Monday, 17 February 2014
11:00PM.
Dear Jennifer,
You taught me that no metal is too hard to bend. You also taught me that the weakness of a man lies in his ego. Today, dear sister, I proved your teachings right.
My husband came back home a few minutes after I had sent the kids off to school. I perceived that he was jittery with me for spoiling his speech on Sunday, and I would not take any chances of apologizing for granted. So I prepared his bathwater and made him breakfast as usual. After he had bathed and sat down to eat in the dining section, I served him tea with tears cascading my cheeks uncontrollably. Then I sat down opposite him, still heaving with emotions and crying helplessly.
When he saw my tears and figured out my depth of grief, his looks quickly turned pallid. At this point, I knew he was touched and had to say something. He looked away from me and asked, "What is it?" I continued to cry just as if I had not even heard his question.
Astonishingly, he rose up from his seat and came over my shoulders. "I am sorry," I heard him say in a shaky mystical voice. He then pulled out another chair and sat close to me, pulled me up close to him and began canoodling me. Wonders never cease!
"I'm sorry, my lord," I found my voice.
"For what?"
"For spoiling your speech at the church yesterday."
"Oh, it's okay, I had already forgiven you before you said it." He pecked my cheek. I wiped away my tears, made a deep sigh of relief and looked at him amorously in the face for a while till he shied off.
"Okay. Come, I'll give you some massage. I know you're tired and perhaps depressed too." I held his hand and together we walked to the bedroom. I watched him remove his clothes and lie prostrate in bed, completely naked, my Georgie, dark and mascular. Seeing him lie peacefully on that bed, waiting for my hands, revived my old sweet youthful feelings for him. And I remembered our first night together, how he buttered me up with much love.
I took out a clean white sheet and spread on him, then I took a bottle of almond oil from my wardrobe and began the massage, passing my hands below the sheet and through his joints and muscles amorously and with measured pressure.
"My lord," I began after massaging for some time, "I saw the... ."
"The ring? Oh, it's nothing, only a piece of ornament," he put in quickly, turning over in the sheet and sitting up. "Come, make love with me, my baby. It's been a month of Sundays since we last ate our food with passion." He stretched out his hands for me. I quickly undressed myself, remaining only in my innerpant and brassiere, then I slipped into the sheet. He gave me a rousing welcome, kissed me wet and passionately, almost like a male dog slobbering on a dam. I hurriedly took off my innerpant and brassiere and threw them away. His item had already grown hard and I felt him move it graciously on me and finally in me. "You... you know you're the one I... I love. I love you, sweetie," I heard him whisper in my ears as he began pounding.
When we had sufficiently shared our time together, I stretched out my hand for his phone lying on a stool beside the bed to check the time. "No. Don't... don't touch it," he stopped me. My hands melted away shakily.
"My lord, what is this that you're hiding from me? Are you seeing someone else?"
"No. It's nothing." He stood up and began dressing himself. "You know I love you. I am doing everything I can to protect our marriage. And by the way, I'm sorry for what I did to you the other night."
"So you knew what you were doing...," I muffled, then asked aloud, "why did you put the ring on your ring finger if it was just a jewel?"
"Ah! I told you it was just a... . See, I'm not even putting it on right now. And... I'm not having this conversation again, OK?"
"Okay. Will you please come home earlier today and be around the kids when they do their homework?"
"I'll try. It's only that sometimes the workload is too much and I have to sleep away. See you." He picked up his coat and staff and left.
I am glad I pinned him down today, dear sister. But I still feel he is hiding some information from me, about the gold ring, and now again about his phone.
