ONE OF THOSE DAYS

For as long as she can remember, Elea has always loved the sunset. She would go sit on their house perimeter wall when she was in primary school and enjoy how the colors would play in the sky. The houses in the neighborhood would seem like shadow figures and it would remind her of the closing credit of a movie. But today the sunset was like a ticking time bomb. The further down it went the more she felt like her world was about to come to an end. An exaggeration true, but the ride on the back of the motorcycle was heavily supporting her premonition.

“Customer, I’ll get you there quick quick. That sun will not touch the ground”, said the muffled voice inside the worn-out helmet.

“I think we should focus on just getting there at this point” Elea replied, holding on to the motorcycle rider as if her life depended on it.

“I know shortcut down this road. It will arrive us in seconds. Cover your head, you don’t want brown hair.”

“I don’t think it’ll be nece…”

Elea was cut short by the sudden swerve of the motorcycle as it began the descent down a narrow, dusty dirt road. The statement, she now understood, was not to ask for her opinion but rather to inform her of the progress. She regretted informing the rider of the urgency of her trip. The motorcycle was going at such a speed that indicated a take-off to the skies would happen at any moment. What added to the stress of the situation was the fact that this was the first time Elea was on board a motorcycle. She was at that moment finding it hard to comprehend how this was an everyday mode of transport for the locals.

#

Elea was a recent interior design graduate. After a few months however of interning at an interior design firm, an opportunity which very hard to come by especially in Nairobi, she decided to call it quits. She found her calling in events planning on the several occasions she assisted her big brother, in setting up for events. Eric, or as commonly known by his stage name, DJ Erico, was an events DJ mostly known for his music mix of folksongs and urban vernacular. This taste in music was not common especially for someone among his peers. It instead automatically made him a favorite of the older and middle-aged audiences. 

The events were mostly on the weekends, but she found the whole process of coming up with concepts and themes, venue searching, and coordination of different teams culminating in wonderful memories to be exhilarating. Her study of interior design gave her an edge when it came to coming up with concepts and themes. She was also very imaginative and artistic in nature. In the excitement of starting her new career, with the help of her brother, there’s one thing that she failed to put into account. 

#

Elea was having one of those days. Her alarm never went off because she forgot to turn on the switch despite connecting it to the power socket the previous night. When she hazily opened her eyes only to be met by the rays of sunlight fighting their way through her dark closed curtains, she automatically knew she was late for her 9.a.m meeting with the caterers.

Jolting out of her bed, she ran to her phone, panicked for a second before realizing the error. She lucky pulled out her recently impulsively bought power bank, connected it to the phone then hurriedly leaped to the bathroom. She achieved a new time personal best of 2 minutes and hurriedly got dressed as the phone took its time booting on. As expected, she had 30 unconnected calls. A few from the catering company, the venue company, and the majority of the calls as well as 5 messages from her brother.

“Morning, where you at?”

“Get here soon. First impressions remember.”

“Yo! El! Why is your phone off? I hope you’re not oversleeping again? This is big.”

“ El, Turn. On. Your. Phooone!!”

“This is not funny anymore. We no longer have a venue.”

The last message froze Elea in her steps. “What? How? But without the venue, everything is ruined.” She suddenly became short of breath, the room was spinning, she felt the blood was rushing through her veins and her throat close up. It was happening again. She was having a panic attack.

She slowly sat down on the bed, closed her eyes, and did her best to focus on slowing her breathing. She fought off the little voice in her head reminding her that she should be moving instead of wasting more time lying down. After managing to calm herself down she stared at the vision board mounted on the ceiling. She could not help think about how none of the goals would ever come to fruition. Then it hit her, she may not be so good at handling the pressured situation but she was good at multitasking. 

Set on facing the climb a step at a time, she called her brother while running out of the house towards the bus stop. For the first few minutes, she could barely get a word in. Eric was getting all his frustration out of the system. Elea could barely hear some of the words over her heavy breathing, but eventually, after he calmed down she made clear the purpose of her call. 

“Eric, I’m sorry, I know I owe you an explanation but right now I need your help. Call Mama Wairimu and tell her that the grounds matter will be sorted out. To be safe, have them give you alternatives in case all else fails. Send me their response as soon as possible.”

Elea hung up before Eric could get a chance to protest. Soon she was about 200m from the bus stop. “It will have to do.” She whispered to herself, concluding the intense debate that was going on in her head on whether to call the caterers mid-jog or not.

“Hello, Elea Kamaru here. I have a meeting scheduled with you in the next 15 minutes.”

“Yes, everything is set. Just awaiting your arrival.” Replied a gentle yet assertive voice from the other end.

“About that, I’ll need to reschedule, unforeseen circumstances have turned up. Yes, I know the Uthoni is tomorrow but if you get the way forward on the easy tasks right now you can work on it before we meet at noon sharp” 

Halfheartedly, the lady agreed and got the way forward on the minor decisions. Elea hopped on the bus in a victorious leap from the feeling that things were finally moving. Grabbing a seat next to the window, she dialed the venue manager to inform her of her visit. To her surprise, they were glad to state that the situation would be easier to explain face to face. During the conversation, she started searching in her purse for the money to pay the tout who was two seats ahead collecting the bus fare from the rest of the passengers. 

