Night Runners

NIGHT

RUNNERS

All rights reserved by the author

John Ambuli

Smashwords Edition

CHAPTER ONE

The news about the man who had been seen strolling at the market place in the evenings and then odd happenings were reported the following day had reached every ear in the village.

The young and the old had all known that if you went home late or if you went to bed late you might come across the mystery man and become deaf or blind or loose any other of your common senses. This man looked very friendly especially to the young whom he embraced and gave presents openly at the market place every evening that he surfaced .But there was one odd thing about this man, that whenever he was seen in the village, someone bumped into someone who was not even traceable where he came from or where he went when the alarm was sounded .He just disappeared in to the air and not even his victims could tell to which direction he went.

A few days before, a woman had escorted her young one to go and ease themselves in a toilet that was built a few steps away from theirmain house. It was a hundred meters away from the gate and on the opposite side was a road that ran from the main tarmac road down into the papyrus swamps in the remote parts of the land through the village.

So the mother remained standing while the young one squatted behind a small bush and continued to help himself . They had changed their minds and decided to help themselves outside in the moonlight instead of the dark latrine.

As they continued to help themselves, the mother heard as if there was a dog that was running towards them or some other smaller animals, so she assumed that there was no danger and looked aside because dogs and cats are easy to scare away but before she could go far with her thoughts, something bumped into her and sent her flying high in to the air, she screamed as she went high into the air and landed on to her young one.

They both started screaming at the top of their voices calling for help .People came from all directions to see what the problem was this time. They found the woman standing at right at the scene of the incident shivering with fear and her face wet with sweat .She was too scared even to run back into her own home and she had fallen into her sons stool and it was smeared allover her right hip .She was stinking terribly.

The neighbors who had come to rescue them asked the mother what the problem was and she repeated to them what had happened to her .She had discovered that what she had thought to be a frightened dog or cat had actually been a human being and where the human being had gone after bumping into her, she couldn't tell.

She tried very hard to use her memory but she could not remember anything .All that came into her mind was how she heard the footsteps get closer and then someone bumping into her and then the rising up into the air and falling down onto the ground heavily, was all that she could remember otherwise the human being had disappeared into this thin air just like that.

The neighbors who had come to her rescue carried Simi's and spears and powerful spotlights .They stood there a little longer and talked about the strange and mysterious man .It had never happened like that in that village before. First it happened to a group of youths who were coming from evening prayers at the village church.

A running man had came speeding and bumped into a group of almost twenty people who were walking clustered together .The reason why someone should be running so fast at a half an hour past eight o'clock in the evening without no alarm being sounded is what everyone kept wondering about.

A grown up man to be running like that was an odd thing in that village .And then, there were reports from neighboring villages that were saying that in one homestead, someone had actually carried away a pot full of cooked beans mixed with sweet potatoes and then pounded to make a thick clay like food called musonye in luhya language.

The food had been prepared and left in the sitting room .The cook had gone to inform everybody in the house that supper was ready and that everybody was supposed to report on the table as fast as possible. But it was too unlucky for them that the freshly cooked pot of musonye had gone missing abruptly and everyone was finding it difficult to believe what was happening.

They wondered what, the hell, could be the meaning of all what was happening .A pot full of food for supper had gone missing abruptly from inside their own house and no one had the slightest hint of what was happening.

Just who could have come to that village with that new kind of behavior? There had been cases of petty thieves who stole potatoes and cassava just to satisfy their hunger, but this one was too odd .Someone walking up to inside home and Walking out with food from the stove was too strange and they were finding it difficult to decide whether to sound the alarm or to just keep quiet with it and then inform their village elder the following day so that the news could spread to everyone in the village.

They did the latter choice and waited to see what the people's opinion would look like.

Then there was this farmer who was milking his cattle and gathering his milk in a gallon beside him. when he turned to pick the gallon after he had finished milking, he found the gallon missing and no one could believe it again .How could a gallon that had been by your side just disappear like that yet you were alone in the milking shed .Most of the people of that tribe had thrown away superstitious beliefs and traditions that someone could not live mixing it with modern life.

Some of the taboos do not fit with what is happening in life in our modern life. Things like running in the night and dropping some foods from the diet are not possible because, first security nowadays is so tight that vampires and night runners will get killed, secondly, those customs that distort our diet would be better if they were left out completely.

