Selina crouched in the ditch listening to the night sounds and any signs that the porters were near. She and her mother Ann, had gone shopping for clothes, shoes and handbags at the border town of Loitokitok. The same goods were available in many markets inside Kenya, but cost more. It was said that the Tanzanian government did not tax imported goods as highly as the Kenyan. Traders preferred to take the long journey to Loitokitok, to buying at the exorbitant prices inside Kenya.
The newly-elected president had declared war on these traders, declaring them illegal; their activities were labeled 'makendo'. Fearing arrest, they avoided using the official border crossings, using porters to bring the loads through bush tracks away from police eyes.
Bus drivers made handsome money by working with the 'illegal' traders. For them the new president was a good one. After checking through the customs at the border they would stop at some lonely spot to wait for the loads to arrive by porter. The traders will have bought seats on the bus. Once the porters had done all they could to avoid detection they met up with the trader whose load they bore, at an arranged rendezvous.
Selina was waiting for the arrival of the porters so that she could join her mother on the bus, with their load soon to be safely in the luggage compartment. The first sign she picked up was heavy breathing and the faint crackle of a twig. Since they were trying to be as quiet as possible she could safely assume it was not the police but someone with a heavy burden.
"Kalonzo!" she called quietly in the darkness.
"Niko hapa, (here I am)" came the laboured reply. Now she could make out the two shapes resembling men carrying each a sack on his shoulder.
They followed her up the slight incline to where they could see the dark shape of the bus silhouetted against the dim sky. Quickly the loads were stowed into the luggage compartment, the porters paid and dismissed. They vanished into the darkness with alarming swiftness.
The driver received his payment even before the journey started. Ann was in the window seat courtesy of having got to the bus early. In the middle seat was a tall-looking man in a light kaunda suit. On his wrist was a gold watch and on his feet an expensive pair of brown shoes. Selina thought he was better suited to driving his own SUV than riding in a bus. Absurdly she felt her nipples tighten for no reason she could think of.
"Do you want to sit next to your mum," he asked politely. Apparently her mother had been talking to him as they waited for Selina and the loads.
"Could you do that for us," she asked, looking at him doubtfully.
He simply stood up to let her squeeze into the middle seat, before seating himself in the aisle one. It would take two hours along a dust road for the bus to gain the main highway into the city. Within minutes of starting, the dust billowed into the interior of the bus, provoking some coughing and sneezing among the passengers. In the quiet darkness of a moonless night, the battered bus rattled down that desolate, dusty country road, its headlights cutting through the void like a solitary beacon of hope. He kept up a conversation with mother and daughter for quite a distance, during which time they discovered that his name was Chuhi and that he was a businessman between Loitokitok, Mombasa and Nairobi. Meanwhile it seemed as if the humans had evolved to suit their dusty environment. Soon some snoring could even be heard, including Selina's. Her head swiveled to lie softly on his shoulder. Adjusting his position to better accommodate her brought her breasts in contact with his upper arm. He looked across to Ann to see if she had noticed this, but she continued the conversation in normal tones.
Chuhi could not help feeling the softness of the young woman's tits against his arm as the movements of the bus jostled them. An itch just below his shoulder caused him want to scratch himself but this brought his fingers in contact with her tits. He felt her nipples erect so he hesitated to bring his hand away letting the nipples strum his middle and ring finger as if they were guitar strings. Both of them were getting excited and she let out a soft moan in the darkness. Again he looked over at the mother but she seemed blissfully unaware of her daughter's tits brushing the backs of his hand.
Selina was woken rudely by a loud crashing noise, with the bus lurching violently to one side, throwing some passengers from their seats. Panic surged through the dimly lit cabin as the bus skidded to a halt. Someone screamed, to be answered by another. In the sudden darkness, people were scrambling towards the door. Selina was pushed against the side of a seat hurting her hip but eventually everybody was outside.
"Chunga simba!" someone yelled, meaning 'beware of lions'. People tried to huddle as close to the bus as they could. The driver, his conductor and some of the men passengers were inspecting the underside of the bus, trying to find the problem. Apparently the bus had hit its underside against a boulder, indistinguishable from the greyish dust of the road surface, damaging the differential. The bus was crippled and would not be able to move before morning when someone could come to their rescue. This, however, depended on their distress being communicated to Emali, the town at the junction of this horrible road and the highway. If no other vehicle passed this way they could be here for days. Frustratingly they could see the lights of Emali in the far distance. For some it might be possible to walk there, but only if they could escape the claws of the wild animals. But for Ann and Selina with their huge loads, even this remote hope was out of the question. What was more, they had spent all their money in buying the goods; not even their mobile money wallets had enough to take them from this wilderness to the city. Stranded and disoriented, they clung to each other, uncertain of their next move.
Chuhi, the man who had been sitting next to them, told them that he had a satellite phone with which he could reach his company's offices for help. Ann, Selina's mother, was concerned whether the car would take both she and her daughter as well as the loads.
"Of course," he answered. "It would be an SUV with plenty of space in the back for your loads."
They heard him talking to somebody on the satellite phone, directing them to their location on the Loitokitok road just beyond Emali. Since nothing more could be done, everyone returned to the bus and sporadic conversation resumed. He was sitting nearest to Selina, and as they talked, he took advantage of the proximity to gently touch her from time to time. After a while, some passengers started dozing off, including Selina, who again leaned towards his shoulder. She was only dimly aware that his arm had gone around her shoulders, holding her tenderly. As Ann and he continued to talk softly, so as not to disturb the other passengers, about an hour and a half passed, and then they saw the headlights of a car approaching from the direction of Emali.
Chuhi commented, "That must be him," as the silver car broke through the dust, pulling up just ahead of the bus. Dust that had been trailing the vehicle now billowed all about it, almost enveloping it, until a door opened, and a figure shot out through the headlights. Chuhi disembarked from the bus, briefly conversing with the car's driver. He then returned to the bus, summoning the two women who now requested the conductor to unload their sacks and with the help of the driver, place them in the silver SUV. They discovered, as he had assured them, that there was ample room for additional cargo.
Their journey continued towards their destination, the city. Rejoining the highway to Nairobi, the trip dragged on due to the sluggish pace of heavy trucks on the road. The road itself was far from pristine, and frequent encounters with slow-moving trucks made overtaking a challenge amid oncoming traffic. If not for these hindrances, the trip could have been completed in just one hour and 20 minutes.
Eventually, more than two hours after they started, they reached the outskirts of Nairobi, arriving in a part of the city where Chuhi resided. He extended an invitation to the women to rest in his house, allowing them to wash away the road's dust before continuing their journey the following day.
The driver turned into an estate, turning right and then left and right again leaving the women bewildered. How would they get themselves out of this place alone, they separately wondered. Finally the car stopped at a white gate. A uniformed guard opened it to let them through. Between the guard and the driver the loads were offloaded and brought into the house. Ann wondered aloud if they would not spread their dust all over the pristine house.
"It can easily be washed, if such a thing happened, but I don't see any dirt at all," Chuhi sought to set her mind at ease.
