STRANGE LOVE

CHAPTER ONE

The sounds of birds fluttering in their trees rustled loudly across the grasslands. The sun was already rising on the horizon, lighting up the many birds that were sometimes still asleep in their trees. Many more were just beginning their day by beginning their calls and chirps.

Daughter and son were getting up like most other people. Father had just left for work in the city, mother was doing a preparation of sorts for the day, making breakfast with some treats from the market.

"My darling!" The lady who was full of energy called her son.

"Yes mum?" he responded.

"Could you please take this outside for me?" she asked him.

"In a minute mum," he responded.

She walked him over to the side, "Could you please?" she insisted.

"Now, now mum. It's a little early for me to go outside," he admitted.

She touched him on his cheek. "My dear son," she said, as she had been doing since the day he was born.

"I'm not a child anymore," he said, as he had been doing for the last many years.

"And you never were my child," she agreed.

He tried to ignore her look. "What are you doing? Smiling or smirking like that?" he asked her.

"Oh, it is just that you are just like my dear husband," she said.

He shook his head. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked.

"You are getting married soon. I wanted to give you a bit of a warning!" she said. "But enough of that, now all you need to do is to take this, sweety, and place it where all the birds come to roost, and then you can come back and help your mother prepare breakfast."

Wanjiku, who was already approaching them, took the offering. Bird seed in a bag. "Promise me you will take it to the place where…?" her mother started.

"I will take good care of it mum," he said as he started walking towards the door.

"Oh and Wanjiku, you too," she called as she turned to her daughter.

'Wanjiku?' she thought. "Where is it?" she asked him.

"I am already close to the place. I will come back on my own, ok?" he said.

"Oh, please do," his mother said.

Wanjiku went back to her room and was getting ready for the day. Today was indeed the day before she was getting married to Davis. She knew that there were some changes about to happen in her life, but she knew she will get used to them fast. 'Today I will become his wife,' she thought. "Mum, I am ready," she leaned onto the door.

"So soon?" she said.

"Yes, all I need to do is to put on my new short dress!" she said as she excitedly held her cloth.

"But I have never seen you in that dress," she said.

"Well, it's not the first time," she said.

"Oh, good, I am beginning to think I have lost my memory!" she confessed.

"And I have it too mum," her mother said as she entered the room.

"What does that mean?" she asked her.

"You haven't changed for the last 10 years!" she confessed. "I can't believe it myself."

"I have lived as your son," she said.

"I know, my dear," her mother said. "But same as I did, you have been doing the same thing to me. It felt like you were my daughter."

"My dear, I don't know what to say," she said.

"No, I will go out there. I know the two of you need some time alone," she said. She took out the money from the wallet she kept behind a picture frame. The one with no face on it. And placed it in his hand. "I will be right back," she said.

He made his way to the birds. Making sure not to let the birds see him. He took the well-sealed bag off the kitchen's altar. He kept the money in his shirt's pocket. Today was supposed to be a special day for him. A special day of fate, in which he got to find love and his own mother. He took out part of the gifts, a home cooked meal cooked by his mother and a few other treats he got from the market, just like his father usually did, in order to keep alive from the looks of the farmers who came by every morning fresh from the forest.

He loved the farms and the people who came there. He still thought about everything he would do once he got a chance to go there, with his mother. He couldn't wait for the day of his mother's return. Life seemed perfect to him. Every day was like a dream. His days were filled with laughs. Laughter and smiles, and every morning he wakes up is a gift. That's what he believed.

He knew his father made mistakes in the past and that was why he was not with his mother. The last memory he had of his mother was when he and his mother moved in with her sister in the city. His father had traveled the world for about 6 months. And when he came back to the city he didn't want to find his family there. That's what he had been told by his mother and her sister. Since then he had been living with her sister and her husband. That's one of the reasons he had not found it hard to do as an average boy, who was living with his mother, did.

But today he had already decided not to tell his wife about his mother. He was going to let her find her on her own. Like he had found her that day he had thought she was his mother. He wanted to see how she would react. He wanted to see if this was the real deal, the kind of living human being he wanted to have as his wife forever. And he wanted to have her as a mother for their kids, and that would mean she must be able to love him for more than what he looked like.

He had been waiting for this to happen for a long time.