Lucky-Summer

He asked me to meet him in a pub. I was desperate,  I really needed this job,  I wouldn’t  even think twice about meeting points. He was a middle aged man,  with a potbelly. Dark and sitted with pride next to him.
‘Nyarmama,  bed piny, bed piny! “
I had several mixed signals.He had said he was the Director of Studies,a great man of  respect because DOS drives the school.He had all the powers to secure me a teaching position in his school.
I felt so lucky to be meeting this man on that sunny Friday afternoon
in  Lucky Summer.

Getting to Lucky summer depends on your interest to go there.First forward, some little Luo will help you through and through because right inside the small matatus from Allsops, you will by chance sit next to two women who have come from Nairobi town to collect fish in large numbers.They would be speaking Dholuo in all kind of mannerism.Luo in actual sense is not a polite language, someone is usually either bragging, or confronting the other for scratching the back of their mercedes in a heavy,slow and resonance tone in the matatu.
”We are on a mid-term break right now,  but once we get back on session,  I’ll definitely  get back to you”.
He assured me with with his eyes glued on the pub’s screen.
I nodded and asked to leave because  I was meeting another teacher right in front of Lucky-Summer SDA church.  He had promised me,  on LinkedIn to help me secure an internship position in his school. When I got there,  I couldn’t trace him,  I didn’t  have his number,  we had all along been talking  on LinkedIn,  it showed that he was active 45 minutes ago. I stood there,  in the hot sun,  bought street  ice worth twenty shillings, as I waited just in case he showed up.
Being a Friday  afternoon,  I really needed to rush back home and iron clothes for the Sabbath. I didn’t  want to stay out late.  It had been an hour already. Children started streaming into the church,  maybe to  practice for their songs. They waved and giggled at  me. Some whispered 
‘happy sabbath’
Some asked ‘are you here to see Harry? ‘
I told them,  ‘happy  day,  and asked,  who’s Harry? ‘
“He is one of the choir members. He  is always in church even on Sundays”.  Some older ones said.
“Yes  he doesn’t have a girlfriend.”
I asked them “Is he a teacher ?”
They said,  “no he builds roads.”
And yet another said, “an engineer like my dad”. An older boy said,  “he went to my high school. “
And I quickly  asked,  “where’s your village”?
‘”Sori. “
“I asked where  your village is for goodness sake. “
“And I said Sori for a better sake. “
Everyone  who comes from Migori know where Sori is.
Well Migori people,  can we agree to change how we pronounce the name of this village to So-ra-i ?
“Where  do you go to school?
“Kanga School.”
“Ah!,ok.”
And he looked at me and said ”look who is here”
A tall well built,dark man walked towards us.He was relatively handsome.He smiled and said, ‘Happy Sabbath’with a deep voice citting across the edge.The exact  same voice of SDA Bass members who you  will never find with one girlfriend.
We all  said ‘Happy day’.
“Hi Salome, karibu sana.”
Then he turned to the children and told them
“This is your music teacher  today. “
“I have heard a lot about you from the church elders here. Come on in.The children also seem excited to have bonded  with you
I hope you enjoy your song practice  session this evening.”
I wasn’t Salome, at least  for the mere records,  I wasn’t here for anything church related,  I was looking for a job. I am a teacher,  I teach children, children of the world, not children of the church,  I barely remember any memory verse,  the only chorus I remembered  was  I” am happy today, So happy,  in Jesus name I am happy… “
Harry on the  other side,  was actually  single. The children had said.  He was from kanga school,  and an engineer to be precise.
Guys,I sang.I marched. I recited memory verses,  and ended up getting this job,  but now in a church and not a school.
Two months later, I was meeting Harry at a church related  event. The church teenagers from Karen were having their annual career talk in church. I had not been invited as a speaker,  I had taken my teens .Children who show up for our church career talks don’t  want to hear from teachers during their career talks.  They want to hear from three people. Doctors,  lawyers and engineers.  So that explains why Harry was among the panelists in church that day.

