DARING WITH DARIUS

"There are times when I wish I never met Darius," Ann Kwambo began, staring long at the growing waves far at the deep sea. We are seated at Seabase hotel hugging Nyali Beach at close waters. She is twenty seven, with a brown skin that reminds me of refined honey. Her short hair reminds you that such hairstyles for women are coupled with a rich bum. On her left, a clutch was leaning towards her thigh. She graduated from law school three years ago. Law school. Where it all started. Where her ripe adulthood came to a collision with college life, freedom. Her desire to always do the best and thrive to succeed in life hit hard as college adventures reckoned with the scarcity of time and the reality that there was more into life than books. "I swear I embraced them both. I was doing school with much energy of course. I never lost focus until soon after when satan walked into my life, like it was his mother's house." "How sure are you that the devil is a he?" I chipped in. She smiled, "Darius is the devil." He approached her a month into her college life. Darius was an armed man. He shot his shots and inexperienced as she was, she had fallen to his feet bleeding love and honey. Darius in return dropped his cans and emptied her honey pots. He was a glutton, he ate too much. Her mind went nump. She couldn't think straight. As much as she wanted to repel the thought of actually falling in love, She pampered herself into daring on. From frequent visits to frequent dates. From  shallow to deep, they were growing into each other. That was it. The undefined sculpture she thought was love. She had found family in him. Darius dared to give her every good impression of a serious relationship, which was an implication to her that she had found a lifetime partner. She would wake up in the middle of her sleep to think about Darius, assessing the very decision she abruptly took. There was a silent wave in her head, looming over her relationship and threatening to come down on it. That is just an illusion, she dared to assume. She stayed in the college hostels aboard the school. That was what her mother knew.  She had two room mates, Sanji and Najma, in her hostel room. Sometimes in the weekdays and all Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons they had to miss her. Darius would keep her under the warmth of his single room rental at Majengo. Sometimes she won't spend the weekends at his place, and she would sit huddled in a corner in her hostel room missing Darius. He had travelled home to see an ailing relative, taken out by a friend to some party, and all other excuses she finds no reason to have believed them. "They say that love is blind," She smiles heinously. "You were a lover, you thought so." Her innocence in the ways of the world and tamed upbringing denied her the opportunity to see Darius tiptoe away from her. Most important, she never noticed missing her 24th of May periods. "His attention reduced. He barely called me. He no longer recognized my presence in his shack. He was so cold towards me. I saw this in his eyes. I swear I saw it." A bulging lump in her lower abdomen knocked her sense back to reality. She consulted Sanji and Najma, and it dawned on her that she had missed her periods. She went to Darius' and told him that she was pregnant. He was not moved by this, he went on scrolling his phone saying that she can go wait as he thinks of a solution. That night she called him. Hapatikani. She tried using Najma's phone. The call was not going through. She dared to think that maybe he would call in the morning. She tossed in her sleep the whole night only to wake up with the same situation from Darius' end. "Collins Masai, when life slaps you on both cheeks and you loose yourself, you have as well lost purpose," she said with a grin. She topped up her glass and looked far into the waves that were now beckoning closer and closer. Her eyes have a tint of darkness that dimmed far beyond notice. Her hair sat on her shoulders and would brush on my face every time the sea breeze caressed us, her shampoo smelled nice. Darius was so unlucky, undeserving. But listen, Ann Kwambo had chose to dare on with Darius. A week into the mess she had jumped into with both feet was devastating. She was pale, she couldn't eat, she cried all night. She moaned her wounds and condition. Friends surrounded her, she was young and beautiful, why keep the pregnancy when the babies father has vanished into thin air? Of course that was her friends' advice. She was informed of the misfortunes of terminating the pregnancy and the urgency of doing it before the matter slipped through her fingers. The termination of her pregnancy was scheduled for the next day when she bumped into Darius. He held her close with sorry baby and I miss you sweetheart. He looked into her eyes and she thought there was pity in him. He apologized for his disappearance and claimed that he had sold his phone as part of the fundraising methods towards bringing up their baby! Did you hear? He said mapema ndo best! Darius was the God given man! Ann celebrated the whole week until the beginning of the next week when Everlyn Wambui knocked at their Majengo shack (she now spent most of the time with Darius). Everlyn was medium height with rich feminine features. She walked with a proud posture, her head high and shining with expensive tastes and style; probably from her upbringing. She had huge beautiful eyes. Except for some glistening lip gloss, she wore no make up. Her perfume smelled decent and expensive. A silver necklace hanged beautiful on her long neck and slid beautiful into her cleavage. Ann was humbled. Darius sat up with a wide stare trying to assess the scenario. Continents were knocking up and drifting apart. The trio stared hard at each other. Each of them was moulding opinions of the situation before Darius let the cat out of the bag. "Ann, this is Everlyn. Everlyn this is Ann." "And?" Everlyn was fuming.   "I felt the most painful thing in my life that evening," Ann narrates. She uttered that she was pregnant for Darius and Everlyn went down on her knees in disbelief. That was when Everlyn threw out and Darius explained that she was pregnant when Ann tried to help. "I realized that they'd been dating before I joined law school. It was at this moment that I walked out of his Majengo shack without turning my head." "What about Everlyn?" I asked. "Collins, some women like Everlyn have stoic character and personality. The moment I walked out of Darius' house, she hurried after me and hugged me. This was a surprise, she was in tears. That was the last time I saw her." "What happened to the pregnancy?" "That day we parted with Everlyn, I walked across Kisauni Road on my way to the hostels and a Tuktuk ran over me." This was her seventh year  since she dumped Darius and fractured her left foot and lower spine. At least, she says, she was recovering from the scars that reminded her of him. That she lost her pregnancy and went bedridden for a year was not going to stop her from striving to be herself. She is working with Ahmed and Shullah law firm in Mombasa.