Beautiful Tina, my apple pie. The world might force you to do things that you never intended to. But for you, I will come back. You stole something from me, something very crucial for my body functionality.
I
wished that one day I could get the chance to visit this nearby estate which was toughly guarded and no one with no official invitation would find their way through to any homestead within. East Parky was an exceptive estate and only the wealthiest in the city were known to reside within. The homesteads would see a stunning flow of shillings ranging from 250,000 to about 1.5 million per month. The fully-fledged guards were under strict guidelines that no ordinary person was to be allowed through. The estate was ever quiet, chilled and extravagantly cool. If you ever wanted to watch the latest rides in town, then you only needed to stop at the entrance of East Parky for a short while.
I grew up in the nearby middle class estate, almost ghetto. My area, in the contrary, was ever noisy and dusty with so many people. I had the desire of one time moving to East Parky with my family, but first, I wanted to find out why this place was ever quiet and heavily guarded. I had too many unanswered questions about East Parky. Why is it so heavily guarded? Is there an illegal business, like drug dealing, going on inside? What the heck are they hiding from us? Or maybe they are the....!! I don't know. So I had to find out.
One day, at the age of fourteen, me and a gang of friends rung the entrance alarms with our bicycles but we were chased away just as we expected. We went home, not so offended, and told the other boys who had earlier on argued that we won't be allowed to have a ride within, no matter what. They laughed.
I didn't give up on my quest, I just laid low and waited. The next time I knocked the entrance gates, I was 18. Ooh! Luckily they were not the same guards so they didn't know me.
"Yes, Kijana, what do you want."
Of course I want to get in, why do you have to ask. But I swallowed my ego and responded in a more formal way.
" Sir, I would like to see my friend Tony." I didn't know anyone from this place but I knew well that the guard can't master names of every single resident. Luckily, after a series of questions, I was allowed in.
Ooowwwhh, finally. I walked fast into the rare until when I was out of the guards' sights, is when I started looking at the beautiful terrain, the awesome buildings, the refurbished houses, the trees and everything. Someone would notice right that I was a stranger. Then came the moment of my life....
When I was just about one kilometre away from the entrance, a beautiful woman, almost light skinned, with perfectly long black curled hair, super natural came from nowhere and was just about five metres away from me. She was not so short, almost my height. Her tits proudly protruded a few centimeters below the neck, not so sure what the future behind contained but it had to be perfect for this angel. If one of my boys was around then we would have all murmured that 'she got curves'. She was in black sleeveless top and a perfectly fitting black sweat pants and a pair of Nike Air Max and a Gucci bandana round her curled hair. She had a white hairy German shepherd by her side. Ooh! So even within, they still feel insecure?Maybe I didn't notice her from far since I was busy looking at the buildings and everything.
I think after seeing her, I lost my mind or my head or my soul and heart and membranes and veins and fourth lung plus middle arteries. I can't remember the exact feeling, all I knew is that she had stolen something very important for my body functionality. So strangely enough, I stood right where I had my first sight of her. I was extra strange to her. My eyes opened at once and I realized that she was now so close and even more beautiful. My moves were so strange due to the recent 'trauma' that I am just recovering from. Then I heard her say, ' wartchought,the dog caennbaight you.' Her accent was so strong that I hardly knew that the verse that she was reading actually went like, 'watch out, the dog can bite you.' Oh, well, I was so used to speaking in sheng' , a mixture of English and Swahili. If she would have said something like, "oyah brathee, toa stress kwa njia, hii doggie itakuwahi ulale hosi," I would have taken the most immediate action.
Within no second, the dog was on my right thigh, just a few centimeters from my knee, thanks to my tall figure. It bite me right and I was bleeding. The lady signalled it in a rather more harsh way and it started to coil itself as if it was feeling sorry for it's deeds, then she kicked it in the belly as it continued to coil itself. I wasn't feeling pain but I was bleeding. The thought of dog bites being dangerous was not anywhere in my brain, neither did I think of loosing too much blood.
