It felt like I was
connected to my wife’s car by a tow hook. I could actually see her through the
rear-view mirror holding her cell phone to her ear as she told me how the
business trip to Mombasa had been a mistake.
Here it is, Mira. Your moment of
truth.
“Babe, I’m missing you so. I was
thinking maybe it was a mistake to come to this stupid trip. The meeting is
such a bore.”
Thirty minutes later, I stood in
the dark watching my wife get the kiss of her lifetime, all bubbly like a
school girl.
I had actually seen the guy
kissing my wife on the cover of Pulse and Buzz magazines once,
one of those bad boy, gangsta wannabes. The celebrity kids who ride on the wave
of fame by buying off the media.
It took long mind-and-body-numbing
eternity to realize what had just happened. I smiled at the sweet logic of it.
“I really
enjoyed,” she said, staring at him in the eye. “I was hungry for you, but now I
think I don’t need you anymore.”
“Why do you say that, Mira?” he asked her.
“Because we both have had what we wanted, there’s nothing more left to
want.”
“Mira, I am sorry about my impulsiveness and haste. You can forgive that,
can’t you?”
“Yes, I can, but
what I can’t do is have a boy with me.”
That stung, and he took an exasperated sigh, wiped a thin film of sweat on
his upper lip and continued. “I’m afraid I love you. Hell, I love you, Mira.”
Mira almost laughed her sweet guts out loud.
“Come on, Dill, or
whatever you call yourself. You are too naïve. That’s why I said I can’t be
with a boy.”
“I said I’m sorry for what I did.”
“You are such a drool. I have a family, for f*ck’s sake.”
“You’re a big girl, Mira; smart and intelligent. I am sure you know what to
do.”
“And then what? Will you marry me?”
Dill, aka Dilman Makena, mulled over that. The weight of what Mira had said
showed on his face. Mira was watching him.
“Yeah, I guessed so,” Mira said when Dill said nothing.
“Look, I…” Dill-boy started to say something but Mira stopped him with the
wave of a hand like a traffic cop.
“I have a family, Dilman. I wanted a nice time. It’s over. Limp on. In my
world there’s nothing like love.”
“I can’t help what I’m feeling for you. I want more…”
“Listen, my marriage may be on the verge of incinerating itself, I may not
get what I want from my husband, but he is still my husband. I love him in my
own way, and he does love me. We love each other. I can’t just give up all that
to be with you. We wanted good time, we have had it. Now let’s move on.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do, but something always comes out of the blue
and gets to me.”
“Don’t be stupid, hip-hop boy. I’m not one of your female fans who throw
their pants at you on stage…”
“That’s why I’m saying I feel something more for you.”
“I may have cheated on my husband, I
may be the cougar all the lot of you are chasing after to further your music
career, but I am not that vile. Precisely said, I am not the type of women you
shag for their hard-earned money, celeb boy, all for carnal pleasure.”
“What makes you think I am not any better?”
“You are behaving like a school boy who has just had his first kiss.”
“So, what was all this about? We are going to be like it never happened?”
“For jove’s sake, a woman needs to be safe. I am safe where I am. I can’t
just throw away years of marriage for stolen times…”
“God, Mira…”
“I’ve a family, Dilman. A husband and children I love very much.”
“Look, I love you, and I want to be with you. I give you what your husband
doesn’t…”
“Yeah, drugs,” Mira said, snorting. “You turn me to this fantasy girl I
barely know. Truth is, I love this girl. That’s what I want, but it’s not what
I need.”
He touched her and she trembled. He wondered whether it was from the cold
or desire. It was not going to be their first in the car, though.
“Stop it! STOP! Nothing more happens. This never happened.”
“But you just cheated on your husband.” She saw him wet his lips in
disguised amusement. At that moment it hit her, what he was implying.
“Don’t you dare blackmail me,” she said, smiling even wider. She had her
secret wild card to play. “You, of all people, should not be thinking of
playing that game, especially when a career like yours is pegged on business…”
Dilman squinted at Mira and then everything tumbled on to him.
“That’s it, celebrity kid. I appreciate you loving me, but boys love their
mothers.”
*
Dressed in all
black and crouched in the shadows, I watched my beloved wife, who was in
Mombasa; drop off her lover at his Karen house. There was the man who was
reaping where he had not sown.
Stealthily, I crept out of the
shadows as my wife’s car taillights disappeared round the corner. Time to show
this wife-snatching celebrity kid the error of his ways.
Then suddenly, horribly, there was
an explosion. A fireball went airborne from the direction I had seen my wife’s
car disappear. An amazing sight. It then plummeted down. I heard a deafening
crunch, metal against asphalt.
Whether I was being foolish or
brave, it didn’t matter. I headed the direction of the explosion.
Whatever had exploded lay on the
road burning, an inferno. A few metres from the burning heap I stepped on to
something and stopped to pick it. It was a rectangular piece of metal.
The number plates of my wife’s car.
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