CHRONICLES

  GENESIS

Thirteen floors up Pension Towers, Nairobi, watching the sunset, "Beautiful".  You could see the cars speeding not to get caught by the rush hour pile up along Mombasa Road. People walking, all rushing to get to their homes, their loved ones, yet here I was, on the edge, one step towards the beginning of the end. "How did I get here?" "Where did I make a wrong turn?". A crowd starts to gather below, all screaming and frantically signaling me not to jump. I hear bangs on the door, I had locked myself in, no one could stop me, I had made my decision and I was jumping. Took another look at the beautiful Nairobi sunset, another look at the busy streets. I take shaky steps closer to the edge, I look up, close my eyes, stretch out my hands wide and I let go. They say the few seconds right before you die your life flashes all the memories, like a tape on fast forward, all those you loved, their smiles, their faces, it's all there, right in front of you and in that moment, you find peace. That peace you've been longing for all your life, right there, in arms reach. I smile, knowing everything will be okay, no more thoughts that strangle the life out of you, no more demons that torment you, killing all the happiness within. No more dark places in your soul, it's all being blown away, it's all going away. The feel gravity stretches out its arm, grabs you, and pulls you down.  I can feel the sun no longer has its rays on me, I feel cold now, I open my eyes,  Ever had a dream you were free-falling? The concrete that seemed so far down and now it isn't anymore, I close my eyes. Then, it happened.

It wasn't always like this though.

There was a time when everything was right, when everything wasn't as messed up as it ended up being, this is the genesis.
Nyeri, a small town, where nothing exciting ever happens.  Located in the Central region of Kenya, where green is painted in the landscapes, where on a clear day, Mt. Kenya can be beautiful even to those that don't appreciate what nature has to offer, like my friend, George. See, we were brought up in Ruring'u, a small village right outside Nyeri town. I born into a family of four boys and I being the smallest had some good times. George too was the last born and he and I met when we moved right next to them and us being both notoriously mischievous is what really clicked between us. The many times we would go around the shops, stealing whatever we could find and eat, be it a carrot, a tomato or a cake. As long as it was edible, it was worth the steal. If we weren't stealing something, we were all over the place, venturing new areas, collecting anything we thought was a souvenir, an artist's collectible (so we thought at the time). We took television to a whole new level, everything we saw and found interesting, we had to try it out, from making wooden Glocks to something as audacious as performing a "surgery" on a dead raven in the hopes we would bring it back to life. We knew there was something beyond Nyeri, something beyond the white-capped mountain, something beyond the belt of hills that surrounded us. What we saw on the many programs and movies we watched, the many books we read, we knew there was so much out there the world had to offer. I was always interested in nature, the animals, the trees, the rivers and mountains, the oceans that took all your thoughts away with the current, try putting a message in a bottle containing a poem for the ocean. Nature was my reason to want to know what's beyond the ridges and mountains. As for George, he was a whole lot different, he wanted to travel the cities, see skyscrapers and busy roads, highways, trains. I did understand why he wanted that, a while back his father had taken him to one of his trips to Nairobi, the capital and he fell in love and when he visited Sarit Centre, that was the epitome of his trip to the city. He came back with so many stories to tell of the place, the glow in his eyes as he told me all that, incredible. Some stories he told us of the place were just too good to be true. He did once tell me he saw a rocket being sold and I just gave him a "stop shitting me right now" look. See, I knew about rockets, those that go to the moon, Kennedy Space Station and all that, so something as big as a rocket in Sarit Centre, "That must be our heaven", I would say every time he would tell one of his stories about Sarit Centre.

He never was in love with nature, well not like me, but one thing he loved was the view of Mt. Kenya, we would spend hours just looking at it, let our dreams take over, let them fly off to wonderland, beyond the mountain, watch the sun give it that golden look as it's rays spread through the savanna. It was magical.

It was on a Friday afternoon, the sun shone bright and hot and George and I went on one of our ventures, looking for something exciting to bring back home. We set our sights on an old town hall, it was abandoned and quite an awesome place to be in. "I feel different today, like something will happen", George said. "Naah, you just excited about everything, or you just hungry. We go get a cake from the old lady's shop? You pretend to be some confused kid who got sent by mummy to buy stuff but lost the money along the way, get her attention while I get us some cakes from behind the counter", I said and all he did was just shrug it off (so unlike him). He seemed off, like what he felt within was getting stronger with every step he made towards the old town hall. "Maybe we should head back home, watch Macgyver  or something." I suggested, but he insisted on us continuing with our plans, "it's nothing to concern yourself, might be the cakes Shish cooked, you know how horrible they can be at times".

Shish was George's sister, she was about 16 years old, light-skinned. She was five foot tall, curvy body and the face and smile of a goddess. I always had a crush on her. She was beautiful, her touch gave me goosebumps, butterflies and any other insect that relates to that feeling of love. Oh she was amazing, the many times I'd look at the mountain and just wish she would love me, she would see that I'm her prince charming, that I was the frog she needed to kiss. The many fantasies that brew in my head about her and I. Shish, with all that beauty had one Achilles heel, she could not cook a proper meal, yes she could cook, but the type of food you'd not want to go for a second plate, it is the type of food you would dread when lunchtime was close but it did not deter me from loving, we could live without her cooking a meal, plus I was learning to cook myself and the few times I did my mother loved it so that was out of the way. And George had no idea that I was so infatuated with his sister. Why tell him? 

"Haha, now I understand why you so off today", I said with a huge grin on my face. We reached the place, it was this old structure, shrubs growing on the wall, covered in white paint that was peeling off, the roof looked rusty and from an angle it looked like it would come caving in anytime soon. The entrance to the hall was locked from the inside so we walked around the old building to where the side walls had caved in, we climbed up and made our way through the rubble into the building. The inside of the building was empty, it had a high level and a lower one, the lower one had what seemed like sits that made it seem that it was used as a council meeting place, where important decisions were made and where people came to defend themselves in front of the elders. The higher level seemed to be where the "spectators" would be, like the Colosseum, they would chant and bay for the blood of those brought before the council.
The smoothing of the floor was all chipped off, the wall paint was all but gone, you could see beams of sunlight pierce through the torn roof and into the dull room. We were excited, like it was our first time we were here even though it wasn't but something about the old town hall that captured our imagination and made our thoughts run wild. "You sir have been convicted of killing Sam, what say you?!" George said in a stunning voice. "I am not guilty and if I was the one that killed I wouldn't have any remorse. He deserved what he got". I followed, as if on cue. "The council members and I have decided your fate, you shall be hanged at dawn on the next full moon, let the gods be with you", he continued, mimicking a large crowd fueled with a mixture of ire and excitement. "You can take my life, my entire wealth, my family...", at this point I had lost track of what I was onto, "..but my soul and freedom you shall never take".
"I own you peasant!!!!!", at this point we were so into our characters that we had not noticed a tall figure walk in the room.
He, or whatever it was, was tall, covered in a ragged overall, like the ones the grim reaper would wear, his head bowed down. George and I went silent, scared. No one uttered a word, no one moved, how could you? The tall figure was walking towards us, no word, the overall went down to the ground, sweeping the floor and at some point it seemed like he was floating. When he was a few metres from where we stood, the ground started to shake, the rays of sun that had pierced the room disappeared and it turned cold. The earth shook even more and we could hear the tall figure start to chant in a foreign dialect and then it happened........