Ch. 1: The Whispering Village
In the far far away village known as Chesoen, near Olengurane forest lived a family made up of a father, a mother and a little girl. The name of the little girl was Chebet. When Chebet as about six years old her mother passed away. Her father came under immense pressure to remarry so that, as the relatives, friends and neighbors put it, he could provide Chebet with a stable family. But the father, broken hearted from the death of his beloved wife and Chebet’s mother, decided against taking the advice given and resolved to raise Chebet on his own.
When Chebet was about twelve years old, her father took her to the market to learn how to sell farm produce in the village market. This they did together for a number of times until the father was satisfied that Chebet could take the farm produce to the market on her own, without being accompanied by the father.
Then one Saturday, the father told Chebet to go and sell eggs in the market as he travelled to Olposimoru to check on the cattle that his son Kipkemei was looking after. Chebet was so excited that her father could trust her to do the selling on her own. And so she got ready, put on her gum boots and a warm jacket and carried thirty six eggs from the store. She placed the eggs in a well organized basket so that the eggs will not break. Then placing the basket on her head and balancing it well, she walked to the market.
At the market, there was commotion caused by something Chebet did not quite comprehend. She later learnt from the shop attendants that there was a political rally which ended in chaos leading the village market administrator to close the market and ask every one to go back home. As Chebet was finding her way back home, heavy rain fell. The rain was accompanied by lightning and thunderstorms. Chebet managed to find her way through the village market, and as she was approaching Chesoen, the rain intensified and so she decided to shelter at an abandoned food kiosk by the roadside. As she was sheltering, her mind roamed. She thought of what to say to father when he arrived home seeing that she had not sold anything and was without money in her purse. She knew that there was nothing to eat in the house that night. She was now shivering with cold and hunger, a picture of misery, poor Chebet. Looking around she noticed that the people living in the nearby houses were beginning to make their evening meals. She wished she could just walk over to one of those houses and ask for a meal. An idea popped in her head that she will take a note of one thing, and one thing only when God strikes his matches in the form of lightning.
The first lightning, she noticed a cow sheltering under a dairy milking shed at Mr Wesleys house. When the lightning had gone she let her imagination take her wherever. For this one she imagined the cow giving her shelter and even letting her drink some of her milk which she was giving to her calf. In this way she would be warm, from sheltering under the cow and well fed from drinking the milk.
On the second lightning, she noticed Mr. Wesley in a warm coat, and a lamp, walking to the children’s house. Once more Chebet let her imagination take over. This time she imagined her father coming home with a lot of goodies. She saw her father putting down the goodies and giving her a huge hug and she thought she even saw a tear drop from her father’s eyes for having missed her a lot. Besides the love and hugs, Chebet saw her father bringing lots of food and even having returned with her older brother back home. This was a very exciting imagination indeed to an extent that Chebet thought it was real.
On the third lightning, she noticed a large field with hills and many cattle, and a row of tall cypress trees. So for the third time, she let her imagination take over. She imagined her entire family reunited. She saw in her imagination her mother back from the land of the dead. She saw her father and Kipkemei back from Olposimoru. Then she saw the entire family having a picnic in a golf course like field with undulating hills lined with pine trees interspersed with cypress trees. In her imagination the field where all this was taking place was warm and the extended family of grandma and grandpa and the many aunties, uncles and aunties were present. It was in short a happy place.
Presently, as her imagination was still rolling on like a movie, and the night sky was dark and full of stars, she noticed a star falling. She remembered what her mom had told her once when she was young that a star falling from the sky meant that someone had just died. She had explained that each one of us is represented in the sky by a star, and that when a star falls it signifies that one person has died.
This thought stretched Chebet’s imagination further, and she saw her mother approach her and speak to her in a loving and tender manner as she used to do when Chebet was young.
Chebet begged her now dead mother to take her to heaven where she has been all this time. Her mother hesitated for a while as Chebet begged her over and over. At long last her mother scooped her up and held her tight and kissed her in the forehead and wrapped her in a warm blanket and took her under her wings and flew away and both of them flew in brightness and joy above the earth, very, very high, and up there was neither cold, nor hunger, nor fear-they were with God.
However, leaning against the wall that rainy and cold night, Chebet with a smile on her face had frozen to death.
When the sun rose the following day, Chebet sat there stiff and cold with a basket full of eggs.
“Poor Chebet, she missed the warmth of a stable family”, the Chesoen villagers were heard saying. No one imagined the beautiful things she had seen, and happily she had gone with her mother into the bright new earth beyond this earth.