the stalker
Posted by Social Matters , Thursday, February 27, 2014 8:25 PM
‘R u home
yet?’
The short message asked.
Muthoni looked around, in the cover of
darkness there was nothing she could really see. Her heart beating as she
quickly resumed searching for her house keys in her over disorganized handbag,
she quickly found them as she quickly opened her house, with lightening speed
went inside and locked the door behind her. She quickly looked around her self
contained two bedroom house to see if anyone had managed to sneak in, even the
bathroom was not spared. She checked behind all the doors, the paranoia was
getting the best of the light skinned young woman, she went back to the sitting
room and sat down, she started to lay down on the somewhat expensive sofa next
to the coffee table where there was a picture of her and fiancé on their
engagement day, a rather good looking young couple, but she seemed to remember
something, she quickly grabbed a padlock to lock the sitting room door from
inside.
‘What if there was a fire inside and you’ve locked
yourself inside?’
‘Where would the fire come from?’
‘I am not planning to cook’
The
war inside her mind was eternal.
‘The gas could be leaking, the fridge is connected
to the power, and there could be an electrical fault!’
‘Soni, stop being paranoid, what is wrong with you?’
All these thoughts only caused her mind
to wander and she seemed to bring herself to a constant state of despair. She
walked into the kitchen, padlock still in her hand, she smelled to see if there
was any gas leak but there was none, and it was tightly shut. She stood in front
of the fridge not sure of what she supposed to do.
‘What do I do?’ She wondered.
She has never felt so unsettled in her
life, and it had all started a couple of days earlier, after the biggest fight
ever with her boyfriend, he wanted to introduce her to his parents formally,
but she was unsure about it, something held her back, maybe it was all the
unexplained whispering that took place every other time she had visited or the ‘thanks
for accepting our son with all his faults.’ Statements and the tone and
manner in which they were delivered, Richard assured her that she was reading too
much into the statement but there was nothing to worry her as much. Maybe she
should not have been too trusting, but other than that Richard had done nothing
to make her suspicious, until after the argument that night, he did not even
drop her home, she took a taxi, that’s when the short messages from someone
claiming to be Rich’s cousin started. At first she responded, he convinced her
to reconcile with Rich but he was not picking her calls and for a whole week,
there was deathly silent. Then he started disclosing all that they had done
together with Rich, and that unsettled her a lot.
She walked back to the living room
placing the padlock on the small glass table before laying on the sofa a
hopeless mess. Even before she could settle there a gentle knock on the door,
she looked at her wall clock, it was almost 9 o’clock, who could be knocking,
her phone started ringing, she felt her heart stop, it was a text message, the
knocking seemed to get fainter as she picked her phone, her hands shaking with
absolute fear.
‘If I cam 2
visit wud u opn the door for me?’
She
quickly dropped her smart phone as she dropped on the sofa a dejected mess, it
was all getting too much for her, and why wasn’t Richard returning any of her
calls, or messages, it was all his fault. The knocking started again, startling
her stressed out heart.
‘Who could it be?’ she wondered
out loudly.
She
slowly opened the door. ‘No one can hurt
me in such a place; there are too many people in this place.’ She tried to
comfort herself.
‘Mercy!’ it was the
caretaker’s voice.
‘Mwangi what do
you want?’
she felt her heart beating gently again as she took a deep breath.
She studied the rather odd looking face
of their caretaker, he had been the caretaker for the past two years, the
previous caretaker having been fired for disturbing the women in the building,
he gave them no rest, but Mwangi was no different, he was always looking for
ways to make quick money and he thought that women were his answer to financial
freedom, he seemed to think a little bit too highly of himself, which Muthoni
felt was an under estimation, he was nothing to write home about, his face
apart from being odd looking, was sure enough to scare someone in the cover of
darkness, even the moon light could not make it prettier and his breath always
leaked of cigarette mixed with cheap alcohol.
‘Nataka kunsaidia wewe.’ He smiled
revealing his badly discolored teeth. ‘ire shinda yako.’ He added in very
bad Swahili.
‘Mchana ulikuwa unafanya nini?’ she asked. ‘Niliambia
Ciru akuite ukakataa kuja.’ She finished off, referring to the young
woman who cleaned her house and did her laundry.
‘Mimi hupeda kufanya kasi ushiku.’ He said
cheekily to Muthoni’s disgust.
She
contemplated whether to let him in or not as the cold breeze blew past her
light skinned cheeks.
‘Asha nione tu!’ he requested
her.
She led the way to the bathroom, Mwangi
studied the leak from under the bathroom sink, the water leakage was not a lot
but it was enough to cause Muthoni her comfort. Her bright brown eyes watched
his every move, though he seemed not to even understand what he doing. As soon
as he finished she walked him to the door.
‘hamapatii mimi shakura?’ he asked
revealing his stained teeth again.
‘Mwangi umesema fundi anakuja lini?’ she asked him
holding on to the door, she was now losing her cool.
‘Keso.’ He responded. ‘lakini wewe ni msisana mrembo.’ He went
on. ‘manaishi na nani hapa? Mimi nawesha
eka wewe joto!’
She
closed the door without responding. ‘Idiot!’
her heart beat with an unmatched rage.
