Criminal minds and all those true-crime shows women watch have given me the impression that only white people can be deviant. You also have to consider that I was born and bred in an African village where every new and unusual idea is regarded as western and bad. The fact that they will call it sin is interesting because white missionaries taught them that word. I come from the country that brought to the world the lions that had learned “gay stuff” from some white tourists. I need to mention my prejudices were guided by television and not my personal experience with white people.
Think Again, Criminal Minds
So my friend dropped by to catch up and have dinner. The story she told me left me thinking that African people may be more capable of deviance than we all thought.
So, this friend, we shall call her Kelly, has a neighbor she used to date. He is of average height, has dark skin, and has the miserable expression that befits a “real” Meru person. I mean looking sad and complaining about your problems on the internet is the Kenyan brand. He has it down. This man, let’s call him Mr. Tom, is a teacher at a major secondary school where I gather he impresses them with his ability to dilute element X to create concentrated solution Y. Of course he does this with as much of his Meru personality as he can to ensure that the students take him seriously.
A Good Christian Man
Kelly told me that he also fancies himself a Christian. He does not drink and has “little” interest in women. See, Mr. Tom, Chemistry Teacher extraordinaire, also has a penchant for women, but one he likes to pretend does not exist. You see, he is a good catholic, and “good Catholics” only have sexual intercourse for reproductive purposes. His biggest problem is that he likes to have sex with many different people, and not for church-approved purposes. Kelly says he would often explain how good a Christian he was and that many people noticed and complimented him on it. Keeping these two sides of his personality balanced might have resulted in some very pervy choices.
My friend, just like me, lives alone. Kelly had been seeing Mr. Tom on and off for a while, but last year he found himself a live-in girlfriend. She believes it was to tame his libido and be a better Catholic. Unfortunately, such action did not tame his voracious appetite for… I do not want to say, my friend… But yes, Kelly and other people like her. That meant he kept texting Kelly, who told him off. He made a threat that she did not take seriously until the events of last week.
The Perving Begins
On the day in question, Kelly was ready for bed and had turned off the lights in the house, humming a happy tune. It was 10 PM and pretty dark outside. You know that itch you have at the back of your brain. It felt like there was something outside she needed to see. Girl loves her large windows, so she moved the curtain on the right side of the window and looked outside. On looking to the left side she was confronted by a large man-like shadow pressed on the edge of her window. You can imagine her terror. Having enjoyed a few misleading episodes of Criminal Minds, she did not think an African man was trying to peep into her house. She discretely studied the shadow that seemed to draw closer to the window.
It looked a lot like Mr. Tom. But Mr. Tom had a new, well, newish “wife” in the house. Why would he be looking through her window? Heart beating at a pace my doctor might call tachycardic, she continued looking at the dark shadow. She remembered his threat and thought he might be looking for a way to enter the house and exert the painful revenge he had threatened. Kelly wondered how long he had been at her window and whether he had seen her undress. She also remembered that when she was robbed 2 years ago, he asked whether she was sure she was not drugged and raped too. Kelly said she had thought he was being weird, but now she wondered whether he was thinking about doing what the robber did not.
Mwalimu, ni wewe?
With a scream at the tip of her tongue, she watched the shadow move away from her window. Mr. Tom walked nonchalantly towards another neighbor’s house. That neighbor is married with a young child. The lights were out, and they were probably asleep. Mr. Tom jumped over the railing around their veranda and landed next to the bedroom window. He must be training his students for 100 meters hurdles from the way Kelly described his jump. He leaned his body against the wall, and bent to press his ear against the glass pane. Mr. Tom seemed keen to hear everything that the couple within was doing or not doing.
Kelly was no longer scared just shocked. She had loved this man at some point, been with him in the biblical sense, was he really behaving in this manner? Had he been this weird and creepy when she met him seven years ago? He had been her neighbor everywhere. Every time she moved, he followed her to the new place. It used to be cute, but now it was terrifying. She watched the shadowy Mr. Tom move away from the window and jump over the railing again after ten minutes. She wished he were a thief loitering and would walk out of the gate. Unfortunately, Mr. Tom walked toward his house, and since his lights were on, she could see him clearly. She trembled as she let the curtain she had been inadvertently clutching fall from her hands.
Kelly sat on her bed, hands shaking, questioning everything Mr. Tom had ever said to her. She remembered the hands on her bathroom window that made her scream in fright. Remembered the bedroom window she found open one night when her new boyfriend came to visit. She wanted to cry because she was so frightened. Would anyone believe her? Did he do this every day? Was he doing it to teachers in the staff houses when he was on duty? How did she not see his perviness when she fell for him?
Is the teacher in your building a peeping tom?
It is freaky to think that that soft-spoken, Christian teacher with a tortured African personality is a perv. I advised Kelly to move, but I could not promise her that he would not follow her. I want to imagine there is an innocent reason for this behavior, but I cannot think of one. My flair for story telling aside 😁 this is a true story. I fear for my friend and the people who call this fellow Jirani.
Karrymi 