More than 19 years ago, on a day like this my mama, forcefully without my written consent, made me carry my little brother on my innocent back. If it were my sister Ester, I would not have done what I did but for the little master something had to be done.
“Mteule, come with the blue kanga, the one for the baby”, Mama called from the outside.
Silence.
Some things need more attention than others.
I had been in the big house trying to professionally clean the pot that had been used to cook meat the night before. I couldn’t answer immediately since my voice box was busy downing a piece of a chicken finger.
“How many times do you want me to call you,?”, she raised her voice, which she rarely did.
“I am on the way, here I am”, I answered back while I dusted my lips with a piece of cloth I picked on the table.
I dashed outside to find Master Sam, my little brother, struggling with mama. That he wanted mama to carry him as she was about to leave for a mkutano wa akina mama.
“Where is the leso…wait..what’s up, are you eating charcoal?”, she sounded shocked.
It happened that the piece of cloth I had used had charcoal dust on it and it had painted my teeth black. Like you may already know, I held the record of being the blackest boy in the entire large village for two decades.
I was rescued after the boy Wamuroha was born. This boy is a friend to my little sister and that’s why I give them each fifty bob and in note form whenever I visit the Mau.
Back then, when I smiled you had to smile back. The look of my milk white teeth was just out of the world.
They were shiny like the galaxy of milky way. In any case, I have come to realize that the blacker berry has the sweeter juice when it comes to merry.
“Mama, let me pick the leso, am running like lighting…”, I hurriedly and swiftly left for the house.
A few seconds later, I was back unknowingly that I was about to be a victim of child labor. Victims and perpetrators have been and still are the ways and orders of the world.
So mama, wanted me to carry the little boy. She did not care what other boys were to think of me. What if Shiru saw me with the baby. Something had to be done, and within the soonest of time possible.
I am always glad for the gift of a creative mind that saves me from chaos.
“Nataka umbebe mtoto na usimweke chini mpaka alale, wanielewa Mteule?”, she laid the rule.
You can bear me witness that she did not consult me. That is all she said. Thus, I was the victim!
When the little boy was put on my innocent back, the leso in place and a tight knot tied at the front near my soft heart, I implemented my plan. My plan was very sophisticated yet so simple. I planned it secretly and was to execute it openly.
In no time the little boy settled squarely on my back and when I heard him make some sounds, obviously implying that he was comfortable, I pinched him so hard.He made a sound in lieu of a cry.
A far cry.
I decided to engage gear number one.
I pinched him on the nose.
By then mama was at the gate almost leaving.
“Mama mtoto anakulilia”, I alerted her before it was too late.
To prove my point I turned at logarithm of 90 degrees in an anticlockwise direction holding my right leg at a constant locus with the center of rotation being on my left leg and made the boy face my mama.
Again, I pinched the little boy on the left leg and made sure to squeeze his soft muscles. In fact he screamed and stood on my back as he waved at mama. Seeing her little boy in turmoil and agony she had to return.
“Mama, Sam loves you sana, maybe you can go with him, but I can still try to calm him down”, I said and added a final pinch at the right leg.
This was in line with what I had been taught in Sunday school. Is it not written that if you get slapped on the left cheek, you should offer the right one too?
And since little Sam was not willing to offer his according to the scriptures, I did it for him.
“OK, this boy is very naughty, I will carry him”, Mama said and before she ended her sentence I had untied the knot of the leso.
The knot was stiff nearly destroying the aorta of my soft caring heart. You well know that the Aorta is the Artery that is solely responsible for loving.I had to protect my aorta for my Susan at all costs....
©Mteule™
