choking their victim while trying to silence her at the same time.
The night silence was disturbed by the struggle of heavy breathing
sighs and chokes cries of the victim whose defenses were useless.
We had a watch man! Where would he be at this time? I was so
scared I quickly closed the curtain and jumped out of bed. I was
home with my three sisters who were deep in sleep while mom had
traveled up country. So I could not ask for the watch man’s number
but went for the home telephone and searched for it. Luckily I saw
the number and called immediately.
“Hello?”
“Hello?” a deep gruff voice replied after a long wait.
“Askari, there is a woman being attacked outside.”
“Who is this?”
“Julia.”
“Ehh…let me go and check.” He hang up in a more alert manner
before I could make out his back ground noise. These watch men
could be negligent. I was sure I had woken him up from a deep sleep.
I stood in the sitting room quietly waiting to hear a confrontation but
did not hear anything till ten minutes later when I heard the noise of
three men. It must be the watch men I thought. They had taken so
long to appear, poor woman could be dead by now.
“They have killed!” I heard a loud male voice say in the night.”
35
Le portrait magazine