Claiming Love

6

Stanley’s second visit to the police station did not yield any reasonable results. The police constable on duty told him there had been several false leads to the whereabouts of his daughter, and that was that, false leads. He returned home knowing very well his two children would be expecting good news about their lost sibling and anything short of that will pile up pressure on him to do something. One debilitating thing he was experiencing in his house was the nonchalant way Jennifer took the whole issue. Her only contribution to this was “leave everything to the Lord. All will be well.” This carefree way of handling a monumental issue infuriated him further and even made him avoid staying at home even when he was off-duty choosing instead to drive around asking anybody who cared if they had seen Gina.

One day an idea struck him that made him make a trip to Gina’s high school. The idea was to find out if the young girl had gone there to ask for any of her documentation. When the principal responded in the negative, he came back home and resigned himself to fate. ‘Most probably there was good reason in Jennifer’s conjecture,’ he intoned.

***

Working at the Jackpot to a large extent helped Gina put her bitter past to the back banner. Despite her youthful disposition she without doubt possessed a special gift of analyzing life situations holistically. She didn’t lie to herself about the gravy train she was riding on lately. As much as she was willing to accept Lovelady’s reasoning behind assisting victims of injustice like her, her inner faculties told her there was a deeper if not emotional reason for taking Gina under her wings. This thought process was strengthened by the fact that the lady of the house never made any secrets about the special treatment she always accorded Gina. ‘Time will tell,’ she kept on telling herself.

The day had started slow and at that hour not soul had entered the EL. Gina sat at one of the tables engrossed in her own universe of complex web of thought. She didn’t hear or realize that Lovelady had entered the room until she was standing over her. The young lady made as if to stand up in utter panic, but Lovelady gently took her by the shoulder and lowered her back to the seat.  Gina looked up to her and what she saw in her eyes mellowed her heart. She cursed herself for doubting this gracious lady’s offer for help.

“Mum, I am sorry,” the young girl splattered out. She realized that for the first time since she left her former home she had come close to call somebody ‘mother’.

“You don’t have to, my daughter,” Lovelady said this with a lot of fondness in her voice.

Yes! That was it. ‘My daughter.’

She always wanted to play a mother-figure to someone. Death had robbed her of the one person she had deeply loved and had hoped that one day they will sire children together; children she always dreamt she would dedicate her whole life to, love and cherish. The period of mourning was very painful and difficult one. Owning and running the Jackpot had to certain extent given her a level of solace of parental solace; the young ladies that surrounded her doing all manner of chores were her family and she treated them as a mother would. However, she all along had looked out for one whom she would wholly confer surrogacy status to. Her prayers seemed to have been answered with the arrival of Gina. The moment she saw her and heard her story she felt that odd emotional affinity she always had when something or situation excited her. Not only that Gina didn’t have any clear family attachment as like biological parents, she was bright and had this aura of determination to succeed and needed help.

Lovelady stretched he hand and Gina could see a white envelop which the old lady handed to her. Neatly printed on the face of the envelope was her name ‘Gina Stanley.’ At the bottom left corner was the logo of The University of Social Sciences (USS), Kisumu.

Gina could not control her excitement. With feline agility that even surprised her benefactor she jumped across and gave Lovelady a firm bear hug before moving away, with tears flowing from her eyes uncontrollably. She looked at Lovelady and managed to stammer, “Thank you Mum.”

“Classes start in a week’s time,” Lovelady said and left the room.

Gina opened the envelope and read through the letter. What made her happier was that she had been to study what she had had in mind and which she had intimated to Lovelady when the topic of her education had come up, Sociology and Alternative Psychology. Surely this lady was too meticulous to boot. Gina had no idea when and how she had applied for university admission on her behalf; but she remembered that this is a woman who pulled strings all over the place and what she wanted, she got.

That night Achieng’ and Gina spent most of their time in the excitement of the latter’s university admission.

***

A World Class University Committed to Scholarly Excellence: was the University’s Vision written in gold letters on the blue wall above the reception desk. Gina felt a bit afraid as Lovelady led her to the registration office. The array of expensive motor vehicles she had seen at the parking lot as Lovelady parked her own attested to the status of the institution she was about to be part of. This was no ordinary private university; this is where the sons and daughters of who was who in society went to study for their preferred disciplines. It was a campus for the elite.

The kind of attention Lovelady got wherever they moved astounded Gina and the young lady secretly felt proud. All formalities over, the new student was shown to her class whose setting and environment was further testimony that she was joining an Ivy League university. The air-conditioned room, with heavily carpeted floor and sound proof walls to go together was nothing Gina had experienced before. From the seat count, Gina concluded that there were going to be only ten of them in that class, a very clear statement that quality was the key priority here.

