Kiteng's Adventures

Kiteng is the little girl who listens to Grandma's stories about the Kingdom of Zindana. She has her own adventures with her friends that I have been writing for a number of years now and I'm still not finished. I haven't even managed to write the chapters in order. So here I will just post tit bits of Kiteng's Adventures.

JOURNEY TO THE CITY

“Wait up, Kiteng!”

I turned to see Akilla running towards me. She looked as excited as I felt. We held hands and hurried on to school.

“Hi Akilla! I waited for you forever at the fig tree. What happened to you?”

“Hey Kiteng,” Akilla squeezed my hand and smiled at me. “I had some extra chore to do this moring. My big sister is going to the city tomorrow and she just had to have all sorts of things done for her this morning.”

“Why couldn’t you do the chores when you get home after the concert?”

“Exactly what I asked her, but she wouldn’t hear of it. They had to be done before I left for school!”

We walked through the school gate and headed for the Drama Room. We were going to spend most of the today practicing the school play. The end of year concert was always exciting, and this year it was a Christmas Play. Akilla and I were both angels, we had the most gorgeous white gowns I had ever seen. They had white cardboard wings and glitter halos pinned to shinning silver crowns.

“I don’t remember ever being this excited about a concert before, Akilla. It must be because my mother will be here from the city. She has never attended any of the school functions before. I do so hope she will not be disappointed in me.”

“I hope so too Kiteng. She’s been away for so long I don’t remember what she’s like!”

I was brought up by my Grandma in Mene Village where we lived with his son, my Uncle Tilakit. Grandma had told me that my father died in a car accident when I was 2 years old. Mother had been devastated and unable to cope with a baby in her grief. She brought me to the village to live with Grandma promising to come and get me once she had sorted herself out. She had gone to stay with her Uncle in the city, and he had arranged for her to go for further studies overseas. Grandma said that apart from the money she sent and the letters she wrote, we did not see her again until last year when I was turning seven.

Mother showed up unexpectedly on my birthday with a gift. Grandma and I had been overjoyed to see her, but our excitement was short lived, when Mother had to leave again the next day. She explained that she had returned from overseas and had to look for work in the city. She promised that she would return to take me once she was settled down. Since then she had visited occasionally, but never for long and never during the school term. This time she said she would stay for Christmas and that I would be returning to the city with her.

“Are you looking forward to going to live in the city, Kiteng?” Akilla interrupted my thoughts.

“I suppose so. I shall miss Grandma terribly, and you, my friends at school, Uncle Tilakit, not to mention the village. To tell you the truth Akilla, I wish I was only going for a visit. Who is going to look after Grandma?”

“Don’t worry Kiteng, I will check on her every day. I’m going to miss you too, you know. Will you write to me?”

“Of course I will, all the time.”

“Look there’s Sister Margo calling us. It must be time to dress up. Come on Akilla, we must hurry.”

The end of year production marked the end of term, and the beginning of the holidays. Everyone in the village attended it. Our missionary school had a reputation for putting on very entertaining shows. The concert was like a dream, perfect. I really felt like an angel in all that light and glitter! I wasn’t nervous when I was on stage as the light made it impossible to see anyone in the audience. Sister Margo was so pleased with our performance, that she allowed everyone to take their costumes home with a promise to bring them to school on Monday.

I was exhausted when we finally reached home, that I went straight to bed. Grandma made me a cup of warm hot chocolate that Mother had brought and I sipped it in bed before I fell asleep.

Mother stayed for the entire Christmas holidays and the New Years day. Grandma made a fuss of her and me saying that she had too since we would be leaving soon.

The day before we were set to leave, Akilla and I sat on a mat by Grandma’s kitchen shelling groundnuts.

“I’m really excited about going to the city,” I said to my friend. “I want to go, but I also wanted to stay.”

“Do you remember when Sister Margo said that people are afraid of change,” Akilla said thoughtful. “I didn’t really understand her until now.”

“What do you mean? Does that have anything to do with my going to live in the city?”

“It does too, Kiteng,” Akilla rubbed her big toe in the soil making circles. “You are just like she said. You want to go but you also want to stay.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, going is a change and staying means there is no change.”

“Yeah, you’re right! You sound very clever, Akilla.”

“Not really. I just remember things like that. I am so going to miss you, Kiteng.”
“Me too Akilla. Whate ever will I do?”

“We’ll write to each all the time and visit each other too.”

“Yeah.”

We fell silent, only the sound of the cracking groundnut shells could be heard. I was glad that we were able to spend the evening together. I hardly slept that night thinking that I would not wake up in time and that Mama would leave me behind. Not that she had said she would leave me. It was my over active imagination that conjured up these fears. A gentle tap on the shoulders was all it took to wake me up early the next morning.