By Anthony Muchoki , originally published 2005.
Simon Peter took a deep breath. “I believe! I believe!” he shouted. With all his heart, he knew that he was going to succeed. He was going to make it. He had worked so hard for this moment. He was sitting his O level final Maths test. “What if I don’t…?” he thought aloud and a cold chill ran down his spine.
“You are not a woman. You must pass all science subjects otherwise I will never marry you,” his long time girlfriend who was ten years older than him, had told him.
Their relationship had blossomed from a supermarket encounter to produce a booming boy who was now four years old. He had never told anyone in his family about the relationship. His mother did not know he had a very charming son, because he was still a secondary school student.
The girlfriend’s name was Atoti, meaning the sweet one. Simon was only 18 years old. He met the woman when he was 14. He thought he could never love any other person the way he loved Atoti. He adored her.
When they first met, he had helped her carry some goods to her car. It was late in the evening and he was just strolling around in Kabati town after a hard day in class. He had just joined Kabati Day High School in Form One. It was far away from his home and he had to rent a house nearby.
The lady was so touched and invited him to her house the following day, which was a Saturday, for dinner.
When he arrived there, he realized that he had never seen such a wonderful house in his life. It was marvelous and beautifully furnished, with exotic carpets in every room. Atoti took him around all the rooms.
When they reached her bedroom, he felt embarrassed to see female underwears lying about. They then returned to the sitting room. He realized the woman was so beautiful. He was gazing at her flesh hungrily, when their eyes locked. He froze. He was sweating all over. Atoti, took him by the hand. Momentarily, she thought he was going to collapse…
After several such visits, one day he slept with her. He felt on top of the world. It was his first time to sleep with a woman. His whole body was on fire. He did not want the goodness he felt to ever go. When he climaxed, he cried like a small boy.
“It’s okay baby,” Atoti comforted him.
“I will always make sure you feel like that, but you must never love another woman. You will be mine and mine alone. I will give you everything you want. But you must never play around with another woman,” she told him.
He recalled her words as if it was yesterday. That was four years ago. He had given himself wholly to Atoti. He felt he would die without her. Her hands used to massage his body almost daily. She made him want her so much. Sometimes she would deny him sex, and he would cry like a baby and then she would give in. She could easily have decided to make him her slave.
Simon Peter looked at the maths examination paper. He wrote down his name and index number.
“If you fail maths, I will not marry you!” Atoti’s voice echoed in his voice. He was sweating profusely. O my God, if I fail…if I fail…
He started tackling the first question. His hands were shaking. “No, no, what is happening to me?” he wondered. “O my God…” Before he could call the invigilator to assist him, he had fainted.
When he came to, two months later, the first person he saw was his mother. He was in a hospital bed. Simon Peter had suffered from extreme shock because of fear of failure. The doctors were flabbergasted.
The school administration had contacted his parents who had come to see him. Atoti, would go to the hospital everyday to see him. She lied to his parents that Simon Peter was just his good friend and in fact offered them accommodation as they were waiting for their son to regain consciousness.
“Mama, where am I,” he asked his Mother.
“O son, my dear son, you are in hospital. I am so happy you have your consciousness back…I am so happy!” She hugged him, crying tears of joy.
Then he recalled what had happened.
“I did not do my maths paper, mama. She will leave me. Atoti will leave me mama…” he started shaking.
Her mother was confused but tried to comfort him. She also called the doctor who immediately came in the ward.
The man-boy was scared. The doctor told him to calm down.
“It is okay she will not leave you. She would never leave you,” said the doctor.
Then like magic, Atoti came into the hospital room. When she saw him seated on the bed she was so happy. She could not control her joy. She rushed to him and hugged him.
“O my sweetheart, my sweetheart. I am so happy. I need you so much you should hurry up and get well again. I need you so much…” many words of comfort came out of her mouth.
And Simon Peter could not believe his ears.
“O my dear, the one I love more than anything else, please tell me the truth. I have failed you. I did not do the maths test. I have failed your test. Will you still marry me? Don’t tell me no because I will not live to hear it. But you must tell me the truth…,” he told her.
The two lovebirds had forgotten there were other people in the room.
“Oh! Don’t worry sweetie, I will marry you. You are mine today and forever. You belong to me and I am yours. You don’t have to worry. You are always mine. Nothing and nobody can ever separate us, don’t you believe it Simon Peter?” Atoti asked him.
Simon Peter felt a wave of bliss, move from his head to his toes. His heart swelled. Nothing else mattered. Nothing. He would now have Atoti again. Not only today but tomorrow and forever. They would make love again. She would hold him and make his life have meaning. He was so happy. He took a deep breathe.
“I believe! I believe!” he told Atoti.
“Listen Atoti, listen Atoti!” he told her lover passionately, “I would rather die than live without you.” And he was dead serious. His mama was perplexed. She felt paralyzed and powerless.
“My son, my son, my son, you have married an old woman, a devilish woman!” she wanted to shout, scream and kick the bitch of a woman who had cheated her son to death. But she was powerless at her advanced age. Her feeble strength could not match Atoti’s.
Simon Peter was her only son. He was her life and she would not let anyone take him away just like that. She wanted him back home. And when the time to marry came she had always thought she would choose for him a good girl who would respect him as well as her. The wife she would get for him would produce lovely grand children for her…. She saw the dream melt to fog. Tears swelled from her eyes. She wailed. She could not believe it. The doctor was speechless. He saw a desperate mother silent tears of pain and disappointment mixed with fear. He took her out of the room.
“Don’t cry anymore. The boy will come to his senses,” he told him. On their way to the doctor’s room, they met Atoti’s househelp. The girl was with Atoti’s son. Simon Peter’s mama looked at the little boy critically. She called him closer. And took his hand and gazed at it curiously.
“Doctor, doctor this is my grandson. This is the product of my son and that evil woman,” she could not bear it.
“Why had I not noticed it before? Doctor no noooooo! This cannot be…” She shouted at the top of her voice.
She was hysterical. Some curious patients left their wards to watch the woman. She was getting out of hand.
“Simon, Simon, why have you done this to me. Why?” she started to tear her clothes apart. People tried to stop her. She was too strong. She beat up everyone around. People started running away from the now naked woman who was out of her mind.
Simon Peter and Atoti were still in the ward. Holding hands, they pledged never to leave each other. Never ever. The doctor went back. He addressed Simon directly.
“Man, your mother is going nuts because you never told him about your relationship with Atoti. Right now she is naked outside the road shouting at you. You are the only one who can help your mother.”
Hurriedly Simon Peter and Atoti went outside the hospital in the direction the doctor had indicated his mother had followed. They ran fast hoping to catch up with her. They saw her in distance shouting, “Simon, Simon…”
They got close to her.
“Mother,” Simon Peter called her.
She looked back and saw them running towards her holding hands.
“The devillll…,” she shouted.
She crossed the road. She never saw the trailer that hit her head on. She passed out on the spot. Simon Peter had tried to warn her not to cross the road. He had seen the speeding vehicle was at close range.
Then the lorry screeched to a halt. Pieces of meat and blood were scattered where the accident had taken place. His mother’s body had been torn into many pieces as if hit by a million ton train. Simon Peter cried his heart out holding pieces of the remains.
“Mama forgive me.
Mama I love you.
Mama don’t die….”
Atoti was transfixed at one place. Then she saw a passing by cab. She waved at it to stop. She boarded and left Simon Peter crying while collecting the broken bones of her mother as passersby watched the daylight tragedy. It was a terrible, moving scene.
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