(Continued from Backlash II)
Daisy is taking photos of them, no doubt to continue her social media campaign against Philip. Philip looks angry and wants to go over to her, but Jerusha pulls him back.
“Just sit down and enjoy your breakfast,” she says. “Daisy has already seen you, and she has taken photos of us. Anything you do will only make the situation worse.”
Philip reluctantly sits down, once more surprised by Jerusha’s quickness of thought. Without the overdone makeup and the tiny dress, Jerusha looks nothing like a commercial sex worker. She is wearing a royal blue dress with a black blazer, and black heels. She has minimal make up-the thick layers of foundation are gone, the fake eye-lashes are gone, even the eyeshadow is gone. The lipstick is there but it has been reduced. The cheap, heavy perfume has been replaced by a more expensive scent that is easier on the nose. She is a totally different person from the woman he picked up at the club yesterday. With her new look, she could have passed for a banker or a lawyer.
After Philip sits down, a waiter comes and takes their orders. They continue with their conversation as they wait for their breakfast.
“I have a question,” Philip says. “And please don’t be offended.”
“Ask. If I don’t want to respond I will just tell you so.”
“You look more beautiful today than yesterday. Do you have to overdo the make-up and wear miniskirts and tiny dresses when looking for clients?”
“Do doctors have to wear white coats and hang stethoscopes around their necks?” she asks rhetorically. “No they don’t. But nothing identifies a doctor faster than that kind of dressing. If I approach you when I am dressed the way I am dressed, you might think that I am offering myself for free. But then when I come as I was yesterday, then there is no confusion. It is just business. The girls in high end brothels can afford to be subtle, but then they don’t have to hunt for clients or haggle for prices.”
“Who stays with your daughter when you are at work?”
“I have a house assistant. But I am usually in the house by 6 am on most days, and I usually don’t leave the house until after 8 pm.”
“Where do you tell her you have gone?”
“To work, of course. I told her-and the domestic manager-that I work for a cleaning company, and that we work at night because that is when the offices are empty. I even have uniforms that I put on as I leave the house. I live in Thika, but I have a bedsitter in Ngara where I change from the uniform to the miniskirts and the make-up that you are criticizing. The domestic manager once commented that my uniforms are always clean, and I told her that I don’t do actual cleaning because I am supervisor.”
She bursts out laughing, and her laughter is so infectious that Philip finds himself joining in. They are still laughing when Daisy comes and grabs Philip by the collar.
“Is this what you are doing now? Taking women to hotels you have never taken me?”
“Let go of him, Daisy,” Jerusha says firmly and pushes the other woman away from Philip. Daisy activates her drama mode.
“And who do you think you are to tell me what I can do or not do with my husband?”
Jerusha smiles sweetly.
“Are you not confusing things here, sweetheart? This is Philip, your step-son. The man you spent the night with in room 306, is your husband. You can’t have both father and son you know.”
Daisy appears shocked.
“Have you been spying on me?”
“Everything that happens in this hotel is my business. Now listen. Get out of my sight before I lose my cool. Go and figure out better ways of servicing your man and leave us to discuss business.”
Daisy hesitates and then walks away.
“How did you know all that?”
“When I was heading out of the hotel to purchase clothes, I saw her and a man emerge out of room 306. I hid at a corridor because I didn’t want to be seen and followed them at a distance. They did not see me. She escorted him to the car park and they kissed deeply before the man got into his car. I exited the main gate as the woman returned to the hotel. When you pointed out Daisy to me and told me she is your wife, I put two and two together because you had told me that your wife is cheating on you with your father. It was a bluff. The man could have been another man, but gauging by her reaction after I called her out, it was your father.”
Philip sips his tea and stares vacantly out of the window for a few minutes.
“I am sorry about last night,” he says suddenly.
“What?”
“By sleeping with you last night, I was continuing what your step-dad and your former employers started. I am sorry.”
“You didn’t force me, Philip. This is my work now. I don’t like it, but that is how I feed my family. Besides, nothing happened between us last night.”
“What?”
“Yes. You and I did not have sex last night. You undressed me but when we got to bed you started crying saying you were sorry and that two wrongs would not make a right. Then you fell asleep. While you were sleeping you started crying again apologizing to your mother. That is when I figured that you were in turmoil and went looking for clues in your briefcase. I saw the pills and didn’t need to be told what you intended to do with them.”
