Walking Home Read Online Free Page A

close to an hour to find the deadfall.
    “How long have you been in the camp?” Jomo asked.
    “A little more than a month. We were one of the first, and the camp has grown around us. You?”
    “Two weeks. Maybe we will be here only another two or three weeks.”
    “You’re going back to Webuye?” I questioned.
    He shook his head. “No, to Isiolo.”
    “I don’t know where that is.”
    “It is past Mount Kenya. My family, we are Meru and we have relatives. It is very far.”
    “But how will you get there?” I asked. “Will you walk?”
    “I
could
walk,” Jomo said.
    Behind him, his sisters started giggling.
    “What are you chickens cackling about?” he asked.
    “It is hundreds and hundreds of kilometers away! You could never walk that far,” Kioni said.
    “I could walk across all of Kenya if I needed to. Walking is simple: Every journey begins with one step. Step after step until you reach your goal. Maybe it would be harder for a couple of chickens.”
    “Our father has gone ahead,” Kioni explained. “He is arranging for a place to stay and a vehicle to come and get us.”
    “And until he returns I am the man of the family.”
    “If we are chickens, then you are nothing more than a rooster,” Makena said, and the two girls burst into laughter.
    “And not even a
big
rooster,” Kioni said.
    “A rooster that sleeps in each morning and must be woken up,” Makena added. “Not
much
of a rooster.”
    “Little sisters,” Jomo said, shaking his head. “Do you have sisters?”
    “Just one. She is much younger.”
    “You are so lucky to have only one. Would you like a second or third? As the man of the house, I could give them to you.”
    “Thank you for your generous offer, but I am happy with just the one,” I said, laughing.
    “I understand not two, but one certainly—” He stopped mid-sentence and dropped his voice. “Do you see them?”
    He pointed and I looked. There in the scrub, not too far away, were three small gazelles.
    “They are so close,” Jomo whispered. “I just wish we had a gun.”
    “Or even a spear,” I said.
    “We have a spear,” Makena said. “A
flaming
spear.”
    What was she talking about?
    “She is making a bad joke,” Jomo explained. “My name means ‘flaming spear.’ ”
    “If we all picked up our brother, we could throw him at the gazelle,” Kioni suggested.
    “Are you
sure
you do not want another sister or two?” he asked me.
    “I would rather have a gazelle,” I said. “It would taste good.”
    “Have you eaten gazelle before?”
    “Never, but I imagine it would be good. Before coming here, I had never even
seen
a gazelle. There are only goats and cows and sheep around Eldoret.”
    “The same for Webuye. There are lots of animals around here, though—even elephants and giraffes and lions.”
    “You have seen them?” I exclaimed.
    He shook his head. “I have heard about them. I have only seen gazelles and some zebras. I wonder what zebra meat would taste like?”
    “If we see one, we can throw you at it instead of the gazelle,” Makena said. “It is a bigger target.”
    Jomo turned to me. “If I give you a dowry, will you at least marry one of them so she will live somewhere else?”
    One of the gazelles—the one with the biggest horns—turned and looked at us then. He ran off, and the others followed close behind. We started walking again.
    “When will your family leave the camp?” Jomo asked.
    “I do not know.”
    “Surely you have family somewhere and can go there.”
    “My mother’s people are Kamba. They live in a place called Kikima. Have you heard of it?”
    “No.”
    I shrugged. “Nobody has. I only know it is in Kambaland, up past Machakos.”
    “I have not heard of those places either,” he said. “But all roads in Kenya lead to Nairobi. From there, you can go anywhere else. Have you ever been to Nairobi?”
    “Never. You?”
    “No. My mother said it is a big, black hole.”
    “No, it is a city, a very big