CHAPTER 4
The Confrontation

“He has a woman!”

A hard wind was blowing and rain slanted down in torrents. Parts of the house leaked. Nasomi went around patching the walls with tar. For the roof, she had to climb onto a rickety tripod Father had made for the purpose. If hunting for leaks was a tedious task, trying to control the ants was irksome. They bored through the floor and raided the kitchen in their hundreds. She had blocked their holes of entry but they kept making more. Flying termites had flown into the house earlier and died in scores. She needed to sweep them away. And a dozen beetles buzzed around the house. The stenches of wet timber, fresh tar, and dead insects were thick in the moist air.

She was already in a bad mood, this news wasn't helping.

“He has a woman,” Naena said. She had returned from the market with some meat. She was drenched, her clothes clinging to the form of her body. She went to the bedroom to change.

“Naena, what are you saying?”

“I am saying that your boyfriend has—”

“I get that. I mean, are you certain?”

Naena emerged into the kitchen, drying herself with a towel. “I was boasting to some woman that my cousin had won the heart of some tribal lord.” She sat before the clay oven, shivering in the heat it effused. “When I mentioned he was Tambo and that he wanted to marry you, she told me I was wrong, that he was betrothed to some high girl. She’s already wearing her brideclothes.”

“Nae, Tambo didn’t say he would marry me.”

“He might as well have from the way he’s been around you. You remember Maampi? The girl with big cheeks, the one who burned down her father’s house? She also told me the same thing. That not two weeks ago, Tambo was officially engaged. I asked around. The bride’s called Reema, daughter to the Nyate Chieftain. She’s my own clansmate! I’ve seen her many times, Somi.”

Nasomi sat down, harder than she intended. Her hand was sticky with black tar, but she was too upset to wash it off.

“She’s beautiful,” Naena continued. “Her skin is as dark as ebony, smooth as midnight. She wears gold bangles on her arms and neck, and one in her forest of hair. Gold, Somi, gold!”

“He could have told me,” Nasomi muttered, more to herself.

“I’m so sorry, Somi. This is hard to bear. I was so happy for you. I was planning to buy some fabrics and wool to start making baby clothes.”

“This is not funny.”

“I know. I can imagine how difficult this is to you.”

“It is heart-rending. What should I do?”

“Go see him, talk to him. Tell him you know.”

Nasomi couldn’t go to him. He’d told her he would send someone to call her whenever he wanted to see her, or he’d wait for her on the path to Father’s field.

She went there the next morning, but he didn’t show up. It was two days later when a boy walked into the gate, hesitated, and said he had thought this was Nundu’s place. That was the arranged signal. A few heartbeats after the boy was gone, Nasomi dressed up and rushed to the hill that separated Ninki Nanka from Nkuku.

Tambo was seated on a rock. As she approached him, Tambo beamed. “Nasomi,” he said sweetly, standing up to take her hands in his. When he saw her crestfallen face, his smile died. “You look sad. What is it?”

She half-turned her body away from his. “I have something deep on my mind.”

He touched her waist. “Come, sit with me and tell me all about it.”

She sat, not facing him and not talking. She pursed her lips, trying to find a way to say what she had to.

He made a small laugh to make a light moment of the situation. “I used to put my thumb in my mouth when I was angry. Sometimes I’m tempted to do so even up to now, but I fight it. You should have heard how my siblings laughed at this, as if I wasn’t the eldest brother. And I’d be upset more and suck more. It was a silly habit.”

“Sometimes I have vivid memories of the past when I’m upset,” Nasomi said. “As though they happened yesterday. I can even remember details I should normally forget, like a smell or what someone who was only passing my way was wearing.”

“Interesting. That sounds deep.”

