Fortitude

19-Friday family

Heri kujikwaa kidole kuliko kujikwaa ulimi.
(It's better to stub your toe than your tongue)

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Taji

I couldn't help but stare at how fast Raz's demeanor changed from reigning perfectionist to the shy girl who seats at the back corner. It was just intriguing how different she was from everyone else but it seemed to bother her, a lot. I took off my flour filled apron and sat next to her. Lily seemed to notice it too but did what she does best, lighten up the mood. She narrated a story about how she once caught her brother sneaking into her room in the middle of the night to steal her car keys. It was honestly really hilarious but my attention was divided. Raz seemed like she just wanted to be any where else but there. All she gave to the live comedy show were half smiles.

"Are you okay strawberry? " I asked her softly. She just nodded at me with a smile. It was evident that she wasn't but then again what else was I expecting her to say though. We went on eating as Mark and Lily acted like they'd been friends since childhood. It was just fascinating how I once thought that Mark was a laid back guy, yet there he was being the male version of Lily.

When we were done, Raz cleared the table. By that I mean she stacked up my square shaped plates neatly, not a single corner out of line and placed them next to the sink claiming that she doesn't like seeing dishes in the sink. She covered the remaining food with the foil I'd used before and placed all three bowls exactly in the middle of the island, the highest one in the middle and the other two at the extreme ends. None of us bothered to help because it was quite clear that she did things a certain way and would not even give an ear to anything we had to say.

We eventually got down to what brought us together. None of us really knew how a Bible study worked so we were pretty much just winging it.

"I have a suggestion, what if we all write down the book we would like to go through on a piece of paper, shuffle all four then pick one anonymously. " Mark said and we were all on board with it. I didn't really know that much about the Bible but I remember my mother reading Joseph's story to me over and over. I didn't really know where his story was so I guessed Genesis and wrote down

Genesis(Joseph's story)

We handed our folded up papers to Lily who dramatically shook them between her palms then pulled one out.

"Genesis, Joseph's story, someone's specific, I wonder who," she said throwing her eyes to Raz.

"What?"Raz asked completely puzzled.

"You're the only one among us who clearly specifies everything, " Lily said back with a smile.

"Actually... that was me..." I spoke up.

"Why Joseph?" Mark asked and they all turned to me awaiting some deep response.

"He's interesting," I lied shrugging my shoulders.

"Okay...Joseph it is!" Lily said as she sat down.

"So Genesis thirty..."Raz began flipping through the pages of her peach Bible looking for the exact chapter. "Seven, thirty seven. Wait are we like reading everything out loud or what?" We all shrugged our shoulders at her. Cleary, no one wanted to read aloud.