The men

My last born niece was growing up. My sister Grace was waiting to join High School so she practically raised my small niece.  We had a house help but we did most of the house work which was strange. In fact they got better treatment than we did. Susan would sometimes go for evening services with the house help and live me and Grace to take care of the house chores and the children. My sister Susan entertained friends a lot, men to be exact. I think she fell in love easily but out of it equally fast. We had different men visit her and we became familiar to the drill. 

One guy in particular was interesting for lack of a better word. He was such a drunk and every time he came, we could see it in his eyes. I don’t understand what Susan saw in him. We would sometimes go and visit him at his house. Watch movies, eat and keep ourselves busy. Now the guy started seducing my sister Grace. He would follow her in the kitchen, try to touch her and my sister would run and join us in the living room. I still don’t understand why my sister took us to visit the guy when we were all kids with no grown up.

Grace decided to tell Susan. You’ve heard of cases where mothers refuse to believe that their daughters are being seduced by step-fathers or boyfriends?  That was the scenario. Susan accused Grace of lying and she totally refused to believe. We ignored it since she was helpless. Another time the guy came to visit and my sister sent him to get something from his house. He did not live far from where we lived but he always drove over. So the guy requests to go with me and Susan agreed. Am sitting on the passenger sit and I can smell this guy’s breathe is stinking of alcohol. So he tries to ask questions to create a conversation. I was so tense and scared since I knew the truth about him. He then dared to put his hand on my thighs. I start crying and telling him not to do anything to me. Then he lets go and starts laughing trying to brush off what he just did. We finally reach his house and as we climb the stairs, he grabs me and tries to kiss me. I wailed then he let go and pretended to be hugging me. When we reach his house, I see another lady there and she starts asking him questions. I was so traumatized I did not bother to hear what she was complaining about. He entered, got what he wanted and we left. In the car back he tells me not to tell my sister about the lady or anything that happened. We reach home, I wiped my tears and pretended all was well but Grace could tell and I shared with her.

The guy was finally booted and others came along that were quieter, friendly and finally came Justin. This guy was charming. I can’t remember how they met but he was a friend to Susan. He fell in love with our neighbor Brenda. They lived in the main house. Brenda was such a nice girl, God rest her soul in peace. She was loving, kind, a sister to me. It did not take long until Susan had Justin in her arms. 

I had this routine that whenever I was sent to the shop, I would pass by Brenda’s house and she would take me. On this day, I decided to share with her that Justin was in our house; in fact I had left them in the bedroom with Susan. I wish I kept my mouth shut. Susan had a sixth sense or an intuition which she used fully. I do not recall how she knew that I had mentioned that but when I returned home I was beaten thoroughly. Brenda was mature so she did not make a big deal about Justin playing her. She gladly moved on. I bet maybe she wasn’t in love with the guy.

Justin introduced us to a new church which was in someone’s house. Everything was done in their language, French, so we were left hanging. Before long he moved in. He was easy to get along with considering he was not very conversant with Swahili and spoke broken English. We would still be beaten in front of him so that didn’t change.