Neighbour Diaries: Trouble

I had to cut my holiday short and get back to town; a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Suffice to say that my holiday turned out to be even more a nightmare than what I had left in the city. This girl I met over there, the one that my grandfather tried to hook me up with; she is the most manipulative calculative woman I have ever met. I mean, she made my grandfather think she was a nice girl the first time he had seen her. My grandfather is a kind of anti-social man, but this girl walked up to him, in his own compound, and convinced him that she was an angel. All that part of her plan to get to me. After my grandfather left, she told me, “sorry I didn’t get your name. But that’s not important. Tell me, what did you want to be as a child when you grew up?” That sounded a harmless question, so I answered; “I always wanted to be an engineer”. She answered, “I can tell you didn’t realize your dream, and that affected how you look at other things in your life.” She sounded like she was psycho-analyzing me. Curious, I wanted to see where she was headed. I asked, “So?” And she said, “I like you Shem.” before I could react, she continued,” you are the kind of person that has a lot of potential, but you don’t even know it. I recognize that potential in you, and I can help you realize it.” Now, she was clearly playing on my mind. True, I had a lot of potential, but who said I couldn’t realize it all by myself. She must have read my thoughts because she said, “please don’t take it bad, I am telling you what’s on my mind. I don’t believe in lying. If it’s offensive to you, let me leave you alone.” And she pretended to stand up. I doubt she even had plans of leaving, but I was feeling guilty, so I told her to stay. I even apologized to her. She sat down, and with a small mischievous smile, she told me that our paths had crossed not by accident, but by fate. She suggested we go for a walk, and having nothing better to do, I agreed. And I immediately regretted why I had agreed. With a few probably untrue stories about her childhood, she had my attention. Then, she told me about how she would like us to get to know each other better. By the time I came back from the walk, I was confused whether to like her or not. The next day, she came over and had lunch with us. She totally ignored me, besides a brief hello. She focused on my grandfather, my grandmother, plus one of my aunties. She made them like her. Immediately when she left, they were all on my case why I wasn’t scooping her up! I didn’t know how to explain. My grandfather even called me a blind fool. I decided to leave the very next day before things got out of control. But that very evening, I learnt that she was headed to town too. My grandfather had told her about my decision to leave the next day, probably even encouraged her to come along. Her calculation must have been that if we go together to town, a journey of at least 3 hours, she would have enough time to play more on my mind, get me exactly where she wanted me. So, what I did was this; I left that very evening. I would have liked to see the look on her face when she got to know that I had escaped her master plan. But, my celebration was short lived Shemmugisha@gmail.com