I sat and asked the children to take notes.After the talk,  we had a quick chat with Harry. He seemed excited to have seen me. He complimented my three year old ago dress. He asked if we could meet up for coffee later in the evening.I was definitely  up for this. I had even forgotten how inconsistent  nigga had gotten since we met two months ago.
He was the type who took eight hours to respond to  WhatsApp messages.Well,  he wouldn’t post or view statuses  but he would always be online,  with my text unresponded to.
I added a text to the unresponded to text and would ask again,
“Umekula? “I would later on recall that engineers from Kanga school don’t  understand  Kiswahili, but would still leave the text there,  lest he decide to use Google translate  to understand  my question.
Two hours later, the text would not have  been responded to and I would add another text  to the unread text.
‘Wanted to know if you had lunch’
Ah,  and finally when I remembered  this message is not being responded to because  I missed out on the first pronoun I,  I’d add another text,  now grammatically  correct.
‘did you have lunch? ‘
This would later on be answered at 7:30pm with
‘Yes I did. On my way home ‘.
Yaani! My heart would be silently  wailing,  wishing to question ego
and ask ‘who do you think you are? “
But then,  I would text back and say
‘Waah,  si unakuanga busy!’.

Now this evening,  I should have already read the vibe,  but I didn’t.
I chose the restaurant  myself,  I was even told to wear my long  white dress and green sandals,just to look like a pathfinder. I showed up five minutes before seven because  engineers are always busy.
I sat and waited. I texted my friend
‘Out for dinner with Harry’
She responded promptly and said.
‘No you ain’t.
So I quickly  call her and she says that she is kidding,  and that is actually  oblivious  of my plan and Harry.
Thirty minutes later, he hadn’t showed up.
I check WhatsApp  and see that he’s  actually  online.
I ask “uko”?
How fast I forget.
He doesn’t respond till ten minutes later and says.
‘I am home,  I can’t make it because  I have a headache ‘
So because  I am so livid now,  I dial his number,  because  I definitely  want to hear this vague explanation from his own mouth. 
He hangs  up in the first ring,  and I get a message in caps.
‘KINDLY TEXT’. I love the boldness.
So I quickly  make my way out. The waitress is following me hastily calling me madam,  I tell her to go call her teacher madam.
So I go home  and vow to myself,  never to call or talk to him whatsoever.I delete his number and a few of his friends’,  and convinces  myself  that I  am actually  over him.

Two weeks later, on a lazy Sunday afternoon after our church choir master telling me to watch how to sing tenor voice on YouTube because I wasn’t cooperating during the practice, I am in bed on Pinterest,  saving photos of dresses I don’t know where I would ever get them, with the anger that my Ruiru based tailor would never make such a dress as well.
I get an email from my my friend who had hinted that Harry wouldnt show up for the date, but I didn’t  listen to her.
‘Unajua leo ni birthday  ya Harry? ‘
‘Hapana,  na mbona unanitumia email? ‘
‘Juu ni serious case yenye siwezi tuma kwa WhatsApp ‘
Aii,  I get paranoid and sit up.

Three days ago,  I had passed by Lucky summer to see a friend and because  I knew Harry lived there, I had recovered  his number, called him and told him that I was in his hood.
He asked me to drop by and say hi.I felt like a Queen. I mean,  I was his first priority ,he wanted to see me.
How dumb can a girl get?
So he basically texted me the apartment name,  and house number. When I got there, I found his door slightly  open.He was sitted in his house office corner ,in a meeting with his colleagues from Cambodia. I waited by the  door for 15 minutes till  he was done. We sat there staring at each other,  with his screen blasting  those Luo songs, where Johny Junior and Prince Inda says that girls are angels and that love was planned in heaven .
Those songs with Luo lyrics like ‘Kata kochano wuoth,  ochalo malaika’
I mean luo men,  could do the worst with your heart and mental  state and sing you away into walking like an angel.
He served me soya milk,  and thanked me for passing by. He then asked me to just follow the path way up, like I’d come,  and let him know once I was home.

Huh!  So my friend works with a branding  company. One good thing with SDAs in the  city, they will always be promoting each other.  A lady texted her and asked ‘Hi Ashley, I want portraits of these two photos. I will send them to your WhatsApp,  but because I don’t want you to use them inappropriately,  I will cover them with emojis till I’m  there, then I will give you a go ahead.Also,  please  be ready to work on them with urgency  because  the party is this afternoon. ‘
Once the photos were sent, Ashley couldn’t  hold it as well.
She now called me and said.
“I know Harry’s skin tone,  I know all his watches,  I know his brown khaki pants,  and I know the number of hair strands on his chin.
He has been my friend for a very long time.
This is him.
I’m portraiting his photo for another girl,  as his birthday  gift.
The girl has said that their wedding is in four months time in Lucky Summer SDA church,  in fact she has said that she hasn’t yet gotten one more bride’s  maid,  are you willing to be? “.
This  clearly  wasn’t the  luckiest of my summer.