Jabali's Redemption - Episode 3

 

Neema was drawn to noises on the streets, she ran as fast as her small legs could carry her to watch what the hullaballoo was all about. Her mother’s frantic calls for her to stop didn’t slow her down. She raced down the dusty streets passing the grocery stands and the posho mill. She prayed with all her heart that it was not what she was thinking, she hoped Naiti had not been in another fight.

‘Neema stop,’ her mother commanded her but this time the voice was drowned by a cheer from the crowd in front of her. Neema could see a group of older boys and girls surrounding something . Since she was short she couldn’t see what was going on in the middle of the crowd, she tried jumping up to see but it was proving futile.

‘’Neema, Naiti is fighting again,’’ the voice of her friend Lulu came from somewhere in the crowd. Neema watched as Lulu pushed her way to her from the middle of the crowd. Lulu clutched Neema’s hand,

‘’Naiti is fighting with Jabali again, this time they are both bleeding,’’ Lulu’s eyes grew round, ‘we have to stop them,’’

Lulu was Neema’s friend from school. They were both in their final year in primary school.

‘Why do they always fight?’ Neema asked her friend, Lulu only shook her head,

‘They are boys, boys fight Neema,’ Lulu scoffed at her friend.

‘But this is too much,’

Neema didn’t understand why her brother Naiti always fought with Jabali Kasri, the only son of Mzee Kasri, the richest man on land

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. If mama found out Naiti was fighting again, he would be caned and punished again.

Owww, the crowd screamed, Naiti is down.

Neema couldn’t stand still anymore, with her arms and elbows she pushed her way through the crowd and reached the center where her brother lay bloodied down with Jabali kneeling over him, his fist raised. Jabali didn’t look any different, his nose was bleeding and he had a cut on top of his brow.

 He looked menacing. Like always. Neema wondered if Jabali ever smiled. The few instances she had seen him he always appeared to have some sort of grudge with the world. He moved around the town with a frown on his face that made him completely unapproachable. He was tall with a slender frame and a signature cut on his eyebrow. It gave him a threatening look, he appeared rough.

 Naiti claimed that Jabali had been expelled from his fancy previous school for fighting with a classmate and putting the poor boy in a coma. That was why he left the big city to study his final year at Tembo secondary school, a local school where Naiti attended.

Though the Kasri family existed in the mountainous town for years, Jabali Kasri was not born and raised in the town. He had come in less than a month ago and had already threatened the equilibrium of the small town. He seemed to have a personal grudge with Naiti and they constantly crashed. Neema had never seen them fight and this was the first time she was witnessing their legendary fights. Neema wished his brother would just walk away from the fights but Naiti was a stubborn boy and he didn’t listen to anyone, he kept egging Jabali on for some reason.

What Neema couldn’t understand was why they kept fighting. Naiti might be stubborn but he didn’t go around picking up fights and from what she had learned Jabali was a loner. It didn’t make sense that they fought.

‘Stop,’ Neema ran and held on to the raised fist of Jabali. She held on with all her mighty on the steely arm. That caught the attention of Jabali who turned and looked at her.

For the first time Neema came face to face with the Jabali Kasri and the vortex of emotions that crossed his eyes. Jabali’s eyes were deep set and the dark color of black tea she had taken that morning.

 Anger, despair and hopelessness swirled in his gaze and Neema was drawn to him like a moth to light. It was obvious she was going to get burned but she couldn’t stop herself. Jabali Kasri was figure to reckon with.

The crowd booed and Neema was dragged to the current predicament they were in. She was trying to save her brother from probably being beaten to pulp. The crowd wasn’t keen on seeing their entertainment cut short.

‘Neema,’ Lulu called out to her in warning.

‘’Let go of me,’’ he grumbled and tried to move his hand but Neema went with him, swinging right to left with the movement of his fist, she held on tighter.

He stood up with her still holding on to him, ignoring her brother who was lying on the dusty alleyway, he turned to her. Neema hated that she was short, now he stood looming over her. He used his other hand and tried to entangle her from himself.

‘’Let my sister go,’’ Naiti shouted from the ground where he was trying to stand up. He managed and stood up, holding his side. He spat out blood and glared at Jabali and Neema who was hanging by his raised fist.

‘Naiti,’ Neema breathed a relief seeing his brother standing up, at least he was walking.

