Alfredo was promoted to Deputy Manager in charge of purchasing and statistics almost two years after his divorce. It was evidence of the hard work he believed in. He was now happy and enjoyed a good salary with a large bungalow in the luxurious estate of Nyali in the port city of Mombasa.
Moreover, he bought himself a Volvo after having been granted a car loan by his company. He had everything he wanted. He could afford whatever his mind imagined.
Alfredo had all the symbols of status. His young and beautiful wife kept him happy in his flamboyant house. His little son was playful and could be amusing at times.
Esau was a happy boy who knew Lucinda as his own mother. This was due to Lucinda's affectionate feelings and attitude towards the little boy. Esau never knew it was her discovery about herself and the painful truth the doctors told her that made her embrace him as her own son.
Lucinda had become pregnant a year after getting married to Alfredo. But, she developed complications that required her to be operated when the pregnancy was about three months.
After the operation, the doctors told her it was an ectopic pregnancy; an incurable condition in the uterus that would permanently render her incapable of giving birth. That was the first major problem that put its ugly head in her marriage early in life.
The revelation made her a very sad woman. She had hoped to have children who would play with Esau and keep him company. Lucinda's plight, as would happen to any barren woman, made her switch her love to Esau, whom she began viewing as her real son. She genuinely loved Alfredo and felt it was her duty to love his son also.
Alfredo, who was quite satisfied with both his wife and the little boy, tried to comfort Lucinda when he saw the doctors' report had disillusioned her.
"Do not worry, sweetheart. We have Esau to take care of, and I can never think of marrying anyone else. Esau is just enough for us; you'd better be fond of our only child," Alfredo reassured her.
She was relieved. He had given her the assurance that he had no intentions of taking another woman who would bear him children. Her husband knew she had another problem or weakness; she always reached climax easily whenever they made love and felt no desire to continue after that.
But this did not seem to matter much to Alfredo, who knew where to get his sexual satisfaction if it could not come from his own backyard. Lust was still his main problem even after his divorce from Angela. How could he get rid of the lust for beautiful women?
His ex-wife, Angela, had once complained about his roving cock that was never at ease until it penetrated the beautiful women he saw and admired. He knew it was wrong to cheat on his present wife, but what could he do?
He really wanted to be good and loyal to his wife, but the beauty he saw in other women always made him desire to take them to the pillow. But after he had made love to them, he always felt guilty, ashamed of himself, and quite wasted.
What is wrong with me? He often wondered as he asked himself. Is it a problem I inherited from my parents? He tried to recall but could not finger where it came from.
He had tried to pray over it and hoped his lustful nature would disappear, but it always came back to haunt him the moment he set eyes on any attractive woman. Later, he gave up trying to pray over it when he suddenly began to believe it was probably his nature to desire beautiful women.
With the passage of time, Lucinda had come to understand and learn to live with him the way he was. You could not change a man from what he was or destined to be, she thought, if his stars made him move in such a direction.
In appreciation of Alfredo's tolerance of her own weaknesses, Lucinda bought Esau very expensive clothes, shoes, and vests. Her love for the little boy grew day by day as he was her only companion in the house whenever Alfredo was busy at work.
She felt her twin goals of being a career professional secretary and a happily married woman had been realised. To be sure, Lucinda was the one who usually gave him useful advice about Esau's education.
And so it was that at the age of five, Esau was taken to an affluent school in the neighbourhood. Alfredo usually rode with his little boy in his posh car on the way to school. During such morning rides to school, Alfredo would always wear his bowler; Esau as usual, being seated beside him on the front seat to enjoy the ride.
Oh, what a beautiful world it was to live under the care of rich and loving parents!
* * *
"Daddy," said the little boy, "I also want to buy a car when I grow up.
Alfredo had been amazed at the little boy's ambition and desire to possess a car. He thought thought Esau resembled him and had similar features like his. Alfredo even remembered he had similar ambitions in his childhood.
"Don't worry, my son." He told the boy, "When you grow up, you may even buy better things than this car. May be even a plane or watch, who knows?"
