GRADUATION DAY

3 am in the night smoking cigarettes on the balcony of club hush and stoned beyond care. Surrounded by a majority of strangers all of whom are lost in a realm of stupor and druggie heaven! How did I get here?

 I take a long look around clutching my beer tightly in my hands as my unsteady feet propel me to bump into Brent, one of the white boys Selah is hanging out with. He is a confirmed junkie and gambler, he has just won a 40k bet and he is blowing all the money on booze. On the other hand is Jess, Jess the, don’t judge a book by its cover for she is the most innocent looking person under different circumstances and is a good friend. Jess is doing sambuka shots with Selah. On the other end of the round table is this guy who just brought in some Indian substance, the one you stick between your teeth and gums and just let the shit drive you crazy. He has unkempt hair and talks a lot. Not a lot of sense though. The balcony is crowded, so crowded you have to push your way around. Spirals of smoke are billowing into the moonlight and electronic lights cocktail. All these I see in a dreamy haze, everything in clear toned colors. Frozen into a slow movie that I am living, only that I am the observer. damn!  I feel good.  Perhaps I shouldn’t have gotten stoned with Dan.

It was graduation day at the college today; Jack was graduating, him,  and a lot of my other friends. Jack welcomed me to college on my first day. Next year it will be me here. Usually during such functions, there is a lot of free booze flowing around, hot little missies in daintily colored dresses and youthful luscious college ass that is just crying to be plucked. The variety, the abundance of people who have come to pay their regards to the graduates, the gay mood just floating in the air, sweeping everyone along. Folk spanning all calibers are here. The whole village that has come to witness the first graduate from the village ever are a mixed lost but happy looking folk, the single mother who has come alone to witness her only daughter get her bachelors is all smiling and proud as if telling the world, “see, I stood alone by my child and see how far she has come.” The seemingly normal family is here, brothers and sisters and a loving father and mother, see the kids make fun of each other as they paint the little happy family picture. The rich snobs are here too.

Dan is eyeing this chick. Some very brown new looking thing he has just espied by the library grounds with a brood of siblings tagging along. So he thinks it a good idea to ask us along so we can babysit as he vibes the lass. Kevo and Kobi agree to come along. Unfortunately when we get there, the lass has gone someplace else and is not around. The siblings are however still here. Dan seems to have his antenna at full mast today as in no moment does he spy another chic and runs along asking us to wait for him. Ten minutes by the chic he initially wanted comes back, 15 minutes, no Dan. we decide to leave. He follows us after a while calling us traitors for not staying to back him up. He will speak to the chick later in my absence and the chick will embarrass him because he cannot hold a conversation in English. “Brayo we ndio ungeweza huyo dame,” he tells me as he narrates the whole event.

We decide to go drinking. The students center is the closest watering hole we can come up with. The crowd in the campus has congested cellphone traffic. The network is playing hide and seek and we cannot withdraw cash via Mpesa. None of us only kevo has cash but it isn’t enough for two bottles of blue moon vodka. We hit the nearest Mpesa outside campus to get the cash. The security guards at the gate we have used want us to produce our ID’s. None of us have any, we bully our way inside. The center benches are full of guys drinking their way into rowdiness, the signs are evident as they whistle and shout at the ladies who are using a route nearby. We find ourselves space and proceed to join the action.

Jere calls at around three. We are fairly high by then. At least I feel the beginnings of happy thoughts in my mind and the hot African such pressing down in a humid Kakamega weather is making me feel all warm and lightheaded in a sweet kind of way. He picks us up from town and drives to his home. His sister’s graduation party. At the party we choose a dark corner at the back of the tent. Kev and kobi immediately start discussing football and arguing like their lives depend on it. Dan chips in from time to time but the other two carry the day. Some of the guys at the party join in. I do not follow football so I turn to the girl next to me and start making small talk. I forget her name immediately she says it. She is nice but not really my type, I lose interest and instead start talking to Fai, the lady friend of the Kevo’s gang. She is much more fun.  Food is announced. I eat some vegetables I haven’t had awhile and miss home. Speeches are made. We leave after presents have been delivered. We are debating whether to go see the peddler at Bhagdad. It’s a nice evening to be strolling around.

Belinda is at salsa practice. I had promised to to get her and her friend yoghurt after they had been haranguing me earlier in the day to get them soda. The cellphone traffic having jammed and me having no cash then promised to get yoghurt. She wants Blackforest  cake to go with that too. Nakummatt are out of Blackforest and am too tired to walk back to Tusky’s. I call her and she settles for a Swiss roll. When I get to her, the usual salsa suspects are already gathered dancing to some Kizomba tunes. Belinda and her friend Diana bounce on the drinks as I take the floor with Elvia. A few more dances later and I hit town. Belinda doesn’t want to come.

The air at club Hush is ripe with the promise of a good night. Jess and Selah are sitting by the door. I join them as we wait for Selah’s baby brother. Dan and the rest of the gang have already worked their way through a bottle of Smirnoff vodka. My first beer later I join them for the vodka. Jere is still wearing the suit he wore during the day and so far he is the only guy in the club with a suit on. Dan has a joint. Outside the club there is an alley, we duck into that and light up. The rest of the guys remain inside. Between herculean inhalations and rings of smoke Dan tells me how much home sucks. A few tokes myself and am agreeing with him. So the night is still young.

Fourth beer is gone, drowned with a a glass of Dan’s Vodka. He has had enough and is busy tweeting. The resident Dj is not patronizing the decks and for a change the music feels different and nice. Kwaito blares its way in and I get up to dance. The music is good hands are up in the air people are having fun. The club has filled up. I see friends who have graduated, I get invited to a few tables. In this fashion I stumble into the balcony for a breath of fresh air only to find it as packed only spiced with cigarette smoke. Selah hands me a fag. A waiter disappears with my change, I cannot tale the faces, they all look alike, it wasn’t much anyway. The club colors are beginning to call to me. In hues of Technicolor. There is no more space to dance. Fai has joined the fun. She is looking gorgeous! A  Dark brown mini dress snuggly hugs her body. The new DJ clearly knows his stuff! I try to clear my head. Then the guy with the Indian stuff shows up. After that its I remember a story from a Stephen king novel and the words of a blogger,  F.U.B.A.R Fucked Up Beyond  Any Recognition. I check the time on my phone. 3.49 am.