Breathe Evening Breeze

Breathe Evening Breeze is about Bidii’s destiny.
The day Muteve decided to go and officially present his son’s proposal he was received calmly and asked to hold on for a while for his host to conclude what he was writing. The while turned out to be one hour and thirty-three minutes. He was given the day’s paper to read. It was good that the paper kept him so busy that he did notice that time was moving fast, after all time moves slowly, or does not move for idlers.
He was a man among those that breathe evening breeze while others perished in heat wave.
“Your words are good. Nowadays it is rare to do things the good way that your son has decided to do. But these things need time. Did you tell your bull to take time to know my heifer?
Limenya was approaching forty-nine years of age. He was almost through with the demands of this world.
Meanwhile, Kandi quickly made arrangements to go and see her son and their newly born baby. Her mission was a double-barreled gun. She was to go and examine the newborn baby to confirm that it was their blood.
Raha was proud of her baby. She breast-fed the baby unlike many women of her age and caliber who shunned breast-feeding their babies.
From the time that she got Muteve Bahati, Raha was visited by many women. They came with presents, especially clothes and foods.
Njeri, a brown woman, slightly bigger than Raha, looking like Persian from Zanzibar, said as she handed a heavy ciondo to Raha.
“Mama Bahati this is Beatrice for your health.”
“So this is Beatrice, my dear? I know and love beetroot so much. Now my liquidizer will get work today, today. And my rice and potatoes will get that beautiful colour.”
It was Raha’s initial intention to breast feed Muteve Bahati for more than six months. Two things forced her prematurely wean him: he started to bit at her nipples and she … she was pregnant too soon.
At an early age of only one year and three months Muteve Bahati got a brother who was named Limenya Alikata.
The couple informed their parents about their newborn baby and the names they had given him. There was much laughter.
From the kitchen Muteve Bahati appeared with a dangerously sharp knife that was waiting for some good work.
Raha shivered and cried out, “Mama, what shall I do?” as she calmly walked and reached out to the boy’s arm that had gripped the knife. “Put it on the table.”
Raha said, now firmly, “I won’t coax you, sikudekezi, put the knife on the table!”
Muteve Bahati refused to comply.
“I’ll show you, twap!” Raha gave him a hard slap on the buttocks.
The boy dropped the knife on the table, opened wide his mouth but no sound came out of it.
Out of shocker parents, Lida and Manu, one boy, the sixth-born, Bidii, was a surprise. He went to school. His performance was great. Unfortunately he lacked school fees for him to have gone beyond standard four. In fact he learned only term one in that class. Then he dropped out.
As time went by Limenya realized that Bidii was a private pupil. He found out that most of the time he went to the library he kept himself busy with tests from pupils of different schools. In many of them he had performed very well while the rest were of excellent performance.
Councilor Ndiegu asked, “With who have you left peoples’ cows?”
“I don’t have any cows.”
The following day Councilor Ndiegu was fuming at Mr Vogeli, the District Education Officer of Lidala District.
“What’re you people up to? Why do you want to ruin our children? We want our children to get a good education but here you’re very busy taking us backwards. Why do you want to destroy our children who are our future? —”
“Why have you employed Bidii to teach at Lidala Primary School? He is illiterate. He never went to school. He could not train as a teacher. What will he teach? Whose children will he teach?”