Philip gazes outside once more, avoiding eye contact with Jerusha. He doesn’t know whether to be relieved or humiliated by the latest revelation.
“What do you plan to do next?” Jerusha asks, breaking his trance.
“I don’t know. I didn’t think I would be alive today, so I did not think that far. I am basically broke and homeless.”
“Where is your home? I mean your parents’ home.”
“Murang’a.”
“Murang’a is just here. I think you should go and talk to your mum. Tell her the truth about everything.”
“I don’t even have the fare to get to Murang’a, Jerusha.”
“I will give you the fare to go home. But I don’t want you to get ideas of killing yourself again.”
Philip sighs deeply.
“Why are you helping me? I am a stranger you just met, and I intended to take advantage of you.”
“What you planned to do last night was selfish; there is no doubt about that. You wanted to sleep with me knowing too well that you did not have money to pay for my services. On top of that, you would have left me with a bill to settle and lots of questions to answer to the police. That was extremely selfish. After you told me the truth, I could have just disappeared in the morning while you slept and left you to handle your mess.
But my instincts tell me that you are a good person. You couldn’t even have sex with me because even in your drunkenness you believed it was wrong. I have seen so many male predators, some of them pastors and Bishops, that I find it refreshing to see someone sincere. You have been pushed to a corner and were on the verge of giving up. But I want to help you fight back because I think you can positively influence one or two men.
Anyway, I think I should settle the bill now so that we can leave. I won’t come with you to see your mother because I don’t think that will be appropriate. But I will give you enough money to get there and even buy a kilo of sugar for her.”
“Thank you Jerusha. You have been so kind.”
*
It is about midday when Philip gets to Murang’a town. He alights at the main matatu stage, where he takes a motorcycle and proceeds to his parent’s house in the Mumbi locality of Murang’a township. He is crossing fingers that his father is still in Nairobi and that he will find his mother at home.
It is only this morning, when he wanted to call ahead and find out if his mother is at home and alone, that he realised that he didn’t have his phone. Yet he remembers clearly that he had it when he entered the club yesterday. It must have been stolen.
Fortunately, he finds his mother alone at home. She welcomes him to the house with a smile, but without the usual warmth. She serves him with a cup of tea and pancakes. There is an awkward silence, and Philip concentrates on his tea, while his mother fixes her eyes on the TV, where a preacher is evangelizing.
“Mom, there is something I need to tell you,” he says finally.
“What is it son?” his mother replies, without looking at him.
“Do you know the reason why my marriage collapsed?”
“Isn’t because you were fooling around with that girl? I don’t believe you forced or blackmailed her into anything, but still I am very disappointed in you, son. I brought you up better than that.”
“I did not sleep with that girl mum, and I did not beat up Daisy. The reason Daisy and I broke up is because she was cheating on me. She confessed it to me herself.”
“With who?”
“With dad.”
“What did you say?”
“Mum, your husband and Daisy have been seeing each other for at least four years. I have known that for six months, but I did not want to tell you because I did not want to hurt you. So I kept the information to myself.”
“Is this how low you are now stooping son? Do you know the father you are badmouthing paid your bail money so that you wouldn’t rot in jail? I have spent thirty seven years with your father, and he has never given me a reason to lose trust in him.”
“Mom, I am telling you the truth. In fact, dad spent the night yesterday with Daisy at a Nairobi hotel.”
“Son, I am not going to listen to this nonsense anymore. Your dad and Pastor Moses were in Mombasa since last week for a church conference. You know that. In fact, he paid your cash bail via MPESA. They flew from Mombasa this morning, and actually took breakfast here before Pastor went to his home.
It is you who spent the night with a prostitute at a hotel. You thought I wouldn’t know? Daisy called me and gave me every detail. Your father is sleeping. I am going to wake him up so that you can apologize to him.”
“I am speaking the truth mother.”
“You either apologize to your father or you get out of my house and never come back.”
Philip rises, and with tears rolling down his cheeks, he walks out of the house. He doesn’t know where he will go next, but he had rather go and sleep under bridges than apologize to the criminal who calls himself his father. But the greatest pain in his heart is that he has lost his best friend: his mother.
(Continued Here)
Image by Pexels from Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/photos/breakfast-delicious-drink-food-1835478/
*
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–Edward.
