CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

It was after people had begun to disperse after the funeral that Nandem noticed something was wrong. He realized he had not seen his mother for some days and when he asked his father told him she had traveled. 

After a while he asked again only this time it was embellished that she was supposed to return yesterday but something came up and she had to delay her journey again. Whenever he asked, it was either this or that until he grew weary of asking. He eventually understood his mother had truly embarked on a journey and that his father had not been entirely lying to him, that the journey she had embarked on was a journey of no return.

 And so Nandem grew up under the guidance of his step mothers and his two sisters. His step mothers loved him as did his sisters. His sisters and step brothers would always look out for him at school and on the playground.  They would rather bear the heat for him than let him get near it, they were however careful not to over pamper him. And so because his siblings wouldn’t let the heat get near him, he grew up like that, avoiding trouble and anything that would bring problem to his doorstep.  

After primary school, his father took him to a boarding school, Boys' Secondary School Gindiri. He was excited about leaving home for the first time and couldn’t wait for day to break. By 3 am. He was already awake listening to the birds chirp, dogs barking and imagining what boarding school would be like. His sisters too woke up early and prepared his favorite meal-rice and fish stew. He was also given some in a food flask for his journey. 

When they arrived with his father, he was so happy to see other kids like him, some crying, some holding on to their parents, not wanting to let go. He wondered what they were doing that for. Why would these ones be crying while he was so excited to be here? His father handed him over to a senior student who would be his school guardian. The senior helped him carry his bag of provisions, a bag well stocked with grinded cassava, biscuits, sugar, milk and cocoa tea. He also had cereals and grinded pepper. 

His sisters made sure his dad got everything they knew would make him comfortable in school. It was after his dad had left that he began to feel what those kids felt but should he cry when he had hoped for a day like this, a day he would be far away from home, a day he had taken his first step towards becoming a man. It was in the night that he would cry like those other kids. He had just climbed the up bunk allocated him to sleep when his senior guardian walked in. 

The senior ordered him to open the box and he divided into two all the provisions Nandem’s father had bought him. The senior guardian had put it like this, “open this box so that we will share all that father had bought us.” Nandem could not believe it, what was this senior talking about? When did my father become our father? Nandem watched in tears as the senior shared it in two. What was he to do? What could he do? All he could do was hold on to his pillow and cry on it. 

As Nandem eventually settled in school, he realised sharing what father bought them with his senior guardian was a necessary sacrifice that had to be made. The senior made it his personal duty to protect Nandem from other seniors and their excesses. While others would be going through punishments, Nandem would be in his guardian’s room waiting for them to finish. The sheer size of his guardian was enough to scare other seniors. Mentioning his guardian name always made way for him, as no one wanted trouble. 

While others were complaining about their food ration, Nandem would hold his peace for he knew food was not an issue. His guardian being the kitchen captain made sure Nandem and the other boys under him never lacked food. Therefore, that was how Nandem found home in school again. He thought if he had to share what father bought him with his guardian again, then he would do it, again, this time wholeheartedly.

The care he got from his senior doubled when upon resumption for the second term walked into his guardian’s room and offered his ‘sacrifice to appease this small god’. He had told his father so much about his guardian that his father bought some provisions and gave him to take his guardian. 

The guardian could not believe it, all he knew was that he would do anything to protect this boy, his new adopted brother, after all father had sent him provisions. By the time his guardian was about to graduate, he handed him over to another senior, his guardian’s junior of course. He trusted him to take care of Nandem. Nandem thought himself a lucky boy who didn’t have to fight for anything in life, care at home, care in school, let this life continue. 

By the time Nandem left secondary school, he had gotten used to the idea that everything he needed would always come his way. He took life easy, no need to fret about anything, no need fighting people or trying to compete with other kids, all he had to do was work hard and the guardian angel guiding him would always make it happen for him. Maybe some of his guardian angels came in the form of his sisters who were now married and living well. They still made sure he got what he needed but were also careful not to pamper him too. 

They would sometimes make him work for some things, even things they knew they could simply get him. And when he did, he would gladly share with friends who were below him. His good will and benevolence endeared many to him. He shared without having second thoughts, maybe because we knew deep within him he knew his sisters and their husbands would always come through him, perhaps, which was one of the many benefits of being the younger brother to sisters who were married to wealthy men. 

Nandem walked in to the house one day shouting “father, father father.” His father rushed out to see if Nandem was in trouble. He couldn’t bare to think something would happen to him, he loved him so much, like Jacob loved Joseph. 

“Are you alright? Nan, are you fine?”

“Yes father, I am alright.” His father could see he was clearly fine but Nandem could not control his happiness as he began going through the pages of a newspaper. “Father, my name, look, I have been offered admission to study Mass communication in University.”

“Wonderful, that’s wonderful, congrats my boy,” shaking his hands. “You have made me proud.”