Acknowledgement registered in Jabali’s eyes and in a rough tug he released his fist in a tug that had Neema tumbling on the hard ground. Unfortunately her head connected with a sharp stone and she let out a shrill scream at the pain she felt.

‘Neema,’’ Lulu screamed and ran towards her friend. The crowd seeing the new turn of events started dispersing.

‘You bastard,’ Naiti launched at Jabali who stood there watching her with her unrecognized look on his face.

Her vision turned black but she didn’t go unconscious. Neema believed she saw stars rotating her head. She tried to sit up but the pain was unbearable, so she just lay there, any movement was hurting.

‘Oh Neema, you are bleeding,’ Lulu wailed as she slightly touched Neema’s hurt head.

‘Neema, get on my back,’ Naiti commanded her, it seemed he had come to his senses and stopped the senseless fight, Neema thought grudgingly. Neema tried to look around but the crowd had suspiciously dispersed, the cowards. It was all fun and games until someone got seriously hurt.

Jabali was also gone. Thank goodness, Neema thought, she wouldn’t want to meet him again.

Lulu helped Neema get on Naiti’s back and they raced home. In Naiti’s back, Neema closed her eyes but not before she saw Jabali tall silhouetted frame standing between shops and looking directly at her.

…………………………………………

‘Neema, are you okay?’ Mama’s voice dragged Neema from her thoughts bringing Neema to the present. Being home and back at Tembo town brought back very many memories. Memories she would rather forget. Naiti, Jabali and her destinies must have been intertwined by fate.

The town had changed, it still bloomed with life. The endless tea estates were still the most economic activity for most of the residents. Her family like most in the neighborhood had grown up picking tea or working in the tea processing factory. Most of the roads were tarmacked, street lights were introduced and every compound had tap water installed. Neema was grateful her mama no longer had to bend her back on the borehole. It was like coming back to an almost different community.

‘Yes mama, am fine,’ Neema replied turning back on her food, a simple meal of ugali and traditional vegies sweetened by milk. If there was one thing Neema had missed was her mother’s cooking.

Neema looked at her mother, they were carbon copies of each other but life had not been fair to her mama. Her once youthful face was covered with wrinkles that crinkled on the corners of her mouth and eyes whenever she smiled or laughed.

Literally losing her husband, a dead son and another one currently sitting in jail was not easy but mama met everything stride on. She had struggled to take them to school by picking tea at the endless tea estates owned by the Kasri family. On her holidays and weekends, Neema helped her mother to pick tea and increase the income of the family but Neema couldn’t help but yearn for more in life. She didn’t want to spend her whole life picking tea under the sun.

Her mama was still attractive though and she attracted attention of senior men in the community. After her father was lost for almost five years he had to be declared dead and an empty coffin buried in his memory, her mother received many hands at courtship but she turned all of them down. The constant suitor who remained was Officer Mukabi. He had been sweet on their mama for long but mama was reluctant to accept his attentions.

Read " The Dancing Bride And Her Spirit Warrior " by the same author ( Razia Iminza )

. Neema always wondered why considering officer Mukabi was more of a father to them than their real father was.

 ‘So you are going to see Jabali tomorrow,’ mama asked, adding more vegetables on her plate. Neema smiled, her mama always seemed to think others before herself. She had missed been pampered by her mother.

Hours before she had been on the police cells visiting her brother Ngao. She couldn’t believe he had stubbornly refused to admit his mistakes of wrecking Kasri’s property. He thought it was better to rot in jail than cower under that murderer. His exact words. Neema couldn’t believe it but instead of arguing with him, she decided to be the one doing the apologizing.

‘I have to mama, if I don’t, Ngao will have to go to court come Monday morning,’ Neema had only the weekend to convince Jabali to let her brother go. Two days, she wondered if those will be enough.

‘I am sure Jabali will see you, I have gone there two times but I always seem to miss him. He is neither on the fields or the office.’

Neema didn’t doubt that Jabali was avoiding her mother, ‘I will hunt him down whenever he is mama don’t worry,’

‘Please Neema don’t let your brother go to jail.’ Mama pleaded with her, ‘if I lose any more of my family members, I don’t think I will take it,’

‘Mama don’t say that, nothing is going to happen,’ seeing her mother like this broke Neema’s heart. She would do anything to prevent anything from happening.

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Hey ebonites,

I hope you enjoy the chapter. What do you think of young Jabali and Neema? Talk to me.

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Much love.