The long wait was finally over; Jimmy had passed his K.C.S.E examinations in a manner that his former teachers could describe as 'with flying colours'. The good news had reached his mother and so, it was celebration time in the house.
Mama Jimmy was with her long-time friend, Kezia, in the living room. This was one of those rare occasions when the duo opened a bottle of champagne and cheered in praise of Jimmy. Unbeknown to them, Jimmy was in his room writing poetry. This was his way of expressing his feelings about something - be it good or bad.
After a few sips, the two ladies in the living room were now talking about anything and everything under the blue sky. Jimmy could clearly get what they were saying. Amid the drinks, the giggles and claps, Jimmy overheard his mother say something that could later change his entire perception of life. The erstwhile well kept secret was now in the open - atleast according Jimmy.
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It all started 19 years earlier. That was when Jimmy was born. His mother barely out of her teens by then, was married to a son of a well known sugarcane farmer in their rural home. It was a forced marriage. Having impregnated the teenage girl, the young man was to go abroad for further studies. A fund raising had already been conducted and everything was in place for the flight.
His father was not at all amused by the developments but two issues softened his heart; he was a well known church elder who did not want to tarnish his reputation, and two, he had always longed for a grand child and this was going to be the first one. He strongly wished that it could be a son and everybody knew about it.
The young Jimmy was born into a world of untold drama. Two months after his birth the father
left for further studies abroad. The teenage mother faced untold abuse and psychological torture from the in-laws. Back at her home, the father could not allow her together with her toddler. He at one time threatened to throw the baby up in the air, shoot him and feed the body to his dogs (he was a policeman about to retire).
When Jimmy was about six months old, the mother abandoned him in the care of the in-laws. She could not bear it anymore. Having weighed her options, she packed her belonging and went to her home, leaving the baby behind. Her father had no problems with accepting her back, provided she did not come along with the baby.
Despite the strong bond that usually exists between mother and child, regardless of the fact that the baby was still breast feeding, she found this an easier option. No amount of persuasion from the in-laws, no number of letters from her husband abroad and no cries from the baby could make her change her mind. She had resolved to go back home and continue with school (she had dropped out of form 5), and that was final.
And so it came to pass, Jimmy grew up around his uncle’s, aunts and grand parents. His grandfather whom he fondly referred to as Babu was his hero, friend, father and role model. He could follow him everywhere; to the shamba, to the church, to the market, to the village baraza and any other place that he went. His grandmother was always there to provide food for him when he was hungry. His aunties were like elder sisters to him. Everybody in the village came to know about Jimmy because he was always tugged to the hem of his grandfather’s coat. In his little mind, the world was made up of grandparents, aunt’s uncles and young children like him. Nowhere did mum and dad appear.
In nursery school, he found it hard to understand whenever the teacher asked him about his mother or father. The shock of all shockers came when he once referred to his mother as a 'strange visitor'.
Jimmy was now four years old and in nursery school. The mother had paid a courtesy call on them, just to check on how the child was doing. Having had a knock on the gate the grandmother who was in the kitchen instructed Jimmy to go and see who was at there. The boy saw a young woman whom he took to be an age mate of his aunts. The lady tried to smile and hug the boy but instead Jimmy ran to his grandmother crying and shouting that there was a “mgeni ambaye si wa kawaida’ at the gate trying to ‘steal’ him. This single incident got Mama Jimmy thinking. She was literally in tears and the entire visit was ruined.
At one point, Jimmy was invited to stay in the city with one of his uncle’s who had graduated from a local university and secured himself a job. Jimmy insisted that he could not go anywhere without his grandfather. They tricked him by having Babu board the same bus as Jimmy without any clothes to be changing according to the young boy only to alight after a few kilometres when Jimmy had fallen a sleep.
In the city, the four-year-old boy was supposed to wash the dishes, wash his own clothes, stay indoors all day long and perform any other duties as may be assigned by his host from time to time. It even became worse when the uncle married and the couple had a child. Jimmy (himself a child) was to be the official baby sitter. During his short stint in an uncle’s house, Jimmy literally lived the life of an orphan. Looking back, he couldn’t believe that both his parents were alive then.This had a lot of impact in his entire life - he could no longer trust his relatives unless it was Babu and grandma.
When his father came back from abroad, Jimmy had grown to be a young man of seven years. His mother had since graduated from a local college and got herself a descent job in the civil service. It was then that they moved together and started staying as a family.
Life went on well and Jimmy now had his own brother and two sisters. He still maintained a cordial relationship with his grandparents especially Babu, but his mother did not approve of it. She could feel that her motherly control over a son was threatened, especially with the ‘strange visitor’ incident still in her mind.
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Jimmy had now become a grown up person. He was going to pursue his childhood dream of becoming a doctor. But in the sitting room, what his mother was saying could change his life forever.
Mama Jimmy and her friend Kezia had no idea that there was a third person in the room, but Jimmy heard it all. Kezia could occasionally stand up, peep through the window curtains, just to make sure that nobody was listening. But walls sometimes have ears.
They went on opening up to each other. Partly due to the influence of the few sips of champagne they had had or due to the happy mood prevailing now that Jimmy had passed his K.C.S.E examinations.
Mama Jimmy told her friend how she got this boy who had always been a source of mixed fortune. According to her, it was a game of the survival for the fittest. She fell pregnant as a teenager and was married off immediately. For her to be assured of staying in her new home, it had to be a baby boy, at least according to the father in- law.
In the hospital, she gave birth to a baby girl. Despite the exhaustion of delivery, she used all tricks in the book to have it exchanged for a boy and it was done. That was how she ended up with Jimmy and it had taken almost twenty years for her to say it. Kezia promised to keep the secret.
In his room, Jimmy sneezed, all the poetry ideas having escaped his mind. The two ladies in the leaving room heard a second cough. They looked at each other in dismay and shrugged their shoulders in unison. There was incensed silence in the house and two left the compound with their heads bowed.
Jimmy thought he was dreaming. He pinched himself to make sure he wasn’t. He lay on his bed and all events in his life flashed through his mind. He remembered the cordial relationship he enjoyed with his grandfather. He empathised with the old man for having been duped into believing that he was his grandchild. The mother had always treated him very well. He loved her so much and always she had a lot of influence on him. He remembered his last–born brother whom everybody said that they resembled in every aspect. He remembered the way his father was very proud of him and the way his younger brother always imitated him. It can’t be true!
But what if it was true? What about his birth certificate that has none of his commonly used names on it, but instead has unisex names that he only used in official documents? He also remembered the label ‘female’ that was entered under ‘sex of child’ in the birth certificate of which his mother had always described as a typing error. It also came to pass that he had never addressed her mother as mum or “Mama” but instead preferred not to address her by any name at all. At first he thought that this was because the mother was not around him during his early development years. But now, it had more meaning than it meets the eye.
After a whole hour of staring at the ceiling, Jimmy smiled to himself. Maybe, and just maybe, it was the glass of alcohol she had taken. He thought. His mother had never tasted alcohol; - at least according to him and those could be just the effects of it. Or worse still, her mother might have gone crazy. The good news about his examination performance might have been so much for her. So he thought.
Whatever the case, there was little he could do about it. So he jumped out of his bed, went straight to the fridge, poured himself a glass of juice and proceeded to call his friends. It was celebration time and nothing could be allowed to stand in the way of an idea whose time had come.
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