When I entered the house I almost passed out. First thing I noticed was the fireplace. I had always loved chimneys but I had never entered a house with one. Here was one right in front of me, looking clean with a beautiful mantel that held a few family pictures.
There were beautiful comfortable looking sofa sets, coffee tables with matching stools, a dinning table with plenty of chairs around it, I wondered who sat on all those chairs. There was a lot of entertainment equipment sitting in one corner. There was a radio, a TV set and a record player next to it.
The floors were a beautiful red color that shone under the lights, I could almost see my reflection. Just looking at the floor, images of me sliding and falling flat on my face started swirling in my head. I had to watch my step for this whole month while in this house, otherwise I was going to lose some teeth. But for a brief moment, a mischievous thought crossed my mind. I imagined the fun my brothers and I would have had on a regular basis had our floors in OlKalou been anything like these ones. Instead of waiting for the rainy season to do our Nyororoka or mbigi competitions outdoors, we would have held regular tournaments right inside the house, of course when our parents were not around.
I gathered my thoughts quickly enough to notice the huge windows with beautiful curtains that almost touched the floor, similar to the ones hanging at the glass door. I was out of my element. This was all so intimidating.
My sister’s House Help looked sophisticated like one of my teachers or nurses at OlKalou District Hospital. She must have been my sister’s age or slightly younger. She looked clean and well dressed in fashionable clothes, it was hard to believe she was the House Help. I was already intimidated by her. She greeted me warmly as she took the sack of produce and the gallon of milk my mother packed for them and took them to the kitchen.
She then asked me to carry my bag and follow her down a hallway to the guest bedroom. Say what? A room all to myself for a whole month? There was a huge bed with a thick comfortable mattress. The beddings were all beautiful and very clean like they had never been slept on before. The room had huge windows just like the living room, with beautiful curtains hanging from curtain box to the floor. What a waste of fabric, I thought to myself. My designer Van Ng’atho could make a lot of dresses for me out of these beautiful curtains that were hanging all over the house.
I put my bag on the bed and looked around in wonder. If the guest bedroom looked like this, what about my sisters’ bedroom? I couldn’t wait to see it.
