I KNEW YOU ONCE

ONE

‘My story is not the best and I even don’t know if I should say it out’

I told my friends but they wouldn’t listen. They say that to be friends that really make sense, we need to know each other very well and that our jobs also depend on it.

‘Okay, I will say it but don’t say I haven’t warned you’

My name is Christian Kale. I have other names but I don’t use them, my sister who is bigger than me says that they are not cool. She is in F2 and I am in P4. My mother I am told died in the village when I was only one year on earth and my dad married my mother whom I stay with. She is beautiful and I like her and she also likes me. She makes me food in the morning for school, brushes my hair and also helps me with my homework. My father works but doesn’t earn enough money so we are going to move to another smaller house in another place with neighbours in the same gate. I think I will not like it because I don’t like noise and the neighbours are going to make noise for us. We will move to the house on Sunday which will also make me miss church and all my friends at church.

The place is big and even the house is big but we share it with some people I don’t know. Other houses are there but in all the houses is a beautiful one away from the ones we stay and even have their own compound. They say our landlords stay there. I have seen the man who owns the house. He is big and has a big stomach and very nice. I saw him yesterday when he came home and talked with daddy. He came with his daughter. I don’t like her. She thinks she is rich and I am not. I hate her even more that she is in my class. I like her sister, her name is Melissa and she is in P6. She buys for me things from the canteen every day and talks to me in a nice way. She even told me that we are in a place called makindye and that our home is in kibuli. We are just below the mosque so every morning, my father doesn’t have to worry about setting up his alarm clock because the people in the mosque always wake us up very early in the morning and I hate it because I love to sleep at that time. My sister is going to a boarding school next term so I won’t worry about her disturbing me. Her name is Rebecca but she calls herself Becky and Erika because she watches a lot of soaps on TV. I don’t like soaps. One of our neighbours in university told me that they are meant to be watched by women but daddy watches them when my momma is there. She is obsessed by them. Every day she comes back from work at around 6pm. She works in town and now I stay with a house maid whom I don’t like. Her hands make mine pain every time she greets me and she likes to greet me a lot. She also likes the girl I hate most. The landlord’s daughter.

Today is Sunday, the first since we moved to kibuli. We are going to pray from kibuli miracle centre. It is somewhere near the market I hear which I have never been to. As we drive to the church, we pass by the market. I don’t like it it’s dirty.

‘I think I like this place already’ mum starts

‘This place is dirty’ I told her

The rest of the journey was a quiet one until we reached the church. It’s not so bad looking; I may like it with time. As I moved to the inside, I was stopped by some gentle man in a very beautiful nice suite. My parents talk to him. He is the pastor. I like him. His suite is way better than any of my father’s.

‘How are u Christian’ the pastor says

‘I’m fine’

From there, he showed me to the children wing where the young ones pray from. Before I could go, my father gave me 1000 shillings as offertory. I kept the money in my pocket. As I moved to where children pray from, I saw some boy. They also gave him money for tithe like mine, 1000. He walked towards me and together, we go inside the wing. He is familiar with the place and therefore went straight to sit as I lingered staring without any word. A lady looked at me.

‘Are you new here?’ she asked me as she bent to touch my head. She is very nice. I nodded my head to say yes. All eyes looked at me.

‘What is your name?’ she asked me

‘My name is Christian. Christian kale’

As soon as I said my name, some children started to laugh and I wonder why

they are laughing. The Madame looked at them and they kept quiet.

‘Well Christian I will call you Chris. I am Madam Claire and I am the Sunday school teacher. Go have a seat over…’ she says this as her eyes move searching around her class. My eyes also helped hers until she finally reaches an empty place with one girl I don’t like most. Our neighbour.

‘Mary. Yes, go sit over there’

Mary smartly extends as I sit next to her. She likes to pose she is wealthy at home and even at school. I don’t like her and don’t know why I seem to be running onto her every now and then. Sometimes, we go to school together then she comes home and disturbs me when I’m playing games with my mother’s phone and now I’m sitting with her in church. The madam now starts to teach about Jesus Christ and his love for children.

‘Jesus loves children a lot that he said let the children come to me. Isn’t it good for the son of God to love you so much…?’

We all enjoyed the story of Jesus. Madam Clair knows how to tell good stories.

After she finished, we all started clapping hands for her. She is really a nice person. She then called me to say a prayer before we could continue. I got up my seat and moved to the front.

‘Dear Jesus, thank you for this day. Thank you for giving as a very nice madam who tells us nice stories. Amen’

I said the prayer and walked back to sit.

The class clapped hands for me. Then we started to do quiz about the story. Church is very nice. I love church.

When the time was over, the madam called me and other people to go and bring popcorns. We brought them. I love popcorns. Before she called give them to us, we first gave in our offertory. I gave in the money I had. Mary gave in 500 at first but when she saw I had given in more money, she came back and added in 2000 so that she gives more money than me. I don’t like it so next Sunday I’m going to put in more money than her. I went back to sit and everybody else also sits down. We prayed for the tithe and then proceeded to distribute the popcorns. We eat them so peacefully as we waited for the big people to finish then we could go home. When it was almost time, we said a closing prayer.

‘Starting today,’ Madame Claire started ‘we are going to say I love you to each other because Jesus loves us. So turn to your neighbour and tell him or her I love you’

I can’t tell Mary I love her because I don’t love her. I hate her. I refused to tell her and she also refused to tell me. I looked the other side and she did the same. We looked to the opposite directions.

‘Chris and Mary’ madam called us because she was looking at us. She told us that Jesus loved us so much and that he wants us to also love each other the way he loves us.

Together, we went back to seat. She turned and looked at me and I also looked at her. Nobody was looking because they were busy eating popcorns. I didn’t want to say it but the teacher was looking at us.

We again turned and looked at each other. I looked at her eyes. They are actually very nice and white. Her hair is also beautiful. I wonder if she has never cut it since she was born. She has long hair.

I looked at her and she looked at me and the teacher looked at us.

‘I love you’

 We said it at the same time and I was surprised. I quickly ran off to my parents and the teacher suspiciously looked at me and her.