2004. The year Maureen found out that there was no such thing as rock bottom. If life was a pit, it was endless. There was no numerical limit to the trouble that one person could get into, if there was, it was an infinite sum. She buried her only sister, and after that, with nothing to return to in Nairobi, she remained behind at her parents home. Waking up at dawn everyday to tend to an unyielding vegetable garden, and spending the rest of it cooped up in her childhood bedroom, the one she used to share with Amani.

2004. When Laura got everything she had ever wanted. The big office, the big cases, the right baby daddy and finally, finally the pay check she deserved. So she had lost a friend, but soon she realised, it had been worth it. 2004. The year Philip's mother came to talk her. "I am your ally,"  said the woman, and Laura had realised, this time, she'd get the Prince too. She would have him for more than fleeting moments of drunken passion.

2004. The year Philip finally opened their restaurant. Also the year he changed the birth certificate of Laura's child to include the name Nyagah. He hadn't expected the amount of joy and pride it brought him. He visited Maureen atleast once a week and she welcomed him. She let him comfort her in her grief, allowed him to hold her when her people gave them space to talk but refused to come back home with him. "I can't leave Amani again," she said the last time,"here is where she is, so here is where I'll stay."

2004. When even Diana, the most tenacious of the three women almost gave up. Torn between Laura and Maureen. She wanted to be there for both of them, not that Laura deserved it, but because she was afraid, if she didn't stick around, Laura would fall of the deep end, never to be saved from the darkness gnawing at her soul. She had visited Maureen frequently, she had prayed and fasted for the woman, she had scolded her, pleaded with her, bribed her, pushed, pulled, even given her some space but nothing seemed to work. Maureen preferred to stay at home and spend her mornings beside Amani's grave behind the house, doing some terribly unsuccessful small scale farming and her evenings reading horrible poetry and crying herself to sleep.

2004.

*******

It was a cool September evening. Einstein Mukoya sat on the back veranda with his jiko. From here, he could look at his daughter's handiwork. The kales and pumpkin leaves looked dilapidated even though she watered them every morning and put manure weekly. It was almost comical, he had never seen so much effort go unrewarded. His old radio tuned to KBC Idhaa Ya Taifa, the station had never been changed since 1978 when he had bought it, reported news of a coming referendum. He wanted to ask his daughter about it, she was the lawyer.

From inside the house, he could hear his grand children talking. Since Amani's death and her husband's disappearance, they had been left here. Only Agatha had gone with his oldest son Franklin, who lived abroad. He was convinced the doctors there could treat the little girl, even make her useful in the investigation of what happened to Amani. Although he wished the best for his grand daughter, Mukoya was almost sure Franklin would be disappointed. His other sons, in blind rage, were busy scouring the country for Cornelius, believing he had killed their sister and fled justice. Mukoya was old enough to leave it up to God to deal with Cornelius , if indeed he was the murderer. For now, he would have to occupy himself with the future of Amani's orphans and on his living daughter.

He waited until everyone else had gone to sleep before he went to Maureen's room and knocked at the door. "Senje,"  he called her, my aunt, since he had named her after his father's sister. Amani had been his mother. He called again, knocking gently on the door. He had to talk to her today. When she didn't answer, a maddening fear engulfed him, what if it had happened again? What if he broke down the door only to find another brutally killed daughter. He banged on the door frantically, almost completely out of his mind with dread. "Senje!" He boomed. Everyone else in the house got up. They came to the little brown door,  it was like a deja vu. Confusion and terror etched on their faces.

"Baba Frank tafadhali, you're scaring the children," complained his wife. She walked to him, fastening her old threadbare kanga around her waist. He could see she was more alarmed than the children. He pounded on the door again, and it was opened slowly.

He stared at Maureen, relief washing over him in one hefty wave after another. "Is anything wrong? Father, I took some piriton, I was deep asleep. What is the matter?"  She asked, speaking to her parents in their native tongue. The way she spoke made him regret disturbing her, like someone who was exhausted but would not be surprised if another problem showed up. His wife ensured the children went back to sleep, when she came back, she was furious. Some of that irrational anger his children had inherited radiated from every inch of her body.

