Annalise

Janet walked down Pauper street in the outskirts of Nairobi Kenya occasionally evading a porthole ,a sewage pool or two. She was trying hard to remember a certain man that had caught her attention back at the bar ,he was a frequent customer not only at the bar but also at a ritual she often termed as serving the lone male species of the world for a fee that is. All the men she had met till then were self-centered egotistical maniacs but he was different he had a great sense of humour ,poetry came so natural to him you'd say he was a poet but judging the surgical smell of his garments and the often buzzing phone he was a doctor of some sort maybe a surgeon ,she smiled at that, a surgeon, she, Janet daughter of Sussana and Eric Kamau comforting a surgeon on a weekly basis.

In this line of work it was prudent that you don't get attached to the client else you might end up with a wounded heart or worse a broken one but what she had for the man was different it wasn't an attachment it was a feeling that seemed to linger on longer than the desires and passionate activities it was beautiful but either way she had to survive hence had to prevent any more thoughts of him clouding her mind else things would slip out of her hands.

She had to survive ,that was the only moral excuse ,she could come up with to shut her conscience because in order to live,she had to survive and to live she had to survive. It was true man can't live on bread alone as equally as the woman lest the devil poof up a cup of tea to go with it.

Now her guilt was shut a ritual she performed daily to keep her sane and prevent a break down in front of Annalise. She was just a kid she didn't deserve to know the world around her was definitely not cupcakes and rainbows she was only nine she deserved to know that the world Still had hope ,that it still was sweet even if unicorns didn't exist.

Remembering Annalise Janet walked faster knowing Julie's husband would be home soon and to find Annalise inside his house he would strangle his wife not that he wasn't a friendly neighbor he was just a guy with anger management issues like most African men and he had a really big ego plus he had issues with her he was so insecure with her around his wife it's not like she was going to spill the beans to his wife she might be addicted to coitus but she wasn't a homewrecker.

She arrived at the village miles away from her workplace, it really was better than nothing.

She opened the rusty gate to found herself staring at the environment before her whatever happened to the dreams she had she couldn't tell. She always wanted to be an air hostesses since she was six but then life had a way of turning cute to nasty.

She looked at the environment the smelly air which suffocated her lungs .

She took a step forward and knocked on the first blue fading door.

Something crashed behind and then seconds later a nine year old girl opens it and smiles at her

"Hey stranger?"

"Hi mum"Annalise answers

"What the hell took you so long, Phillip will be  here any second"

"Come on Julie"looking at her watch"I'm late with what? Thirty minutes?"

"Christ"

Janet pulls out a pouch and fishes out a five hundred shilling note ands hands it to Julie

"Thanks alot Julie"

"Don't mention it"

"By the way I heard Phillip got a promotion at the construction site "Janet says changing the topic.

"A promotion?"she seems startled"well he didn't mention anything to me"

"Well I guess he is going to surprise you then."

" I asked him for two hundred shillings this morning for my hair ,he said he was through a tough time at the site"

Janet looked up to her and realised the effects of her good will.'damn what have I done'

Suddenly Phillip enters the house and finds Janet on one knee holding Annalise's jacket,his two kids staring staring at a screen on one side and then when he looked at his wife ,her wet eyes and the tears knocking he shrieked.

"Why? Phillip....why?"

Phillip looks at Janet then his wife .

"Look I can explain"

"Please do enlighten me"julie answers him.

"I mean that day you weren't at home and I kind of felt lonely!"

"Phillip stop"Janet shouted at him

"No! no Janet ,it was wrong of me to sleep with you,I shouldn't have"he looks at his wife "I'm sorry I was just a bit..."

"What?"Julie stared at him then her .

"You shouldn't have said that Phillip she was talking about your promotion at the site"Janet says as she stands up and stares at the floor brushing her right brow.

Phillip turns to her"What promotion?"

"You freaking prostitute!"Julie shouts as tears week her cheeks.

"Language Julie ,the kids!"Janet shouts back"and with all due respect,I was just doing my job ,you know I have to survive"

"With all due respect,Janet ,you were my best friend!"she says getting closer"I trusted you,helped you out""look it was all my fault"Phillip begins

Julie smiles then laughs out loud.She drifts towards Phillip and imprints her palms on his face ,then turns to Janet and does the same.

Janet  holds her face and wets lower lip. She slaps Julie almost sending her to the ground with her right hand and stares at her for a while ,then does the same with her left hand.

"Don't you ever touch me again"she says as she pulls Annalise with her and walks out.

She walks over to her house about two metres away from Julie's and locks her door from inside.The next few hours cooking she spends quiet thinking was it really her fault? She then thinks of

Annalise,she gasps at what she realises the kid must be thinking of her.

"Don't judge me kid I'm only human"she mutters barely above a whisper.

She sets down a plate of pasta at the table for Annalise barely able to withstand the very smell of it because it made her noxious not that the food was bad or untasty at all she just had a feeling down her gut and it didn't feel good so she pulled out a cigarette and walked outside.

She looked up at the stars as she smokes the tobacco scent filling her lungs how exactly was did she get Annalise she wondered. She then remembered something like her senses had been woken up from an eternal slumber.

Annalise wasn't hers how could she forget it was that idiot sister of hers that slipped off her ways ,the good daughter that their mother loved more than her finally got down on her knees begging for forgiveness but of course luck was always on her sister's side she was pregnant with twins and worst of all her father pulled up a scheme to rip of a wealthy family.

It was quite the scandal ,turns out her sister liked a kid at school and they were once a thing so she framed the poor kid for the pregnancy but then again science proved clever the framed boy had a twin it was impossible for such a thing to happen so one kid had to be hidden and later when her mother died and her stepmother was way to modern to bring up someone else's daughter Annalise was given to Janet. She heaved as the last of the smoke left her nostrils. She had to get rid of her.

She slept like a baby realising that she could squeeze of her sister with a bit of blackmail. So she slept .

Later she woke up in the middle of the night as her house and many others burned down as Julie laughed at a corner hence she decided her sister better take in her daughter and pay for her services, she smiled as she knocked on Lunar's door and Lunar opened