Sister-in-Campus 12

I

t had dawned faster than Joyce had thought that she almost felt like suing God for such a short night. She wondered why she was alone on her bed yet she vividly remembers sleeping in the arms of a man who was participated in saving her life the previous day. Godfrey had held her in his arms like a baby and laid her to sleep on her bed. It is something she had never imagined in her life would happen to her before she could get married legally. She knew spending in a room with a man was not only hard but was catastrophic to her life both physically and spiritually, but then she had woke up one day to find Hazy had crept into their room while they slept with a man and spent together. Soon she got used to share a room with a man and didn’t feel anything bad with it. But now the thought of spending with a man in one bed was different. If her parents or church members back at home heard of it they would be speechless. But yesterday as she saw Stacia and Kalos behaving romantically like embracing each other, kissing each other and even looking at each other’s eyes she got carried away. Godfrey who was staring at the same spot on the floor at that time was caught unaware when he stole a glance at Joyce and their eyes met. When she smiled he smiled too. Just then the door opened and Stacia entered smiling.

“My dear we just found your lost phone at the spot of yesterday’s incident, though we could not locate the cover of the phone…” Stacia announced. She had spent with her Kalos in her room.

“Thank you so much. Where is he?” Joyce asked.

“Goddy left soon after you fell asleep” Stacia replied giving her the phone. She switched it on and began to receive messages endlessly, among them an m-pesa message from her dad. Most of the remaining messages were just “I tried calling you” from her dad and one from her dad. Just then the phone began to ring, her dad was calling. When she received he seemed to be in panic from his voice, she assured him that all was well. She made up a totally different story that she had changed her mind to travel the following day which was in deed today since they had finished late.

“I don’t want them panicking about my safety when am very much safe”, she said after she had hanged up.

She soon left to take a shower and be back to pack her things again. This time she was to leave alone quickly so that she can be at home by noon and perhaps eat her mother’s lunch. She was not ready to spend any more time in this place that was responsible for her misfortunes. She had gone through a lot in a short time that her testimony if it were to be delivered in an enormous crusade would really encourage many. 

It was about ten o’clock when Joyce boarded a van bound for Kakamega. She was lucky to find the van almost full and she did not wait longer than twenty minutes before the van left the bus stage.  The callers at the Kisii stage who often helped the conductors to fill the vans were notorious for the annoying behavior of forcing potential travellers to board a vehicle they had been assigned to. If they found a mother with a kid and even two bags they often snatched the kid, the bags and placed them in different vehicles. Lucky for Joyce she had only one bag which had been carried by only one caller as soon as she alighted from the boda boda than had carried her from the university. The caller simply took her to the correct vehicle she had asked for and demanded from some tea from the conductor of the vehicle. But then the hawkers were not a pleasant lot as they often forced passengers in a van to buy their merchandise even when they didn’t seem interested.

As the van she boarded left the streets of Kisii Joyce looked outside the window.  She had taken a lot of time to tour some places like daraja mbili market where many second hand merchandise were often bought. But as soon as she saw the bye bye sign of Kisii University, memories and imaginations of many kinds flooded her mind. It was the first time she was going home feeling like a copse going to be buried because it was hard to imagine if she will be able to be back with a swollen stomach. Once the people discover her pregnancy she would be asked tough questions she didn’t have answers to. Up to now she didn’t know who the father of her unborn child was. But one thing she didn’t want to imagine is that people had known she had been robbed her virginity by a gang of bad boys.

“Campus girl I just asked for your fare and you are ignoring me”, someone tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to face the conductor. His red eyes that looked like the head lamps of an old Mercedes truck were very scary to her. Their eye lids didn’t close open like of a normal person did.

“I will give you when you are done with the rest”, she said.

“I have already done so and you are the one remaining”, the conductor went on.

“What is a young girl like you thinking about?” an old woman sited right behind her commented and clicked in anger.

“Maybe she is thinking of her sponsor” the conductor answered the old woman. Joyce tried to remain calm as possible as she looked for the money. She remembered she was not carrying her hand bag. She had placed it inside her bag which was now tied on the van’s roof.

“Am sorry the money is in my hand bag now in the bag that you people you put on the roof of the vehicle”, Joyce managed to say finally.

“You should say you don’t have the money and not that it is I don’t know where” the conductor retorted angrily. “How did you pay for the boda boda then?”

“I paid for the fare before I put into the huge bag and we came this way”

“What if we stop the van and open your bag and end up with nothing?” Joyce was silent to this question. Just then the conductor asked the driver to stop the van so that she could alight. She felt like crying for this sort of harassment. The old woman who had spoken the words that made the conductor mention sponsor now claimed she was pregnant with a man fit to be her grandfather. Someone offered to pay for her fair bring the much silence that she greatly needed.

“Young lady sorry for the embarrassment you had to go through” someone said behind Joyce as she stepped out of the van to stretch her legs at the Kisumu terminus. She turned and saw a relatively elderly man standing near her. She greeted him and thanked him for his help. He was the one who had paid for her fare when things were getting noisy in the van.

“Well nice to meet you Joyce, I am Mr. Hudson on a work conference here at Kisumu and I will be on my way to the hotel where we shall be staying.” He said as he pulled out something from his pocket. It was a business card when he handed it to her. “Would you mind having my business card so that you can give me a call later.”

“Thank you Mr. Hudson, God bless you” Joyce said as she received the card. She remained standing on that same spot watching vehicles and people moving about the terminus. Hawkers here were not any better than those she who disliked at Kisii. A number of callers and conductors tried to persuade her to board their vans but she remained silent like water in a jerry can. Soon the conductor of the van she had come with from Kisii called her to get into the van so they could leave. He had suddenly become friendly to her. Most of the people they had come with from Kisii had alighted here. The conductor would at times try to cheer her with stories as she was sited just in front of him. But she nodded most of the time paying less attention to the stories. Her mind was still on what awaited her when she got home.

* * * * *

The church had a few people in it when Joyce walked in quietly and sat next to the window somewhere in the middle. Few of the people who were already in there saw her walk in as they were praying silently. She knew if she failed to show up lots of questions were bound to arise afterwards. She also didn’t want to catch people’s attention when she walks in to the church late.

“Hey Joyce are you not coming for some choir practices?”, Petro whispered near her without even bothering to know whether she was praying of not since she had bowed her head down in a praying position.

“No Petro not today” she whispered back to him and hoped he would leave her alone.

“Why Joyce?” he asked again.

“Try and understand that I can’t do it today” Joyce answered her clearly looking at his face.  She hoped that her facial expirations were explanatory enough. He left disappointed as he didn’t expect no for an answer. People kept trickling in one by one and an hour later the worship service started.  When it was ended Joyce was glad no one had noticed her all this time especially during the announcements. Tall people happened to be sited in front of her. It was the first time she was in that church not participating at the fore front. Her father who was in his office preparing for the sermon was surprised why his daughter had not been recognized by the person reading announcements and recognizing guests in the congregation as was the tradition. He made a point of making her stand up and even walk to the front. He intended to give a cooked up testimony of how his daughter had managed the university life in her first year and emerged a strong Christian. He was sure she was going to play a low profile in today’s service something he had observed throughout the three days she had been at home after coming back home. Joyce on the hand felt otherwise about anything equivalent to that. She had just come there to show everyone she was still the same person she was when she left to join the university.