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CHAPTER FIVE191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWzATMA8Ujk
The bell had rung twice already, but Musa hadn’t moved from the window. His shirt clung damply to his back, sweat from a sleepless night and the kind of fear that doesn't shake off by morning. 191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrAXKrqZjQf
The compound outside was waking up slowly—boys yelling half-hearted insults across the quad, buckets slamming against concrete at the water taps, the usual mtu ni mechi leo! —indicating a laid-back, carefree bravado bouncing between Form Fours.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmPZ8uFBDiM
But he wasn’t hearing any of it.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg2d83eJW5g
His eyes were fixed on the far wall.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9IFO2F82sL
The one they called dunda.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb3NMkroGEv
Not its real name, of course. But among a few of them—the ones who’d listened more than they talked—it meant something. A place where things crossed. Notes. Looks. Sometimes, people.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeRXjb9Okb5
And last night, they’d crossed it.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb5xM2cMdiJ
He still felt the burn in his arms from pulling himself up and over. Still heard the sharp breath of Otieno behind him, limping on the way back from that forbidden path.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpy2KIgcNVN
Musa turned from the window, eyes falling on the side pocket of his school bag.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf1N4KDfgGs
Inside, folded carefully between the cover of a torn CRE exercise book, was the first letter.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEttbHcr3iV
"To the girl with the sunflower hair ribbon..."191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfJb5Cv957f
He never got to send it. Someone had beaten him to the wall.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyX7hn14meI
But now it was too late.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNgfSm9cP4I
Because last night, something changed. For months now, Musa had crossed it.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7rYlcKZFL8
Quietly. Carefully.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXV92fNlfYi
Never to meet anyone specific. Not at first. It had started with passing notes, coded jokes, half-written lyrics, little trades. Some of the girls would meet them at the vines in the wall during preps or when the bell rang late. Never faces. Just fingers passing folded paper. Voices whispered through leaves.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ50LUL1Q7J
And sometimes… more. Otieno had someone. Musa had... no one.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡylLYRGbUUi
Except the smile.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBal5tBIXwe
That one smile. From the Madaraka Day parade a year back. She had stood there, yellow ribbon in her hair, laughing quietly at something her friend whispered. That moment had carved itself into him like a signature on wet cement.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdEl3brPNOL
He had crossed the wall five times since that day. Whispered with at least three different girls. Swapped lines of poetry he barely understood. But never her.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK7TH2si4lK
Never the girl with the sunflower ribbon.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMm7ORJvrww
And as his feet hit the ground, he whispered to himself—barely louder than the wind:191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN6lG71xeAw
“I’ll find you. One day.”191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtWyCoAU0WU
He didn’t know her name. Never heard her speak. But he remembered her.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqQdqcQQBW1
It had been during the Jamhuri Day inspection the year before, when both schools were assembled on the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Sports Complex grounds. The sun had been brutal, melting through blazers and brows, the kind of heat that blurred vision and time.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJMBYp5SV2G
Boys stood in lines on one side of the field. Girls on the other. A gulf of baked red earth between them. She had been near the front of the girls’ group—second or third row. Her posture was sharper than the rest. Back straight, eyes forward, the kind of discipline that made a student stand out.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPwPWJAJO4G
But what caught Musa wasn’t how she stood. It was what she wore.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3ZLVIbpyX2
A yellow ribbon, tied around her bun.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvsY6q8xVhF
Not school regulation. Not loud either. But defiant.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiHpcjsmp8q
A silent flare of color in a world that punished difference.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkMedgdFrMg
And then—she laughed.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdBU3omhcE1
Quickly, quietly. Her friend must have whispered something. Her hand flew to her mouth, but the smile broke through. Just for a second. He saw it from across the field and something about it cracked open a window inside him.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5ssS4GDODK
She didn’t look his way. Probably never would.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqeVCHkyxKC
But from that day on, when he walked past the far end of the wall—the part the girls called dunda too—he always slowed his steps.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYfqh33a1JZ
Just a little.191Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtkxApgVOLV
In case something waited on the other side8964 copyright protection187ＰＥＮＡＮＡag3idjqrFq 維尼

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