Two Years of Wonder - A Memoir

Chapter 8: Maina & Hezekiah

Maina was one of the Maasai guards at the home. Unlike many of the other guards, who are middle-aged with wives and children, Maina is young and still single, so there is a certain affinity we share for one another, which manifests as the occasional cup of tea we share together wherein I fumble over my Kiswahili and he politely tells me I'm improving.

One Saturday he watched two cars pull up to the gate. One of them parked just outside while the other continued down the drive. Two men got out of the car that had stopped outside the gate and walked up to Maina. They made an effort to be very friendly, greeting Maina enthusiastically and then striking up a conversation by asking abundant questions about the Maasai.

The Maasai were one of the few tribes in East Africa to still cling tightly to their traditional ways. One could see them walking the city streets of Nairobi, the men in their red robes, the women in colorful blue, orange, pink, or any other bright color they might choose. But most Maasai still lived a semi-nomadic existence in the farther reaches of the country. As a Maasai living in Nairobi, Maina was used to the feeling of being a foreigner in his own country. He was patient about answering questions regarding his tribe's customs. When the men asked about the holes in his ears, he explained to them that he was actually Samburu, a tribe closely related to the Maasai, but with a slightly different dialect and unique customs. Maina explained that the Maasai actually made the holes in their earlobes much larger, as opposed to the Samburu who kept them smaller.

The men appeared very interested and had already maintained their interest for longer than most usually did. Maina was already wondering if they were going to ask him for a favor of some sort when the phone in the guardhouse rang. He turned his back on the men and picked up the receiver. An urgent voice told him to close the gate, that a car was leaving and the people inside had kidnapped Hezekiah, a four-year-old from Cottage Yellow.

Maina turned but one of the men was waiting for him with a pistol pointed at his chest. He told Maina that if he interfered, he would kill him.

Hezekiah had been at the home for a few months. He was in a unique position. Both his parents had died within a short time span. His father was Muslim, his mother Christian. Hezekiah was their only child and after their deaths inherited a substantial amount of land, animals, and money. But neither parent had left a will. The paternal side and maternal side had been fighting over him since. The dispute was further complicated by the fact that the paternal side belonged to a sect of Islam that did not believe in any medical treatment. Hezekiah was kept alive by his medical treatment since he was on antiretroviral therapy, which the maternal side would continue if they had custody. The paternal side would not, a certain death sentence.

While they battled things out in court, Hezekiah had been sent to the home, temporarily, until the dispute was settled.

But now, believing that possession was nine tenths of the law, Maina realized that one of the sides was kidnapping Hezekiah. His heart sank as he watched the car come down the drive. There were three passengers in it, a driver and two women in back. They were driving very fast. The man without a gun opened the gate for them to pass through. Watching the car pull through the gate was torture. Maina knew he was Hezekiah's last chance and if the car reached the road they would never see him again.

The man that had opened the gate ran to his car and started it. There was a good deal of traffic on the road and both cars had to wait for it to clear. The man holding the gun looked over his shoulder to see if the car with Hezekiah had pulled onto the road yet. Maina seized his chance.

He swung his arm and struck the gun as hard as he could. It went flying out of the man's hand. Instead of running after it, since Maina did not even know how to use it, he reached for his bow and quiver of arrows—each one had a poison tip. The man abandoned his gun, leapt in the waiting car and screamed at his companion to drive. They pulled out into traffic suddenly, cutting off the car with Hezekiah.

Maina ran to the driver's side of the car with Hezekiah. The window was down and he aimed the arrow at the driver's neck. The women began screaming. Maina asked where the child was, but they said they did not know what he was talking about. Maina wanted to kill the driver, but he knew he could not. If he did, their families would be drawn into a blood feud. Instead, Maina leaned closer, then reached inside, pulled the keys from the ignition and threw them away as far as he could.

The women got out, incensed. They said many derogatory things about him being a backwards Maasai. They opened the trunk and showed him that it was empty. All this time Maina noticed the driver did not move. Maina told him to get out of the car. He refused and said he did not need to take orders from a goat herder. Just then Maina heard Hezekiah call for help.

Something inside Maina broke just then. He rushed to the car door and pulled it open. Maina was short and stout for a Maasai. Most were tall and lean. Maina was barely five feet. The man in the car was over six feet but he had long locks. Maina took the man's hair in his fists and yanked him from the car. He came out screaming. Maina made sure to pull the hair down low so the man fell to the ground.

He looked into the car. Pressed into the seat where the man had been sitting was Hezekiah.

Maina grabbed him in his arms, ran to the far side of the car, putting it between him and the driver. Then he drew his sword. It held the women at bay while he inched towards the gate. By that time Bonava, the moms, and the rest of the staff (including me) were running down the drive. Once he was beyond the gate, Maina began running towards them. He did not stop when he reached them however, he just kept running, past the offices, the nursing room, the cottages, and the schoolhouse, all the way to the farthest corner of the home, the cemetery where the children were buried. There he waited, with his sword drawn, and Hezekiah in his arms, until Bonava came and told him it was safe.

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The dispute between Hezekiah's families does not resolve. We learn that it was the paternal side that tried to kidnap him. To all of our frustration, they still insist on visiting rights. When we object they threaten to sue the home.

After each visit from some of the same people that tried to kidnap him, Hezekiah has nightmares and wets the bed. Mum Amelia is usually so angry she remains in her room, afraid that if she came out she would say something that would get somebody hurt.

The family sits in front of the cottage with Hezekiah. I usually make no secret of the fact that I am watching them. They speak to Hezekiah in Kikuyu, which only a few of the children understand. Mum Amelia is Luhya and does not. Oliver and Miriam do however, so I strategically place the two of them nearby with books that they pretend to read. I have to give Oliver children's books because no one who did not know him would ever believe that he was reading The Lord of the Rings. Miriam can recall the gist of any conversation and can alert me if anything is amiss. Oliver can repeat word for word, so between the two of them I have an effective monitoring system.

A few months later, however, Hezekiah begins to suffer from incapacitating headaches. They take him to the nursing room. He is diagnosed with encephalitis. He is treated aggressively, but nonetheless, passes away three days later. When the vehicle leaves, bearing his body away to the morgue, Maina is the last one standing at the gate. He stares down the empty road long after the car has gone.

The families even argue over who will bury Hezekiah. His body languishes in the morgue for months until it finally, simply, disappears.