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CHAPTER FIVE190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDEolG1V9dD
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. 190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4h9n6CGs9U
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7PWmHtW4o5
But he wasn’t hearing any of it.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsONQNJ0mQH
His eyes were fixed on the far wall.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyecXVPj659
The one they called dunda.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFoU6wOeM3
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDPzFG8ZCVE
And last night, they’d crossed it.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTEj0D81yoN
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡInaErIdTwk
Musa turned from the window, eyes falling on the side pocket of his school bag.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTUAAmHoYUC
Inside, folded carefully between the cover of a torn CRE exercise book, was the first letter.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8J3l9fR8HM
"To the girl with the sunflower hair ribbon..."190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIHJdSj2M6l
He never got to send it. Someone had beaten him to the wall.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuHqOMMqxIp
But now it was too late.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcmOL5kkG3H
Because last night, something changed. For months now, Musa had crossed it.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJmI9ZR0qDF
Quietly. Carefully.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbg0EkAOmYs
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡveOlncXuW1
And sometimes… more. Otieno had someone. Musa had... no one.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr45zajEeWe
Except the smile.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzcAkM7nRxl
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdwpBWJn266
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhdQiqkUTAe
Never the girl with the sunflower ribbon.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfs0aRQNQpt
And as his feet hit the ground, he whispered to himself—barely louder than the wind:190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Dj3iWRyw5
“I’ll find you. One day.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFPsavtwd3m
He didn’t know her name. Never heard her speak. But he remembered her.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡalfyMzCuYC
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCKbhhkZEac
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTcsTwlSsiK
But what caught Musa wasn’t how she stood. It was what she wore.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO19V5UsVgi
A yellow ribbon, tied around her bun.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4e5HCFP2sl
Not school regulation. Not loud either. But defiant.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIXqn5tUhqf
A silent flare of color in a world that punished difference.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIKQUrrVSoD
And then—she laughed.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyDca4dtP0n
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3itwjgq5oA
She didn’t look his way. Probably never would.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIbsZs2LUJx
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHKk7rMp8Jx
Just a little.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb0CgaDyPiY
In case something waited on the other side8964 copyright protection186ＰＥＮＡＮＡ355zGzyOCg 維尼

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