x

CHAPTER FIVE27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBXfFjcKteR
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. 27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq07KWuPS8r
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.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKkLAFZxNWS
But he wasn’t hearing any of it.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC59Vf29Liu
His eyes were fixed on the far wall.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdX1h8emRfQ
The one they called dunda.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPoH7sqAk5H
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.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0r2T9gksGK
And last night, they’d crossed it.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXrUJpDZRtr
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.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡceqy341KBm
Musa turned from the window, eyes falling on the side pocket of his school bag.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx68uGxFwgl
Inside, folded carefully between the cover of a torn CRE exercise book, was the first letter.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpv2GiIXPB6
"To the girl with the sunflower hair ribbon..."27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG5PCqPIBPc
He never got to send it. Someone had beaten him to the wall.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5YxtacxKzV
But now it was too late.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu2HdTZDvFb
Because last night, something changed. For months now, Musa had crossed it.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJOOBB4c9y3
Quietly. Carefully.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrJ8VkYbmIO
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.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9vwq8zwHq2
And sometimes… more. Otieno had someone. Musa had... no one.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcVTVXEmOn3
Except the smile.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ31fITlkLIP
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.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ87Staz8LUg
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.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzVbtm9cpW9
Never the girl with the sunflower ribbon.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdBTdVeCQPF
And as his feet hit the ground, he whispered to himself—barely louder than the wind:27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIf3vYGGt09
“I’ll find you. One day.”27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzIbLfzFiTV
He didn’t know her name. Never heard her speak. But he remembered her.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbm1X3rrlw
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.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCDzNUI2bPz
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.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡveeb1hurnf
But what caught Musa wasn’t how she stood. It was what she wore.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFRhouWI8o
A yellow ribbon, tied around her bun.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbnnvvxEsQL
Not school regulation. Not loud either. But defiant.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtaZbeVFZAv
A silent flare of color in a world that punished difference.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5aFhxowgXo
And then—she laughed.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5WQGzn38aJ
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.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiGUmXqrugL
She didn’t look his way. Probably never would.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAmsnYbdmGV
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.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPNyhb5nyMU
Just a little.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcvyWvyCEJj
In case something waited on the other side8964 copyright protection23ＰＥＮＡＮＡy3IrEaJUeb 維尼

18.117.9.230