"Would I be able to buy a plane and a yatch? Dad, that sounds wonderful! I will be the first to fly the plane and navigate the yatch."
"With great determination, my son, nothing is impossible. Sure, you can buy a plane or a yatch if you really want that. Only that you must really want it and the fire burns in you."
The boy was happy at the encouragement. He was delighted too because his father was very fond of him. And he was always encouraging him.
Truly, Esau never missed anything. The boy had whatever he wanted but never knew his father had been divorced from his real mother who later married a Ugandan and had left with the man to his native land.
The following year, Esau joined Braeburn International Primary School. Few black parents could afford to take their children to such a high profile school whose pupils were drawn from all races.
There were Indian, Arab, European, Japanese and American children. Alfredo had deliberately taken his son to Braeburn to expose him to competition and people of other nationalities. And he even made sure the little boy was always smartly dressed in his school uniform.
Braeburn boasted of a highly qualified staff whose members were mostly Asians, Americans and Europeans. There were only a few black African teachers. The school had many good and modern equipment and facilities which included a large swimming pool, musical instruments like pianos, saxophones, trumpets and playgrounds for different games.
Esau turned out to be a very intelligent pupil who did extremely well in school as he competed against the other pupils. At first when he joined Braeburn, he was quite shy and even feared the other pupils. This made him sit farther from the rest until the day a black boy joined their class.
From then henceforth, Esau began sitting closer to the new boy; Karamu. But there was also a black little girl of his age who sat in front of them.
Her name was Gloria who had bright shinning eyes like the sun. She sat in their class for a few weeks before being moved to a different class.
After settling down at school, Esau began mingling freely with the rest of the pupils. He no longer had fear, especially after discovering he had similar problems like theirs and could perform as well as they did.
Time moved on. Then the most amazing thing happened when he was in his fourth grade. He was among the top ten in his class.
It actually a joyful moment for Esau and his father when the boy was awarded a prize for best performance in history during the school's parents' day. But Alfredo had another surprise for the boy when they reached home. He called their regular supermarket and ordered for one children's bicycle to be brought to his house as a gift for his brilliant child. It was delivered immediately.
"I will even present you a greater gift if you continur emerging top as you did. You've proven you can beat them in history," Alfredo beamed as he looked at his son's report book and went on, "Well, try harder and beat them in other subjects as well and maintain a top position. That will make us very proud of you."
"I'll come tops again, dad." Esau promised, "I know you despise laziness and lazy people; so I'll work even harder."
The young boy knew exactly why he was saying that. He had observed how his father always stayed late at night working on some of the files he carried from office and realised how hard working he was.
He had also seen many books on his father's bookshelf on management, law, business in his study room where Alfredo usually retreated to after supper to read for an hour before watching the late evening movies on television.
Another thing the young boy had noticed about his father: Alfredo had an eye for details. He kept records and wrote down whatever little money he spent on any item he bought. And he remembered overhearing his father urging Lucinda keep good records as that was a real mark of prudence.
"You'd better, my son. You can beat them all! It'll give me great pleasure. Their parents are bad," Alfredo said in a low tone which sounded bitter.
"But dad, why do you say that? Some Indian, European, American boys and girls are good and extremely wonderful. Some are my best friends who even bring me gifts like biscuits, pens, cakes and pencils. Why do say their parents are bad?" asked Esau who seemed surprised by his father's fits of bitterness.
Alfredo felt trapped. He knew he never liked Indians and Europeans since he was a black racist wallowing in xenophobia. He was aware had problems in his own life and now wanted to shift these to others.
His divorce has made him a bitter man. But as he heard the young boy speak in defence of his friends, he decided to camouflage his feelings and tried to be realist.
"You're quite right, my son. Not all of them are bar. Some of them are very good infact. Even at my office, there are some good ones. And some of our fellow blacks are very bad; even worse than them." Alfredo said as he paused before concluding, "I think it's only fair and better to say that among all races or people, there are always good and bad people."
