LONDON MISTRESS

CHAPTER 2

As he slept on the last night on the eve of his travel, he could not even manage to close his eyes let alone to sleep. He was going to Nairobi, a city he only heard of, board a plane and fly to London another city that he had never dreamt of visiting leave alone staying and making it his residence for the four years of his scholarship would be covering . He only managed to sleep for some minutes because no sooner had he closed his eyes to sleep than his alarm rang.On that fine morning as Rono was boarding fly Emirate’s airbus A-380 to London through Dubai, he could not help but smile. He was leaving his country as an academic achiever to go for another accolade in his educational journey. Although he never wanted to, he spoke to his heart and whispered that he was a king, an academic giant. He did that with a low voice to shield the evil spirits from hearing anything . He was reaping the fruits of his hard work.

Inside the jumbo he sat in the business class. He was not even as comfortable as would be expected by the Emirates staff for he had never been used to the stuffy seat he was seated on. The leather seats were so comfortable as he would later learn when he touched a button and adjusted the seat. An air hostess later came and fastened his safety belt in preparation for the take off. Few minutes later the huge aircraft was speeding on the runway and sooner he was floating in the air, such a miracle!

Rono was busy looking at the clouds and the lands below when he turned his head and saw a figure that he could remember though faintly. When she turned her head he placed her immediately, it was Cherono, Mr. Kiptoo’s daughter. Mr. Kiptoo was the minister of finance. Her daughter, Cherono was a bright student in kapsabet girls and Rono remembered meeting her in a mathematics contest that their school had hosted. He remembered how this iron fist girl had beat him with a single point in the contest. Here she was again in the same plane only that this time Rono never knew where she was going. He however swore that he would confront the girl while on their stop over in Dubai if time allowed. At this hour a coincidence occurred and Cherono, a spoilt rich child blushed to Rono. Was that not his little heart going thump! Thump! like a war drum? this was the type of a blush that would melt the insides of any male with feelings and actually it worked for Rono. A shiver ran down from his head down his toes through the back. He had never felt this anytime before and he knew it immediately, this was a new phase of life, different people and different things altogether. A bond was in formation and he allowed time to unveil this mystery.

Through the flight Rono kept himself occupied with a property magazine that the airline had provided. He admired the beautiful pictures in the magazine. What drew his attention was a full colour picture of London school of economics. He looked at the buildings and fell in love with their ancient architectural designs. The alleys, pavements and the lawns were all done to perfection.

"How will I walk down these tiles without leaving traces of dirt?" Rono wondered. But he dismissed that idea.

He saw a swimming pool and remembered how his mother once beat him when he was eight. Rono and his age mates had gone to herd their cattle and decided to take a swim in a nearby stream. Although they swam well without any incident, they would later learn that their goats had gone missing and had found their way into a neighbour’s maize farm where they had done quite a commendable job by destroying most of the crop. This incident was reported and his mother ended up giving him a reasonable beating. The beating gave him some discipline although it dealt him more pain than his buttocks had got used to. From that day he swore that he would never set his feet in the stream let alone to swim, but not in the view of such a beautiful swimming pool. He would give it a try once there. He would later shift his attention to the spacious lecture halls and before long the plane was now heading to land and they were being cautioned to stick to the landing safety measures.On the refreshment break that was allowed between the first and second flight, Rono spent it talking with cherono over cold drinks. The desert sun was still scorching hot although it was late evening. Cherono was also on a similar journey as was Rono although a little bit differently because her parents were going to pay for their daughter’s stay in London. While he was going to do economics, she was going to do finance and accounting. Her father was preparing her for a job in the ministry he was heading while he was totally not aware of where to get a job after his degree. He was sure that he would tarmac the streets of Nairobi once he returned. What made him work harder in his studies was to get the skills, a job would come his way because he was a strong believer. He knew God would provide him with job just the way he did to his servant in the desert. The way he commanded raven to feed him, or the way he fed Israelites with manner in the desert. He had alot of faith.

The London flight was scheduled for the night and so Rono fell asleep few minutes after take off. As the the aircraft was soaring into the sky heading to London, in its belly seated Rono. Every minute was bringing him closer to his destination. He had started to develop fear. "How will I be facing my studies? Will the students mock or receive me warmly?" Rono asked himself.

He even at some point regretted why he filled the scholarship papers. He would be now in his country looking after cattle or helping his mother garden and run their tea farm.

