dragged in. The Doctor could not even believe it. He just looked at me and said he will heal. He said we should be glad that there was no internal bleeding. Nancy will never forgive me if Leon got worse. She kept telling me to transfer the boys. She kept saying vehicles were filling the roads. The woman had more sense than me. I know she blames me. She asked me on the way here, “what if we lose him?” I hit a bump. I reacted by hitting a bump. What happened to this country? What is happening to this city? Every body is crazy for money. Every one is rushing. See what that got us- he’s in pain and I am here drinking at 4:00am like the wizard I am.” He finished his bottle of Tusker and set it aside. I did not speak a word. I listened to him and asked myself the same question too, “what if Leon never made it?”
February 1983
Leon made it out of the hospital. He used crutches for a while and had to undergo hours of therapy. He finally took his first steps unassisted in February. It was a chilly Saturday morning when he walked into the room and hugged his Mother. His Father was too happy to move but Leon went and sat next to him. “How do you feel Comrade?”
“Better.”
“Good boy, now we have to throw you a party or treat you to lunch, you decide.”
“I would love lunch, or maybe we can go to the cinema.”
“Anything you say right now would be fine Comrade.” Michael took the family out to lunch in town. Shelley held onto Leon’s hand the whole day. Nancy was happy that everything was fine. Michael kept thinking about the medical bills he still had to pay and everything seemed fine. They were getting stronger and the children were growing older. Nancy suggested to Michael that she get a job as a secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture. She had seen the potential financial burden that he would have when the boys finished primary school. Leon, being the smartest of all would sit his Primary school exams that year and pass. By then, Nancy had already secured a chance as a secretary and was bringing in some money. It was not a lot of money, but it was enough to help pay some bills around the house. I had seen Nancy grow into a very resilient woman. I had to admit that she was the right woman for Michael. She handled every challenge with such strength. I would look at her some times and wonder why I was against her. Her style also evolved with time and she did away with the frumpy dresses and wigs. She kept her hair short and invested in necklaces instead. As Leon got better, I noticed that David never left his side. He followed his brother everywhere. He would sit next to him at the dinner table or read out loud to him. At times Leon would ask him to stop following him but David never let on. Jonah on the other hand, had a lot more going. He was performing poorly at school, but getting better at Football. It did not help that his Father fueled his interest by taking him to City Stadium and Kasarani to watch matches. This caused a disagreement between Nancy and Michael, but he stood his ground. I watched them as usual and often listened to what they failed to say. Nancy was not happy. She seemed to have run into her colleagues who were now working with International organizations and felt inferior. She would come home and retire to bed without eating. She did this for weeks before Michael picked on it. He could not have because he came home after her. He never asked what was wrong. He felt as though if anything was troubling her, she would tell him. He was wrong. Nancy lost a lot of weight in one month. It was simple; she was trying to show her friends that she was better than them. They had gained weight. She was trying to be the skinniest of them. She was right. She started buying expensive clothes and jewellery. She was as radiant as a single woman. I loved that about her. Michael let her be. I have never seen someone pout that much. Nancy had her head everywhere but home. It was during this time that Shelley grew closer to Michael. Her Father took care of her. He loved his children with such passion, at times I thought he was compensating for something. All he ever said was that his Father was a busy man. When he was growing up he had to listen to everybody but him. He never wanted his children to take advice from anyone apart from him. Something happened during that time that Nancy would never know. If she would, then the damage would be beyond repair. Nancy came home one day from work- and she went to change into her party clothes. There was some party going down at Carnivore and she was invited. Michael came home and saw her dressed up. She looked through him and walked out of the house. Leon looked at the door and then looked at his Father. Michael smiled. He smiled at him, but Shelley was not to be fooled. The little girl stomped out of the room and went to scream in the kitchen. Nancy was getting way over her head. She had started to forget about the kids and Michael knew it. He never complained. He would look at her and smile and do as she asked. I think Shelley’s hatred for her Mother began at that age. At times when I look back on her childhood, I realize that Nancy never bonded with her Daughter. She got more advice and understanding from her Father and Leon. It’s sad that it happened to be that the only people she listened to were her Father and Leon.
Years on
I will tell you what happened years later. Michael did not care much about Nancy and her desire to fit into a class of people he could not stomach. Every evening he would talk to his children, help them with homework and then fall asleep. There were evenings he would come home and head to bed. Nancy had a life, she loved being busy. She loved making money and buying new clothes and jewellery. Shelley was trouble all through. She fussed and kicked and made sure her Father gave her everything she needed. When her mother asked anything of her, the girl would ignore her and she would be punished. I had never seen anything like it before with chairs. When a chair is angry two things happen; they either scream or liaise with gravity to punish their owners. When a chair screams they lose their splinters and it’s only the walls and the dark of the night that suffer the pain of that sound. Nancy became a scene in the house. Her children observed her, while her husband let her play on. It was during this time that she lost Shelley. I know I have given you the background of this family, but it feels as though we have run out of time and nothing will ever be the same. Besides, I am an old chair now and my splinters have never been on edge as much as they are now. I told you that I knew I’d be sat on for the rest of my life, but I should have also told you the fate of chairs here in Kenya. I don’t know about other countries, but right here when we get old we can be used as firewood or set up in a store to gather dust. Our core is made of wood, and nothing serves a wide range of purposes as wood here in Kenya. Michael called out Shelley’s name the night he died. I don’t know if it was out of pain or regret, but something about the whisper of that name made me feel as though it was out of love, and his desire to see her one last time. Shelley ran away from home one night when she was barely twenty years old. She loved Chris, and her mother could have none of it. He was a boy who wore the same shirt everyday and never looked Michael in the eye when he talked to him. The first time she brought him home Michael was furious. He could not see how his only daughter could talk of marriage yet she had not graduated from the university. Though mad, he did not let on in front of Chris, but Nancy on the other hand chased him out of their home. Shelley never forgave her. When she came home for the summer break, Shelley asked her father to accept her decision and trust that there was some good in Chris. Michael told her about his concerns but promised her that he would support her. I remember their voices that night- slow and hushed and full of despair. She was not happy about how her mother had treated her boyfriend, and she felt as though they were punishing her for being the only girl. Michael did what he had done all his life. He listened and comforted his daughter afraid that he might never see her again. There was finality to her voice when she bid him ‘goodnight.’ Michael stayed up that night, and it would be the second and last time I would hear him weep. It was the last time we would ever see the girl. Michael searched for her for years to come, and when he found her Shelley would only talk and listen to him but never come home. He never told his wife where their daughter was, and though his sons accompanied him to visit her, they never betrayed her location to their mother, and with time I watche
d the family that I came to love grow apart. I know she must have confided in him but to have kept her location a secret from Nancy is an injustice that I feel to date should never have carried on.
I feel as though Michael knew something about Shelley to have let her stay with that boy. I never got one word from him but when he finally relocated to his home in Kisumu, I felt as though he was setting her free. There have been times when I thought that she was pregnant with the boy’s child, but even that would not be reason enough to let her stay with him. It must have been something that only her mother could have done or insinuated to make her leave and stay away. We chairs are good at keeping secrets but as I look at the sun set here in Kisumu, I know that Michael has taken something to his grave. It might be something that will haunt Nancy and his sons in the years to come, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I have lived my life and served my purpose, the one person who cared for me has lived out his life too and now I await my fate. I am old and my splinters are out of