From hills to mountains

It all began in 1998, a year I recall as the beginning of a new life in this world. It is a big question about where we came from but that does not matter, what matters is the what and why questions. I was very young back then, 5 years, to be precise. I lived with my mother, Elizabeth, and my big sister, Mary, in a small village called Kambakia in Meru, Kenya.

In my home, the area was surrounded by thick vegetation of bushes and tall trees. At a distance from home was a river that Mary and her friend Gatwiri used to sneak out for a swim. I was always left back at home guarding and being on the lookout in case my mother came home.

In the evening, Mary would rush home before my mother came from work. She continued sneaking with her friend until one day I decided to follow them. When we arrived at the river, I stayed at the river bank because I did not know how to swim. I watched them as they swam.

I was lost in my deep thoughts when I realized that they had stayed underwater for a long time. I got anxious and scared and so I started calling them out. I went closer to look and suddenly they appeared out of the blue and pushed me into the river. I screamed my lungs out as I struggled to stay afloat. They seemed to enjoy this. After a while, they got me out and rushed me home to change me into dry clothes. I vowed never to follow them again.

Days and nights passed by, and Mary went to stay at our grandmother's house, her name was Rachael. Now it was just me and mother, I cannot really recall what had happened between mother and mary but I could tell it was pretty bad.

A year passed and my mother came home one night and she could not find the matchbox., she had always had a bad temper so I knew better than to mess with her. When she could not find it, she went to our neighbor and borrowed a gaslighter and after she had used it, she misplaced it. I was in for a rude shock.

The following day she came home late, almost midnight. I kept listening at her footsteps, I was really hungry. When she oppened the door, I felt relieved and so I pretended to be asleep. I could hear her searching for something, I did not know what it was until she woke me up with a slap. She had forgot to buy a matchbox and she could not find the gaslighter she had borrowed, she asked me where it was and I said i did not know. She got angry and picked up a stick and my night turned to turmoil. The first stick broke and she picked another and another, she was about to pick a fifth when I escaped.

The air felt cold and sympathetic as brushed my cheeks, I could hear the jungle whisper to me, asking me to be quite as it was asleep. I cvried so loud as I made my way through the jungle. The moon tried it best to shine the light through the thick tall trees but they were to rude to let it. I struggled my way through the dark as I listened to the sound of the flogs and the crickets sing.

I finally made my way out to the road, I met a friend of my grandmother as she was heading home and she helped me find her. I stayed with my grandmother until she died of food poisoning and then I went to live with my mother again. I enrolled to school where I aspired to become a doctor someday. I studied so hard to make my life better, I vowed one day to be a better parent and a role model to those who cared to follow me. I vowed to become a better man. I will become a doctor, wear a lab coat and a stethoscope around my neck, docto kelvin, the good doctor.