The Ghost on C39: Part 1

I fluttered my eyes open to a hazy, cloudy sight of smoke. A warm metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. As my eyes cleared up some more, I found myself squeezed in place, with no recollection of what had just happened.

However, I knew it was bad because of the agony shooting through my body like lightning in the skies during an enduring storm. The ambient night noise of the screeching crickets and the silent wind all sounded distant and dreamy.

Immediately, I thought of Amani and our children. I had to get to them! I tried to force myself free, but the grip of this entity was a strong one.

I was trapped in place: the door panel of the car hemmed me in from the right, the steering wheel and dashboard pushing against me from the front and partially from my left side as well.

I tried moving my feet. I could only wiggle them about under the weight of the dashboard and front panel of the car. How I had survived this devastating car crash, only God knows. Smoke bellowed into the chilly air in front of me. I had to get out. I had to get out!

I wriggled about, each cell in my body screaming in agony. I could hear a sharp pang of pain rip through my chest and down to each of my four limbs, a sweeping wave of pain so severe that it gave me spasms that I had to pause and gather my wits. I tried to call out for help, but all I could muster was a whimper, like a cornered dog breathing its last.

I think I also had broken my right hand, because there was an unexplainable bulge on my elbow, and I could barely even feel my fingers.

I looked up and was relieved to see that the sunroof had burst open, letting in the sparkling blue-grey night of the rural, charming western Kenya weather. The stars were bright in the sky, twinkling with irreverence against the broad canvas of space now that they weren’t outshone by the artificial lights of the city. It was glorious, a kind of mystic beauty as if of an ethereal world.

I reached up with my left hand and pushed the sunroof glass out of the way for much more of the night sky to come pouring in. Perhaps this was my way out. I held tightly on the edge of the sunroof opening and tried to haul myself up.

I screamed and groaned, hemmed and hawed, my body firing up with agony with each twitch of a muscle. I was dragging a ton of muscle with that left hand, the ton being my quickly shutting down body.

Inch by inch, painful muscle by painful muscle, I began to wriggle free, until I could finally feel the chilly air of the country clasping around my face. It was a pleasant night, but all I could feel were the sordid memories of what had previously happened lapping but not quite settling into the fore memory, seemingly hidden behind a translucent curtain, just about seen but not clear enough. I couldn’t even remember how I got here.

I did remember, though, that I had to get home to see my lovely wife and children, and of course, my extended family. My wife and children had travelled before me a week ago to my extended family home in Ivojo village, Vihiga county, for the Christmas holidays. Tomorrow was Christmas, and I needed to be there, so I wasn’t about to let them down.

It had been many Christmases since we had spent together, my nuclear family and I. We would always be away working, even on Christmas. In fact, the last Christmas when both of us were home with the children would have been about half a decade ago, during the COVID period, when we both had been working from home and had used the goodwill in the air at that time to create memories with each other and the children.

Since then, our lives over this period, like many other times to be honest, were a seesaw. If she got off this Christmas, I would be tied up. If I were off the next Christmas, she was out in the office, topping bottom lines and killing deadlines. It was glorious, as glorious as a busy life with lots of money but no time to spend that money could be.

But we had made it. We had a good apartment in Westlands, and our children now studied at a prestigious school, and their grades were… they were great! Their grades were… they were great - I think. I hadn’t looked at their report card this previous time. Nor over the past year. Nor the year before, to be honest.

But that was why I was rushing to them now. I was going to catch up on the past two or three years I had missed in their lives because of work. I also had a good surprise for Amani – I was to be her stallion for the next week until the new year. I had bought a cock ring and some blue pills. I was going to till her land over the next week until the plough broke or until both the plough and land tired, whichever came first. We had to compensate for the romance that had walked out of our marriage since 2019 and the sex that hadn’t been in the same room with us since around 2021 - I think.

Yes, I had to do all this. I had to. I had to start living life outside of work.

Now, if only I could push my feet from under the dashboard. I grunted and panted. I had my head now entirely out of the sunroof and could, for the first time, look around at the maize plantations whispering faintly to the gentle night breeze around, at the trees whose silhouettes loomed over me and whose branches waved around gently and almost in slow motion, as if calling for me.

I took in a long breath of the crisp, fresh air of the countryside. I had missed the feel of this cool fresh air, air not contaminated with smog, city smugness, and fornication. This was as fresh a breath of air as the first breath of life.

The trapped feet suddenly began moving. It was working. I was freeing myself from these fetters. My body was spasming with bolts of electricity. But I had a mission – not to die here.

I pushed and wriggled until finally, all I had left was my right foot, still trapped between the steering wheel and the front seat. I paused and sank my head, sobbing. The steering wheel and chair clamped onto my foot and were not ready to move an inch, no matter how hard I tried.

Each tug sent violent explosions of pain up my leg, through my weak body, and into my already aching chest. My entire body was in flames, and all I could do was try, scream, pause, sob, and then try again. Try, scream, pause, sob, and try again.

All this time, I kept looking up and down the road. Surely a vehicle would be coming round the bends on either side at any moment now. The C39 was not a very busy road, but it wasn’t a road to nowhere either. This was literally the road connecting Kapsabet to Kisumu or Kakamega. It was bound to get traffic even in the hours of the dead like this.

Try, scream, pause, sob, repeat. Try, scream, pause, sob, repeat. Try, scream, pause, repeat…

Until it happened - I was free! 

(To be continued)