The orientation for the new students was done in the campus’ state-of-the-art amphitheater. In attendance were senior members of the campus’ management led by the Chancellor. It was impressed upon the newcomers that the USSK stood for excellence and holistic values. Each and every member of the university community strives to achieve the highest standards possible; the common mantra us was For the USSK the Sky was the Lower Limit. In a way this introduction served to make students feel challenged and plan for what lay ahead of them. In a different context, for Gina it was like reliving the immediate past when her life faced an uncertain future. She felt well armed to face the impending academic race.

Professor Paul Wilder, the Sociology lecturer was one of the most admired members of the academic staff in the campus. His methods of delivery were some of the most effective and it was no surprise that all his classes were always full. His fame had transcended the boundaries of the University’s environs to spread into spheres that even he himself was unaware of. A rather quiet man in public, the Prof was always in his element once he stepped in his class. He had two ways of bonding with his students; one act and present himself as a father-figure and two, open up about his personal life to set them at ease in the knowledge that despite his academic prowess in his chosen career, at the end of the day he was as human and mortal being as all of them. Gina, like the rest of her class had heard of the good Prof’s fame from the grapevine, and she waited with eager anxiety for his class to start.

“Sociology is the study of social life, social change and social causes and consequences of human behavior,” he began simply and pausing to gauge the effectiveness of this introduction. “Sociologists investigate the structure of groups, organizations and societies and people interact within these contexts,” he said and stopped to look at them. The score of students felt unnerved. Each felt the Prof’s eyes on them although he was looking at no one in particular. Each of them bowed their heads. When his baritone voice resumed the lecture it was reassuring.

“See what I mean when I tell people that when one feels insufficient, they are setting themselves up for failure,” it was more of a statement than a question. “In my class everyone including myself is a participant in the learning process. I have news things to tell you and you may have new things to tell me too. It is win-win.”

“At the end of this course it is my expectation that each one of you will be able to demonstrate that they have been sufficiently equipped to deal with life’s challenges and are able to find tangible solutions to problems bedeviling our society,” he paused again to sip from the bottle of mineral water at his table.

“Societies are differentiated by economic, political and cultural factors. However, broadly speaking one can identify a classification scenario of the haves and have-nots. In this introduction I am going to present two sets of scenarios to drive my point home. Both cases are based on the adventures of a fictional character named I and his brother I.”

 Their relationship is and will always remain ephemeral, based on their daily undertakings, suspicions and perceptions of each other. Each has a unique advantage over the other making it a bit complicated to characterize one as a personification of bad and evil or the other as an epitome of goodness and righteous living. The power of positivity and pure reasoning will always convolute with the agents of negative exceptional-ism in the struggle for operational space. Suffice it to say when generalities are separated there appears a clear and distinct behavioral pattern between the antagonists. The “exceptional-ism” hitherto alluded to is founded on a continuous trend of culprit playing victim, and in circumstance capitalizing on the naïve gullibility of the weak to advance anyways at their expense. i shouts from lofty perches on how I has over the years used spirituality as a façade to cover for his weakness; that I should stop the charade of living in an alternative reality and resign himself to hard work and create wealth. The Incongruity between the two is neither accidental nor incidental, it is inherent.

Can the two find common place in the proclivity and affinity to the good life? This is left to discussion and definition as to what ‘good Life’ entails to them. The historical ‘civil war’ besides being economical and social/societal, has been hugely moral; the interpretation of what is good and bad, right and wrong. On such premises the human divide will vehemently defend their psycho-territories by advancing bombastic arguments. At the height of a bitter altercation I went out of his way and took leave of his moral obligations albeit temporarily and deliberately to develop a Stockholm syndrome – be the enemy’s friend - and embarked on a journey of meditation and discovery the results of which would be used to entrench or discard his beliefs. Immediately two scenarios presented themselves in the form of two questions; one, what is the purpose in living and of life?  Two, what is man’s obligation to humanity? Then the challenge, how will I maneuver his new dispensation without the world casting aspersions as to his intentions and to whether he has abdicated the ‘Caesar’s  wife beyond reproach’ mien he has inherently cultivated over time. I decided to do a ‘sight unseen’ thing and take on a ‘John of Patmos’ operation; simply put, an unbiased, impartial but truthful self interrogation sabbatical. So I took this challenge with alacrity knowing very well that in the fullness of time his findings will vindicate or sound a death knell to people of goodwill all over the world.

Professor Wilder in his characteristic manner paused for effect to allow his students mull over this narration.

“Clearly the lines have been drawn, the each character’s perception of life defines and challenges issued to prove the efficacy of their stand-points,” he said and immediately threw his own challenge to the students. “Given what I have just narrated to you I want to believe each one of you will pose the question to their own persons, ‘do we have such characterization of life in my community? Tomorrow we shall continue with the story of our good friend I and only then shall we be able to answer the question of where each one of us belongs in the alternative realities.” Professor ended the lesson on that open note leaving the class with high expectations of defining themselves come the next day.

