He reached home a few minutes to ten o’clock and heard Min Pilot quarrelling alone in the kitchen. The visitors had just left and his cousins were watching a movie on the TV.

“I will one day kill this kid. What sort of child is this that doesn’t pay attention to orders, eeh?” he heard her dreadful loud voice as he entered the house. “He couldn’t even remind me that I forgot to send him tealeaves, and now the visitors are gone. Ugh!”

“Mama, mama, here he is,” shouted Okoth when Odongo walked in. While the boys stared at him spitefully, Helena walked up to him and asked, “Bro, what happened? Look at your knee – you’re bleeding!”

“I fell, sister,” he replied.

“Oh, I’m very sorry,” she consoled and then picked the items from his hands and placed on the table. The others frothed at the mouth. Just then, Min Pilot emerged from the kitchen, her face cracked into a double-u as usual. She rushed to Odongo with the speed of lightning and slapped him hard at the cheek, spat on him and yelled, “Satan! See what you’ve done to me. The visitors are gone and that’s when you’re arriving back sober and unmoved, you ninny.” She handed him another blow.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, mama. I fell down and...,” he tried to explain but Min Pilot wouldn't let him.

“Bullshit! What are you telling me? Eeh? I sent you here – to a place that’s not even my nose away from my mouth, and you come back yapping nyo-nyo-nyo.” Her breath had grown rapid and her looks acerbic. She turned, as if by the devil's chance, and saw the items on the table. “What... where is the carrier, and the salt and butter –where are they?”

“I... I lost them, mama. I’m so...”

“You lost them?!”

“Yes, mama. I’m so sorry.”

Min Pilot gave him a strained cutting look and then clicked herself and sighed in exasperation. She picked up her phone lying on the table and made a call. “Hello, Imelda... No, my day has been spoilt by your brat here. Didn’t I tell you I’m fed up staying with it? Come, come for it as quick as you... That I throw him out?! What the heck! You want me to land onto the wrong side of the law and be jailed, eeh?... Look, I said, come for your son or else... Wai-wait, are you addressing me or someone else? Is that how you can now speak to me after feeding and sheltering your kid all these years, Imelda... Are... are you going nuts?... That I should kill him, kill him?! I'm not a murderer, you know it. Oh come, come pick up this nasty thing and kill it yourself... He’s such a rogue kid; loose, can't even abide by simple rules... Look, I’m tired of disciplining your little monster, sister, didn't I just said that? I’m tired, not tonight, not tomorrow, but tomorrow I promise you, girl... I’ll chop off his fingers that he uses to steal my food, and beat the stuffing out of his tiny body!... Hello... hello...”

She looked at the phone and noticed that the connection had been cut. She tried to call again but Imelda did not pick up the call. Then she turned to Odongo and said sharply, “Finish up your activities and sleep, tomorrow will be your day of reckoning. And, no food for you again. I can’t entertain such a high level of mediocrity in my house. No, I can’t.” She then picked up the items on the table and strutted away to her bedroom.

The boys broke into suppressed laughter, but Helena remained staring at Odongo piteously.

Odongo walked out of the house lost in thoughts about his birth. He wondered whether his mother had really given birth to him or just picked him from the roadside. He wondered where his father could be and what he thought about him. He wondered who and where his real relatives were and whether he was ever...