Leading the Night

Country crowned with thorns

Leading the Night 231 man whom all taxi drivers talked about whenever they could. “I have seen their night lives…. But they never look back at the stones they stepped on to get where they are! “Who can lead alone?” He expected no answer. He said he was shocked at the two men who were doing shining business with the shining class and families of the rich, here in Kenya, as so many starved to death in the North. He said this was a bad omen. Rika saw the dance of the snakes going on again in her mind. Country crowned with thorns Back in Rei’s room, hidden between clean sheets, Wairi wept. It was as if she could have cried out her soul. When she said she wanted to leave her country, she did not mean she was ready for such deep humiliation. She did not see the soft cream sheets that surrounded her or feel the comfort of her room. Her soul was in deep pain. She wept as if to scour clean her spirit. After sometime, her eyelashes softened and wet now stood clearly on her eyelids. The swellings had gone down fast with the medicine but her eyes were still scarlet red swallowing the black bead in her eye almost completely. When she finally uncovered her face, she kept on talking, telling her own story herself first and then to Rei. She regretted that she had not dared to run away from Yaadi earlier. She thought she should have hidden in a lorry one day or sat beside a driver in long distance trailer and refused to leave risking police checks in the night. Maybe she could have disguised herself as a man. She regretted not having gone anywhere else on earth than stayed, but she was leading her night in the way she thought best. She told her story over and over again. Yaadi beat and threw her out of his shack. He had hit her many times on her head with a cooking stick. He had boxed her soft cheeks because he found some lipstick she had forgotten to take out of her little handbag in which he also found five dollars. 232 Leading the Night Yaadi had become a beast. Even his donkey used to look at him long and without blinking whenever she could. He screeched he would kill Wairi and cut off her head with an axe. When the house was engulfed in smoke, she was rolling on the ground with pain because he had just cut her upper arms with a machete. He told her she had graduated from razor cuts to this. She chocked in there and her eyes stung deeply. Yaadi boxed her hard in the eyes and disappeared leaving her for dead.. This fire was sure going to burn all the houses and her, he thought. He only ran to save his ritual regalia. He had to hide some of his private ‘goods’ fast for he believed that a man who was going to die soon always allowed his precious things to get lost. He knew that police almost always appeared in Mathare in plain clothes before a fire happened; and he did not want to risk. He was right. That cop who knew about his gang and who was following Rei passed by a frustrated Yaadi and signalled him to be careful as more cops were coming. It is the gang that was being smoked out. He had to be extremely careful. In a few minutes, Mathare had been surrounded by armed police. Nobody there moved. Many people chocked on smoke in their houses without daring to cough. They rolled on the ground as if they were sick and coughed with their faces to the ground which stunk of urine. But now Rei and Wairi were far away. Rei consoled Wairi. He kissed her forehead. She was crowned with pain. He soothed the palms of her hands. Yaadi had driven holes into them. He massaged the wounds in her feet; they too had holes in them. He knew how deeply pierced her heart was. He knew it was more deeply pierced than by seven swords. He knew and he had seen that she bled water and blood. He knew she had more than the six wounds of Jesus. She bore Seven wounds for she had been mutilated in the holiest part of her body and spat upon. For all the new churches that came up...