Gone
It is early morning in the sleepy town of Kitale. Lucy is sweeping their compound. She wonders why her grandfather, who handed the farm to his father was so obsessed with trees. She has to sweep twice a day since her brother George is always away playing football in the evening.
When she finishes sweeping, she waters their potted flowers. She loves to make rainbow colours with different flowers. She is used to hanging them at the window of her room or their patio table.
Lucy is very moody. She feels like vomiting because the smell of roses repulses her. The thought that her period is one week late scares her. But Irene, her best friend said she needs not to worry. Again, her boyfriend, Lewis, comes from a rich family, and he just completed his university education. Lucy feels comforted by all this.
Lucy decides not to give it much thought. She collects the dust into a big mount and brings the wheelbarrow from the store. She heaps all the dust and pushes the wheelbarrow to the dustbin. As she turns to return to the compound, she hears Irene and Sherry call out. She jolts with surprise and laughs at the sight of her friends.
“I thought you are not coming,” Lucy tells them as she wipes dust off her feet.
“How could we not come? Irene says, “We were only scared of your dogs” she adds as she jumps over the wooden fence at Lucy’s backyard.
“I brought you this novel” Sherry shows Lucy Francine Rivers Mark of the Lion Trilogy.
“Wow! thank you.”
“I am reading the second book. I really like the suspense. I Can’t wait to know what happens to Hadassah.
“No! Stop that nasty habit, you want to preempt the book” Irene, who will wait for Lucy to finish reading then take the book cries out.
The girls sit at the patio after greeting Lucy’s mum. They whisper among themselves and decide that they need to take Lucy at Lewis’s place.
Since it was Thursday and market day in town, they convince Lucy’s mum that they are going to the market.
They cheerfully leave with sliced succulent mangoes which they bite as they walk.
The girls are wearing sneakers since it had rained yesterday, and the path to Lewis’s home is muddy. Sherry asks her friend to wait for her to fold her trouser. Her trouser is bluish and rugged; she has matched it with a red tank top.
“Why do you love this particular trouser?” Irene asks
“You mean it is not cute?”
“It is, but week in week out, you are in that trouser.”
“But it is mine. And why do you love this black dress of yours?” Sherry asks irritated at Irene’s comment
“Girls, not today, please. You can’t start fights over nothing.” Lucy knew the jab is about his brother George.
His brother fancies Sherry and has been running after her for close to two years. Irene, on the other hand, loves George, who has never looked her way. But for the sake of their friendship, they have downplayed the rivalry, which unfortunately overflows like the banks of a flooded river.
“We are not fighting; I was just saying she needs to be less attached to this trouser,” Irene says.
“Alright, I will wear my other trousers”, Sherry says, slightly annoyed. “You might think I only have this particular trouser.
They both laugh and proceed with their journey.
Bicycles and motorbikes pass by the small path, and they pave the way. Lucy seems worried; she follows her friends, stops to pick a blade of grass which she chews whenever she is anxious.
“What if he refuses to see me?” She asks her friends suddenly.
“No! Don’t do that to yourself. It is not fair” Irene says.
“She might be right; he has not written to her for a few weeks,” Sherry noted.
“Ooh please sherry, you cannot say that to her” Irene quips.
“Sherry is right; He never goes silent on me.”
At this point, the girls reach a small football field that is adjacent to Lewis’s home. They stand as they look around for someone to send.
Few boys are playing in the field with balls made of polythene papers. The young boys always play during morning hours then pave the way for older boys in the evening. One boy who is barefooted, bare-chested and calling out his friends, seem not to hear Irene call.
Irene goes to where the boys are, he tries to hold the boy by the arm, but he dashes to where the ball is. He calls again, and this time, she is lucky since the boy missed the ball when his friend kicked it outside the field.
“Yeah. What? My friends will defeat us” The young boy says with divided attention.
“Can I send you?”
“No!” The boy says and runs for the ball.
Frustrated, Irene rushes to where her girls are.
Lucy and Sherry are sitting on the green grass and wondering what to do.
They decide to sit and wait for what will happen next. Luckily they see a woman who works at Lewis home pass by. They call her aside. The woman places her hoe down and walks to where they are. She is barefooted, stocky and jovial in appearance.
“Hey, I am Irene, and these are my friends Lucy and Sherry. We wanted to see Lewis.”
“He left yesterday morning.”
“Left to where?”
“He went to Canada. His father and uncle agreed that he would get a better paying job there.”
Lucy’s face flashed. She did not believe what she was hearing. How could Lewis leave without a word? She wondered.
“Did he leave something behind?”
“Yah! His dog and books. He asked the farm boy to take care of his dog” The stocky woman told them.
“He can remember his dog but not me?” Lucy asked bitterly as tears of sadness flowed down her cheeks.
The woman carried the hoe on her back and never said a word to them or looked behind. It is like nobody in Lewis’s household cared about Lucy. Not Lewis, the stocky woman or even Lewis’s dog.