" How am I going to coupe staying away from my peers and age mates?" Rono wondered. This sequence of rhetorics led him to sleep and he slept for the rest of the flight.

At the airport he took a taxi to the hotel where he was to spent the night before going to report to the London school of economics. Dine & wine was such a luxurious five star hotel. From the parking lot to the spacious rooms and beds, Rono could tell that the facility was meant not for his kind but for the rich. The furniture was pure mahogany, the chandelier was golden and the walls were furnished to perfection. He was amazed by the service he was offered by the hotel staff. Back in his village, the local hotel had no such an aura of sanctity. They only sold tea and mandazis and one would be happy if not lucky to get fresh mandazis because most of them would be sold for two days, tea was plenty and cheap considering the fact that milk was no a big problem in an area where every man had at least a cow. After a long comparison between the two facilities named hotels, he finally concluded that the one in his village was not and hotel but a local gossip joint where tea was sold. He even saw it as foolishness to compare the two. If he had been to Nairobi, he would complete Dine & wine with the likes of Hilton hotel but he had never been there.

Whatever he was served and whatever he ate, he never knew its name or the ingredients used in its recipe. He only ate because he was hungry. The aroma also made him eat although he would not lightly accept this second fact. After scrutinising the room like a medicine study observing his laboratory specimen in an anatomy class, Rono finally fell asleep.

That night he had an horrific dream. He had dreamt that he was a captain in a ship. A large one like the Sussex or the titanic that his history teacher had described in one of his lessons. The ship was sailing on high seas and the passengers were all in parting mood. They were drinking and making merry when the ship started swaying unconditionally. The sea had become rough and the sail was proofing quite a difficult task. By the time he was reaching for his assistant, the ship was capsizing. The whole ship was sinking. It was at this time that he woke up and found himself drowning in a sea of sweat under his duvet. He cursed the spirit that had brought such a dream, confirmed the time from his watch and found that he had almost overslept. It was only few minutes to seven and he had to get ready for his meeting with his sponsors before joining the University the following day.The meeting with the sponsors ended well and Rono was taken to his flat where he was to reside in a rolls Royce. As the big car sped past the bridge tower, Rono was seated in the back seat feeling like a king. Through the tinted widows of the RR, Rono could still spot the beauty of this town. The streets were clean without litter, the roads unlike those in Kenya where he had came from had no pot holes, the streets had no poster advertising for an herbalist from kitui who had cure for all ailments. The buildings were not like those in Eldoret, a local town that he had visited only once. Unlike Eldoret, the buildings here where tall storey buildings with glass panes. Without closely observing one would assume that they were made of glass. There was no hawkers saying, "buy my medicine, it kills even the roaring rats. " or another one selling match boxes that can be lit under the sea.

The people were not greeting each other like those in his homeland where people greeted each other. They all looked like strangers who would break into a fight on the slightest provocation, but he hoped that wouldn't happen.

The Rolls Royce pulled over and parked at Saint Mary’s flats. The chauffeur opened the door for Rono and led him through the stairway to the seventh floor where Rono’s room was located. With him was another assistant who had carried other requirements that Rono needed for his studies. It was quite and heavy load by the look of how the man was straining to carry it.

The room was a spacious fully furnished self contained room. It had a kitchen with all the utensils he would need, a toilet, a bedroom and a sitting room all fully furnished. Most of the equipment were new and all bought from the most expensive dealers. There was a forty two inch sumsung high definition television set on the wall that he won’t fail to notice. Such a feature was not for everyone in the village and he had only seen one only once when he visited his uncle in nakuru. Although that one was not as big as this. He knew that he would watch maria series on it or even watch kipchoge running and winning medals for his country. He corrected this thought and replaced pronoun “his” with “our” to make it sound more nationalistic for they all belonged to one great nation called Kenya.

He was shown around the room, how to use some of the electric equipment in the room for he had not seen most of them. He was amazed at how fast tea was prepared by just adding water and milk in an electric tea pot. A tea bag was drop on the hot water now in a cup and within no time tea was ready. This greatly amazed him but not until later when he woke up one morning feeling so much worn out and decided to prepare porridge. He added hot water to the blender, poured last night’s remains of ugali and turned on the tiny jug. One minute later he took his porridge, drag it and went for his morning class. That was later when he had mastered the art of comradeship.