THE WIDOWER.

CHAPTER 16.

CJ arrived at Jade's house and was welcomed by an over eager Jade. He was not sure how this would go and he had even chided himself about coming here behind Nora's back.
"Come in CJ and feel at home." Jade said taking away the red velvet cake and vanilla ice cream on his hand.
CJ walked into the living room staring at the painting that he had seen on the first day he had visited.
"You know that was a gift from my father apparently he had bought the piece where they were being auctioned like seven years ago." Jade explained as she set a tray with fruit juice and cookies.
"Where was that?" CJ asked as he took his seat.
"Some gallery he had attended unfortunately the painter had passed on leaving some of his work uncompleted." She went on, " it is so sad but I believe we are heading the same path but according to my father he had met the painter once in one of his visits here in Kenya and for the love of me I cannot remember his name."
Jade finished looking at CJ who was smiling.
"Enough of sad stories! Let's talk about why you are here." She spoke passing him a glass of Juice.
"This may seem like a cheap gamble but I am really interested in your friend." CJ explained.
"No it is not, but I would say she is a hard nut to crack ." She said with a chuckle.
"Tell me all you can for i need to know who she is." He spoke while seeping the orange juice.
"Nora and I met in a situation I would call horrible. I was eighteen at that time and had come with my family to visit my homeland. I decided to visit my grandmother or can I say sister to my grandmother and the neighbourhood was not all friendly. She lived opposite of the said neighborhood and I was lost." Jade spoke with a small smile.
"I was afraid and my phone was off but i mastered courage for my father had told me to pray in such times. I walked slowly only to come to a gang of boys who jeered and one of them stood  my way. I was shaking and quivering but I didn't dare move. All over a sudden I saw a lady come and pushed the guy out of my way. The boy tried something dangerously like a blow but the lady moved swiftly and punched him breaking his nose. The rest of the group flew shouting something like 'if Luka found out they are dead' and that lady was Nora." Jade said fondly.
"Wait a second, Nora punched the guy?" CJ asked sitting straighter than before.
"She is capable of so much than just looking gorgeous. She helped me that day and I persuaded her to give me her contact promising to call her and repay her. I have never forgotten that incident and I knew she was going to be my friend ." Jade finished sipping her juice.
CJ was now looking at Jade with a smile rubbing his own beard and thinking about her fierce voice and stern look when he tried to be nice earlier on.
"Later on I invited her to my home and it was hard to convince her to stay for dinner but my mother did it. After that we decided to exchange our emails so we could communicate when i went back to America." She explained further adjusting her large sweater.
" I learnt later of her decision to join the police and I was so worried that when I told my parents we knelt down and prayed for her. She had become part of the family for my mother loved her like a daughter and we accepted her as part of our own family." Jade concluded.
CJ was now wondering of her biological family.
"Does she have siblings or parents left?" He asked himself.
"If you are wondering of her family, Nora never speaks of her family. She introduced me to her mother when I attended her graduation. Though they aren't chummy they look alike. Her father left when she was a little girl never to be seen again." Jade explained his earlier thoughts.
"Wow! " was all CJ said thinking about the lady in question. He was now getting a glimpse of who she was.
  "When I moved back to Kenya with my parents I had asked God to make it possible for me to be close to her. God answered my prayer and she had received her promotion and now I was getting married to my childhood friend Rick and I moved to Nairobi close to her. She on other hand told me she is not interested in marriage for she did not believe they lasted long and some comments on how she cannot commit to anyone because of her career." She went on giving CJ a photo album showing her young Nora.
CJ looked through the photo album as Jade went on further.
"She may have a hard skin to cut but she has a heart of gold. She stayed with me when I had my first miscarriage during my first year of marriage and she took care of me as my husband worked . she took off some days from work  and took care of me. The only thing she hates is being prodded with questions about herself and her past. I am a psychiatrist and I can say she may act all confident and indifferent but deep down she longs to be shown different kind of love. You and I have that, Jesus has given us a different kind of love." She ended her speech dabbing tears at the corner of her eyes.
CJ looked at her with a frown. Jade was right they knew a different kind of love that was patient and kind. He knew that as much as he wanted to help Nora find that love only God can shower her with such. He closed the album putting it down and waited for Jade to compose herself.
"CJ her past is only up to her to tell you but as a friend and sister I want her to find Jesus and then find a family maybe you are God sent but all in all I pray you be patient with her." Jade spoke with a smile.
"I am not promising a perfect friendship and maybe courtship but just like her I have my own skeletons in the closet. I was married once to a very lovely woman. I had not known Jesus then I just had basic knowledge of God. My wife was the daughter of the former Foreign affairs Minister. " CJ cleared his throat as he rubbed his beard nervously but Jade nodded and waited for him to go on.
"One fateful day, my wife called saying she had sharp pains like early labour but  I was in a surgery she could not reach me. She called my father to take her to the nearest hospital. Unfortunately they got into a car accident and on that day I lost three people. My father was alive when he was taken to the hospital but he died on the surgery table. I was a lost man since that day. I cursed the day I was born for the pain was way too much. I left the country immediately after the funeral without even a single good bye to Daniel and Barrak. I was a wreck Jade and for three years I was a mess and an alcoholic . I tried to take my life countless times only then I realised God was not done with me."
CJ paused to breath because every thing seemed like yesterday.
Jade was now staring at him with a sad look and her heart was breaking for him. Who would have thought that the calm and collected man before her was once a broken man.
"I am so sorry dear one. I couldn't think that you had gone through such pain." Jade offered.
CJ nodded waiting for everything to abate. He was grateful it was not as painful as before.