Nuruddin Farah - Hiding in Plain Sight

More quietly, Valerie says, “You won’t even tell us where you are headed and whom you are meeting dressed up like that?”

Salif, looking mischievous, says, “You’re out of line, Mum. What if she is meeting a lover?”

“Darling, don’t be daft,” says Valerie.

“What’s daft about meeting a lover?”

“It’s not the right time of day!” Valerie exclaims.

“There’s a right and wrong time of day?” says Salif.

Even Dahaba has had enough. “For the love of heaven, Mum, who are you to demand total transparency? How about telling us what you and Padmini were up to last night?”

Valerie’s eyes narrow into slits. “What are you on about, silly girl?”

But Dahaba sails out of the kitchen in a fit of pique, leaving them all on tenterhooks. “Ask Salif,” she says in parting. “He knows.” Then she runs up the stairs, and they hear the door to her bedroom slam shut.

Valerie turns to Salif. “What is Dahaba on about?”

“I don’t wish to get involved,” he says in Somali.

Bella shakes her head in disapproval, reminding him to repeat in English what he has just said in Somali to his mother and Padmini. When he does, Valerie’s eyes widen in shock.

Bella, looking away from Valerie, reprimands him for not remembering what his father taught him: to be forever polite and remain considerate toward adults—“More so now to your mother,” she stresses.

Like the good boy he is, he apologizes to his mother.

It is obvious to everyone that things have got off to a bad start between Valerie and the children, and that it is time she made amends and spent quality time with Dahaba and Salif to set matters on a safer course. Bella asks Valerie, “What are your plans for the day? Maybe you would like to spend more time with Salif and Dahaba.” And then before Valerie has reacted, Bella says to the children, “What about you? Wouldn’t you wish to see your mum and Auntie Padmini for a longer time? They live in a continent you’ve never been to. Wouldn’t you want to know more about their lives in India, what young people of your age are up to in the subcontinent, maybe even plan to visit one day?”

“Yes, I would, Auntie.”

Bella say to Salif, “On a topic of housekeeping.”

“Yes, Auntie?”

“Please remember to get in touch with the maid and ask her to come as soon as she can. This house needs serious cleaning.”

“Yes, Auntie. I will do so.”

“And one more thing.”

“Yes, Auntie?”

“Please look after your mum and Auntie Padmini while they are here. Don’t forget they are our guests. One honors one’s guests always.”

“Of course.”

“Now here is cash for a taxi to wherever you are going and back again,” she says, handing him a wad of cash, which she knows to be far more than they will ever need for a taxi and a meal at a decent restaurant for four persons.

“What about Dahaba?”

“Let her come with you. That way both of you will get to spend time with your mum and Auntie Padmini,” Bella says.

On second thought, she fumbles in her shoulder bag and brings out a credit card. “Call me if there is a problem, any problem.”

She turns to Valerie and Padmini and speedily walks the short distance separating them, and she hugs now one, now the other, and then says to both, “You are welcome here. Please come visit again.”

Valerie says, “Thanks. That is kind of you.”

“You have both my numbers?” she says to Salif.

“You mean your Kenyan and the Italian? Yes.”

“Call me if there is need,” she says, and turns to go, then stops. “Remember to be here when I return,” she says to Salif. “There is only the one set of keys.”

And off she goes to meet Gunilla.

Within a few minutes, Bella finds herself in heavy morning traffic, the GPS notwithstanding. Above all, she does not know the shortcuts to avoid getting rush-hour madness, as local taxis might; nor does she know how to predict Nairobi traffic, where five minutes this way might make a great difference if you know the mood of the place. The traffic is utterly unpredictable though and very untidy, and this would tax anyone’s nerves, but it is also, she knows from Aar, a drag on the local economy in both obvious and hidden ways. She remembers that he told her that the city authorities were at long last waking up to the challenge, and a couple of Chinese and Japanese firms have been enlisted to find a solution to the problem, but their efforts plainly have yet to bear fruit. The problem, Aar liked to say, wasn’t only the large number of vehicles plying too few roads. It was the obstreperous drivers, each of them thinking themselves smarter than the others and behaving in the most undisciplined way with no fear of penalty. And Nairobi traffic is such a chronic condition that people have grown accustomed to it and in a sense rely on it. You can blame it for your lateness; you can catch up on your phone calls and texts; you can do your shopping from the peddlers making their way between the slow-moving cars. Incidents of road rage are rare because, while everyone is impatient, the opposite is equally true: Everyone is at the same time tolerant of everyone else’s wayward ways.

Bella is annoyed but not anxious. She has left ample time to get to her appointment, and if by some miracle she is early, she has brought along the Kerr novel to read, which she is certain to prefer to the journals or glossy magazines that likely await her.

She dashes into an opening in the traffic, making a quarter of a kilometer gain before she has to brake suddenly behind a truck emitting black smoke that has created another jam. As she inches forward, she thinks about the evening and the morning, and how encouraged she feels by Salif, who has been so steadfast with her. Even Dahaba did not abandon her, divided as her feelings obviously are.

The down side of it is that they seem to have it in for their mother now, to the point of being cruel. Yes, Valerie is irresponsible and insensitive, but the world was not as kind to her in her own tender years as it was to Bella. She knows that Valerie’s father, an actor, was often out of work, and the family mostly survived on Wendy’s paycheck. Worse, Valerie’s father was a drunk who sexually abused his daughter from the age of sixteen. When at long last he began to find steady work in Hollywood, he would often fly Valerie over to join him. That came to an end when a paparazzo took a picture of the two of them in a compromising position and this made it into one of the tabloids. Wendy brought all her wrath down upon his head, demanding an end to the matter on strict terms: Valerie must go to boarding school, and he must pay all the fees. Even that wasn’t the end of the liaison, which continued in secret until Valerie met Padmini at school.

Aar knew none of this until Valerie was pregnant with Salif, and he revealed none of it to Bella until Valerie left for India with Padmini. Perhaps, Bella thinks, this is why nothing Valerie does ever shocks her and why in some sense she cannot forsake her, much as she dislikes her. It is something she learned from Aar: Only those to whom the world is kind are truly able to be kind to the world. This history is not something she can explain to Salif and Dahaba, not yet, at any rate. But she resolves to teach Salif to be fair in his judgments and to encourage Dahaba to be moderate in her efforts to assert herself. And she resolves to make every effort to amicably work out the legal matters that await them without bringing in a scavenging herd of lawyers alien to the cause, whose primary aim will be lining their own pockets.

The traffic is once again at a complete standstill, and the driver of the vehicle in front of her gets out of his car and comes to her window, apparently wanting to speak to her. Visitors to Nairobi are often advised to beware of potential violence, which can strike at any hour of the day or night. Bella looks in her rear mirror to be sure that others are watching and checks that her door is locked before she lowers her window a few inches.