Episode 2

The rays of the dawn filtering in through the leaves of the tree outside his window, dancing on the wall opposite his bed reminded Mathias of the image the word ‘fairy’ conjured in his mind. With a start, he thought out aloud ‘Wait a minute, is it morning already?’ Uttering a colorful expletive, he leapt out of bed and dashed in to the shower.

By the time he got to class, only 45 minutes remained until its end. He slipped into the back of the lecture hall, got a seat in a partly hidden spot then tried to catch up. Fortunately, in UON, the lecturers never took attendance so he would not be penalized for coming in late.

“Girl I’m in love with you, but this ain’t no honeymoon…” The words of his favorite John Legend song played in Mathias’ head repeatedly. He felt the urge to listen to the song, so he pulled out his MP3 player, plugged in the earphones and slipped one into his left ear. As the soulful melodies floated in, his mind wandered to the events of the past few days. He could not believe that a week had passed since that fateful night that he had met Kim. Time had flown by so fast.

He chuckled to himself a bit when he remembered what happened the day after their first meeting.
Mathias had called Kim that evening on the premise of arranging a way for him to get his coat back. Of course, it ended up being some kind of an unofficial date. It turned out absolutely disastrous. They agreed to go to an out-of-the way Chinese joint where the chef cooked the food in front of you. When they arrived at the restaurant, they could not find a place to park Kim’s car, which forced them to park what seemed like a kilometer away and walk back to the restaurant. When Mathias was getting out of the car, his pants were caught in the door and the right side was ripped. When they got to the restaurant, they had to wait for about 45 minutes to get a table because the place was full to the brim. 20 minutes later, when their food was finally ready, Kim’s hair got in the way of one of the candles… they decided to bow to Destiny’s will and leave. After that, the night got better, especially when they went to Tamasha.

Mathias smiled, then frowned almost immediately as the next song began playing-Killing me Softly, Tanya’s favorite song. Tanya was Mathias’ proverbial thorn in the side. She was the splinter that dug itself deeper, the harder you tried to get it out. They had gone out for a long time way back when Mathias was a freshman. At the time, she was in the third year. Mathias had thought he was so cool because he had an older chick while his contemporaries were fighting with the older students for the scarce resource of freshmen girls.

Their relationship, more of a fling than anything, lasted longer than either of them expected it to. He knew that she stayed on because the loving was too good. A mischievous grin came to his lips as he remembered how they would start in the kitchen, move to the living room, the bedroom, then finish in the shower.

So why had he stayed? Granted, she was a vixen, and her touch sent shock waves up his spine to his brain. Yet… there had been something there. Or so he thought.
One morning, after a particularly passionate night at her place, Tanya turned to him and smiled that languid sexy smile.
“Was it good”, she asked as she ran her polished nails on his bare chest. He laughed to cover his discomfort. He hated being asked.
“Why do you ask?” he asked in reply. Tanya got up and began dressing.
“Coz it was the last time” she replied as she wiggled into her jeans.

Mathias remembered bolting out of bed, throwing his clothes on quickly and walking out without a word to her. She did not even try to follow him out and explain anything. That marked the end of that torrid relationship. Tanya still called him once in a while when she was feeling particularly lonely. Mathias never did like booty calls so he never did reply to her advances.
All that was in the past now so Mathias put Tanya out of his thought sand began thinking of his lunch date with Kim. That date was to be official date number one. He hoped that Murphy’s Laws would take a break so that he could enjoy the food and Kim’s company at that new pizza place where they had agreed to meet. At that point, the lecture ended and the silent lecture hall erupted into a cacophony of desks moving, people shouting and chatting as they left the hall in groups. Mathias walked out alone as he thought about Kim. He just could not keep his mind off her any more. Her hair reminded him of the ocean waves as the tide came in at a brilliant seaside sunset. Her eyes like two incandescent pools of expression and emotion…
“Excuse me, Mathias? Hi, my name is John. Sorry to hear about Mr. Njuguna. He was one of my favorite lecturers. Si I’ll see you around?”

The voice passed as quickly as it came. Mathias’ bubble of love and happiness broke like a watermelon that a hippopotamus sat on. He came crashing back into reality, with lead weights to tie him down. His secret was finally out.

Mr. Njuguna had been Mathias’ boss. Though he was in university, Mathias has a couple of things that he did on the side. Some of them weren’t exactly pleasant. They could even be called unsavory or seedy- in other words, they might not hold up under a moral microscope.
Mathias and a couple of his friends had formed a ‘club’ when they were second year students. This ‘club’ took care of things that people didn’t want to take care of by themselves. They were mercenaries for hire.

That night when Mr. Njuguna died, Mathias was with him. It was the night he had met Kim. Only he knew the full story behind Mr. Njuguna’s death. This is why he would never tell his club mates the truth.