She walked right upto Maureen and pushed her way into Maureen's untidy room. The place looked like a tornado had passed through it with clothes, books and dirty utensils strewn across the floor. Mukoya walked in after her. He shook off the urge to hide his nose behind the old wife beater he wore, it was very difficult, the room smelt terrible. Maureen walked in after them and sat on the bed, waiting for one of them to speak.

Mama Frank begun by opening the windows. "Mama, you're letting the mosquitos in," Maureen groaned. "I would rather die of malaria than of this stench," retorted the older woman. Maureen became angry too but knew better than to talk back to her mother. "Your father and I think you have grieved enough," she announced. Mukoya wondered why he was being dragged into this but he nodded, avoiding both their eyes. He thought it was absurd, how could one just decide that the other's grief period had expired.

"When are you going back to Nairobi?" the mother asked, making herself busy with tiding the room. She collected the dirty clothes, using only her thumb and forefinger to pick them up before disposing them in a bucket she pulled from under the bed. She then stacked up the dirty utensils on a basin halfway filled with dirty water.

"I'm I talking to myself?"

"Are you asking me to leave?" Maureen looked at her father although he hadn't spoken a word. He felt transported back to when both his daughters still lived at home. None of them had gotten along with their mother. He had been used to getting caught in the middle of their arguments. "No, not all all senje, you are not a visitor here," he assured her. His wife cleared her throat noisily and he added,"we are just concerned that your life is on hold. What is your plan? What about our son, you shouldn't be away from your husband for too long."

"He will visit soon,"she answered. Mukoya had a feeling something was wrong between his daughter and Philip. He had asked a couple of times and only gotten evasive responses. He didn't want to push the matter afraid that his own transgressions against her mother would be remembered in the process. Besides, it was not his place. He would let the mother deal with it.

"If you're going to stay here, then tomorrow you're going to help me with the house chores, like your father said, you're not a visitor here."

"Okay mother," she answered meekly. "After you're done with your plants, you will help your mother out," Mukoya added knowing it would please her that he cared about her shamba. His wife rolled her eyes, "what plants?" she mouthed to him when Maureen was not looking. He did not show that he was amused.

"When we wash the clothes tomorrow, you can tell me about this Wako Draft nonsense I'm hearing about," the mother said in English. Mukoya was always intrigued by his wife's pendulum moods. Now she sat beside their daughter, talking to her gently. He took his cue to leave when the topic of Maureen's husband reeled it's head into the conversation.

*********

"Men do these sort of things everyday," Maureen's mother had advised her with the same finality that Laura had once told her, "Steve is a man," and absolved him of everything he had ever done. Even after she explained, "he has a child with uncle Wekesa's daughter. Yes, the one who was my friend, the one who used to visit you every Easter,"  her mother just said it was unfortunate. Maureen wondered why, if infidelity had been so inevitable, no one had prepared her for it before she got married, why had they deluded her into thinking marriage meant exclusivity.

Nevertheless when Philip came to visit, he found her bags packed. It was symbolic, that she was ready to go with him. Mukoya allowed him to take the bags but demanded he comes back for her properly. The following week, Nyagah Senior, his son and other elders from Philip's side officially came to take back their wife. They brought atonement for Philip's misadventures too, Maureen almost cried out in disdain, a price for betrayal, cash for her father, brothers and uncles, vitenge for her mother. In the old ways, it would have been cattle. There was something about money that desecrated the whole thing.

She heard an uncle tell Philip, "if you want another woman, do it properly, we are not closing the door for you to marry again and again according to your pockets depth, don't say your in laws are selfish. But do not disrespect our daughter, her family is not poor and she has a lot of book, even without you, she will be fed." She felt pride and humiliation all at once in that one statement.

