Everyone knows how strict African parents are and growing up most of us have probably at one point threatened that they will run away from home and never come back but how many of you have actually ever done it? Well, I actually did.
It was early September 2014, I was in form 3. Schools had just opened and my father had decided to take me to school. Let's just say I hadn't performed well the previous term especially in sciences. As usual on the way there all he talked about was my performance.
" Achana na hawa marafiki, you didn't go to school to make friends. The only reason you went there is to read only. Mambo mengine achana nazo. Staki kuskia ata mambo na sports ama ..." you know how the lecture goes.
My responses always the same, "mmh..." while I stared at the road.
He was very strict, still is. He dropped me off and went back.
The tradition in most schools was, immediately after opening school the next day there was opener exams. Nothing was worse than coming to sit for an exam after your brain has had a bit of luxury at home.
Everything went to hell on a Thursday during my CRE exams. We were doing the exam in a big hall that had just been built above our classes and I had found my self a comfortable sit at the furthest corner with the squad. 'Formation' as we used to call it.
So the 'mwakenyas' started going round and I got one with points about the creation story. A pretty simple answer for a question that wasn't even on the paper. Ukiwa na 'mwakenya' in the exam you better know how to hide it well. So there I am looking at the 'mwakenya' and then looked up to check where the invigilators were in the hall.
There were two invigilators in the hall. Mr. Mburu a math teacher who was head invigilator and a teacher on practice, 't.p' as we called them, Jemima. I don't think all ever forget her name. She was fairly good looking, okay maybe not that good looking. She was short and had this devious smile on her lips. Immediately I looked up I saw her like three steps away from me so I quickly hid the mwakenya in between my exam papers and pretended like nothing was going on. As the Kenyan saying goes, 'wah! Haikuwa siku yako...' Clearly it wasn't. I didn't know that I hadn't completely hidden it and a small part of it was still visible. She walked by looking at me then suddenly stopped and came straight up to my desk picking my paper up and the mwakenya just droped to the floor.
The only thing I remember after that was being taken to the head invigilator and a heavy slap on my face. I knew right there and then I was doomed. I was taken to the deputy principals office and fortunately or so I thought, he wasn't in school. I went back the dorm and laid on my bed playing out every possible scenario of what would be done to me. I imagined maybe I'll get the normal 6 and probably a punishment, I was in my darkest thoughts but one thing I knew for sure was that if I got suspended I was not going to go home. I had already made my decision.
Yes, that's how much I feared my father especially remembering the talk he gave me while bringing me to school. When my friends came over to ask what had happened and if I'll get suspended I told them of my decision not to gone home.
" we! Buda ni mnyama!" that's what I told them.
"Si ungekula paper!" one said.
"Ama utupe kwa window" said another.
"Tito unashikwa aje na tp?"
This are the thoughts that haunted me that night.
I didn't sleep well that night as I awaited my judgement and sentencing.
The following morning on a Friday after parade I was called to the discipline master's office, we called him 'ngware' he was actually very short but his beatings were nothing short of being painful. His voice was soft and sounded like a child to me. As it turns out I was indeed getting a suspension.
"We told you boys that anybody caught cheating in exams will be punished severely, haiya shika hii na uende uambie dorm captain..." I don't remember the words he said after that as I had fazed out on seeing the suspension letter.
'Death has decided to come early for me.' This was just one of the millions of dark thoughts I had in my head as I walked out of the school gate.
My walk from school to Murang'a town was a slow dark gloomy walk as the weather provided the perfect set of conditions like in the movies. It was cold and drizzling. I remember it made me feel like my skin was being cut a thousand times over and over till I got the stage.
I took an express matatu to Thika sitting at the back, my head heavy and my body cold. At that point the only thing I was wishing was for time to go slow but we eventually got to Thika.
So there I was in Thika thinking of my next step as I was obviously not going home. So I roamed around Thika still wearing my uniform and my bag on my back. I went to underground in Thika, those who know the place it was a ps hub. Played some fifa although I sucked at it, still do. Then went to a cyber. I was generally moving around looking at people, ladies mostly, you know ladies from Thika back then were quite blessed, until I realized that time had gone by fast and it was around 1 or 2 PM. I was still not going to go home so I had to think of a place I would go and that's when I saw a bus bound for Mombasa being parked at the shell station.
'Mombasa. I'll go to Mombasa.'
TRANSLATIONS.
1. Achana na hawa marafiki. Stop hanging out with this friends
2.Mambo mengine achana nazo. Staki kuskia ata mambo na sports ama...
Some things leave them alone. I don't want to hear anything about sports or...
3. Buda ni mnyama. My dad is a beast.
4. Si ungekula paper. You should have eaten the paper.
5.Ama utupe kwa window. Or you should have thrown it out the window.
6. Tito unashikwa aje na tp? Tito how can you get caught by a tp?
