INTROSPECTIVE

Chapter 8

Louis stretched his limbs and began his nocturnal walk.The non-stop rain that had held him hostage in his home had finally abated about 2 hours ago and he was itching to finally get out.He needed a breather,that house was suffocating.The only reason why he spent anytime there was his mother.Otherwise he hated every spot in it.It reminded him of the pretentiousness of his father and the false life they had led there as a family.But he could never say such thoughts out loud.

Besides,he liked the cold,it heightened his senses and made him feel...alive.Stepping out in to the dark,he breathed in the fine aroma of wet soil.He loved that smell.It always reminded him of his childhood.

He remembered a certain instance when he couldn't resist that tantalizing aroma of wet soil and out of childish curiosity,he had decided to make a meal out of it.Upon finding out,his mother had overreacted.She had tried to make him puke it all out there and then.If she had her way that day,she would have probably dragged Louis to the nearest hospital to get his stomach pumped.It was his father who saved him.He convinced her that the situation could be remedied by him drinking lots of water and simply getting dewormers. That saved Louis from getting his mother's fingers stuck in his throat.

He smiled at the memory.At that point in time of his childhood, he had truly felt that his family was perfect.Louis might not have known much as a child but he knew intuitively that his mother was actually happy back then and not a shell of the person she had become.It was a period before the deaths and the betrayal had come about,shattering their once perfect little family.

Louis was staring at the puddles when he saw the reflection of a black car in the water.He found his feet moving of their own accord before he could even think about what he was doing.

The window was being rolled down as soon as the occupant of the vehicle had spotted him revealing the smiling face of the person he had been thinking about more than he would like to admit since the last time he had seen her.

He stood there momentarily transfixed as he was hit with the full force of her smile.Her heart-shaped face was lit with a 60 watt smile, stretching her chubby cheeks,making it the warmest and sincerest smile he had ever seen. She didn't just smile with her mouth,she smiled with her eyes too.He stood there momentarily,staring at the very slight gap between her front teeth that served to give even more character to that dazzling smile of hers.And he couldn't for the life of him understand why the next words came out of his mouth.

"You again?"he asked.He thought he'd see the smile disappear but his question only seemed to turn her smile into a cheeky one now.

"Well, hello to you to Arschloch.I thought the painkillers would have mellowed out your mood by now but I see that I was wrong.Will you need something stronger,perhaps?"

Louis was yet again confused by that strange word she had mentioned.What was this language she was speaking?Maybe it was her mother tongue or something but then again it didn't sound like any mother tongue he had heard before.

He wanted to ask about the weird words he was hearing but instead he asked: "What are you doing here?"At that question that dazzling smile disappeared and he felt a little disappointed.

But really what was she doing there.For goodness' sake it was in the middle of the night and it had been raining.Rain made driving a whole new crazy experience.It was dangerous.And the cold was something Nairobians were definitely not fond of.Most were barricaded behind closed doors right now trying to ward off the cold.So what was she doing here?

"Just thinking about red hair and Maasai shoes,"she said rather seriously."Get in it's cold out there."She added immediately.

Louis didn't decline the offer,she probably just wanted to divert from that topic.It wad odd though.