Venom for her friend from the cradle to the grave

The human species is a strange one and it is difficult to understand how some “animals” in this fascinating species operate, as our true story today will clearly illustrate.

Zipporah and Mary grew up together in the semi-rural estate called Waithaka in the outskirts of Nairobi. Apparently they were close friends and they knew each other’s parents quite well. Be a little patient and you will soon discover why I have used the phrase; “Apparently they were close friends.”

From an early age Zipporah for a reason that Mary never understood seemed to be jealous and envious of her. Both hailed from very poor families and theer was really nothing to cauise Zipporah to be envious of Mary. But she was. Whenever she defeated her friend in class, she would make it a point to rush to Mary’s home first to show off her report card to her friend’s elder brothers while telling them how poorly Mary had performed. Mary’s mother had been a widow for years and it was her elder two sons who acted as parents to their siblings. So by the time poor Mary got home, she would be in big trouble with her big brothers and would receive a thorough beating. Zipporah seemed to get a lot of pleasure out of doing this. Many times Mary did not realize that she had received beatings mainly because of her brothers being incited by her supposed friend Zipporah.

So that is how the two friends grew up and Zipporah ended up being a prostitute by profession while Mary was a secretary briefly before she got married to Dave a businessman and ended up as a happy housewife.

Now Dave was the kind of guy who loved his evening beer which was usually taken in a certain bar close to where he lived which was not very far from Waithaka. Zipporah got hold of this information and started frequenting the said bar which was actually called Checkpoint at the Rirura Satellite shopping centre. Zipporah’s only motive for frequenting the place was to seduce her friend’s husband. For some reason she was very jealous of Mary for having gotten such a nice husband and for having settled down to a reasonably happy life. Just as she used to do with the report cards in school, she was determined to mess up Mary’s life as much as she could. Maybe even snatch away her husband from her.

Life is funny and there is no doubt that there is divine intervention and sometimes God refuses certain things to happen. This is because for all intents and purposes Zipporah’s mission should have been very easy to accomplish. In her profession she dealt with men every day. They were her clients and she understood them well, after all she sold herself to them on a daily basis and had been doing so for many years. Dave was also known to have a weakness for women especially after he had taken a few beers. Despite all this, amazingly in a space of about 10 years, Zipporah never succeeded in getting Dave into bed, let alone snatching him from Mary.

But the really shocking event happened on Zipporah’s death bed.

Everybody in Waithaka and beyond knew that Zipporah was dying of Aids and it was no secret. She had gotten so weak that it did not take a genius to tell that she would die very soon.

It was while she was on her deathbed that she sent for Mary’s brothers with the message that she had some very important information for them. People respect those who are dying and Mary’s brothers quickly rushed to her deathbed. Zippora lied to them that she had had a passionate affair with Dave and obviously passed on the deadly virus to him. She told them that they needed to take care of their sister because she would soon be a widow. They were devastated and that little stunt caused Mary lots of problems and it was months before things settled down again.

Incidentally just before Zipporah died, her old friend Mary visited her. Zipporak pretended to be asleep and kept her eyes closed all the time. But Mary was patient and finally Zipporah had no option but to open her eyes. Mary was crying for her friend. Mostly for the short crazy life of suffering that she had lived. Mary tried to pray for her friend, but she could hear nothing of it. She just smiled. A very strange smile that never made it to her eyes.

“Don’t bother with your prayers, we will meet in hell….?” Is all she said and then she shut her eyes tight again. That was the last time Mary saw Zipporah.

A few days after that visit Zipporah died. Mary did not attend the funeral because she had so many fires to put out as a result of Zipporah’s deliberate actions to mess up her life.

It is now well over 15 years later and Mary is still with Dave, both are in fact a little overweight.

But what will always puzzle Mary and those who got to hear of this amazing tale is why somebody should live their whole lives envious and full of venom against their close friend. That one is indeed stranger than fiction.