Kevin's blue dress wore the dirt kicked up from the dusty road, or rather, Kevin was wearing tiny segments of the dusty road on her blue dress. Kevin said she didn't have to be in school today, she was excused so that she could tend to her mother whose health was quickly failing. It was a hot day, so perhaps it was for the better that she should not have to walk in that heat, or rather that it was for the worse that she should not have to walk to school, but instead sit at home watching her dying mother.
"My mother...she is sick from the A-chh I vee," she almost whispered.
"I am sorry..." I said.
"It's ok."
Our vocal cords rested, as the sound of laughing children carried by in the breeze...breaking our awkward silence, well sort of. We sat in the warm shade watching ants busily carry minuscule pieces of the earth back to their hills. The odd ambitious one carried more than their fair share, while others seemed to be arguing about in which direction they should be going. Somewhere below our seats, a queen tended to her colony, or rather a colony tended to her.
"My father said that I should be trying to become a doctor, or a nurse, so that I can take care of others."
"That is excellent." I said encouragingly.
"Yes..." came her reply, as if she had more to add, or rather, that fewer words would have meant more.
"And where would you like to work as a nurse or doctor?" I asked.
"At the hospital...there are very many sick peoples in that place...and I should help them if I can."
"Ahhh...well I'm sure you can, and will." I replied, again with an encouraging tone.
"I would very much like that." She said hopefully.
Kevin pulled a loose thread from her blue dress and released it into the now increasing breeze. The tiny blue thread, once a piece of a school uniform worn a girl called Kevin, drifted away to meet its new destiny; perhaps welcomingly somewhere nearby as a small addition to a bird's nest, or perhaps, somewhere distant, as an annoyance tangled in a just-completed spider web. Kevin sat looking for other loose threads, brushing off the dirt from the dusty road as she went on inspecting her blue dress.
"Do you believe in the miracles of Jesus Christ?" She asked, still looking at her blue dress.
The tables felt suddenly turned...
I felt as though my saying "no" would somehow lower her hopes. Like it would remove all the colours in her world, her blue dress included.
"...yes, Jesus was a good man." I said mechanically.
"When my father was dying ,I prayed and prayed that his health should improve..." Kevin's attention suddenly turned from her blue dress to the blue skies above.
"...but his health...it did not improve, and he died," she said with a tear forming in her right eye.
“Now I am fearing that if I pray and pray, that Jesus will forget about my prayers again.”
The little tear burst from Kevin’s eye and began sliding down Kevin’s dark face, leaving glistening vestiges of itself as it went. At first, the little tear moved slowly along Kevin’s puffy cheek, then quicker as it drew closer to the edge of Kevin’s chin.
The little tear suddenly stopped.............
hung on,...then p
l
u
n
g
e
d
directly onto Kevin’s blue dress.
Kevin's eyes began to well up with other little tears, who would themselves travel along the already slick path traced out on Kevin's face, or rather, be pulled along Kevin's face by the force of gravity, and by the force of gravity alone.
"He will hear you Kevin," I said insistingly.
"But what he hears and does are not the same things...and my older sister keeps telling me that that is what I should be understanding," she said in frustration.
Kevin's blue dress absorbed each tear as they fell from her face, her dress changing colour from blue to dark blue where ever they landed, or rather, Kevin's blue dress only appeared to change colour,...a dress changing colour and absorbing a tear are not the same thing, the former would imply a miracle.
"I think I should now go and see my mother, she is needing to take her medicines now," Kevin said abruptly as she wiped several tears from her face.
"I understand Kevin....Affoyo matek!" I replied.*
"I will pray for your mother" I said, knowing full well that I didn't pray, but thinking that I should just this once.
Kevin kneeled in front of me, and extended her hand.**
"Affoyo" Kevin said in return, as I shook her outstretched hand.
As Kevin began walking back in the direction of the dusty road and her ailing mother, a gust of warm wind swept Kevin's blue dress about and pushed stubborn clouds along their way---or rather, Kevin's blue dress was swaying in the breath of her prayers being answered.
I sat in the afternoon sun for some time, watching ants busily carry minuscule pieces of earth back to their hills, and watching Kevin's blue dress fade from view.
*"Affoyo Matek means "Thank-you very much" in Luo/Acholi language.
**It is not uncommon for Acholi women/girls to kneel in front of men they deem as in a higher position then they.
