Completeness

Chapter two

I realised the previous chapter was jammed with errors. It's the excitement, bear with me. First timers always get such issues I believe. I promise to improve.

Love you all.

Chapter two

Naomi's mother died during her birth. The messenger of the "good tidings" thought that she was doing the young child a favour, Naomi was 8 yrs then.

"Naomi, how was school?" greeted Martha, the house help. Martha had been their house for the last 20 years. She joined the family after she had tried her hand at getting herself a decent office job, the so called white-collar jobs, but was unsuccessful. Her O level results were wanting. A D+ was not to get anyone any kind of a decent job. Martha was from Kitui, a very arid part of the Eastern part of the country. A friend of her cousin got wind of the opening in Mr. Oketch's home, Naomi's parent's home in Sindindi: In the western part of Kenya. Most jobs were found in that manner, through someone who knew someone.

The frustrations of being rejected severally made her desperate and this opening for the post of a house help came as a blessing. At 27 yrs of age, and single added more stress to her already stressed life. There was a general consensus in relation to marriage in the Kenyan communities that if a girl remained single after her 25th birthday, there was definitely a problem with her. So she took the job regardless distance from her birth place. Which was like going to the other side of the world. Sindindi and Kitui were about 800 kms apart.

"Maybe I might get lucky and get a man interested in me from Sindindi" she silently hoped as she packed. Her parents and her two younger brothers wished her luck. They pitied her as they knew her frustration. Her church pastor knew it from all the prayers he led at their home and church but bearing no fruits.

Now 20 yrs later, she was still a house help and still single. Unfortunately she was not bestowed with an abundance of looks and brains and she finally accepted the fact that she would never be a wife.

This conversation between Naomi occurred twelve years ago. The time Naomi learnt of the truth of why she did not have a mother like most of the kids in her school, She was devastated.

" You know that you have taken after your mother in beauty and character. She was very beautiful but you will become a real heart breaker." Observed Martha .

"How did mum die cos dad has never told me and I have been unable to ask?"

"Oh, you don't know? It was during your birth. Complications arose beyond the doctors control. She could not be saved. But she had your father promise that he should always love you with always his heart and never neglect you, the representation of their love. Your father cried himself to sleep for many nights and vowed that he would never marry again cos in his heart he believe that he was still was married to your mother and could never be unfaithful to her." Concluded Martha.

That revelation even at that age affected her so much that the light in her eyes and in her smile faded noticeably.

"I killed my mother!!!"she blamed herself

Her father never got to know the source of her melancholy, but provided for her in all ways possible. She went to a high cost secondary school as her father was a very successful and a respected member of his community. A managing director of Kisumu lake Basin Development Authority, The chairman of the Board of Governors of Kisumu high school, a National school with a reputation for catering for only the wealthy and a number of businesses in both Kisumu City and Nairobi the capital city.

After her O levels, she requested to go and stay with her uncle in Nairobi as she awaited her results.

Her Uncle Mr. Omollo was the Provincial Director of Education , Nairobi. His wife, Regina, was the Principal, Nairobi Girls High School. Their combined incomes allowed them to have a more than comfortable living in addition to a few well developed plots bringing monthly rental income. Unfortunately their children allowed all the good living to get into their heads. They were spoilt.