UNTILL WHEN

UNTIL WHEN CHAPTER 4

"What are you doing in my territory young ladies?" an old woman with a walking stick decorated with all kinds of beads, shouted.

"Please, we have to help her, she's in great pain and about to give birth!" Sintoyia cried out looking so worried about Nasieku.

"Does this look like a delivery ward to you?" the woman yelled again.

Sintoyia wondered what she was talking about, what was a delivery ward in the first place.

"She will die, we have to save her her right now, please."Sintoyia begged.

The woman then looked at Nasieku who was now as febble as ever, then at Sintoyia who was holding Nasieku on her shoulders. She wondered whether they were both sisters. Finally,she agreed to help them.

"Let's get out of this place." she said moving to where they were.

"But where else is better than here?" Sintoyia was surprised.

"They both will die here, and you don't want that."

Nasieku tried her best with the support of the two women. They walked for about ten minutes and then came to a small house made of what Nasieku and Sintoyia later learnt was iron. It was nothing like the manyattas they were used to. No cow dung, no sticks, no grass on the top, it was all different. At least there was a fireplace but it looked more advanced like theirs. The old woman then gave them a big smooth cotton mattress to lie on. Nasieku could not believe all that was happening. To her, this was all a miracle.

"Weeh!Weeh!" The baby was finally born successfully, some hours later. It was a baby girl and Nasieku named her Sainapei.

"I'm Wanjiku," the woman introduced herself when Nasieku woke up from her deep sleep.

They became friendly since they owed her their lives. She had a number of different types of medicines which Nasieku and Sintoyia were seeing for the first time in their lives.

"They look like small white stones."Sintoyia said and Wanjiku laughed.

"They are known as tablets. They relieve pain, prevent diseases and even cure diseases." she explained diligently. They both wondered how knowledgeable Wanjiku was.

"So where are they from?"Nasieku asked curiously as she breastfeed Sainapei.

" Actually, I will be giving Sainapei some as she grows."

"No way, I will never let my daughter take some unknown stones, what if they grow inside her stomach?" Nasieku said naively.

"I was only fifteen when my parents died. They were rich farmers and worked in the big city. They took me to school at five and I studied just like the other children in the city. When they died, my uncle took good care of me and after I finished my secondary education, he could no longer give me much. I had to find a way to raise money for my college fee and to also take care of myself." she said with a serious face.

Nasieku and Sintoyia understood very little of what she said, but the story sounded sad and so they just continued listening silently.

"Three years later, I managed to pay my fees and studied a course in nursing for four years. I was then employed in a big clinic and worked for a long period of time. Being able to earn and spend my own money, was what every one in the city desired the most."

"So why are you here, what are you doing in this forest all by yourself?" Sintoyia asked when Wanjiku was silent looking at Nasieku and her daughter. Sainapei was asleep and she saw Nasieku was also feeling sleepy and tired.

"You both should rest." Wanjiku said and walked out to fetch some firewood. When she came back, she also took a nap. Two hours later, they all got up and Sintoyia prepared some tea for the trio.

"Can we continue with the story?" Nasieku asked after receiving a cup of tea from Sintoyia.

"Something terrible then happened some time later. I was accused of stealing from the clinic and I lost my job. I then later came to know that some men had planted the packages of tablets in my house. It was my uncle they were after. He had an unpaid debt and the men wanted revenge. When I realized they were in to killing me, I escaped and that was how I found myself here. Since I had some money left, I managed to transport my things to this place and it has now been twenty years since all that happened."

They were both shocked by her story. How was she even able to survive for twenty years in the forest.