Dear Missus,
In an ordinary letter I would begin by warmly saluting your Ladyship. However this is not an ordinary letter, I am not writing to find out how you are, I am not writing to tell you how I am, neither am I writing to express my desire to see you again. It should however not be read to mean that I do not care about you or about what is going on back at home. I care, I always have, and in fact I care so much it scares the wits out of me. My soul threatens to jump right out of my body at the thought of how much I care for you, for us, for me.
Let me tell you a little about my life. You might find it strange that I, your husband, am speaking of telling you about my life. I mean we have been married for six years now. You definitely know about my life, I mean you are part of my life, aren’t you? Well you are not just part of my life, you are my life. You have been ever since I first laid my eyes on you on that Friday the 13th of March. Can you believe it? We met on Friday the 13th, I have never been a man to believe in superstition, I have never paid attention to that date beyond the fact that it is the day I met you my Lady, the most beautiful achievement of my life thus far. Now I am forced to believe that there was more to us meeting on such a date, one held by superstition to be an unlucky date. The most beautiful achievement of my life is what you are.
I love you, I have loved you since that date and right now as I jot this letter to you I still love you and I forever will, I believe. You know most of my life story, you know my life except for a few details I always thought of no significance to us and our well being. Before I met you, I was a simple fellow; I lived my life a day at a time, tomorrow was always going to take care of itself. With just enough education to go by, no talent at all or at least none that I can write about, and even worse, not born of a noble lineage at all, the world was always bound to have its fair share of dirt to throw my way. It did throw me a lot of dirt, but for you, life has been throwing nothing but dirt my way.
I was never bothered that I had nothing much to show for my almost three decades of living, I was totally contented for I had accepted my place in the society. The society existed as a house of cards and if any of us tried to change the dynamics, it all came down tumbling. Therefore, where I grew up, with the friends I made and how we lived, we always recognised this harsh reality that was life and accepted our place in the house of cards, never challenging to revolt.
All that negativity in my life changed as of the 13th of March. It is humorous how easy it was to change my life; I always thought it would take so much effort if at all it were possible to even attempt to change the direction of the churning wheels of my fate. Little did I know that all it was going to take was to meet a lady, one lady! No offence my dear Missus but had I known, I would have aspired to meet more ladies in my life. The changing of my life was so easy; all it took was the burning desire to see you again on the 14th of March. As simple as that I was able to start living my life looking forward to the next day and actually somehow planning for it.
My Missus, I have told you about my life before and immediately after meeting you. I have let you in on the positives you occasioned in my life, but I would be lying to myself if I was to think you have only impacted on me positively. Until early this month I had never believed that there could be anything calamitous about my having met you. For the better part of the month I have actually lived in denial, refusing to believe that my own saviour could again be the very same person to mark the end of me.
Thanks to you, for the love I have for you (or should I say had?) I was inspired into hard work. I say hard work because I read somewhere that hard work involves being able to see the results of your toil on the next day. I translate this to savings. I was able to work, we were able to work together and raise a total of eighty thousand shillings. If you recall, this is the amount we used to “secure” my place in the Police Force. I am thankful for the breath of life you brought upon me. For the sight and vision you instilled upon me. For the awareness and caution you made me see the necessity of. For that I will always love you.
We ensured my recruitment into the Police Force not because I had a passion for keeping peace and public order, I never had any intention of being a hero in life. Heroes die faster. I was never going to offer “service to all” if at all any would be required of me. Of paramount importance was always going to be my service to me, to us, to you my loving Missus. The plan was simple, get in, recover the eighty thousand shillings investment as fast as possible and embark on accumulation for the future. My life was supposed to change, you had initiated an undertaking that was going to make me better and leave us as the best there could ever be.
The training was tough, but it had nothing on a man determined to forever alter his fate and the course of his life. The hardship had nothing on a man in love, it was no match to me and I was able to see it off with relative ease. The months quickly passed by and I was ready for the world. A graduating Police Constable ready to do service to the public by ensuring that the public refunded the amount he spent to get him where he was.
Our plans seemed to be in contrast with what life had planned out for us. From outside we could never have believed that a Police man could still have it so tough, from our discussions we had concurred in concluding that a poor police man was purely one who chose to live as such. Alas! A Constable reports to a Sergeant, who reports to a Senior Sergeant, who in turn reports to an inspector...let us just say that the chain of command does not favour me. With that in mind you can guess how much favour the food chain subsequently has in store for me.
However, we had come from very far off and my love for you had done nothing but grow ever since that memorable 13th day of March, 2009. Therefore, we never relented despite the challenges that we faced. There was always hope that things would get better, for we had seen how others had their stars shoot early in their career. All we needed to know was the right people. Whose toes to step on and whose boots to lick. Our ascent was bound to come, that is one thing we were both sure of. When in my station a fellow tribesman was elevated to Officer Commanding Station I was elated almost more than him. I knew it meant more lucrative deals would come my way, for what rightful thinking man leaves behind his tribesman?
Our
strategy was clear, befriend Mr. OCS and surely we would get somewhere. “For a more personal touch, invite him home,
let us share a meal with him,” is what you told me. Who was I to challenge
your idea, to challenge the one person who gave me life, to challenge my Missus?
He took the bait in what was really unbelievable fashion. Someone who despite
all my efforts and the numerous times I licked his boots had never really taken
me serious was all of a sudden so friendly and helpful. Another reason to be thankful
for you, again you had found a way to be the shining light in my life for I do
not know what you told him that day but soon the more lucrative postings
started coming my way. It has been six months now and I have patrolled the
lucrative areas of the city, areas where the citizens understand how things are
done. I have come home with quite some loot lately and finally we looked headed
towards the direction we had intended all along.
Yours departed,
KiKim
Kimelu Kimei, Police Constable.
