Missing Kendi

Kendi is a girl I met when I joined that new neighbourhood some years ago. It was love at first sight. No one can’t acknowledge her beauty. She’s cute to the core! You see, she just knocked on my door one morning, and that was it! We just liked each other, and each other’s company. Once, she dozed off right in my arms, on the sofa! That was a first, for we were still strangers, sort of.

Sooner rather than later, whenever she got lost from their home, my place was the first they checked. Either her slightly older sister or their nanny would come to my door, “Is Kendi here?” If she was, I’d ask if she wanted to sleep over, and would smile as I watched the request make her a little confused. Of course as she grew older, she wouldn't entertain being away from momma, and out with any “uncles”.

Unlike the rest of the kids who would make demands on me, she was different. She just wanted to be with me, never demanded I buy her anything, although later, she’d only remind me to get her a pink gift. That is her favorite colour! Kendi is that kid who, on realizing I no longer had a TV at my place, wouldn't pressure me on buying another, but rather she’d hatch a plan of how she was going to take their TV and bring it to my place, then go and grab the neighbor’s TV and take it to their place! Oh, how she’d make me feel like a kid because I somehow believed her. She is the girl who’s sister would point at me in the local supermarket as they shopped with their dad, and she’d run out to greet me, screaming my name. Oh, and did I say how they’d run at me every time I came back from work while they played in the estate’s compound? “Uncle Steve,” they’d shout.

Kendi is that girl who developed a sense of entitlement in my house. She knew any sweet things in the house were hers. Yes, and it was sweet to see that. Biscuits, chocolates, crisps, any toys… she never asked that I buy them, but surely, if I’d bought them, who else were they for, she must've thought. I don’t think I felt much of a loss when she messed up my tablet, not to mention broken utensils and items that just vanished. I think also some stuff that disappeared at their house ended up at my place!

Kendi is that girl who once insisted on dragging me to their place one evening, her whole fist clenching one or two of my fingers (how cute that small hand!) and sat me in their lounge. And the parents came to greet me, and insisted that I take supper… and I did, although my parents taught me not to eat at other people’s homes! Yeah, she is that girl who found it hard when finally the parents issued curfew orders; they shouldn't leave their compound after school. So when I came back from work, we’d talk as she stood on their wicket gate. Talk of boundaries and how far was too far, literally! By the way, I don’t know what we discussed, but we talked, and she blushed and doodled with her toes.

She’s that girl who pulled me again to their house on a Sato, to greet their young aunt, the mom’s sister! I wonder why she did that … Yes, she is that girl who’d count on me. When I lied to her that I had a daughter, she said she must look like her. Aaaawww … How can I not miss her? And you say life is not unfair? Then what is this? …and I am still unrelated to my gorgeous niece!