THE BAPTISM OF FIRE

I was stack in a riddle wrapped in an enigma when I got expelled from my dream village secondary school, a decade ago. Kirwa was a school which reeled plenty of students to universities, due to its incredible performance. I put my shoulders to the wheel, and scraped an admission to this school. My parents eyes were drowned in tears out of exuberance, due to my outstanding performance. My sister Rose sung with a gentle voice to praise me, and my brother flew his freak flag by hamming his body to spice and ginger up the song. My parents importuned me to work my fingers to the bone, to fledge up my educational nest with plenty of knowledge, and I pledged to heed their advice. Being a lawyer was a dream career for my parents, and settle my family in a garden of roses. I was lucky to make three friends in school; Evans, Sarah and Esther. Evans was tall and heavyset, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth,his pockets were always fat and lashed out money extravagantly. He was a Jekyll and Hyde, one side he was good and evil on the other side. Sarah was short and slender, she was determined and burnt the candle on both ends to meet the target of her daily studies. She had a civil tongue and always my mentor. Esther was short and stocky, she was a tigress, whoever rubbed its fur in the wrong way, would dance to the rhythm of his or her own music. She urged me to hitch my wagons to a star in my academics. I began to develop affinity for her, and our feelings became telepathic. She was my moral compass to navigate on the right path to success, and also a pearl of wisdom. On noticing my strong bond with Esther, Evans framed up a false accusations of bumping into us,while we were on a horizontal refreshment and reported to the principal, who finally expelled us. My parents were so much disappointed and disowned me. After walking at around fifteen kilometers, I was lucky to find an incomplete apartment, inhabited with one unharmful mad man and we stayed together. I went through hell and high waters,I was in a slough of despond, and starvation pushed me to almost knock the doors of heaven,I resorted into collecting disposed leftovers of food to make me subsist. One weekend morning, I trekked to Esthers place who was then a student at a new school to see her. On beholding my arrival, her parents screamed on top of their lungs. According to them,I was the reason their daughter got expelled from kirwa secondary school. They called the police and framed me up with a r****g case on their daughter,and I was taken to court. In court, Esthers parents and their lawyer bent over backwards to win the case though Esther was against them. I was imprisoned for fifteen years, Esthers eyes glistened with tears but she could not help it. Life in prison was not a breeze,we were escorted daily under a heavy security to do government jobs like; disposing carcasses to their appropriate areas, cleaning and unblocking the sewerage system. This task took a toll on me and I became a bag of skin and bones. I decided to study hard my high school subjects in prison, so that I could pass time with equanimity of mind and no depression. I tackled the whole syllabus root and branch and every scope of study was under my belt. I was then all dressed up and nowhere to go when one of the prison teacher, pledged to register me and write my Kenya certificate of secondary examination and I was so happy. I was over the moon when the results were out and found that I was among the outstanding candidates who qualified to university. Being behind the bars, it jangled my nerves ruefully and remorsefully. God is omnipotent and merciful, out of the blues, the president announced the amnesty of some few individuals, where I was among of them. The cockles of my heart rejoiced,I felt on cloud nine and ecstatic. I made a bee line for Kenyatta university because I was one week late and got admitted. I was a hermit in the university because of the ordeal experience from Evans, that made me get scared of friends. I spread myself so thin on my studies and achieved a distinction on my law course, and I was so delighted. After completion of my education, I walked the pavements and secured a job in a private farm. It was barely a year, when I bumped into Sarah who was then a full fledged nurse in Nairobi. She narrated me a story how Evans killed his girlfriend by stabbing her stomach with a knife, while he was teasing her for having an affair with another man. Evans was then given life imprisonment, what goes around comes around. She told me how Esthers healthy deteriorated due to depression of what her parents did to me. I decided to relocate Esther to the village where she was now a primary teacher. Esther shed floods of tears when she beheld her eyes on me, because of extravagant joy and embraced me so tight. The parents bowed down with humility for forgiveness which I accepted deep my heart. They all accompanied me to my place to see my parents. On arrival, my parents paced the ground back and forth with tears streaming on their cheeks with pity and regret, they sprawled on the ground crying without uttering a single word, blood is thicker than water, they felt it. I forgave them and promised to make the world their oyster. I proposed to Esther who accepted happily,and our both parents blessed our marriage merrily. Life is a journey, someone should tread with caution because ,a slightest error can ensconce one in a predicament that is not easy to exonerate. written by Dominic Moruri Nyandago.