Her mother had told her to manage her house better (keep all his money busy, he shouldn't be left with anything to seduce girls with), get a child too, that way, no one can uproot you from your home. Maureen knew who no one was. Her mother loathed Philip's. She had a wild theory that the woman would try to "implant" Laura in between them.

The first few days together were awkward. They talked about it nonstop. Maureen asked uncomfortable questions and Philip lied about everything except for, did you love any of them? No, I swear, I only love you. Maureen was obsessed with the details, she tried to pry them out of him and he endured it. She would get moody and refuse to eat, to talk or to do anything else. Still Philip continued to try. He stayed home more, never went to Wainana's anymore, brought her flowers. He pulled out all the Yunot Diaz stops and more. They had hit a wall and as much as he knew better, Philip found himself regretting that he had deleted all his clande's contacts.

Then one day, his mother came to visit, talking about a revolution that had taken place. She put up pictures of Laura's child everywhere in the house and talked to Maureen endlessly about the enemy's failed plans against her son. She asked Maureen about her career, that sacred reason for which she had withheld child rearing, how was that going? Then she went on about the revolution and how a new general was warming up. "Watch out, there's going to be a coup de tat," she sang trying to be a riddler.

"Mom, come, I'm taking you home," Philip finally put an end to it. The woman tried to refuse but her son was adamant."Let's go mom," he insisted. She finally left but only after a lengthy prayer, denouncing evil forces working against her son's prosperity.

That day, the walls between them came crumbling down. Maureen was finally in a good mood. She breached the frontier they had established on their bed, trespassing into his territory. She cuddled up against him and talked about her sister. He listened, clutching on to every word, soaking it up, relishing in it. This was his second chance.

In the days that followed she returned to her old self. One day he got back from work and found that she had cut her hair as short as his own. He put on a great performance on how much he loved it. She had added a lot of weight so he was glad to find her working out like she was getting ready for the Olympics. Soon she watched the news all the time and liked to talk about Afghanistan and the imbeciles who worked for Waki, and Waki, another Kenyan idiot in office because of a foreign education, she would say.  Everyday when he got home, Diana was always there, arguing with Maureen about Raila and Kibaki. He would smile to himself, she seemed more alive than ever.

In December, he decided to take her to Mombasa for the holidays. The restaurant had done well. She said no, let's invest the money. He tried not to read to much into it but he couldn't help feel a stab of rejection. He begun to notice the little changes in her and they begun to bother him. Whenever he got home from work to find Diana in the house again, he fought the urge to kick her out. Diana would stay until late when her husband and son came to pick her up after evening service. He did not like the way the son looked at Maureen, completely taken by her in the way of a teenage boy with an impossibly huge crush, or how his holy hands lingered on hers creepily after greetings. It bothered him how pushy Otieno Otieno was with his Gospel and how fake Maureen acted around him, saying Amen and we thank God more than was necessary.

The worst however was Maureen's insecurity. She did it completely subconsciously, unaware of how crazy her paranoia and suspicion had become. It was insane, how often she snooped through his phone, how many times she called just to check up on him and how she double checked everything he said. Where are you going? To work? So early? There's a problem with the freezer, I have to sort it out before customers begin to trickle in. Really? Yeah. Didn't you just buy it? That's why it's acting up, something wasn't set right. Aha. She would conclude doubtfully. Later she would stop by the restaurant and ask the staff how the freezer was working. She became so argumentative. Every little thing was a point of contention. She asked him his opinion about something just so she would disagree with him by default, so for peace he'd support whatever stance she took only for her to accuse him of being too agreeable.

In between the fighting however, she was an angel, putting him first as she had always done, defending him against her friends who said it was a mistake that she had gone back to him and supporting him even with Laura's child. By mid 2005 he realised that the real issue was that Maureen hadn't really forgiven him, and no matter how much she loved him and tried to put it behind them, she was still angry.

Hey guys,
Thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Tell me if you think Philip and Maureen will make it, haha. Anyway, your votes and comments are greatly appreciated.
Love,
Stacy.