There was this lady who met a white lady on the internet and they became friends .Their friendship went on for a long time, since their childhood through secondary school days up to university days and pursuing the same types of degrees and professions and then finally walking out of the universities as experts of law. They then managed to get employment quickly in law firms’ .Soon after three years they had both accumulated enough money to enable them to do big things together.

Her friend had ones told her what she felt about Africa .She had told her about all the rumors that she had been hearing about Africans and the geography that she had read in school about Africa and its people .She even wished that one time she would get a chance to visit Africa and witness the wonders of nature for her own self.

So, one time when they were chatting on the internet, she reminded her about it and asked her to spare a little of her time to come and tour Africa as she had longed for .They had acquired a lot of wealth and therefore visiting each other wasn't a problem to them any more.

So, her friend who lived in Europe put aside that years annual leave to come and leave came, she only phoned her friend and then they continued following each other on the phone all the way from Europe up to the airport in the capital city .She was told even the right hotel to go to while she waited to be collected by her hosts..

It was a very good experience to meet a since childhood friend whom they met on the internet  and grew up spending long periods of time chatting on the internet and now they were adults and living their own lives far from their parents .They wished that chances could let them do much bigger things than what they were doing .She at one moment almost asked her white friend to marry one of her brothers .So ,when the plane landed at the airport ,she was told to wait at the hotel until the following day in the afternoon when they would be coming to pick her up .

So, she became the first white woman to set foot in the reserves that were set aside for the native people by the colonial lists since their time and the missionaries., otherwise most of the white men and women went to the hotels or the places of work. It was a fascinating sight to see a white skinned human being at such a close range .The villagers had just been reading about them in the papers but it was just too good meeting them in real life.

So when the evening came, the visitor had the biggest shock of her life .She met Africa face to face in real life .Some villagers who were night runners had not heard of her presence in the village and so they went on with what they did to each other in their every day life .someone hauled stones at the iron roof of the house and caused panic among the members of the family. They didn't know what to do, whether to yell for help or get out and fight whoever was doing it or just inside the house and wait whatever will come.

They had heard about this kind of thing when they lived in the city during their childhood. It was told to them by their father but he had never touched on the secrets or methods of tackling them .They weren't like the normal robbers and the rest of them whom one could chase away with a dog or a bow and arrows .So because of this reasons, they couldn't decide quickly on the right action against this person who was throwing stones at their roof

However, they didn't keep quiet, they just shouted at the top of their voices asking whoever was doing that to forgive them and   stop it. They shouted that they were ready to pay him whatever they had taken from him or her provided that he or she came for talks. All this time, their guest remained seated quietly in her chair wondering what step to take while she waited for her hosts to find for a solution to the problem.

No one answered and they got tired of following the matter and they went back to the preparations for the night .It was then that they had the chance to explain to their guest, who had become abnormally white with fear, what was going on .From the looks on her face, any one could tell that she expected the worst from us .If at all the rumors that said that Africans were cannibals were true, then she must have been expecting the very worst of it. However, they told her everything very clearly and tried as much as possible to make her fell as comfortable as possible and to make her have some confidence in her. ..They sat and talked up to nine o'clock when everyone went to his or her bed to sleep.

When it reached in the middle of the night, the night runner came back. This time he was dancing in the compound and then going up to the gate and then coming back speeding by his reverse and hitting the door very hard .He hit it so hard that it woke up those who were sleeping in the house .They were forced to stay awake and listen to what the man was doping .Every time that sleep came to them , the gentleman would come back again and force them to wake up and listen to what he was doing .One elder brother  went up to his  sister and woke her up and then gave her a briefing of what had caused him to wake her up .Why have you woken me up? She asked. I just wanted to know whether you too are hearing what I'm hearing. He answered in a whisper. Then she accepted yes ,something woke me up to five times but I wasn't able to make out what it was and then up to five times again I have heard as if there was some one at the door .I have been thinking that it is one of us .Then the brother went on ,let us creep quietly into the seating room and sit in the darkness and see if we can catch whoever is doing it if at all it is someone.

It did not take long ,they hadn't even sat well in their chairs when a masked man came in to the compound from high  the very dark mango tree that was in front of the house .There were curtains on the windows but they weren't too thick ,they were just the type that resembled  mosquito nets and so they could easily see through them .The man stood and listened until he was sure that no one in the house was awake and then he went up to the gate and then came back on his reverse as those who were in the house watched in disbelief and shock and hit the door that the whole roof of the house shook as if it was going to come down .They were so shocked that they called all the other members of the family plus their guest quickly to come and witness what was going on .It was a masked man and he was dancing vigorously