SHE GAVE ME AIDS IN (PART TWO)

"Brandy or whisky?"
"Anything with an alcohol content, except chang'aa"
"I have done chang'aa you know?"
"Get out!" My eyes wide, my jaw drops, "Aren't you full of surprises!"
"Turns out chang'aa isn't that bad!" She shrugs and grins. I am not sure if she whether she is serious or joking. She is Viola from our previous blog post. She is a gorgeous twenty five year old girl. And (as she puts it) and she has AIDS.
We have located from the coffee shop to the bar at Zaika Lounge.
"You know they say people who drink when the sun is up have either made it in life or they are clinical alcoholics..." I point out.
"Well they are stupid! You and I answer to a higher law!" we high five. The lounge has only one other person. Maybe because its 11 am on a Monday. He is a sharply dressed man in a beige suit with dreadlocks like Dedan Kimathi. If my earliet theory on day drinking is anything to go by, he looks like he has made it in life AND a clinical alcoholic.
A waiter comes to the counter where we are perched.
"Are you ready to order?" her voice should be on radio.
"I will take any vodka and two shots of chang'aa for this lovely lady." Viola explodes in that loud and careless laughter. She is roaring on the floor. The waiter is dumbfounded and clueless on how to nurse her confusion. "I am sorry, she will have the same." She walks around the counter to the shelves not at all impressed by my joke.
"So..." I start as as Viola catches her breath, "I want to ask how she infected you but it seems a bit insensitive..."
"Don't you want to know how I became a stripper first?" She is either toying with me or she is scared of telling her story. Either way I am curious with this bit of information.
"I have always wanted to be a stripper!" I kid. She lets out a whoop like sound then cocvers her mouth stifling her signature loud laugh. Dedan Kimathi guy turns and smiles at us.
"Chochi you are so stupid!"
"Awww, thank you!" Our drink arrives. We take the first shot together. It burns like acid. "So stripping..." I take out my note book.
"Oh yeah, your friend and I eventually got broke, and she suggested this new way of making quick cash at a club here in town. A cousin of hers was stripping there and she agreed to train us and get us a gig there."
"You mean to tell me," I sweep a quick look around the lounge to make sure we are out of ear shot, "There is a strip joint in this town?"
"Kwani which hole do you live in? I will take you there one day soon..."
"Nope!" i throw my hands up, "I am not ready to be a stripper yet!"
"To watch, not to strip!" But she knows I am joking. "Anyways, your bestie and I got hooked up at the club. We would strip dance on saturdays and sundays..."
"How much does it pay?"
" five thao per night..."
"Jesus girl! Maybe i should be a stripper!"
"You'd make a good one!" we laugh. Dedan Kimathi is clearly interested in our conversation. We give him the cold shoulder.
"I still strip, but in Nairobi. My stripper name is Viola"
"I dont know what to make of that . Wow!" There is silence as we down our drinks. We all know what the next topic is. But she waits till i ask.
"Are you ready to talk about it?"
"I want to kill your friend then kill myself." She says this as a matter of fact, calm, collected and premeditated. "She broke me first emotionally and when she could manipulate me she infected me. You know what she said after I told her I am HIV positive?"
"What?"
"She looked at me in the eyes and said, 'welcome to the club' !" Tears welled in her eyes. I patted her on the back. She pulled away, "Do not touch me. I hate being touched!" She took three shots of the vodka in three quick successions. I waited. "I am sorry. I shouldn't have snapped like that."
"It is okay to react like that." I resisted the urge to hug her. "Do you mind telling me how it happened?"
"No I dont, thats why we are here, right?"
As if she knew what we were talking about, the waiter enters the DJ booth and tge lounge booms to Kate Perry's "I kissed a girl" hit song. We looked at each other and to my relief Viola cracks up in genuine laughter.
"It was a Sunday night, my third day at the strip bar and our shift was over. I was high on three different drugs. I could barely see clearly or even think straight. Your bestie was walking me out of the club's basement where our changing room was when one of the older strippers came along. She snatched my purse and emptied its contents to her hand bag. I was too weak to even raise a finger."
"What were you high on?" I was burning to find out.
"The usual, booze, weed, some of those pills they give mental people" I had heard of these pills but never laid my eyes on them. "Anyway she slaps your bestie and says something i couldnt quite hear but sounded like insults. We staggered out of the club and she shoves me at the back of a cab. The cab driver seems to know your friend pretty well. He asks if we have money and to my horror she sits me upright and says. "I got this one. She is fresh, you will see!" Before I even know what is going on, the taxi driver leans to the back sit and plants his lips on mine!" There is a look of disgust in her face. Her eyes, lost in the distance well up and this time she gives her tears a free reign. "The taxi driver asks her : "My place or yours?" "My place ofcourse, we dont have money on us" And we drive off. It feels like a few seconds before we reach your friend's house. The two carry me and throw me on the bed. She helps him undress me...." Tears choke her. She can't go on.
"Oh deary..." I hug her, she doesnt pull away.
"She watched him doing this to me. I looked into her eyes helpless. The pills had taken over my body I couldnt make any move. I looked into her eyes and she did nothing." She was in pain. I wanted to tell her to stop. I couldnt. "After he was done guess what?" I am silent. My own tears are filling up. "she undresses...."


"I went for HIV tests every two weeks since then and on the fourth testing my horrors were confirmed. I had AIDS. And what does your bestie tell me?"


"Welcome to the club..."


A true story.