The Other Side (bwwm)

The Other Side

A shrill sound woke Karanja from her short sleep, she looked around in startling fear and indignation, ‘Goodness, didn’t these nocturnal birds have mercy for a poor soul?’ she thought and then shuddered in disgust as she looked around her makeshift bed. Karanja didn’t have any fear within her, after all, what had she got to lose? Her life at the moment meant nothing, no home, no hope, period.

After being found with child, her people back home in Kisauni in Kenya had held a meeting immediately and discussed what to do with her, then they had ordered her to leave their community and never to return, especially with a fatherless child on the way. Not even her compassionate mother had batted an eyelash when their pitiful Grandfather Bwana Njoroge was uttering the orders.

Karanja had finally looked down in shame and realized that for her, all was lost. She had not cried though, as one would expect an eighteen year old girl whose rug had been swept out from under her feet, no, she had become angry instead and had not uttered another word but had gone inside the house and tied her small belongings in a small bundle of cloth and left the small pathetic house she had called home for eighteen years.

She had no right to be angry? Who said that? After all, wasn’t it her very own elders who had welcomed the strangers to their community? Wasn’t it her very own father Mr. Misedi who had offered them food and drink? And hey, wasn’t it her very own dominant Grandfather who had ordered that they feel at home and not be afraid? Now that she had become pregnant by one of the strangers after she had listened to his sweet words, why would they put the blame on her?

Karanja’s mind drifted back to the first time her gaze had clashed with one of the young white strangers, his eyes were the color of the stormy sky, his face almond shaped and his color the shade of vanilla. He was amazing to look at and if offered as a special kind of food, Karanja wouldn’t have had her fill of both looking and tasting. She had been enchanted by their wild stories, of how they had travelled in a big vessel, they called a ship, of how they had navigated on the troubled stormy seas and how the storms had tossed them back and forth.

Indeed they were heroes, for Karanja had never seen a sea, not even to talk about that vessel, ship? All the people in the community had gathered most nights to listen to the tales of the white man, and as their minds had wondered off like hypnotized people, Karanja and the vanilla colored man, Blake had wondered off on their own. She could also bask in the stories he told her, they seemed genuine and after the third night of their wonderings when he had told her and explained to her the things he felt for her, she was amazed that someone could feel that, as she remembers.

The night was tranquil and the twitter of the night birds didn’t seem to bother them as they moved. On that night, Blake had turned around suddenly and had held her closer to him. At first Karanja had thought maybe he had been protecting her from something but when Blake said,
“Kara, how can I explain all this to you? Because it’s new to me as well.” She had looked in his eyes with a lot of questions.

“What do you mean, Blake?” She had asked quietly.

“Kara, all this time I’ve been with you, I don’t want to ever be parted from you, it will kill me.” He had again held her closer.

“We won’t be parted, Blake.” Her assurance didn’t sound convincing.

“Yes we won’t, emotionally, but in case it happens, give me this night to show you how much I feel about you.” It was a silent plea that fell on curious ears. She had turned her face upwards and asked him,

“How Blake?” And without hesitating another minute, his face had swooped down and his lips had captured hers. Karanja gasped as a massive shock ran through her body, she moved away immediately and asked innocently, “What was that?” her delicate fingers came up to touch her lips where the tingling sensation continued. No man had ever touched her like that before. She was scared and excited at the same time, she wanted to try it again, so she went back in Blake’s arms, “Do that again, Blake.”