FARIDA.

By Brian Nzomo

“You have an appointment with Dr. Masinde ten minutes from now…” the secretary at the reception said politely. I smiled back at her and nodded. I waited at the bench at the corner of the room, absent-mindedly thinking about the silly questions I would ask in this interview. An interview for a low rate newspaper with the famous psychiatric consultant Doctor Abel Masinde of the Kawangwara mental asylum.

Still lodged in my thoughts, I felt a powerful pair of arms clutch me. And there she was. A young maiden, barefooted with kinky ruffled hair and a wild expression on her pretty face. She roared wildly as she sat on my lap and pinned herself on me with a powerful grip. I was powerless and horrified at the same time. What was happening? I wondered. Her grip was so firm and her frame so rock hard that I felt I had been possessed by a demon.

I was not a superstitious man at all. Never been. But still the human mind is an interesting one. It tries to be rational as long as the factors of fear don’t come on one’s way. But once they do, those weird thoughts you set aside as irrational or surreal, become unearthed and begin haunting you.

Three male nurses rushed in and managed to get her from me. Though with difficulty because I suffered her scratches and kicks. I could see the male nurses struggle to return her to the patients’ rooms. One apologised and left. From the corridor, I could hear her scream. “Let me go back to my love!” “I love him. My love please take me with you…” She screamed this in Swahili clearly a Coastal accent. I just shrugged and awaited my appointment. I wondered how the staff here survived to keep such bellicose patients calm.

**** ***** *****

After the interview, I learnt that the maiden’s name was Farida. A girl of nineteen who was brought here by her uncles from Malindi. It was said that her aggressive outbursts that came from nowhere were too strong and even adults had a difficult time handling her. All these had began after her KCSE examinations which she passed very well. She would wake up in the middle of the night and scream in some unknown tongue. Rumours then abounded that she was possessed by a djini. The family had to get rid of her. She was a potential danger to the community not only the family.

Evening was here and my main part of the feature story was done. I thanked the staff and got into my car. The orange orb of sunset had already beautified the twilight in a magnificence I had never seen before. I drove home along the ghost tarmac to Nairobi. Some sensuous soul music blaring out smoothly from the radio. I was driving calmly and upon gazing at the front mirror, my blood fizzled with fear that I almost ran into the trees on the side of the road. “Jeeezusss!” I screamed. And hit the brakes instantly.

Breathing heavily, my heart racing , I saw her at the backseat of my car. “Farida! What are you doing here? And how did you…” “Shhhh!” She grinned at me with her white as pearl teeth. “Why does my love want to leave me?” She crooned in a soft alluring Coastal accent. I was perplexed. What was she saying? And how should i be even here talking to a mad girl. “Baby. I love you…” She threw her arms over me and grasped me tightly. I couldn’t move. I was too shocked to fathom the magnamity of the events unfolding.

She let go. Darkness was now falling and the sky was now dressing itself in a Cimmerian armor. She crossed over to the front seats and snuggled beside me. Her kinky hair brushing my chin. She then unclasped the button of her hospital dress from her shoulder and began stripping it off. My mouth now ajar, I wondered what was happening.

“What are you doing? Are you sick in the head?” Of course she was sick in the head. But she was not listening. She took it off. And sat on my lap naked as she was born. What’s wrong with me? I judged myself harshly. Why can’t I just get away from this madness? But to where. The road ahead was too dauntingly long and darkness had set in. Who in their right mind would run along a ghostly road in the darkness? That haunting darkness out there could not be empty. I was not a superstitious man at all. Never been. But still the human mind is an interesting one. It tries to be rational as long as the factors of fear don’t come on one’s way. But once they do, those weird thoughts you set aside as irrational or surreal, become unearthed and begin haunting you.

But here I was. Stuck in the car with this mad girl. And now she was planting her cold kisses on my face and I wasn’t doing a damn thing. I pushed her from me when she began unbuttoning my shirt. She sat on top of me again and I grew livid.

The crickets outside were now filling the misty air with their chilling symphonies. And a bat flapped its wings on the roof of my car. I tried to open the doors to my car for there was no way I would convince the mad girl whom I didn’t know how she got there in the first place- to get back. She may grow violent and aggressive. I was not ready to handle such a situation.

Surprisingly, she was calm. She smirked when I tried to force the door open. “F**k! ” I cursed. The door isn’t just opening. I turned and looked at her. My pulse now racing in frigid fear. This isn’t happening, I tried to convince myself. But the door wasn’t opening. I tried to shout. “Help! Help! Someone Help! ” But she just cackled into a musical laughter that rhymed with the malevolent ambient sounds. The bat flapping And cricket sounds intensified. The car’s temperature dropped rapidly and the radio stammered in a terrorsome manner.

“Come here honey. Don’t be scared of me,” Farida said now clutching my arm strongly. A strong grip that I could not unshackle myself from. Her lips became thicker and redder like a sliced beet. Her jaws pulsated with beastly rage. Then her eyes. Like that of a nefarious owl, bore into mine. I am dead. My brain screamed. She came atop my lap and glared at me with her now hellion visage. She revealed a milky set of sharp and long canines that resembled ivory. I lay there and willed myself dead. The terror too much to bear. She kissed me. A saccharine kiss I would say. Then raised her face slightly. Before digging her teeth into my fleshy nape at the neck. Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

I woke up drowned in my own perspiration. Oh holy f**k! It was a premonition. I wanted heavily and arose from bed. My heart still pounding tremulously. I washed my face at the bathroom and went to the kitchen to drink some water.

I then made some coffee and sat at the sitting room watching some late night movie. A comical movie enough to relax my weared out brain. But then the window lattice was poked. I shuddered in fear again. Am I dreaming again? I crept to the window and peered outside. Nothing unusual. Just the rustling of the palm fronds as the cold nightly gust swept by. The trees whistled. Making my fears more bloated. No! I said to myself. Let me sleep. Let me sleep.

I got back to bed and lay beneath my covers and hoped silently that such does not exist. I tried to assure myself that I had been watching too many gothic movies of late and reading quite a lot of medieval fantasy novels with vampire characters. Such doesn’t happen. I assured myself. It doesn’t. Never! Africans don’t believe in such things. ” Or do they? ” came an opposing thought. I discarded it away.

The night now became silent. But my eyes could no longer go into a daze. I woke up and went by the window. The sky now darker than before as a rain cloud hung above the city that never winks an eye.