Chapter eleven

Aw, i never knew that some village fool also has interest where i have laid my claim like forever. The love of my life may soon be walking out of my life. I saw Kemboi, the village hyena, approaching her in ways that suggested ulterior motives. I passed by to make sure she saw me and she did, barely. She was laughing so hard at his jokes that she didn’t seem to notice me. My heart almost burst in anger and hatred and i felt like clobbering the daylights out of this fool (a death sentence for he stood at five foot nine). I have always believed that i was the ‘rhymiest’ guy in the village but i now think some man would be taking the crown without a struggle. I swear though if he takes her, uhm...i’ll cry for a month then move on. But what of my herds-mates and their stinging taunts? And the way they have been looking for ways to make me a laughing stock? Kemboi has to go down, whatever it takes, even if it means fighting him, using my brain of course. But in the meantime, i need to get to ‘my’ lady to really see if she has fallen for this guy. If she has, i will either do the propaganda stuff or a proxy war. I will go to the old man i played a trick on once, my paternal grandpa, and ask for some advice from him. He likes me, he only beats me twenty times a year which is a far-cry to the damage my papa does (which makes me think my father is an illegitimate child. His behaviours do not in any way resemble his father’s, aw, he never knows i think this way). They say that what an old man sees seated, a young man would never see even when up in a tree. I don’t know if this applies to my grandpa for he doesn’t ever see where the hoe or the machete is. This does not however apply to his cup of porridge and his snuff.

I didn’t find Chela at her place so i have to make my way to my grandpas. He is seated outside the mango tree that never hatches, but he never gives up on it. He sits like a wise man when i approach and gives me that toothless smile that makes him look even more sheepish. If he tells me what i want to know, then he is wise. If he doesn’t however, i’ll conclude that old age is catching up with him.