The Sponsor

Mrs Ajabu

Mama Wairimu was in the kitchen making Fred's favorite food. Ugali, fresh spinach and chicken wings smothered in honey. He had always had a sweet tooth ever since he was a small boy. She packed the food in three lunch boxes and removed a bottle of soda from the fridge then dialed an uber.

She left Olivia on the couch. The couch was quickly becoming her soundtrack, she thought. She would sit there for hours staring at the fan on the ceiling. 'She will snap out of it one  of these days,' she told herself.

"Eat something kamom," she mouthed trying to sound motherly and failing. "I've left you some chicken and ugali in the sufuria."

On the journey to the rehabilitation center she thought about a lot of things. She was confident that Wairimu had some stability now and Olivia was out of the red but she was sad for her son. He was ever spiraling out of control. This trip more than anything was meant to rectify that and put him back on the straight and narrow path.

The rehabilitation center allowed for visitors on weekends during afternoons. They sat with Fred on a bench. She placed her sun glasses on the table and looked at Fred properly. The eye bags under his eyes were receding. He was recuperating. He smelled of soap and his red regalia was ironed.

"How are you feeling, son."

"I'm feeling fine mom, let's get out of here."

"Fred, do you understand that you're meant to run your fathers company?"

"I don't care about anyone's Company, mom. I just want to get out of here."

"Well, you should care, otherwise Wairimu will take it from right under your nose."

Fred's eyes grew wide as his mom went into her humongous bag and came out with an iPad pro and opened up the photos.

"Come closer, let me show you something." Fred moved over to where his mom was. "This is what your dad travels with."

It was a photo of Mzee Ajabu next to his gulf-stream 550. "Do you want it to be your sisters?" Fred nodded his head sideways.

"This is his office."

She showed him several photos of an office that looked bigger than his bedroom. "Do you want it to be your sisters?"

He nodded his head vigorously from side to side.

"This are the hotels he sleeps in,"

She blew up images of presidential suits in various countries.

And these are.. He did not allow her to finish.

"What do I need to do, mom?"

"You need to snap out of it and accept you have a drug problem so you can get better as quickly as you can then after that we will move to the next step."

"What is that?"

"A coup, your dad has named you his heir. We need to show him that you're ready to take over."

"It's a deal," Fred said with a toothy grin while opening the lunch boxes in-front of him.