The gambler’s night oddity
BY WANJALA B. DANSON
Darkness had just fallen. I followed my friend David through the gate to our new business deal. I had never gone gambling making the fact clear that I knew nothing or nobody at the gambling club.
We hurried ourselves downtown trying to avoid people who come by the side of the road we were using, fearing they might be robbers or police officers on night shift patrolling or worse those who knew us. The road was quite busy with people returning to residential areas as we moved the opposite direction against the law of nature which entitle people to sleep at night. My heart was filled with a mix of feelings some good others bad. One of them was that I was happy being a gambler like the big brother does in movies and the sad one of engaging in illegal business which translates breaking the law and possibly going to jail.
When we reached the club, it was frenzy. Everybody was busy gambling and music was too loud for people to communicate verbal, sign communication was the theme of the house. I speedily joined the fixture to enjoy myself and please my friend watching over me from a distance. Citizens were buying beer and cigarette which made me to feel gambling was not enough for me. I bought myself and the chic next to me a drink to refresh our roots and supplementing the hard enjoyable game.
David got a girl with whom together they went missing to a place I have no idea. I did not enjoy surrounded by stranger full of hooliganism who would easily beat crap out you if you piss them off. I had easier seen a man beaten badly for the reason that he had stared at a fellow for a protracted time. No one came to his rescue but everybody enjoy it cheering I remained there gambling my money with hopes that he is coming back soon but time was running out and he wasn’t showing up.
When it’s 3pm late in the night, I got worried about how I was going to make my way back home. This contemplation gave me a cold feeling yielding a headache which was reinforced by the loud music pumping in through my ears. I went to a Conner where nobody could easily identify. It was getting late for me to holler at my door in the fear my parents may be awake.
I slept there for two hours before I was waked up by loud cries. On opening my eyes widely cops were beating and arresting guys who were gambling, I ran through customers, meandering through them but on reaching out I found myself between a gang of cops waiting to package me into the boot of their car.
Some mystified police officer ran after me, but being related to kipchirichiri generation they made no match to me. I diverged to a slum plantation where houses were planted without spacing rather crops. I almost ruined my health by stepping from one sewage pool to another, in the process losing my shoe which I had taken from my brother without permission.
Suddenly a person came from nowhere running towards me followed by the cops. Without consideration, the policemen stopped following him and turned towards me. I forgot about my painful memories of my brothers shoes and ran without a comma and disappeared in the darkness.
The following morning, David told us that the police didn’t follow him but diverted their chase to another person and he was running behind me. I laughed at myself silly since I kept on running thinking the police were only two steps behind me. David and I were beaten ruthlessly and warned about trying such nonsense again.
I did not like the experience I had that night I hated myself for doing such a thing. It was fun to talk about it late with friends. However, swing cops from left to right with such mad running thinned my interests in any gambling. Besides, philosophy of swallowing sewage water, losing money, beatings from my brother cause of lose shoe and worse of it spending my time in jail if got catch, it is better to stay home and watch TV.