x

CHAPTER FIVE25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD2nUIK5644
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. 25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPLs5qwzRWV
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTiMBjZcqzM
But he wasn’t hearing any of it.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpHfK4enI3M
His eyes were fixed on the far wall.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡodsRjRizMp
The one they called dunda.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlvx4gRUlm0
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUNrw3Jborh
And last night, they’d crossed it.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu2wSzCxNbJ
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡezItFBV7rk
Musa turned from the window, eyes falling on the side pocket of his school bag.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Ltt3sI4Cd
Inside, folded carefully between the cover of a torn CRE exercise book, was the first letter.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUbLrOW9iFd
"To the girl with the sunflower hair ribbon..."25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoCgLtKILnQ
He never got to send it. Someone had beaten him to the wall.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs2ojoreiSC
But now it was too late.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd4JzYZ9ejk
Because last night, something changed. For months now, Musa had crossed it.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzfMOSw3FBb
Quietly. Carefully.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEsEvdRlVYw
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcYuDZMIO98
And sometimes… more. Otieno had someone. Musa had... no one.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN9dCSw2XRq
Except the smile.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAX8KgBe6qL
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcgkLWvXA6P
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ5DSkaQ9Mm
Never the girl with the sunflower ribbon.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFfMWHOgTrW
And as his feet hit the ground, he whispered to himself—barely louder than the wind:25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGkNmKLDKgN
“I’ll find you. One day.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOpOx3Yruen
He didn’t know her name. Never heard her speak. But he remembered her.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8LKVnQAtcL
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWHPtH13bW8
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZvdXUXKhUE
But what caught Musa wasn’t how she stood. It was what she wore.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9pKV1Apn6v
A yellow ribbon, tied around her bun.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEs3ne8TMdA
Not school regulation. Not loud either. But defiant.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz7kEhsd0vv
A silent flare of color in a world that punished difference.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrhSkCaw1QM
And then—she laughed.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVes013PsaV
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU1BsjzrH7w
She didn’t look his way. Probably never would.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8l34FSodph
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.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYlD4R0KcBr
Just a little.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9GeLGg60nR
In case something waited on the other side8964 copyright protection21ＰＥＮＡＮＡT9ip0CH7Da 維尼

52.14.77.105