A kiss by a rose on the grave

Meet Bev, she is one of those cool and reserved warmly smiling ladies with sparkling eyes that could make you feel like you have really locked eyes. Her skin tone is a light shade of chocolate and her hand motions are a micro second slower and she walks with a slow sway with a graceful aura. She keeps waving at Raphael every time he passes by her and when Raphael asked her to share her story for purposes of blogging, her polite face was expressionless but hard and cold. You could tell it was an epic tale from those romanza telenovelas. Then she makes me swear that I won't take her pictures and would not expose her name.

She then lets her head fall to her side and starts, ..." I got money to start my business from a wanted criminal! So bad was he that I had seen his face and bounty on local news headlines." She therefore informs about her crazy thug cousin who ventured into a life of crime as a result of hard economic times their family was facing. It was ten years ago and she wasn't married yet. They were then a closely knit family and apparently she is clueless who paid the bills then but knew times were hard. It wasn't uncommon for boys from the hood to join illegal drug syndicates. Her cousin started off with drugs and by end of that year they moved to a bigger house with his money. Life got better as with time since his cousin got involved in more serious crime.

One time he came home from a bank loot and it was the beginning of a whole new life for her. He shared his secret with her but told her not to inform other family members. He told her she would his confidant and it was her duty to open a bank account and do her best to lay low as she braced for millionarehood. Soon she banked her first half a million in instalments of five and this became her new habit. He advised her to start a small business as cover up. She then joined table banking groups and started saving for herself from the profit she made honestly. One day while having lunch at a nearby joint she was distractedly watching the 1pm news when she saw her brothers face flash by the screen. It is then that she discovered he had failed at an assassination attempt of a prominent government official. He however did not escape cctv footage. The news presenters did not get his name but his face they got clearly.

She has never heard from him ever since and shortly after the broadcast she started feeling eerie. She kept looking over her shoulders. It was like someone was following her but she could not place a face. The paranoia grew so big that at a time she was unable to get out of her house and would peep through the window curtain from time to time. When several months passed without any security check at her doors, she relocated to Nakuru with her money, bought up a nice home for herself and settled down. Looking back, she wishes she wouldn't have gotten involved with her thug cousin. In fact she hopes he reforms. From business she has since learnt that money is not the answer to everything. She looked for a bodybuilder whom she married and have children together.

She is not happy as she is scared things might trace back to her. She loves to party and go on vacation every once in a while. She is now used to a wealthy life and is glad she made her own profit from her cousin's millions and would gladly return back his money if it was claimed by himself or by security agencies. She is aware that for people at the receiving end of her cousin's dealings, life is short and death is at the door. Her message to anyone out there with close ties to a criminal is, "Live your life to the fullest before he fucks it forever!"