But there was one person who cared much about the dog bite than I did. She left her dog still coiled like a snail, removed her Gucci bandana and hurried towards me. She was so apologetic all over her face. I thought she would say sorry first but she didn't even utter a word. She looked in my eyes, and then went on her knees and tied my wounded thighs tightly with the bandana. " This will help stop the bleeding, meanwhile lemmie go for my First aid kit, just a minute," she said. She turned her future (I mean her back) and dashed to a stone walled compound with very huge gates, just a few metres from where I was standing, so confused. Her helpless dog followed her steps.
The world around gave me a few minutes to think. Wait, here's is a perfectly beautiful woman, here's East Parky your dream estate, here's a fierce dog and it's jaws in your thighs...back home is mom and accountability. I had to do something before I lose everything. Just before I could come up with a perfect solution to everything, the ultimate problem that is having the best of me appeared with a small box on her right hand and ran towards me. She removed the bandana and pulled my short trouser a little bit to expose the wound. I was standing like a leafy banana branch being rained on, confused as hell, not sure of anything if not nothing. She opened her box and removed some sort of powder and applied it on the wound which had just stopped bleeding.
"Ouch ouch!"
"Sorry, just give it a minute, you will be okay, that is meant to kill any germ from the animal's jaws," she said, still wearing an apologetic face like she was saying, 'sorry' hundreds times. I thought to myself, "is she some doctor? How could she be this young and know so much?" Well, I kept my empty thoughts to myself.
"Okay, I'll do as you say," I said, smiling, though feeling so much pain on my thigh due to the powdery medicine that she recently applied on my wounded thighs. She smiled back. I felt like she was stealing another item from my body system. Ooh Lord, not again.
" Come lets sit here for a moment, before you get on with your journey. Everything is ok, the dog is treated and the medicine that I just applied on your wounds is called solid augmentin. It will really help you," she explained while escorting me to a raised bench next to yet another high stone-walled fence.
I didn't have guts to ask any question, I could only say: yes, okay, yeah.....She was playing the gentle-lady. She helped me sit and she sat right next to me. At this point, I knew that everything that had happened was planned, from the desire to visit East Parky to the dog bite.
Well, now my male ancestors and my guardian angels had to accompany everything that I think and spit.
" You are so caring, what's your name?"
"Christine, but you can call me Tina, to save your energy." We both laughed and stopped at the same time. "And you, what's your name, stranger," she said and the laughing continued.
" I'm LilParky but you can call me Lil to save your lipstick," I replied. Now the laughter was intense that someone would realise that there is a lost ghetto goat disturbing one of the angels. First, she had no lipstick and second, I was named after the estate.
" Haha okay, so you were named after the estate?"
No, you know right, the estate was named after me, you damn. My guardian angel had my back and I only replied with a lowercase 'yes' to keep the situation on track.
After a series of endless questions, I realised that she was in the same level in college as me only that she studied down the globe in South Africa. She was warm hearted, selflessly caring and so beautiful all together. I told her that I was going nowhere specific and that I was only moving around to see what's inside East Parky. That was lame, but not to Tina. She was more than willing to show me around. She said that she didn't have many friends in the nearby if not only her dog-Nash and a former class mate who's home is a mile away. Her father worked in SA and she is the only child.
"Okay, this could be the reason why this place is ever quiet, there are no people in here."
"Well, there are people, both kids and grown ups, only that everybody is too busy with their own affairs, you know." I don't know. The conversation went on and on until we almost knew everything about each other. I knew right that there was a common feeling between us. She was so happy. Even as we walked, she happy. Yet again, she looked like a little something was disturbing her but she hid it right behind that beautiful face. Maybe it was the bite, maybe... I didn't know, but I didn't want to ask either.
It was getting late and I had to rash back home before mom arrives from work or else the questions won't only be where I injured my leg. She gave me her phone number so that we could connect again any time before the holiday is over. She escorted me to the entrance and lied to the guards that I'm her cousin. That was a free ticket to come back any time I feel like.
I went home feeling so happy. Legality was having the best of me in my 18s and now God had sent His best on my way to nowhere. What a lucky legal-aged teenager! I arrived home late, looked for my phone and dialled the number just before it could rub itself from my arms. I needed to confirm that it was the right number just before it was too late.
