FGM – the aftermath (2).

FGM – the aftermath (2).

By Clifford Oluoch

Menjo did not come to school the following day and that sent shivers down the spine of each class member. Menjo had never missed school since std.1, he had never fallen sick.
Word went round the class in the morning about Menjo’s absence and the encounter with Jioni the previous day.
Otero, who was Menjo’s neighbour and good friend, explained to his attentive audience, “Menjo’s face was swollen and he had tiny swellings all over his body. He was shivering violently at night and saying his own things. His teeth continuously chattered and rattled against his mouth, sounding like a Russian AK-47gun spewing forth bullets, ratatatatatata!” The over dramatization and exaggeration seemed to work on the class, and fear crept into their hearts and lives. If Menjo was down, how many more to go?
Said another boy, “It is that girl, Jioni. Did your hear her hiss while pointing at Menjo yesterday? Did you see the evil in her eye, her trembling lips and shaking fingers? If that is not witchcraft then I am not the son of my mother!” The rest listened, the fear growing and reaching panicky heights.
“Now Menjo has AIDS!” exclaimed an equally terrified girl. “You get AIDS when someone with AIDS touches you or hugs you.” There was panic in her voice, as she put her hands on her head to signal total desperation.
Presently Jioni walked in and there was total silence as she strutted into class, well aware that her popularity had taken a serious nose-dive, after the previous day’s confrontation with the two class bullies.
One of the girls unable to contain her terror took off screaming at the top of her voice, “AIDS is killing us! AIDS is killing us!”
There was panic and pandemonium broke out as the thirty students who had reported early to class took off, some falling and others crawling under the tables to get away from Jioni. There was a jam at the doors and wooden windows as all tried their desperate best to rush out of class.
Jioni sat down and looked on as the class screamed and ran away from her, the scampering and screaming getting louder and louder. Even Nyota whom she had rescued the previous day did not stay back. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her.
It is only the stern and angry look of Mr. Kuria that brought the screaming students to half their senses.
By this time the whole school had gathered around class 5P and the situation would have been much worse had Mr. Kuria and the teacher on duty not intervened, waving their canes in the air and cracking them to show the students what would happen to their bottoms if they disobeyed the teachers.
“Where do you think you are going?” Mr. Kuria asked his class, his cane ready to strike. “Go back to class!” he ordered the shrieking students.
There was drama as all the students stopped and then meekly walked behind Mr. Kuria, no one having the guts to stay ahead and ‘catch’ AIDS from Jioni.
The teacher on duty cleared the rest of the school as Mr. Kuria marched his class back to their room. Seated at the extreme end of the class was Jioni, her head resting on her hands and lost in deep thought. The commotion brought her back to her senses.
Jioni looked sadly as Mr. Kuria walked in with the class trailing fearfully behind, some stealing glances at her. No one moved near her.
“Sit down!” the teacher thundered and most of the students got into their rightful places, one or two were left standing, debating whether or not to move near Jioni. Njeri, who shared a desk with Jioni, refused to budge. “I don’t want to ‘catch’ AIDS like Menjo did,” Njeri declared firmly, her big eyes looking bigger due to the fear in her.
Mr. Kuria tried being diplomatic by explaining one or two things about AIDS. “You do not ‘catch’ AIDS by touching people or sitting next to someone with AIDS.” This nice approach did not work, so the teacher resorted to threats, but Njeri was too scared to move towards Jioni.
The cane landed on Njeri’s bottoms and with that Njeri took off, not towards Jioni but towards the door screaming her head off about not wanting to die of AIDS. No one knew where she headed.
There was grave silence in the class, most of the students on the edge of their seats, ready to follow Njeri out of the class. Mr. Kuria had to act fast, and he did so by turning all his pent up fury towards Jioni, the cause of all the problems in the class.
“Come here, you rat, cause of all the problems in the class,” the teacher spat out. Jioni stood up, her one eye focused on the teacher.
Mr. Kuria was quite uncomfortable with the gaze, so he continued with his shouting and intimidation, “Bend over and do not move!”
Obediently Jioni bent over, her tortured face gazing towards the class, which was unsure whether there was evil or sadness on her face.
The cane landed hard and accurate on Jioni’s bottoms. One! Two! Three! Four! Five! The sound of cane meeting flesh was loud, painful and sharp. Jioni did not flinch even an inch, her eye steadily focused on the class. There was pitiful silence in the class as Jioni walked slowly to her place, not a tear from her.
“She’s a witch,” whispered one of the boys who knew very well the devastating effects of the mighty cane. The others were too shocked to even move or comment. They had never seen anyone endure five strokes of the cane, on the bottoms!
The teacher went on with his lesson, having forgotten about Jioni and the AIDS incidence. The class, however, did not forget and they took advantage at break time to run as far as possible from Jioni.

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Classes ended at 3.30 pm and Mr. Kuria, who operated a shop near his rural home, was happy that he was going to his shop. He was relieved to get out of the stressful Jioni problems. Since that girl had joined the school it had been nothing but trouble and more trouble in the class; different kinds of trouble, not the usual children’s naughtiness.
Mr. Kuria kept wondering. Did Jioni really have the evil eye? The more he thought about it the more convinced he became that the girl really had an evil eye. She looked weird, acted weird, had no friends, never laughed, and the worst was that no one seemed to know her background, her parents, grandparents. Where did she come from? She just appeared every morning and disappeared in the evening. Who was she?
“I don’t need this,” Mr. Kuria whispered to himself, as he gathered his books and made to the staffroom where he normally parked his bicycle. His cousin, who also worked at the school as a cleaner, was waiting for him, as they usually went the same way, on the same bike.
As they rode, Mr.Kuria’s thoughts were still on Jioni and her eye. He decided to talk to his cousin about it, and as he got engrossed in the story and the fears, he did not see the pothole ahead. His bike dipped heavily into the hole and the bike catapulted into the air, throwing both inhabitants completely off balance and to the ground.
Mr. Kuria, a heavy man, landed awkwardly on his left shoulder and there was a scream and a loud cracking sound as he fractured the shoulder instantly while his cousin hit his head heavily on a stone, losing consciousness immediately.
There was immediate rush from the people around the shopping centre, most of them recognizing Mr. Kuria who kept muttering over and over again, “Jioni! Jioni! Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!” His cousin, meanwhile, lay still making it hard to tell whether or not he was dead.
The accident happened as many of the students were on their way home. Amongst those who witnessed the accident was Jioni, and being around she decided to go and lend a helping hand to her teacher.
Mr. Kuria saw Jioni coming towards him and he instantly became very hysterical shouting at the top of his voice, “Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!”
Jioni coiled back and was pushed away by some imposing adults who immediately took charge of the situation. She was hurt, even the class teacher whom she thought was unlike the rest of the class, seemed to repulse her as well.
A mini bus carrying passengers to the district headquarters made way and the two patients were rushed to hospital, two teachers accompanying them.
At the hospital, Mr. Kuria and his cousin were immediately admitted, one in critical condition, the other writhing in agony and muttering his own things. The two accompanying teachers stayed the night and left in the morning satisfied that the patients were in good hands. All night Mr. Kuria talked to the teachers about Jioni and the evil eye. The other teachers looked horrified that they had an evil-eyed student in their school.