***
Tuesday, 18 February 201411:15pm.Dear Jennifer,My husband told me this morning before he left for job that he would be leaving for a one-week benchmarking trip to China with his executive the following week.What is funny about this trip is not the period it will take but the nitty-gritties of the benchmarking. I did not want to sound so snoopy, but I was tempted to ask how a small county in a developing country could benchmark with a developed country of the likes of China. I mean, what is even common between the two geographical units. Or perhaps my education inadequacy denies me a better understanding of economic concepts and development methods.That aside, I am still scrutinising the pieces of advice you gave me on phone in the course of the day. I wanted to know how to handle my husbands secretive and absolutist nature, and you told me three things.First,
Wednesday, 19 February 201411:30PM.Dear Jennifer,I am shocked by the latest developments regarding the strange gold ring. Just when I thought life would return to normal, something really fremd just occured.See, my husband left for work in the morning as usual, and I guess he took along with him his ring, 'cause it was nowhere to be found in his coats' pockets or trousers or anywhere in the house.At lunchtime, however, while lower primary school kids returned home from school, my Harriet came back with something in her palm."Mama, know what I have found?" she shouted happily and playfully."What is it, my baby?" I asked."Promise you won't snatch it away from me," she demanded."Um... Well, I promise. What is it?" I replied with a full deck of curiosity."A gold ring!" she exclaimed, stretching out her r
Thursday, 20 February 201410:53PM.Dear Jennifer,I woke up to some sad news today. Edith Alison, one of the two nurses who attended to me at Moderncare Private Hospital, has passed on. Her body was found dumped in a bush at Manyatta Estate. Her counterpart, Faith Earnington, who was with her at the time they left the hospital has written a statement at the police station in Manyatta.I called her to pass my condolences when I heard the sad news on radio in the morning. She told me that a gang attacked them yesterday evening, barely two kilometres from the hospital, and kidnapped Edith. They live on the same plot here in Milimani Estate and had boarded the same motorcycle home when they were attacked. She said her phone had died down, thus she could not call the police. But she went to the nearest police station and reported. The cops tried to locate the gang on their devices in vain. It seemed they had
Friday, 21 February 201411:03PM.Dear Jennifer,It has been another unusual day for me. I could not sit back and watch my marriage stoop on the precipice of failure, owing to a strange gold ring. My husband, the Georgie I knew, who was full of wisdom and love, is no longer the one I see. The one I see wanders back to the house from work, cold and shifty and unwilling to protect his marriage.So today I took a private walk outside our street to see a pastor I was well-acquainted with at Kona-kayona Estate. Since it rained heavily in the morning, I knew the area would be filled with trenches of dirty water and so I wore my gamboots and put on my cardigan and a pair of gloves to keep warm. I also wore a bucket hat to conceal my face a bit since I w
Saturday, 22 February 201410:58PM.Dear Jeniffer,I was disturbed by a few things and had to pay Faith a visit today. Saturday is her day off at Moderncare and so it was opportune for a visit. Since I did not want Georgie to know that I was visiting the nurse, I waited till he had left the house, then I threw myself into a pair of palazzo pants, a chiffon blouse, wedge heels and a pair of glasses, took my handbag and left. I walked down the street and straight to the plot where she lives.I found her seated in her portico preparing some beans for cooking. She welcomed me into the house and served me tea. We spoke about our families (she is engaged to an Indian) and what happened before I fainted the previous Sunday. But when I finally touched on Edith's demise, she turned bleak and somewhat shaken."Well, I'm sorry I brought up this conversation," I tried to rub it off.
Sunday, 23 February 201411:02PM.Dear Jennifer,When I woke up in the morning today, I found Georgie lying beside me in bed, fast asleep. I stood up and walked stealthily to the living room, then to his meditation room, trying to see if there was any scruffy sign of Tiger. The two rooms were lonely and quiet. I walked to the kids bedroom and found them still asleep. I left as calm as I had gone in; I did not want to wake them up so early on a Sunday.When I returned to my bedroom, I found Georgie awake; in fact, surfing the Internet on his smartphone."Good morning, my lord," I greeted."Morning, dear," he replied in a calm croaky voice, unminding my presence. I moved closer and sat next to him on the bed.
Monday, 24 February 20146:02pm.Dear Jennifer,I am seated at the porch of my house trying to recall the events of this tedious day. Johnny is on a trip to China. As I saw him off at Kisumu International Airport in the morning, I remembered how he began his political career.By the time we were starting our marriage, he had just graduated from Kenyatta University with a bachelor's degree in Civil and Structural Engineering. He was 25 and I was 20. He soon afterward began his engeneering career. After five years, however, his career took a swift turn, just when I had given birth to his first born - Tony. He developed interest in politics. I tried to dissuade him from moving that direction, but he insisted, and when the 2002 ele
Wednesday, 26 February 20146:00PMDear Jennifer,Faith and I went to pay our last respects to Edith at Star Mortuary here in town. She will be interred at her family's place in Nyakach at the weekend. I walked beside Faith to help keep her emotions steady, but she kept breaking down most of the time and the people we travelled with to the morgue would not even help me pacify her. In fact, I overheard one woman in the group saying to another, "This is bad. For her to have killed her fellow workmate is unforgivable before God." I knew she was referring to Faith, and I wondered where such bitter sentiments stemmed from. I wanted to turn to the woman and ask what else she knew about the murder, but decided to hold myself down. It was not my onus to ignite a probe.Later that aftern