Chapter 16. God's Good Earth
"I'm getting one in Kakamega tomorrow," Jiddy announced one Sunday afternoon in May of Moses' seventeenth year.
They were talking about the microchip implant that had brought them both so much business over the past year. "Hey, Stump, why don't you get one too?"
With financial help from Jiddy's parents, they had finished the house well ahead of Moses' original target date, and they had been sharing it together for almost a year now.
Moses could see the good sense in what Jiddy was saying. There was an implant available which could be put on the forehead of anyone who did not have a right hand. Having his own implant would mean the bank could more or less do his books for him, giving him more time to stay ahead of the other bodaboda drivers. Government subsidies had made it possible for almost any business to get a scanner now, and implants were free. In the past month, three other bodaboda drivers had purchased scanner phones. As a result, Moses and Jiddy had lost some of their old customers.
"I don't know," Moses said. "I kind of promised Winky I wouldn't."
But it wasn't just Winky pushing Moses not to get an implant. He often shared his thoughts with Ray via text message, and he had been surprised when, in a recent exchange, Ray had said something that sounded a lot like Winky. In fact, it was even more like Josephat.
"Don't take it, Mo," Ray had typed into the handset. "Believe me, it will bring big problems."
Now what could Ray have been talking about? Ray had been a supporter of banks when they first met in Chicago three years earlier, although he had shared some thoughts about economics and life since then, which struck Moses as being a bit more radical.
"U said it urself: money won't fix things," Ray had reminded him in one text message. "Americans learned 2 late. Greed was our downfall." He said things against banks too, warning Moses not to trust them. It was so different from the man Moses had met in Chicago.
Moses did not get an implant with Jiddy, but he had a feeling that he would eventually. His dislike for Josephat was destined to overcome his respect for Amy and Ray.
Since January, Josephat had been turning up more often, accompanied by someone different each time. Together they would put up posters about his theories. He was doing something funny with Amy, and even with Rosy. Rosy had become Amy's main helper after Benji got a job in Nairobi with a trucking company, and after Anna moved in as housekeeper for a family in Kakamega.
Amy still had the seven youngest children; so Rosy, now 14, dropped out of school to help fulltime.
Kyme stopped sending funds shortly after the fall of America. He apologised, and begged her to forgive him for it, but gave no reason, and neither Moses nor Amy questioned him further about it. Amy ended up selling the Hi-Ace and economsing in other ways to stretch the funds he had sent over almost two years.
One Saturday in June, just after Rosy had turned fifteen, Moses came to see Amy, and was surprised to find the house empty, apart from the old Aboriginal woman and four-year-old Karla.
"Where is everyone, Winky?" Moses asked cheerfully.
"They went with Josephat," she answered. "They're out exploring."
Moses scowled and said nothing. He had a right to complain about his sister being pulled into this, didn't he? She was his sister, after all, and she had only just turned fifteen. He decided to ask a few more questions first.
"Exploring what?" he asked.
"Exploring God's good earth," she answered.
"Yeah, but what part of it?"
"Now what difference could that make to you, boy?" Amy asked as she leaned forward where she sat, with both hands on her knees.
Moses had no answer for that, but he knew Amy was hiding something.
"I don't like Rosy being around him," he said after a short pause. "He's a 'nipulator, that's what he is."
"Moses, he's a good man," she vouched. "And Rosy likes him. True."
"Well , I don't!" Moses snapped back. "And I say she should stay away from him."
Amy thought for a while before answering. "I'm sad to hear that, boy. You talk to Rosy about it when she gets back, ay?"
"And when will that be?" he asked.
"Tomorrow sometime."
"Tomorrow? Where are they going to stay tonight? And who's going to look out for Rosy?"
"Josephat is with them," Amy replied sweetly. "He and Rosy can take care of themselves; and, Moses, you must know the good Lord is there with them too."
The tiniest twitch in Winky's eye did not go unnoticed by Moses.
Josephat was the one Moses wanted his sister protected from. And he hardly thought the good Lord would interfere if the man got some crazy notion to molest her. He was secretly determined to return the next day so that he could be waiting for Rosy... and Josephat... when they returned.
*
Shortly after the sun came up the next morning, Moses was biking down to Amy's house, so he would be there in plenty of time. He was surprised to see two of the children out playing in the yard. "Is Rosy back?" he asked Jo-Jo, who was now seven years old. "Eh," said Jo-Jo, nodding his head as he concentrated on throwing a ball in the air and catching it.
"When did you get back?"
"Last night," Jo-Jo said.
"Where did you go?"
"Exploring God's good earth," the boy replied, obviously echoing something that he and Amy had both been told to say.
Moses was seriously thinking of threatening the boy to get more information, but just then Rosy walked around the corner of the house.
"Hi, Moses," she said enthusiastically.
Just seeing her, safe and sound, and with such a cheerful outlook, melted Moses' resolve to make a scene. She was unharmed; they had not been out all night after all ; and what good reason could he give for trying to tell her who she could or could not associate with? But she was evasive, like the others, about what they had been doing. That continued to bother him.
He voiced his anger with Jiddy that afternoon, as they worked together in front of their new home. It was harvest time and they had maize to be rubbed off the cobs.
Jiddy agreed, as Moses told him for about the hundredth time, that he did not trust Josephat. The more Jiddy heard it, the more he believed it. They both saw evil in almost anything the man did. As the pile of kernels grew on a mat in front of them and a pile of empty cobs grew on either side, their hatred for Josephat grew with it.
"People in the village are too trusting, Stump," Jiddy said. "It's all love, love, love now, with everyone working together. But Obadiah knows something is wrong."
Obadiah, who had been so tolerant of Josephat over the years, and who was spear heading a drive to unite the local churches, was bothered that Josephat (and those who helped him put up posters) was not showing any interest in being a part of it.
"Obadiah said just be patient and wait," Jiddy said. "He knows, but he said we have to be nice, for now."
"I just hope he doesn't wait too long," Moses said.
The whole world had been on a 'nice' drive for the past two years, as they all sought to comfort themselves over what had happened to America.
Josephat had been openly critical of Dangchao, the U.N. General Secretary, at least at the start. He claimed Dangchao was secretly evil, and one day he would die and be resurrected by the devil. This angered Moses and many others, who could see that the preacher was just jealous. The world had never seen such a benevolent leader as Dangchao, and this was a time when they needed the strong uniting force that he offered.
Then Josephat had gone quiet. He had stopped his traditional talks at the post office, choosing to visit people quietly now... Amy in particular... and put up posters. He often arrived in a truck now, laden with printed material that was being circulated wherever they went. And these helpers of his were almost all from other tribes... not Luhyas at all.
But, like Jiddy said, these were times of great tolerance. Tribal tensions had been over-ruled by bigger economic issues, and so it was in everyone's best interests to get along, and to cooperate with the strategies which had helped to bring about so much peace and prosperity. In the light of that, it was a small price to pay, for Moses and Jiddy to hide their dislike for Josephat.
Besides, like Obadiah appeared to be saying, the tolerance was not going to last forever.