Chapter 2

• Greg and Anita came, calling and said it was time to go home. I bid my new friends goodbye and joined my family to go home. This time I sat at the back seat and left mum to have the front seat. I did not want to see this self-proclaimed dying man. On reaching home, I went to my bedroom and locked myself in. I prayed that I would wake up the next morning and find dad there with us. Apart from being a loving father to us, he was the family’s bread winner. My mother had been orphaned at the age of four. She had lived in a children’s home until she completed her primary school education. The children’s home had been closed by the government for claims of child trafficking. My mother resulted into looking for employment to sustain her life. She had worked in many homes as a house help. She later got a job as a waitress at the hotel where dad found her. Dad did not want her to continue working there. He said he would provide for the family and mum should take care of the home and the children. Now he wanted to leave us. How would mum manage to look after us in his absence?
• I rushed to pick my mum’s phone. Dad had left earlier that morning going to work. My mum was coming to our school for a school meeting. I picked the phone and the caller asked to talk to mum. Mum was in the bathroom. The caller told me to tell mum to return her call. Mum did not call the caller back. She said we had to hurry to school. On the way to school, we found a fatal accident. It involved a lorry and a sedan car. The sedan had been damaged beyond recognition. Mum said that she didn’t want to stop.
• This was so much unlike mum. She was always caring and wanted to help others however she could. We drove past the accident scene. Mum looked a bit confused and restless. On reaching the school, she drove past the school gate and we had to ask her to drive back. We reached the school and the meeting started. It was the closing day for the term. The class teachers called out names of the top students. I was the first in my class. Anita too was the first, while Greg was number three. The top pupils were awarded. Finally, the parents and teachers were to continue with the meeting. The meeting was to highlight different issues affecting the school. It was also to inform the parents about what would be expected for the coming year.
• We left the teachers and went to the field to play different games.
• Greg was a bully and always looking for trouble. I had a hard time trying to convince him to be gentle on others. Anita had always been a victim of his bully, especially when mum and I were not at home. I passed by their class and called him. We sat together in my class as we tried to reflect on the accident that we had seen that morning. Greg said that it looked like dad’s car. He saw my shock and ran away laughing. I knew it was his way of making me stop ‘holding him hostage’ while he would be somewhere playing with other boys, or probably fighting with one of his classmates.
• Mercy, my best friend came and found me in class in deep thoughts. She asked if I had witnessed the accident on my way to school and I said I had. “Did you stop to view who the victim was?” she asked. I told her that we did not stop because we were running late. She told me that she had heard that the victims had been rushed to Neema Hospital. She noticed that I didn’t know much about the accident and decided to change the subject. The following year we were to be in standard eight. We had to start preparing for the national examination. We took class eight books to read but I could not concentrate. I was always thinking of what my dad had told me a week ago,
• when he took us out for lunch and swimming. Mercy tried cheering me up but I couldn’t. “What is wrong with you? Have you heard?” she asked. I asked her what she was talking about but she noticed that I did not have a clue of what she was saying and decided to shut up.
• The meeting ended and we started preparing to go home. I called mum and asked her if she had called the morning caller and told me she hadn’t. She opened her handbag and removed her mobile phone. She was surprised to find more than ten missed calls, all from strange numbers. She called one of them and was told to go to Neema Hospital. All this time, I could not connect the happenings of the day with what Mercy had tried to tell me. We arrived at the hospital. Mum was directed to where dad was. We were not allowed to go in since were in school uniforms. We went back to the car and waited. The wait seemed long. Greg tried to play some music, but I told him to stop. We waited and waited, for an hour, for two hours and mum wasn’t coming back to tell us what was happening. The wait seemed as if we had been waiting for eternity.
• Mum came back and found us eagerly waiting for her. She seemed sad. We asked her how dad was. She gave us a slight smile and said he was fine. The tone in her voice and fear in her eyes showed that everything was not okay. She drove us home slowly. She did not want to talk much. Greg and Anita continued to question her about dad, but I would interrupt them telling them that mum needed to concentrate when driving. We arrived home safely. Mum went to her bedroom and locked herself in. I went to the kitchen and made us supper. Greg and Anita would go to her bedroom and knock but she could not open. I had a hard time trying to calm them down and make them have their supper. Greg could shout and say that we needed to know if dad was alive or dead once and for all. Greg was hard-headed and insensitive. He was scaring Anita and causing pain to mum. Finally I managed to calm him down and they had their supper and slept.
• I knocked at mum’s bedroom and she let me in. She had been crying all this time. I asked her how dad was and she said he was terrible. “We need to pray that he recovers.” We held hands and said a prayer for dad. I sat there and watched mum cry. This was the first time I was seeing her weak. She had always been a strong woman. Probably it was the reason I was strong for her and my siblings at that moment. She wept and wept. Then she felt asleep
• and I left her room. I went to my bedroom and started thinking about what had transpired. I remembered dad fears of leaving us. Was this what he was talking about? I lay on my bed, turning and tossing sleeplessly. Every time I closed my eyes to sleep, I would be woken by dreams of me attending a funeral. I my dreams, it wasn’t clear who had died. This was becoming too much for a 12 year old to comprehend. What worried me more was the sadness and fear I saw in my mum’s eyes.