The top flat, as it has always been known, has seen many and varied tenants. At one time there lived in it the boarding master. This man had to be ejected from school when he was discovered bringing in boys for his pleasure. The Headmaster was scandalized by such behavior since the master was responsible for a boys' boarding school. Heaven forbid that he should turn his attentions to these sons of the rich and influential brought here to gain an education to fit them out to be shakers and movers of their society!
Last August, during the summer holiday general works, after having lain idle for some time, it was done up for a new teacher who was joining the staff. On evenings when I had more work than could be completed during normal school hours, I would come back to school, have supper with the resident teachers and go up to the computer suite to complete magazine pages or install new computers. I would have arranged with the head of domestics to have a mattress brought up so that I could spend the night in the top flat and not have to drive home late at night. The journey from school through sleepy Kileleshwa, round the bottom of the Arboretum, then turn right to my place near Nairobi Primary School could be fraught with danger. I therefore had reason to lament its being turned into the permanent residence of a young woman. Little did I know what was in store for both of us within those same walls.
On the first day of the Michaelmas term, I could at last put names to the faces of those who had come out from England. Having set up their email addresses as we came to the end of term in July, I now discovered that the second Ruth we were getting on the staff was a heavy girl with a large bosom, who had a beautiful laugh. Her skin (and she showed a lot of it on her legs) was almost white in places. On some days her bra would let her breasts bounce about tantalizingly. Once or twice when she caught me stealing a glance at them she flashed one of her bright smiles. Since she did not do games unlike most of the staff, she often found excuse to come into the computer suite for advice, to have her laptop fine-tuned, or sometimes just for a chat.
* * * *
RUTHIE
In my former school in England, there were no non-white staff members, so you can imagine my difficulty in hiding my surprise at meeting some Africans in the staff room on my first day. Though the Headmistress had in fact mentioned the fact during my interview in February, it had apparently not lodged properly in my brain. I was to find out that the female ones were each very pleasant in their own way; the games teacher brisk and efficient, the special education one very bright in her own quiet way, and the well-proportioned head of Maths very engaging with a somewhat dry sense of humour.
But during the afternoon there were more of them, all males. The IT Manager, lithe and of very dark complexion, struck me as being as well mannered at the ladies. His pale brown eyes behind spectacles gave me the impression of one who knew a lot around him, maybe because of not being as sequestered as some of us teachers. I took a liking to him, while at the back of my mind I wondered what my friends back in England would think of me taking a shine to a black man. Not that we were racist or anything, but it would have been too far out of our normal experience.
Dan and I would sit in the staff room in the short break periods, talking of this and that. I was astonished to find myself regretting that he could not be a regular teacher so that we would have more hours in common. I found his mind very sharp and he even knew things about my home country that I did not know. Our conversations brought us closer while I enjoyed the naughty thought that he looked at my breasts with more than a passing interest. A suspicion confirmed one morning when sitting with some of the female teachers during break. One of them was telling us that the computer man always looked at her with what she described as lascivious eyes. Some of the others agreed that his whole manner towards women verged on the improper. They said he was divorced. Because none of this particularly annoyed me, I only made agreeing noises without offering my opinion.
One afternoon near half-term, I found a note in my pigeon hole. It was written in the form of a magazine advertisement, extolling the virtues of a "Prince Consort" to help me look after those things I knew from experience can all too often be forgotten in the drawer for lack of time to do them after school hours. He would be handy with things like getting that strange noise behind the fridge fixed; doing battle with the mechanic to finish the job properly; following up with Government offices, Immigration, Registrar of this and that. The idea attracted me but I had no inkling of who had placed this scrap of paper in my pigeon hole. An intricate game ensued involving emails from someone who seemed to know a lot about me and the school. When I was eventually given a rendezvous, I asked my friend the secretary downstairs to go with me, and who should it turn out to be but Dan! The three of us had a delightful time at the Java Coffee House before parting. The kind secretary would never know why I had asked her to come with me, or what would then follow.
I invited him to dinner one Friday, these being the days on which the school did not provide us resident teachers with dinner. When he left at about 8:30pm he gave me a goodnight hug which excited me so much I thought I would burst. I watched him descend the stairs wishing I was a teenager all over again. I would have called him back for another hug without feeling any shame. Again I thought back to my circle of friends back home.
* * * *
DAN
I came up the back staircase to the top flat as arranged. Ruth opened the door and engulfed me in her arms, kissing me full in the mouth. She led me into her small sitting room and we opened the wine I had brought with me.
"Are you planning on turning me into an alcoholic, Dan?" she asked with a slight smile playing on her lips.
"I am indeed! From now on I shall bring a bottle for you daily, and forbid you taking tea at break. You must take half a bottle and the other half after lunch. That should leave soft and pliable to my manipulations." She lunged at me playfully but I dodged her adroitly.
"May I now sit down and drink myself silly, Teacher Ruthie?"
"You are beyond help! Yes, please sit wherever you like."