wanted to marry.’
She suggested several nights earlier to her sister as she got ready for bed.
‘The
only way he will marry you.’ Cecily put her novel down and sat up on
her bed. ‘is if the girl he has been
chasing after all this while rejects him, and then all the other girls that he
thought were suitable reject him and he realizes that he is growing too old.
You’d make a good plan D siz.’
‘Nothing
special about that.’
Peter thought as he came out the rest room.
He could have paid for Lisa’s meal,
after all she had spend more money on him than he had in all their years of
friendship, still he could not understand why he kept her in the friend zone.
It did feel kinda great to know that he had many options when it came to
deciding who he would spend the rest of his life with. His thoughts were far
off, when he bumped into the pretty young white girl, he almost knocked her to
the floor, he reached trying to stop her from hitting the beautiful tiled
floor, but he lost his balance and they both fell on the floor. He gained his
composure first. ‘I am so sorry miss.’
He helped her on her feet.
‘It’s
ok.’
She smiled.
Her smile seemed to knock his senses out;
from her accent he could tell she was American.
‘Am
Peter.’
He smiled and gave her his hand.
‘You
too seem to be soooo in love.’ Lisa stressed on the issue as they lay on
one of the beautiful sandy beaches in Mombasa.
‘We
were.’
Peter said.
‘Peter,
you have changed a lot.’ Lisa admitted.
‘Kumbe you are not the nice guy I thought you were.’ She sounded
disappointed.
He could not believe how amazing Lisa
looked in a bikini; he could not keep his eyes off her gorgeous body. Her
stomach was flatter than a pancake, her figure finer than an hour glass.
‘As
I said.’
Peter added. ‘I prefer Kenyan women.’
Lisa just smiled as she sat up. ‘Peter you used her for her money you
loving Kenyan women has nothing to do with it.’
‘That
solar is killing me.’
She touched her shoulder slightly.
‘You
are tanning.’
He lay looking at her smooth brown complexion.
‘Pete…’ she started. ‘Is that what Nicole baby used to call you?’
She was looking at him. ‘I am African, tanning doesn’t apply to me, sun burnt
does.’
‘I
can apply some sun screen on you.’ He offered sitting up and taking the
sunscreen into his hands.
‘No
thank you.’
She grabbed the sun screen bottle. ‘I
would rather that hot guy over there did it?’
Peter glanced at Kimae, he was their
colleague, and he seemed to be in a world of his own, with ear phones reading a
novel. Lisa got up and walked towards the water, the sun just seemed to illuminate
her body and make it even more beautiful. His thoughts shifted towards her, he
was thinking about all the things he wanted to do her, she seemed confident as
well. He walked towards the edge of the water, she also moved towards him.
‘Besides
she can’t cook Ugali.’
He volunteered some more information.
‘You
didn’t seem to mind spending her money.’ Lisa retorted.
The relationship had been short lived
but amazing, even though he had a well paying job, and his investments in the
transport industry were doing amazingly well, he had lied to Nicole, he had led
her into believing he was from a lower social class than he actually was. She
had paid for his trip to the Maasai Mara, and what an adventure they had, he
never knew the wild could be so interesting. She had flown his to Zanzibar for
a romantic getaway at the sun kissed beaches. She seemed to be genuinely
interested in him. When she proposed a long distance relationship he lied that
he would rather they be friends so that his heart would not be broken. She was
nice about it, she had promised to look him the next year when she visited and
take him to ‘Mambasa!’
‘Mambasa…’ he teased her.
‘Mambasa…’ she repeated
not knowing he was making fun of her.
He watched as Lisa chatted with some
white Italians, what could they be talking about. She seemed to smile a lot; it
seemed to bother him a lot.
‘Lisa.’ He put his arm
around her warm shoulders. ‘Come on
sweetie, let’s go for swim.’
She removed his arm as they walked into
the sunset.
‘Lisa.’ He started. ‘Have you ever thought of us as a …’
She removed his hand slowly creeping up
on her waist. ‘You have bikini fever.’
He seemed confused.
‘Your
thinking ability has been affected by seeing women in two pieces.’ She said. ‘Let’s get back to Nairobi and your fever
will go down when you see normal women in normal clothing.’
He quickly moved away sensing that Lisa
was about to turn him down, but she was right when they got back to Nairobi the
fever was gone, but he could not forget the sun soaked days and long night walks
in the beach, they were just so beautiful. Still he could forget Lisa and how
great her body looked without all the layers of clothes on them. He needed a
sign, a big sign to prove to himself that Lisa could be more than just a
friend.
Life was indeed amazing for the twenty
something’s that on an Easter weekend they could afford to leave behind the
hassle of the big city and escape for a nice Easter get away. Life was indeed
good for Peter, he had landed a job even before he left Campus, even before graduation
he had a good job, and to add to his list of many blessings he had pretty good
genes, well he was not bad to look at. Indeed he seemed to have been born with
a silver spoon in his mouth. The taxi driver dropped him off at his gate, it
was late at night, noticing that the security guard was not in his usual place,
not that there was one constant guard it was the care taker, he doubled as the
security guard, most nights you would find him asleep in his house and not at
the gate. He let himself in and walked two floors up to his door. He tried to
open the door for several seconds but he could not feel the padlock with his
hands, realizing the door was not locked, he quickly opened his door, his heart
bumping faster than when he had laid his eyes on Lisa’s body. He tried to
switch on the lights but the bulb seemed not to light, he rushed outside in a daze;
the entire estate was lit brightly. He rushed back to his house and tried to
feel around, he felt desperate, he could feel nothing, he touched the walls to
the main switch but he turned the switch but nothing seemed to happen. He
remembered the little torch he carried with him, he rushed and brought it in
the house.
The little torch lit brightly, but the
night seemed too silent as his mind tried to reconcile what his eyes were
registering, he quickly rushed outside and shone the light at his house number,
it was his house alright, the neighbor came out as if to confirm he was in the
right house.
‘We
saw people moving things from your house in the middle of the night over the
weekend and thought you were moving out.’
He made an attempt to follow Peter into
the house but Peter slammed the door in his face angrily. Who moves out in the
middle of the night?
He walked around all the other rooms in
his house, everything movable was gone, and he had nothing apart from the
clothes he had carried to Mombasa. He reached out for his phone and dialed
Lisa’s number. The only person he could call.
‘Hello.’ She seemed
sleepy. ‘Peter nilifika kitambo.’ She
joked.
‘Lisa.’ He said in a
shaky voice. ‘My house has been robbed,
there’s nothing left…’
|
0
comments
What do people really mean when the say: -