I waited for the receiver to pick. Maybe I had to wait a little more. No one picked. So I called again. "Hello, who is this?" I almost had my phone in pieces. I was shocked. This even alerted my little sister who was standing next to me asking for 10 shillings which I had right, but didn't want to give her because it was the last piece of dime I had. It was a loud, rather noisy voice preferably from a tall well built African man. I didn't know what to say so I hanged up. I confirmed the number once more and it was the correct one, no mistakes. Oh, maybe she was in hurry and she missed a number!
Now, I needed to go back there and meet Tinah again. So I planned that the next day in the afternoon, I would head there again and wait for her if by chance she would appear with that dog again.
My mum arrived home tired and she didn't realise that I was wounded. I also stayed away from her to avoid her questions. The next morning, I woke up different. I couldn't lift my leg out of bed. The wound was swollen that my pajamas were squeezing it so tightly. I screamed when I tried to pull out of bed and mum on the other side heard me and she came running. She took me to hospital and the questions came later. I was diagnosed with a serious disease and the doctor warned against a recently applied drug. I felt sorry for myself but for Tina, I felt love. After recovering, I continued my quest. Her figure, her beauty and that caring soul blinded me all along that every other women in school or at home were never beautiful.
I was now 21 and in my last year in college. I went back to East Parky and sat at the bench next to where I first saw her. Just hoping she would show up with her dog again. I sat there for over two hours pretending to be busy with my phone. I was almost getting up, when a tall, dark heavily built man showed up with the same dog that had me in hospital. I was shaken. I didn't want to go there again so I played the calm man. I didn't want to play the superman yet but I needed some clarification. The man seemed not to care much about me so I had to care about myself. When he was about to pass, I called him in a local way and asked some stupid question, " where is Tina?"
" She's not around, who are you?"
I am who I am. OK, OK...don't be rude. I introduced myself to him and went ahead to admit that I would like to apologise to her and that I was willing to forgive her. In our discussion, I realised that this was her Dad and that she didn't tell him anything about the dog bite. He was the man on the phone.
Now what did I do. I knew right that she was in trouble. This man removed her phone and called her to clarify what had happened and what's currently happening. I heard her cry on the phone. I asked for a permission to speak to her .
" Tina, don't worry too much about the incident, my mum took care of everything and right now I am okay. I have been feeling so bad that maybe you needed to apologise so I came over to give you a chance. I must also apologise for getting you into trouble that you didn't expect. You know when I saw you, I got super confused. Your beauty had me so nothing and my body stopped for a while. I know you might have realized it. I'm sorry dear." I wanted to hang up. Oh my, I had forgotten that I was standing right by her dad's side and even the phone wasn't mine. Guardian angel, where are you. I heard her dad sigh. I knew I might have started a whole new level of dark city troubles. I even thought of running away, but I wasn't a kid anymore, so I had to face it.
Tina was weeping on the line helplessly, feeling so bad for her deeds. She must have had a reason. She stopped crying but I didn't want to listen to her so I gave the phone to her dad who looked like he was holding his tears. He held on me tightly and said sorry several times. I am confused.
He walked me right in to his beautiful home. At the door was Tina, still crying. I also felt like crying. But I was confused. For once I felt like we were in a movie or a dream or a fantasy world or something....I didn't know.
"I am sorry Lil," she said as she hugged me all over. " I didn't want to get into trouble with my dad. People do mistakes, and I'm not an exemption. You confused me too. It was my first time to see you and it meant alot. My affection on you was even more and that's why I even used the wrong medicine on you unknowingly. I went ahead to give you dads number something that I only realised in the evening as I was waiting for your call," she explained, tears rolling down her cheeks. " And dad, I'm sorry for keeping it secret to this day. I've only came to realise that life is full of mistakes and the best way to set yourself free is to say the truth and always ask for forgiveness whenever you have wronged someone." I was feeling like we were entering another world of fantasy. Things were twisted. "Now that both of you are here, I would like to ask for your forgiveness," she added. Of course I came all along just to forgive her and see if we could move on. Her dad was another whole hearted man. He just had to forgive her only daughter.
"Well, I don't have anything to say. I have longed to find such like hearts in your generation of youths. And now that you are all grown up, follow your hearts. I'll leave you here to continue your talk as I continue my walk." And he left for his walk.
I spent my day at her place and the next day, on a weekend, her dad drove us to my place for something no one ever expected.
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