Alfredo took note of his son's great intelligence and spirit of hard work. As he appreciated Esau's efforts, his mind walked into the past and remembered Jacob. Now he wished Jacob was around to share in his brother's delight.
He began to wonder how the boy and his mother were fairing on. Was he as clever as Esau? Yes, he thought happily, he must be. It would have been more joyful to have the twin boys take the lead in academics in the multi racial school.
Then Alfredo did what he had not done for a long time. He said a short prayer for his son, Jacob, and asked God to keep him safe.
He had heard of Angela's departure to Uganda with her lover. His only hope was that the boy would one day come to him and enjoy life with Esau. It was his birthright.
Indeed their society was quite a patrilineal one; a son was required to take his place in his father's home, come and build his house where his father lived and even inherited his property when he passed away.
Like her husband, Lucinda was quite thrilled by Esau's performance. She also encouraged him, "If you shine again at school, I'll prepare a nice cake for you and even tell daddy we go for a holiday abroad. The Seychelles Islands or Mauritius would be a good holiday resort."
And so it was that Esau worked even harder knowing good rewards would be waiting for him if he did well as he always strove to maintain his top position.
But then came an incident which made Esau wonder about the acts of the school administration. Esau's name was left out of the list of top pupils during a subsequent prize awards ceremony.
The school head just said after the awards to the other pupils that Esau was required to see him. So while the other pupils' names were read out for everyone to hear during the awards ceremony Esau's was not; this irked him since he had done very well.
Instead, the school head gave him the prize in his office and claimed the Prize Awards Committee had forgotten to include his name during the prize awards ceremony on the school's parents' day.
Was it done deliberately? The young boy wondered. How could they forget his name? Esau was unhappy he had not been required to come out like the rest on stage to claim the prize but instead collect it in the school head's office the following day.
The young boy could not hide feelings. He expressed his disappointment almost immediately, "Dad, the headmaster left me out. Why was that so?"
Alfredo found an excuse to hit at those he disliked; an opportunity his son had earlier on denied him and replied, "Never mind, my son. The fucking bastards! They aren't happy that you're one among their intelligent pupils. But don't worry, you have received your prize, after all."
In his final year at primary school, Esau was very prepared because over the years he had polished his English by reading widely. This made Alfredo sure his son would come out with flying colours in the final examinations.
When these were over, Esau was sure he had done a good job. He waited for the results full of confidence.
He was now maturing into a fine young man who was tall and averagely built. He had taken active interest in debates and drama while at school. So impressed by his zeal in these extracurricular activities that the patron of the Drama and Club appointed Esau the chairman.
As he waited for the examination results, Esau now had time to relax and enjoy the comfort his home provided. He would sit in the evenings with his parents to watch the movies on TV or if he was bored, go to the pictures in town.
Alfredo, however, advised him on the movies to watch. "Movies are good entertainment but some movies are just too bad for young people like you. Some movies can turn good boys into reckless and immoral ones. So watch out; never watch blue movies or read pornographic materials!"
But whenever he saw his son bored as he sat in the house, Alfredo would tell him, "Go out and enjoy yourself my son. Don't be a coach potato. You're only young once."
Esau, always obedient to his father, took his father's advice seriously. Hence, if he was not watching the kind of movies his father wanted to see, he spent the rest of his time reading the story books he picked in Alfredo's private study room.
At other times, he would go for a swim in the afternoons with his friends to enjoy the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. If he never felt like swimming, Esau would simply accompany his friends to the shored and watch them dive into the water and swim.
This gave him the opportunity to watch the German and Italian tourists in their bikinis; most of them accompanied by the male companions who often kissed them as they swam or played in the waters.
If there was anyone at peace with the world, it was Esau. He did very little work making him long for more work.
But this was because he lived in comfort, a luxury zone that made him unaware of those who led miserable lives which made them long for lesser work.
Esau was never told that his mother and twin brother lived hundreds of miles away in another country and a life of contrast.
* * *