STRANGER MAGIC

Josphat finished campus in 2011 at a reputable institution in the country’s capital. Let us not mention any names they (Institutions) are sensitive nowadays. ..cue that Ndovu ni Kuu song haha! Back to Josphat, the tarmac was real and excruciating. Staying with a relative was not the best of Ideas, but what was he going to do? Stay alone and starve to death? He would rather deal with the disrespect from an Aunt than constant hunger  pangs.

Sent out applications in droves he did, regret letters would be the norm and sometimes cold silence would ensue. He actually started to think the village witch had immersed his graduation pics in a black Hen’s blood….. You know the ones with curly feathers, Google tells me the breed is called Frizzle. Well, we learn something new everyday! 

When you are thinking it can’t possibly get any worse, it actually did. The Aunt elevated her game from pure insults to actually throwing him out. He crashed with a friend or two who quickly indicated he was unwanted. He totally ruled out the option of going back to the village empty handed. I always wonder why that is not usually an option. I mean why suffer in the capital while you are by village standards or by any other metric well to do…anyways let me tell the story na niache kiherehere. 

He eventually decided to face it all and looked for a servants quarter in a plum neighborhood and negotiated with the landlord to pay for his rent by taking care of his lawns and any other menial jobs he deemed fit. The landlord found this deal too good and quickly agreed. Given how life had done a number on Josphat, his landlord/boss would be forgiven for thinking very little of him. He was a shell of himself, dressed shabbily and It was impossible to think of him as a graduate. It had been 2 years of the grind and while most of the crazy algebra he had to gobbled up in management science classes was escaping him, he still had a pretty good grip of it all. He was mostly quiet so you would be mistaken to think of him daft or something.

The boss’s highschool going son, picked an interest of sorts in Josphat just one week in! And he would engage him on this or that. Josphat did not want to speak much though, he did not want to blow his cover. He really wanted to just put his head down at the end of a long day of work. Damien was on to him though, he was one of those introspective kids. Taught at a young age to treat people well and have respect for his elders. He grew up around house helps of all sorts  in the house and could easily pick something different about Josphat’s demeanor. He noticed the others would try so much to impress him, while Josphat was just keen on just doing his job right. 

So he set out to confirm his thoughts of Josphat. He was a bright kid, did well in almost all classes except Guitar classes where he secretly had a crush on the tutor and it was getting in the way of his understanding. Anyway, one day when Josphat was busy tending to the flowers he (Damien) started to work on his calculus assignment and simply arrived at a wrong answer in one of those questions you are asked to find the derivative of something. ( Don’t judge man, it has been over a decade plus ..since I was asked to derive anything mathematical haha) After a while he feigned a call and left his assignment unattended. Josphat took a peek at Damien’s assignment, glanced left and right to confirm if anyone was watching…did his parallel math, shook his head and rolled the plain paper he worked on into a ball and threw it into a nearby bin.

Damien peeping through his bedroom window was bemused as he was hoping he would do just that. He walked to Josphat and asked him if he knew anything about Calculus. He of course looked at him blankly wondering what he was talking about. Unbeknownst to him Damien had been watching him. When he left the compound Damien picked the paper he had rolled and was not surprised the answer was correct.

He never mentioned this intriguing encounter to his father, he kind of understood why Josphat would keep his skills on the down low and didn’t even prod Josphat further. Josphat however knew the kid asking him about his assignment meant he had seen him or that he was onto him. One day when Josphat was running errands in town, Damien sneaked into his quarters and rummaged through his possessions. He stumbled upon his certificates and his degree in Actuarial science. He was impressed and wondered why such a person would be playing janitor. He further saw numerous applications he had made even to companies his Dad’s friend owned.

He thought of asking his father to help Josphat out but then again he remembered his old man can be a bit extra. As much as he liked Josphat and would have loved to have him around more, he simply couldn’t imagine how hard it was for him to have to shelve his ambitions to clean after them. He asked his Dad when his friend was going to visit them, He said over the weekend actually. He crafted a plan on how best to make Josphat help himself. Smart perceptive kid he really was and he knew if he told Josphat about his plans he would decline as he did not want to run into trouble.

Saturday came and his fathers friend came around with two of his friends. Damien who is mostly unbothered by the ongoings in the household took an interest that day. While his old man and his friends were kicking back he asked Josphat to help him with serving them with their favorite poison. A request Josphat found odd, especially when the young lad insisted he cleans up nice before tagging along. While at it, Damien pulled the mother of all surprises on every one in the room, especially his old man. “ Hey Josphat, tell Mr. Makori about your insights on the insurance sector and what can be done to improve uptake of insurance products’ ‘ Josphat understood immediately that the wrong answer on Damien’s assignment was a trap and his little master was way smarter than he was letting on. 

Everyone’s attention shifted to Josphat and he had two options: drown or impress Mr. Makori and potentially lose his humble accommodation. He did a quick cost benefit analysis and decided that he did not like how his table was set that much anyways! He took a deep breath and took a dive, by the time he was done there was pin drop silence in the room! The articulation, macro and micro understanding of the issues affecting the insurance industry just simply left everyone in the room in awe. Heck, Damien knew he was good, but to what extent he got the picture that day. When he came to and realized how everyone was staring he excused himself and left in a huff.

Stay behind Damien his father hissed. What was that?? Damien sensing a communist firing squad in the name of his father he looked uneasily at Mr. Makori with those eyes that seemed to beg for help.”Bwana Ndirangu hujawahi sema unaishi na actuary kwa nyumba bwana??” ( Mr. Ndirangu you never mentioned in our many conversations that you have a resident actuary on the compound just to yourself!?)

In that very instant it dawned on Damien’s dad what his son had done. In a brief moment of recollection he decided to ride the wave and even better yet hog the moment. Aah huyu Kijana yangu. I was going to introduce him to you once I was sure of him, knowing how much you love sharp minds and just like that Damien set Josphat up for a really plum job that changed his life and that of his family ever.

                                                         End of story.

PS:

Promise to be nice to a stranger or someone who can’t possibly repay you this month 🙂 Pinky promise? Haha Just kidding, enjoy your February and everything that comes with it.

PS PS: 

Hehe stretching it huh? Events as they unfold in this story are works of fiction and the writer should not be persecuted for any overlap with real life 🙂