As Gina walked to the parking lot her phone rang. She was surprised to see a strange number and she had sworn never to receive any calls from strangers. Anyway, it won’t hurt if she made an exception especially now she was in high spirits after Prof. Wilder’s class.

“My name is Marete and I have been sent by Mama Lovelady to pick you and take you home,” the male voice from the other end said curtly and cut off.

She wasn’t sure on what to think. Her past still haunted her. She did not for a while pretend that her foster father Stanley was incapable of finding her and taking her back to Jennifer’s dungeon of dystopia. She immediately dialed Lovelady’s number if only to confirm this latest development.

She was brief and to the point. “I know what you want to ask; Mr. Marete is there to take you home” and the phone went dead.

Feeling safe Gina looked around the parking area and saw a man dressed in a black jacket and white shirt standing besides the familiar VX8 and walked towards him. He opened the back left door and ushered her in the executive passenger seat. It had been a tiresome albeit exciting evening of academic exposure courtesy of Prof. Wilder. She as the rest of the class would wait for the continuation of Adventures of Mr. I.

Ten minutes later the car stopped outside a tall black metal gate. This was not home! What was going on? The answer came before she was able to utter a word of protest. The gate was opened and as the headlights shone ahead she made out the family figure of Achieng’ standing outside the door of a beautiful mansion.

“Welcome to your new residence,” the driver said opening the car door for Gina. “Mama would be expecting your call confirming your safe arrival here. Please do it immediately.” Marete entered the vehicle and drove out at high speed.

Gina was overwhelmed. Achieng’ had not moved an inch from where she was standing since the arrival o of Gina. The light from the doorway bulb shone brightly on Achieng’ and Gina did not fail to notice that her friend had been shedding some tears; perhaps tears of joy for their new found home. Soon they were both in each others’ arms embracing and uttering words of thankfulness to their benefactor.

Later that night Achieng’ intimated to Gina that Lovelady had earlier in the day visited their abode in Kondele and expressed her dismay at what she felt was an inhabitable place for her ‘daughters’ and especially for the one who had just joined University! She had gone back and given Marete, who also acted as her Personal Assistant, instructions to quickly look for a suitable place for the two girls to stay and make arrangements to move their personal effects to the same during the day. “That how we find ourselves here in Kilimani,” Achieng concluded with a cheerful grin.

“With what shall we repay this gracious lady,” Gina asked rhetorically as she savored the inner beauty of the living room.

Achieng’ knew better than asking such questions and she had a ready answer. “Lovelady has it all; she doesn’t need anything from us weak fellows but obedience and a willingness to serve her.”

***

“There is a serious and an uninformed conception that the economically privileged in society hamper free interaction among citizens; in fact the perception there is, is that rich people only deal with their kind,” Prof. Wilder began his lesson the next evening. To explore this dynamic we again go back to our good friend I. I’s first trip was to the imaginary land of Wherewithal.”

The Council of High-Enders ruled Wherewithal with ruthless scorched-earth policies which they made and implemented at will. This small group of people ran roughshod on the minions. Their word was law. I took a mouthful of explanations to convince the gatekeepers to allow him have a glimpse into this world of the untouchables. Unsurprisingly the Overlord in the land was his twin brother i. The smirk on his face meant only that: i thought that I had eventually come out of his world of pursuit of unrealistic dreams and ideals to seek fortunes in a realistically pragmatic world of ‘who is who’ in society. Wherewithal was a perfect example of everything that can go wrong if impunity is allowed to straddle over the land:  they have perfected the culture of virtuoso venality. Their greatest fear is regime change or any situation that will disrupt the status quo. These mandarins conducted their major businesses through proxies and ensured that the underlings’ identities are kept under wraps. Suffice it to say that at any moment in time if any of these pawn’s cover is lifted and subjected to the due process, their goose is as good as cooked; death under mysterious circumstances in police cells is commonplace.

These people do not owe any allegiance to anyone than to themselves. In the corridors of power political kingpins are beholden to them and exist to do their bidding and in return receive funding to keep the engines of the powers-that-be running. Interestingly the ‘Chiefs’ do not seek political office and are rather protective of their identities: they prefer to work behind the scenes. The power brokers do not like to operate with loose ends; therefore they ensure they have captured state and government organs – the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary.  To a larger extent the criminal justice system, from the investigative organs to enforcement machineries are all in a bind. When their interests are threatened with economic and political uncertainties they seek ‘refuge’ for their monies in offshore safe havens’ accounts. The banks that operate these facilities maintain the highest if not very stringent standards of client confidentiality; not even court orders from the highest courts in the land to gain access are obeyed. The private jets and to some extent armored vehicles that they keep at their disposal are meant to ensure a fast and safe gateway in the event of an uprising or any unforeseen purge on their kind. They have kept informants and spies at a very high price in the entire system. They have the wherewithal to dictate appointments to government positions.