Fiction: The Auntie Clarice Menace

By Ben Murigu

There’s a reason, valid yet veiled, why all maternal aunties are called tata, and not mami in Gĩkũyũ, my sweet-sounding mothertongue. And it doesn’t at all help that are unencumbered, still, – that they, somehow, remain husbandless, childless – at the ripe age of 48. That they have an undeniably-sexy name like Clarice... and are mightily-blessed with enough cash to purchase a five-bedroom bungalow in Lavington and a Kshs 40M-worth Aston Martin DBX707 in the same goddamn year. It creates a sordid mess when, like the Japanese brand of lorries by that same name, they are classy, and pretty... dependable and entirely soul-consuming: everything that a certain shameless, sex-starved, and oh-so-impercunious hung-like-a-horse sophomore-year campus student that they are priviledged to call nephew ceaselessly dreams of – and searches for endlessly –  in a woman.

Ben Murigu is a versatile creative from Nairobi, Kenya who is credited with a list of raved-about theatrical productions that include The Cock Never Crows, Whose?!, Admissions & Mess, We Can; a self-published novel, Toy Soldiers; and a short Mental Health-themed film, Let it Go.