Knock, knock knock! “Open up tom!” shouted a voice from our gate. It petrified me since I was deeply engrossed in a “Sidney Shedon” novel that I was reading in the house-cozily curled in our couch. My parents and siblings had gone out to visit a family friend and I had been lest home because being a candidate I needed little disruption if any in my routine.
Hesitantly, I got up, slipped into my open shoes, trudged to the door and opened it. The heat from the mid afternoon sun was so oppressive as I walked to the gate. The quiet afternoon was occasionally punctuated by noises by vehicles that zoomed past our gate and the cooing of a lone dove that was perched somewhere on a tree in our neighbors’ compound. When I heard the calling voice again, I knew who it was. It was Biko, my neighbor, classmate and friend.
Immediately I opened the gate, He showed two crumpled pieces of paper to my face baffled. I took them without ceremony or exchange of niceties. They were complimentary tickets to an afternoon disco session commonly dubbed “jam session” at notorious “Florida 2000” club, a place popular with the youth especially those of untold character because birds of a feather, believe you me do flock together. I brightened as joy filled my soul and I was lost for words but little did I remember to look before I leap.
Ushering Biko into the house, left him in the living room as I practically flew upstairs to change into my fancy clothespin a jiffy I was done. Clad in designer labels, puma sneakers, denim jeans, Versace t-shirt and a base ball cap with the New York Yankees insignia gracing the front. We left the house, took public transport to town and walked the rest of the distance to Florida club.
The atmosphere in the club was electrifying. The place was stuffy with the smell of cigarette smoke, beer and cheap perfume. The neon lights were dazzling and the sound of music was deafening but nice, very nice indeed. We soon settled next to a counter and Biko called for drinks. I opted for a soft drink as he settled for beer. We danced to the tune of hip-hop and slow jam music and I must testify that I got so carried away. I did not notice the time moving so fast. It was soon getting to seven o clock in the evening. I noticed this because I started feeling drowsy. What was happening to me? I wondered. Before long, I passed out.
I woke up to find myself lying on a bed in a room that had angelic whiteness in it, the bedding walls……virtually everything. There was a distant smell of antiseptic. I was at the Nairobi hospital. I later learned that after I fell unconscious Biko had dragged me out of the club and called a taxi after making a phone call to my parents. He had taken me to Nairobi hospital, where after several tests; the doctors found out that I had been drugged. Somebody had placed a drug called “ecstasy “in my drink. This drug was colourless,oduorless and tasteless. The doctors told me that they had treated many such cases and that there were people who visited social places, drugged people, robbed them of money and valuables. Ladies were taken away to be gang-raped. I was amazed beyond words.
My parents, after learning what had happened were mad at Biko and me. They banned him from coming to our home and grounded me for two months. What scared me most was that many people I later learnt had died from an overdose of drug. From then I learnt to think twice before acting because lady luck does not smile at a person.
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