Elea being so preoccupied had not realized that they had arrived at the outskirts of the central business district where the crowds were dense and thefts were common. As she was about to hand over her bus fare to the tout, she saw an expression on his face of sudden alertness and he lunged his body towards her seeming to try to grab hold of something.

Before she could react, she felt cold hands from outside the window grab the phone that she held to her ear by locking it on the nape of her neck. The lady seated on the set behind her let out a deafening shout. “Thief! Thief!”

It took Elea a while to process what had just happened for it all took place so fast. All around her were cooed voices extending their sympathy but they sounded so distant. It was when she looked outside the window and realized the bus was driving past her stop that she snapped back to reality. She jumped out of her seat and hurriedly ran to the door trying to get the tout to stop the bus.

Still in a haze by the time she got to the venue area, Elea couldn't quite get all that the manager was saying, but involved a high-profile politician. Instead, she absent-mindedly nodded her head, thanked the manager, and left. Elea stood outside the gate for what seemed like hours. 

“I should have negotiated another deal. Why didn’t I say anything as she spoke? Is this supposed to be this hard?” The thoughts all flooded in.

“How will I reach the caterers now? I can’t go back in there and ask for a phone, they will think that I have no idea what I’m doing.”

She was fighting a losing battle against herself. She was aware that she clearly needed help but she was not prepared to look like some amateur. As it turned out the revered role of an event planner was one that required one to still perform under immense pressure and also have mastery in negotiations. As if the universe was trying to show her how these features look personified, she saw Eric walking towards her from a distance. Tears rolled out of her eyes as she ran towards him and gave him a hug.

“Hey, hey what’s up with you today? First, you repeatedly forget how to use your phone and now you are crying in the middle of the streets.” Eric mocked as he patted her back.

Elea updated him on all the mishaps she had had since the day began and how it was all a clear sign that she was not cut out to be an events planner. To this Eric responded by pulling her off him, grabbing her by her shoulders, and literary shaking her out of her head. 

“Will you stop with all this whining; you are not a kid anymore. Nothing great comes easy. You mess up, you learn from it you move on.” Eric was going for the tough love.

“plus would you give yourself some credit, the plan you had in the morning was absolute genius. We have a chance to get a venue before the day ends; it was the client's backup. I have already contacted them and told them that you’ll be on the way there with the deposit cheque. You have to get there before 5pm though or they’ll give it away.”

Elea told him that she wouldn’t be able to attend the meeting with the caterers and still make it in time for the venue booking. Eric offered a divide and conquer strategy. He would deal with the caterers while she dealt with the venue.

“And remember siz, give it time and you’ll get the hang of it. Plus, you’re not alone in this.”

Eric reminded her as she headed to the bus stop to board a bus to the venue location. Sometimes she forgot how amazing a brother she had, with all the mocking and fighting, but moments like this she was reminded of his unconditional love.

By the time she boarded the bus, it was 3pm. She decided to get a burner phone and her SIM card replaced to help her at least get through the tasks of the day. The journey by bus was an estimated hour, with heavy traffic. So she still had an hour to spare. This time she took a seat away from the window and spend the trip recovering the essential contacts. It was not an area she’d been at before so she informed the tout to alert her when they got to her stage. After she had recovered the contacts she needed, Elea felt a much-needed sense of relief flood in. So much so that she slowly drifted into a nap.

A bump on the road woke her up. She panicked for a second when she looked out the window and could not trace her whereabouts. Slowly she came to and took to deep relaxed breathing that was cut short when she saw the '4.33 pm' on her phone screen. On confirming with the tout whether they had yet gotten to her stop. Elea watched his expression go from irritated to shocked. He began to apologize profusely as he instructed the driver to stop the car. As soon as she stepped off the bus the tout whistled a nearby parked motorcycle driver to come over to where they were.

“Get her to the Last Village Resort.” The tout instructed the rider as he paid him. Then he got back on the bus and took off.

As the rider was speeding through the dirt road. Elea was no longer constantly checking her phone to confirm the time. She decided to distract herself from the impending literal and career death by just observing the sunset through the dust. As they were going up a steep section, a shot sound came from the motorcycle and it slowed down to a stop at the apex of the road. 

At this point, Elea had decided to give up when she looked at the phone and saw the time to be 5.12pm. The motorcycle had run out of gas a kilometer away from the resort. Even if she decided to run the rest of the way, she would still not have made it in time. She dragged herself away from the rider who was making frantic calls for assistance, toward the sunset into a small green valley.

The further she walked, the more the beauty of the landscape was revealed. The icing on the cake was the small flowing stream at the bottom glistening with the reflection of the setting sun. The soothing breeze on her skin lifted her stress away. Her phone rang and without taking her eyes off the beautiful view, Elea pressed the receive button and placed it on her ear.

“So how did it go? Do we have a venue?” Eric asked frantically.

“Yes, I believe we do,” Elea responded with a wide smile on her face.