Walking down the lane one late afternoon with the encroaching green foliage on either side my attention was commanded by piercing screams. Children in our compound yell for many reasons, but there was a distinction of fear in this instance. Around the lone turn on our lane came three boys yelling for me to run with them because there were strange noises coming from the bushes. “It’s a ghost.” they cried. With my skepticism on high alert I wanted to know more before I joined the little motley crew and ran.
Instantaneously my pragmatic checklist was activated, completing an analysis of the situation in mere seconds. This ghost was obviously terrifying a few children under nine, but was it real? I mean seriously, a ghost? That same day the boys had been playing in the trees making a game out of stepping on overripe guava the birds and monkeys had rejected. Could it be an animal the boys had heard that startled them causing panic to take control? As the boys’ yells grew louder and their steps drew closer I wondered where my oldest son was.
Recently there has been a number of lions wandering around outside of Nairobi National Park. No one is exactly sure how they made it out but reports indicated two visual confirmations with the possibility of four more roaming the surrounding areas in search of new hunting grounds. A friend sent a video of a lion walking down the street, amid blaring car horns and screams while multiple drivers called in the alert on their way to work. Then two weeks ago another lion sighting, a mere two miles away. They may not be the man-eaters of Tsavo but when it comes right down to it, even for the fiercest Maasai warrior, a lion is nothing to ignore. Earlier in the school year a leopard had entered the compound next to ours and killed a dog leaving behind footprints and carnage. Were these the signs of the ghost that the boys were screaming about?
I had passed two girls playing close to the outer gate as I entered the compound and I knew that two other boys were away with family. Joshua was with my wife and the adults were mysteriously absent. Now three boys were wildly approaching me yelling about strange sounds coming for them. Mental math completed, there was only one child unaccounted for. My oldest son. While my eyes scanned the brush, my head thought of logical solutions to the mayhem. Standing frozen in thought trying to make sense of it all I too heard the sound of the ghost coming closer. I quickly ruled out the wind rustling the bamboo leaves and the ibis calling out danger. It had a deeper sound to it that I instantly recognized as that of a mammal. The three boys ran past taking their screams and leaving me standing alone in the growing darkness.
Then from the shadows rode Benjamin on his bright blue bike calling out “Woooo! Woooo!”
nehrely there 