“You promised me, dad,” Uswege said, his face gloomy.
Dr. Nyandula swallowed and then wiped his lips. “Whatever I promised you, son, I doubt if breakfast time is the appropriate time to fulfill that promise.”
Mrs. Nyandula chuckled while chewing. She swallowed and then said, “If in the promise you did not indicate when you’re to be reminded about it, then perhaps he isn’t entirely wrong in doing that now—at breakfast time.”
Dr. Nyandula raised his shoulders in a shrug. “May be not.” He glanced toward Uswege across the breakfast table. Smiling, he asked, “What did I promise you, son?”
Uswege took his eyes off his Spanish omelet to look at Dr. Nyandula. “That you’d take me to that psychologist friend of yours to help answer my questions about dreams.”
Dr. and Mrs. Nyandula erupted into laughter, Mrs. Nyandula even shedding tears of laughter. “I think you’re right to ask questions about dreams, now,” the civil engineer said, ending his laughter. “After all, we’ve just come out of our beds, anyway.”
He sipped his coffee and then wiped his mouth. “But you aren’t going to tell us you had another nightmare again, are you?”
Uswege nodded emphatically. He sharply arched his eyebrows as he said, “Yes, dad. I did have another nightmare.”
“Oh, oh!” Dr. Nyandula again.
Mrs. Nyandula replaced her folk and knife, and leaned forward toward Uswege. “You had a nightmare?”
“Yes, mom.”
Dr. Nyandula cleared his throat. “What was it like? Very scary?”
“Bab’Uswege, nightmares are always scary.”
Dr. Nyandula shrugged. “Not necessarily. Anyway, let’s hear about his.”
His eyebrows still arched, Uswege began, “In the dream, I took my dogs—Chiki and Bullie—to a veterinary doctor for a medical check-up.”
“You say you took the dogs there?” Dr. Nyandula interrupted the younger Nyandula, “Were you alone with the dogs? Did you walk or ride a bus or what?”
Uswege permitted himself a quick smile as he replied, “I drove the Pajero.”
Dr. and Mrs. Nyandula laughed. “Tough luck, son,” Dr. Nyandula said, half-jokingly, “It’ll be another seven years more before you ever sit behind the wheel of either the Pajero or the Hyundai.”
“If,” Mrs. Nyandula cut in, “and it’s a big IF… if all goes well between now and then.”
Dr. Nyandula nodded. “Yes, indeed.” He faced Uswege again. “Go on, son, tell us some more about your dream.”
The younger Nyandula composed his face into a small smile. “Then, the veterinary doctor checked my two dogs carefully.
‘They are beautiful dogs, aren’t they,’ he said.
‘Are they yours?’
‘Yes, sir,’ I replied.
‘Where did you get it from?’
‘From Nairobi.’
“Then, he led me to some shed in his backyard. I could see dozens of dogs in one big shed. Strange thing was, they were all black and very small dogs. And they were terriers.”
Uswege paused to glance at his breakfast, which, so far, he had hardly touched. Continuing with the tale, he said, “Then the doctor said, ’Since you love dogs, I’ll give all these dogs to you—fifty of them—if you’ll only let me have your two German shepherds.’”
Mrs. Nyandula frowned sharply. “What did you say to him?”
Uswege viciously clenched his teeth. “Of course, I flatly refused!”
Dr. Nyandula smiled, nodding. “So what happened after that?”
“He took a large syringe out of a breast pocket of his blood-stained white overall he had on,” Uswege continued, “and began to quickly inject Chiki and Bullie with some medicine already in the syringe. ‘Since you’re so rude to me,’ he said, without looking at me, ‘you’ll have neither the two German shepherds nor my terriers.’”
“Suddenly Chiki and Bullie swiftly shrunk into black terriers and ran away from me to join the doctor’s fifty terriers.”
“No, Sir!” I shouted to the doctor. And when I demanded that he return my much bigger German shepherds, he grabbed me by my shirt sleeve and growled harshly saying, “You, too, must change into a terrier.” He tried to inject me with the same medicine. But I managed to break loose from his grip and fled, leaving my dogs and the Pajero behind. Then I woke up.”
Mrs. Nyandula’s face had already become a sad looking mask. She was blinking rapidly to restrain her tears. With one hand she mopped the tears. She extended the other toward Uswege and fondly touched him. “Thanks to the good God! You’re still a human being and not a black terrier of the wicked veterinary doctor.”
“ That’s the most important thing,” Dr. Nyandula said, trying hard to sound reassuring, “that you’re still a human being and are here with us. The other’s that the Pajero’s still out there in our garage. Intact! And no doubt your two German shepherds aren’t changed into terriers.”
He put the flat of both his hands on the table and got to his feet. He beckoned to Uswege. “C’mon, son! Let’s go and say hallo to the dogs.”
When they reached the dogs’ shed in their own backyard, they found Chiki and Bullie, all right. But the two dogs looked very sick. They were lying side by side, breathing with some difficulty through thick foam at their mouths.
Uswege broke into tears and cried loudly. Mrs. Nyandula heard that. “What’s the matter?” she shouted as she ran out of the house into the backyard.
Over his shoulder, Dr. Nyandula replied, “Instead of terriers we have two very sick German shepherds.”
When Mrs. Nyandula saw the dogs, she intertwined her fingers across her breast fearfully. “What do we do now?”
“Only one thing,” Dr. Nyandula responded promptly. “Take the dogs to the veterinary doctor for the treatment.”
Uswege resisted. “No, dad. The same one I met in my nightmare?”
Dr. Nyandula lovingly draped his arm across Uswege’s shoulders. “No son, the real one who can and will treat the dogs instead of change them into terriers. For now, I suggest that you shake that sleep off.”
Review questions
1. The three Nyandulas were having dinner at their house with a veterinary doctor. Say whether that is TRUE or it is FALSE. Give the reason why.
2. What had Dr. Nyandula promised Uswege earlier on?
3. Uswege described his dream during the night as a ………………
4. Look the word up in your dictionary and write its meaning the way it is used in the story.
5. Which dogs were bigger than the others: the veterinary doctor’s terriers in Uswege’s dream or Uswege’s German shepherds?
6. Why did Mrs. Nyandula describe the veterinary doctor in Uswege’s dream as a “wicked veterinary doctor”?
7. What were the names of Uswege’s German shepherds?
8. The veterinary doctor’s overall was white, but it was also bloodstained. What does that mean?
9. How did Uswege’s dogs change into “black terriers” at the veterinary doctor’s shed?
10.
a) What did the Nyandulas discover to be the actual problem with Uswege’s dogs in the backyard of their house?
(b) What two types of cars did the Nyandulas have, in the story? Give the names of those cars.
11. How old was Uswege at the time of his dream?
12.Write the sentence, which suggests that Uswege did have that age.