She went on her knees on her beautiful Turkish
brown carpet, she picked her phone up which was now in pieces, she quickly put
back the battery as she sat on her sofa, she was not doing all that badly for a
young woman, her hard work had paid off, she worked for a multinational
company, she was dating an equally successful man, who seemed to totally adore
her and he had been at her side for the past one year, he was the one! A
beautiful smile lit across her face, making the beautiful girl even more
pretty. He had really charmed his way into her heart, life was good, money was
in abundance and so was love.
She
scrolled through the messages only to find that the man had sent her some more
messages.
I hop al my
messages aren’t scaring you
She
opened the next
Frm wht my cuzo
says abt u, I sense you
R very
beautiful?
She
read the third
I wish u were
mine, I cud treat u way beta
There
was a fourth
Tak to him, he
seems very sad that u r nt talking to him
She
dialed Richard’s number, it rang but he was not picking, she rang several times
before deciding to send him a text.
Babe …
She started, unsure of what she wanted
to say to him, she felt angry and frustrated that he was ignoring her. Maybe
something had happened to him, after all he had also not been on facebook for
close to a week, what if the man presumably sending her messages had done
something to him, but his younger sister was posting rather happy messages on
FB, others that included what her brother had said to make her laugh.
‘Rich’ she deleted
what she had written before.
‘I am sorry; I
know I was a bit rude to you about
visiting my
parents, please call me and let’s talk about it.’
She waited for him to reply, but thirty
minutes later there was nothing. She tried calling him again but he was not
picking her calls. Maybe something had happened to him, he had never ignored
all the while they had been together, it was out of character. She went to bed
waiting for him to call a restless night it would be, she was losing the love
of her life and she had no idea what she was going to do. She decided to send
him one more text in the midst of all the tossing and turning.
Rich, I love
you…please let’s talk
She
hesitated before sending the text.
The next morning Muthoni got ready, took
her handbag as she made her way to her favourite restaurant. It was in one of
those places that she had met Richard. He seemed busy on his lap top, but she
could not help notice how cute he seemed. She quickly put one her earphones and
was soon in another world as she had a mango juice her favourite one. Then it
happened, their eyes met, she quickly turned away.
‘Our eyes didn’t meet!’ he confessed a
couple of months later. ‘I was amazed at
this crazy hot girl, who was shaking her head to whatever songs she was
listening to.’
She
smiled. ‘It wasn’t that bad.’
‘The
head shaking was intense.’ He exaggerated.
She laughed, remembering how amazing it
was to know Richard from nothing to feeling like she had known him her entire life.
As she sat down in her favourite restaurant, she could not help but remember
all the good times they had together, everything they had done together,
hiking, movies, any fun thing you could name they had done it, she loved his company.
Yet it was not love at first sight, that day he had said hi but her heart
belonged to someone else, but as time went on she had fallen hopelessly in love
with him, and they had everything planned out for their first year anniversary,
a romantic weekend in getaway in Naivasha.
‘You’re up
bright and early.’
The
terrifying feeling filled her heart again as she read the message.
‘Rich said u
tried to call him lst nit’
She
decided to reply, maybe he knew where Rich was.
‘He luvs u…hop u
knw tat’
Though
she felt terrified, she felt a little better.
He talks a lot abt
u, tat’s hw I know a lot abt
u
Maybe
he was not stalking her, but why was Rich talking to his cousin instead of
talking to her.
I love him as
well
She
responded.
He means the
world to me
She
took a sip of her juice as she waited to see where the conversation was headed.
Hw crious r u
abt my cuzo, have u been to his place? Hav u guys done it
Though
she felt uncomfortable, she decided to answer him.
I am very
serious…I have been to his place severally, I have met his paroz
She ignored the last part; it felt weird
for his cousin to want to know all that about their relationship. The
conversation went on for hours; she felt foolish talking to a complete stranger
about her first kiss with Richard as well as other intimate details, to where
she lived and her future plans with Richard. She had even told the cousin where
she worked and he had told her that currently he was not working! As she walked
to her house, the security guard opened the gate for her; she smiled at him for
the first time. ‘Thank you!’ maybe everything was going to be ok. She saw the
caretaker and immediately thought of calling Rich again but he was not picking,
hope quickly disappeared but his cousin sent her a text again.
‘So u n
Rich r gettin married? Lucky u! He’s very hot u know.’
It
made no sense, all the while it seemed like Rich’s male cousin was in love with
him.
‘What your name?
Are you really his cousin?’
She
asked as she bumped into a young woman carrying a small knife and an apple on
one hand and texting with the other as she made her way to fourth floor flat.
‘I am so sorry.’ She said as
their eyes met.
‘It’s ok.’ The young woman smiled back at
her.
Muthoni
watched as the girl walked typing something on her phone, Muthoni walked all
the way to the 4th floor and started searching for her keys again, a
message on her phone interrupted her from Rich’s cousin.
No I am not…I am
his wife, he’s my hazi
we have a two
year old son together
you can bet
there will not another in his life
Not unless I am
dead…
Muthoni dropped her phone in shock, she
looked around in distress, as tears stung her eyes, nothing made sense, the
whole world felt silence, Rich could not have been married, how could she have
missed that, and it felt like a bomb had been dropped in her heart, in her pain
she failed to notice as the same young woman from the stair case approached her
from behind with a phone on one hand and a knife on the other…
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