We part ways with the family from Masimba. And we go our different ways. Rather I pretend to go my different way. I had to see the car they were driving and the registration number. They used the main entrance on Langata Road. I pretended to go in the direction of the washrooms, but I had seen another door leading to the Karen shopping center side. I quickly walked to that door and I walked past. They also did not park it within sight…
So how did I get to this point really?🤦♂️ Let me retell this story… Just in case👌: Previously…
***
Years later, grown man, elections, cell escapades, con games, good friends, fired cops, tricky situations, truths and lies… I am too exhausted to think and I let go of the chase. I decided to sit back and live the moments through. However, there is a twist in the tale. Whereby this story is slightly not what it seems to be😁. It is not what it also sounded at first. It had levels… and it all started with an innocent walk somewhere on the escarpments of the Rift Valley. It was a cold morning and even the hot tea served in metallic cups would not help improve the situation. With good friends and good stories, the weather was nothing compared to the fun we were having.
I am trying to figure out the flow of this tale… *Giggles in confusion*😂. I have friends we have shared our relationship for a very long time. You know those ones who you consider family? Yeah, like that. Family like that. We are this clique of very friendly and loving people and then we add someone else to the circle. At this point, our adventure involves five nice people and one stranger. One stranger who received a clean bill of health, considering the approval team that was big enough for me to consider them harmless. To add sugar to the already sweetened tea, aviation was his field🤞.
My name is Chris, and my friend – Vivian’s family invited me to a family party out of town. Beautiful sceneries, nice fresh air, nice people, lots of people and a lot of cold as well. The breeze was not something I was used to, though😰. It was cold. I was introduced to my friend’s fiancé Oliver, when the silence had given room for introduction somewhere within the bits of conversation we were having. Oliver was cool. He was deep in the aviation industry as I learnt. Deeper than I was at the time – or so I thought. I was just a few hours after my Solo flight – back then. We are discussing international travel, cargo operations, engineering, 3D designs and probable application in aircraft engines and what have you. We expand a little and discuss the East African aviation market, the increasing demand for pilots and anything aviation-worthy that was within my know at the time.
In between conversation, I get nice scenes for photos and I play around with my friend’s camera. Made my first super cool macro shots that day. My level cool😏. Cannot forget that one. Besides the bush walks and random photos, there was a lot of food going round and this made the day even better. Okay, it was a party, there was nothing else to do besides merry, meet and greet. Like the unspoken and unwritten rules of in-laws, so do friend’s fiancés, fiancées, husbands, and wives, fall under a similar or almost similar category… Oliver and I warm up to each other very fast. I am convinced aviation was the main factor here. By the end of this day, we had discussed everything we could have discussed regarding our various fields and how we got there.
Nothing connects two people like their pursuit of happiness. “Happiness” – ambition et al. The highs and the lows of the journey that got them to where they are, the journey they are still on and the search for whatever it is that they are seeking. Should whatever they seek be the same or almost similar, they develop a bond that would not be compared to any else. Whether temporarily or permanently. Reminds me of some of those relationships we formed while in the military. The rough times could really bond one to another.
By the end of the day, it seemed like, I was the friend to Oliver and his fiancée was the introduced friend. That is how our relationship began. Happily, innocently and perfectly secured. In the coming months, we would share meals, hang out, watch movies together, charity work, among others. Just like old times when we were younger. He became part of the crew 🙄 I became part of the crew he was in – my old crew now upgraded and life never seemed any less normal. It’s because of him that I would get to meet top officers at Karen, dine in restaurants I wouldn’t have considered on my to do list, visited Golf courses and country clubs at weird hours of the night, and even drove in the middle of the night in buses & vans with cabin crew headed home from their flights. Not forgetting 👆the tons of lessons and experience I packed in that season.
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