“Right now I can almost feel the hurt when my friend Des stole a piece of meat from her mother’s pot and said it was me. Her mother was furious. Her skinny hands were pale from some disease which made her smell like dead people. She was using some kind of perfume to disguise the smell of the disease. I can almost smell and see her right now. She looked so mean and old when she was shouting at me. I can still hear her terrible voice: ‘Get out of here, you little thief! If I ever see you again, I will hit you so hard with a cooking stick your head will come out from your buttocks.’”

“What?” Tambo broke into laughter. “She said that?”

“She was foul-mouthed like that. It was always funny when she said it to other people. But that day when she said it to me... The only thing that’s stopping me from crying right now is realizing it was so many years ago. I must have been four. I never wanted to talk to Des ever again.”

“Sorry about that. Now tell me. What's upsetting you?”

She turned to look at him. “You are betrothed.”

He said a soft “ha”, finally seeing what this was about. He was silent for a moment. “You found out?”

“It's news around the city, Tambo. And she is already wearing her brideclothes, do you deny it? Show me your band.”

He lifted the left leg of his breeches. Below his knee was a white cloth tied around his leg.

“Why Tambo? Why didn’t you tell me? How long did you think you could hide this from me?” Tears fell from the corners of her eyes. She wiped them away; they came again.

“I have wanted to tell you. The truth is I do not want to be with her. The thing between Reema and I was more of an arrangement between our parents, but I do not love her. It is you I love.”

He took her hand and she yanked it free. “I am not a child, Tambo. Speak straight to me. I’ve been stupid, Oh Mara, I have been stupid.”

“No, my dear. How can you say that?”

“I only see you at your convenience. I cannot walk into your palace gates and say ‘I want to see my man.’ Can I?”

“Not yet. But when I—”

“But she can, can’t she? And your people will praise her and offer her wines and kiss her feet and talk about all the children she will have. If I dared to even come near to the gate, I would be kicked and spat on and called all sorts of names, even before I said anything.”

“You’re too harsh on yourself—”

“I am being honest. Tell me the truth here, My Chief. All you want is to fornicate with me.”

“Nasomi! Please, it is not like that. You are my heart’s desire. I knew I had found the one I could love, the one I could build my life with, when I met you. You wrenched my heart from Reema.”

Nasomi stood up to go. He grabbed her arm and stood.

“You have to understand, Nasomi. My father is a harsh man. He wouldn’t let us… I need to talk to him, to set things straight.”

She opened her mouth and, at first, couldn’t put words to the anger boiling inside her. “I am not the kind of girl who… Forget it. Forget me. Leave me alone. My life is not grandiose, but it is a life. I have Father and Naena to look after. I cannot waste it on this folly. Find another girl for your fancies.”

“Nasomi. There’s no other girl for me but you.”

“You have a damn wedding band on your leg! And she is in her brideclothes, for the whole world to see. How long till the wedding?”

“First day after next Burial. Seven days from today. But that’s not important. I will have it canceled.”

“Is that so?” Nasomi found a sarcasm she never knew she had. “You will cancel your wedding to a wealthy, beautiful bride? For me? You will break down your engagement vows, go against the wish of your parents?” She felt like slapping him, and she knew he would take it. He was a gentleman. But he was a liar, too.

To her surprise, he knelt before her. “Wealth dwindles, and beauty fades. Nothing is compared to the love I have for you. I will cancel the wedding, and show everyone that I truly love you. Meet me here after tomorrow. At noon. I will have made things right by then. I will take you by the hand through the palace gate, I will introduce you to my father as the woman I want.”

Noon of the said day came, and Nasomi stood on the hill. Tambo didn’t show up. Lightning split the sky, thunder rumbled the world. Rain came. Tambo didn’t. Tears came. Tambo didn’t. She went home sodden and broken.

“Where have you been?” Father asked. She ran to her room without answering. She stared blankly at Naena who eventually got tired of asking what happened.

That night, she dreamed Father died in his bed from his coughing. She was by his bedside. There was a young girl beside her, whose name the Nasomi in the dream knew but the Nasomi dreaming didn’t. They both wept when Father coughed his last, died with a smile on his face.