Chapter 1
Birungi’s Life Turns Sour
The sound of the storm reduced to a soothing drizzle as the day broke. It had been pouring heavily throughout the night, marking the beginning of the long-awaited rainy season and the ‘much desired’ cool temperatures. This was always a welcome time of the year. For soon the forest would turn green again, recreating the lush colours that are characteristic of the tropics.
As the early morning breeze whistled through the trees, I snuggled deeper into my sheets. “This is more than luxury”, I mused. For unlike other days, I did not have to relent to the ‘wake-up before the rooster crows’ routine that haunts most career women.
To greet the weekend in style, I had cunningly switched off the alarm clock to ensure that no intruder robbed me of a carefully planned early morning snooze. But as I forced my eyelids back to sleep, the phone rang. “It’s Birungi”, my husband winced, reaching for the betraying, screaming device. Birungi was my close friend, hence the indulgence of calling me at the break of dawn.
“Hi Rungi”, I muttered in a drowsy whisper; using the nickname that had stuck since childhood days. But her tone was far from the usual …; it was clear that something had gone awfully wrong. “Can we meet at the Beach Café…?”, she proposed. Being my best friend, her despondency was enough to jolt me out of bed.
I scuttled through my early morning rituals: warm bath, breakfast for hubby, quick directives to the housemaid; and, soon I had arrived at the Café. The venue was a darling for Birungi and I, as its shady palms, sandy beaches and the lulling sound of the Indian ocean would always create an ambience for ‘woman-to-woman’ tête-à-têtes.
No sooner had I sat down than Birungi ‘let the cat out of the bag’. “Yesterday, my ‘ex-boss’ Lutalo resurfaced at our office…, He is our new CEO”, she announced with dismay. “What?” I burst out unbelievingly!
The fact that Lutalo had made Birungi’s life ‘a living hell’ was undeniable. I recollected how my friend had been sacked by the man for rebuffing his demand for a love-affair; a thing which made the boss vow to teach Birungi a lesson she would never forget. Lutalo had watched with ‘folded arms’ while the girl’s family tumbled into abject poverty; forcing her to accept odd jobs as she struggled to keep her family ‘afloat’. However, God had wiped Birungi’s tears the day she landed a job as Marketing Manager of an internationally reputable hotel chain; and, within the twinkling of an eye, her lavish earnings had turned the family’s predicament around. Then, ‘Lutalo’ had been rendered ‘history’…, at least so we had thought.
But now, with the man’s reincarnation, the future looked bleak. “If only I could find employment elsewhere”, she muttered tearfully, toying with the idea of resigning with immediate effect. But ‘manufacturing’ a job ‘out of the blue’ was next to impossible. With her children in school and house rent to be paid, resigning was out of the question, at least for the moment.