Shosh

I had parked the car and stepped out to go to the ATM.

I was on phone, checking out a text or something on some APP, so I wasn’t too keen on my surroundings. It is the beauty of living in Machakos, I guess. You don’t have to walk around behaving like an FBI agent on a covert operation like you guys do in Kanairo. No one will snatch your phone on the streets. You could literally ferry a hundred dollar bills in a carrier bag around and no one will bother you. I guess we still have the fear of the Lord in us.

I was about to go up the steps leading to the ATM when I heard someone shout “Weee! Young man!” So I turned around to see who this manner-less African was. My countenance lightened up a bit when I turned to find that it was an elderly woman standing next to a teenage girl. She, in my estimation, looked like she was in her late sixties or early seventies. Let’s call her Shosh, shall we?

“Kijana, help me up the stairs.” She retorted stretching out her hand.

The girl broke out into a muzzled laugh as I stretched out my hand, adjusting my footing to oblige. I helped her climb up the stairs, she proceeded into the bank and I headed to the ATM. I did my transaction and stepped out. I needed to cross the street and go to an M-PESA agent to make another transaction. So as I stood by the roadside practicing what my kindergarten teacher had taught me on crossing the road I heard the same call again.

“Kijana!”

I turned again to find Shosh stranded at the top of the stairs from the bank. I walked back.

“Help me down!” She said.

I obliged. Held her hand as she struggled to come down the steps. When she got to the foot of the stairs, she winced in pain and took a deep breath.

“Since you are here, you’ll take me wherever I am going.” Shosh demanded. The girl in tow now broke into an audible laugh. I smiled and obliged. I held her hand; we crossed the road to the other side of the street. We walked to the same MPESA shop that I was headed to. Shosh needed to buy a few things-make up related. She bought eye pencils-many of them! It is like she was buying them to go sell on retail.

She was done paying when she turned and asked me where I was headed before she ambushed me.

I told her that I was actually coming to the same shop only that I needed to make a deposit. She let me make the deposit and then asked me to take her to her next stop. I obliged again. We were headed out when she told me that the girl with her was her grand daughter who couldn’t speak Swahili or Kamba to save her life. Teen granddaughter was visiting during the holidays. She’d come to town to run a few errands and then head back home.

I helped Shosh to her car across the street.

We got to her car. She asked me what my name was. Who my dad was, where I came from, where we lived, what I did, like a full interrogation in a little under ten minutes. Then she thanked me for helping her with her movement and apologized for the ambush. She said I was the angel she needed that day because she would have struggled to get around. She asked God to bless me and drove off with her granddaughter.

Sometimes God slows your life down so that you can help someone who needs an angel.