LA, LA, LALIANA

CHAPTER FOUR

                            "And stay out!" Merina angrily shouted at Laliana outside her front door. "Please dear sister, I have nowhere to live!" Laliana pleaded with her sister while on her knees. She was in a faded green skirt and a baggy white T Shirt that had colourful patches all over. Beside her were two small children, a boy and a girl. They too had on shabby clothing. "Your rent, in fact your stay in this house is overdue, you need to go and get yourself a new place to dwell in. You and your pesky twins!" "But I just got laid off from work today. Please just give me some more time until I find another job. Please my children...ouch!" Laliana screamed in pain as she hugged her lower abdomen.
                               "Welcome to the real world dear big sister. Where mother is not here to help you and neither does your rich criminal husband too. They are all dead!" Laliana tries to hold her sister's hand but Merina roughly pushed it away. "Why have you always been so cruel to me...I am your only sister..." "The only sister who ruined my chance of ever finishing high school because of her stupid disease!" Laliana's eyes widened in disbelief. "Yes you! Mother had to use all the money she had kept for my education to buy you those super expensive pain killers ..." With tears already flowing, Merina continued, "Maybe if mom had not come back to rescue you from Beni, she wouldn't have..she wouldn't have been  shot ! It's your fault she died!"
               
                 "Sister... please... help... I'm in pain," Laliana cried with her hands still on her stomach. "It's as if you don't understand. I DON'T CARE ! Get rid of your womanhood to put yourself out of misery !" Merina violently shut the door in front of Laliana releasing an ear piercing sound. Laliana hissed at her sister's last remark.

                   ......

                        "Mom, what are we going to do now that aunty Meri doesn't like us?" Zari politely asked. "Aunty Meri is a bad girl!" Joni angrily interjected. Laliana smiled a bit upon hearing her son's statement.
                            The three were at the waiting bay of Kenyatta National Hospital. That was where Nara worked as a nurse. Laliana watched in silence as different people both young and old in the activities of treating and being treated. The white painted walls and cream sealings managed to calm Laliana's troubled heart somehow.
                            People could be seen coming out of the consultation rooms with smiling faces. At the same time others came out of them with sad faces yet others, confused. There were some in stretchers being rushed to the emergency room. Others were just sitted like Laliana and her children in the waiting bay however each of them had a different story to tell.
                             The strong smell of industrial bleach roamed the corridors of the medical institution. Nothing was static in there except the deceased patients that were slowly being carried to the hospital mortuary. Laliana watched in much pity as a man and woman silently follow a mortuary attendant with their hands held together mortuary which was at the furthest end of the hospital. The attendant seemed to be carrying a child  in the flat, cold and uncomfortable stainless steel stretcher. The child had a dark wooly blanket covering his or her body from the neck downwards. He looked so pale and helpless.
                            Laliana did not notice she was crying until Zari gently rubbed the tears from her cheeks. "Mom, why are you crying, don't worry the person covered in the wierd blanket will be okay," Zari said after noticing her mother's attention fixed at the body being ferried away to the mortuary. Laliana abruptly gave her daughter a hug almost startling her. She could not imagine how life would be if she hadn't had her children.
                             After her husband's legal execution. Laliana could not be able to cop with the loss. She missed the Beni that she had always known ever since the day they met. She hated the Beni that she came to know last before he died. An abuser, an ignorant and impatient man and what shocked her the most, a murderer. He truly deserved that death sentence.
                                It turned out that Beni was a leader of a dangerous drug trafficking syndicate. His syndicate had been in existence for ten years and throughout his being in the syndicate he had carried out numerous murders. Beni was the reason behind  disappearances of several young men. Laliana still couldn't believe that Beni had hidden all that from her despite being married to Beni for five years.
                           
                            Joni was busy playing with the laces of his undersized green rubber shoes. He did not realize the incoming embrace that was coming from his mother. Soon Laliana, Zari and Joni were in one big hug." You are the only people who matter most in my life now!" Laliana whispered to her children's ears.
                        ...........
                       
                           "Hello dear sister, sorry for that long wait, the patient had a tone of questions. What brings you here today, is the paracetamol not doing any justice?" Nara said as she welcomed Laliana to her small office. Nara had always been a huge help to Laliana especially when it came to medication. She had always used her position to sneak out as some painkillers for Laliana whenever she needed them.

                     Laliana shakes her head in refusal and started,"Don't say that, I should be the one apologizing for always inconveniencing you without giving you even a single penny for appreciation," Laliana meekly replied. It was true, Nara had been of extreme help compared to her own flesh and blood, Merina during those four years after Sally and Beni's demise.
                              Every single one of Beni's assets, even the Asante restaurant was confiscated and put under the government's name. Laliana was left with Beni's surname, and a big responsibility of raising twins on her own. Merina offered to give Laliana and her then newborn babies a place to stay on condition she paid rent. 
                                   Nara had even managed to get Laliana a job as a cleaning lady in that hospital. Even though the salary was peanuts compared to what she was supposed to take care of, at least it was something. But at that time, she was already retrenched. She was heartlessly kicked out of her sister's house. She was then homeless with children who were supposed to join preschool that year.
                           "I heard that you got laid off, how are you fairing now?" Nara asked in much concern after she sat in her desk. Laliana got down on her knees with immediate effect. "The truth is I'm breaking down sister...I don't know what to do... Merina kicked me out!" Laliana exclaimed. "Don't worry, the hospital is launching another branch in Eastleigh. I'll make sure that you get a spot in the sanitation..." " I'm sorry Nara but ten thousand shillings per month won't cut it !" Laliana interrupted Nara.
                              "Excuse me!" Nara said with a hint of disgust in her voice. Laliana moved closer to Nara's desk while still on her knees. With her hands meekly clasped together and on the desk, Laliana continued, "I have to find a new place to stay...I need to put my children in pre school and I need stronger painkillers by the day because my endometriosis is becoming more and more unbearable..." "So what do you want me to do?" Nara asked deadpannly.
                           "Please help me find a higher paying job!" Nara got up from her chair and got around her desk. She sat next to Laliana at the edge of the desk  with her arms crossed. "Tell me which job can a twenty nine year old woman who only finished primary school, is a single mother and is living with a condition that is proving straneous to her get a respectable high paying job..." " I didn't say I wanted a respectable job..." Laliana lovingly takes her friend's hands.
                                 " Let's just be honest with each other... with my kind of situation any job will do and when I mean any I do mean ANY JOB," "But ..." "No buts! You've done more than enough for me. Finding me that job is the last and only thing that I would want from you," Nara hung her head low and sighed in surrender. There was more than truth in what Laliana said.
                               For how long was Laliana continue to ask Nara for assistance. For goodness sake, she had young children who are quite expensive by the way. Nara herself also had her own family to take care of and a masters degree to get. Even though she was a doctor that didn't mean she was a tycoon but just a public servant. A public servant whose monthly wage was deducted for mandatory allowances and taxes. "Okay then, I know a certain shady agency that search jobs for people abroad. They do pay but I 'm warning you few people come back with success stories..." " Yes please just tell me where I can get them!" Laliana said with wide and gleaming eyes.
                                  

  Thanks for reading this 🙂😋🤪!