Why I forgave Fiolina for burning my future

When I left my old simba last Sunday afternoon, where I had been staying for two weeks in self-quarantine, I was looking forward to a quiet time with my family.

I had planned to embark on implementing the many great ideas I had come up with during the isolation period.

But drama started when Fiolina, the laugh of my enviable life, arrived to pick me. She came with some Dettol soap, sanitisers, and new clothes, saying she wanted me to leave all viruses behind.

However, my mother had other plans. This became apparent when Fiolina knocked the door.

I told her it was closed from outside, and thus she needed to pick the keys from my parents. Little did I know that trouble had begun.

“Where were you when we were toiling with our son, usiku na mchana?” My mother shouted at her. “I don’t want to see you here!”

She went on: “Sitakubali mtoto wangu kuishi na mtu ambaye hajali.”

My father wanted to open the door, but my mother would not allow him to do so. “Wewe haujui uchungu wa kuzaa mtoto,” she warned him.

PASTOR INTERVENES

In between, my mother was supervising the preparation of a feast to welcome me back from isolation, with her largest cockerel having been slaughtered.

But Fiolina was not taking things lying down. “Dre may be your son, but he is my husband,” she said. “My lawfully wedded husband.”

She told my mum she would leave with me "apende asipende". “Wewe chunga bwana wako uniwachie wangu,” Fiolina told her.

But my mother reminded her that blood was thicker than water. This commotion attracted people, and soon, Reverend Bishop Apostle Elkana arrived.

He called the two warring women into the main house, but Fiolina refused to enter. They met under a tree, from where they had a discussion.

After some time, the door was opened and in came Apostle Elkana. He sprayed anointing oil all over the house and my head while praying.

A few minutes later, I left the house. At the corner of the compound, Fiolina had made a temporary bathroom and put some water for me to bathe.

SEIZING THE MOMENT

She had also put new clothes in the bathroom, which she asked me to wear after taking a shower. She instructed me to leave everything else I had in the bathroom.

My mother was busy setting the table for the big feast. Guests such as Alphayo, Rasto, Nyayo, Senje Albina, among others, had started arriving.

Fiolina did not join us for the meal. She even refused to eat anything she was given.

Apostle Elkana was seated next to me in the main house. Since I was not feeling like I had been healed from any disease, I did not say a lot.

I could not understand why people were celebrating. But Apostle Elkana used the opportunity to shine — he told anyone who cared to listen how he had been with me daily, and that his prayers had moved mountains.

He also made good sales out of his anointing oil. “Hii ndio dawa ya corona,” he said.

And asked everyone who bought it to apply on their bodies after taking a bath, and to spray in their houses daily. “Hii corona iko kila mahali kwanza kwa nyumba. Lakini ukiweka hii kila wiki hautaonana nayo.”

HOUSE CLEANING

After the meal, it was time to go home. I decided to go pick my notebook from the house. To my shock, Fiolina had ordered everything in the house to be burnt, including the mattress, blankets and my two novels.

“Why did you burn my notes?” I asked. “Dre, we can’t keep you in a house for two weeks then allow you to get out with all the viruses,” she said.

She said she had researched and learnt that viruses remained on paper for at least one month, or forever.

I tried to tell her that she had basically burnt my future, but she could not understand what I was talking about.

“Dre, they were just papers, including two exercise books that cost less than Sh50,” she said.

“It’s not about the cost of the books, rather the value of what I had written,” I said. “Do you know that I had started writing two novels? Now they are gone,” I lamented.

“If indeed you are the one who wrote them, you can still write again. Or had you been copying from someone?” Fiolina asked.

BUDGET

She clearly did not understand me. She left abruptly.

Upset, I went back to my parents’ main house, where visitors kept coming to see me, and to hear how I had been healed from corona.

Meanwhile, Apostle Elkana’s business of selling anointing oil was booming.

I was still at my parents’ place by 6pm, and my mother was sure I would spend the night there.

Since I could neither go back to the same isolation house, nor was a married man allowed to sleep in his parents’ house, my mother set up a bed for me in the kitchen.

Imagine what the Mwisho wa Lami villagers would say if they heard that a man with the most advanced palatial mansion had slept in his parents’ kitchen.

I decided to leave. My mum reluctantly allowed me to leave, but not before she shared with me the budget of the day.

It was close to Sh5,000, although I doubt she had spent even half of that. I sent her Sh3,000 via M-Pesa, promising to send the balance later.

I arrived home to find a fuming Fiolina. To my shock, she still insisted that I bathe, again, and change clothes before I could be allowed into my home.

A MAN'S HEART

I took a shower and when I entered the house, a welcome surprise awaited me — she had prepared the most sumptuous meal ever: Ugali, rice, chapati and matumbo fry.

I downed this with three glasses of juice. I had never felt so nice. We talked and talked and talked. I had really missed Fiolina, why lie?

We retired to bed late, and for obvious reasons, we slept much later. Much, much later.

By the next morning, I had forgiven Fiolina for burning my notes, which carried my future, and two novels.

For I understood she had done it out of her undying love for me. I will write again. And the novels will be more interesting.

Start saving to buy them.