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CHAPTER FIVE18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡexqfJGkU2p
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. 18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡig0hjLuTXz
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.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfo36FoPxHF
But he wasn’t hearing any of it.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtKMuoB8Wks
His eyes were fixed on the far wall.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkwolzOqhDZ
The one they called dunda.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8eRFYSwrY8
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.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM6hdxqnTdI
And last night, they’d crossed it.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTKb7zogzV8
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.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnGfcnZf5WM
Musa turned from the window, eyes falling on the side pocket of his school bag.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡskwi4OLCr3
Inside, folded carefully between the cover of a torn CRE exercise book, was the first letter.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmzgZHg8F02
"To the girl with the sunflower hair ribbon..."18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvuRCd5lq3Y
He never got to send it. Someone had beaten him to the wall.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsX1zccn9Lo
But now it was too late.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnBXmox8kYB
Because last night, something changed. For months now, Musa had crossed it.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh1OMHtH5vA
Quietly. Carefully.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvmE1bwryIC
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.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOtpRaxDHsR
And sometimes… more. Otieno had someone. Musa had... no one.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeoCbatYzEa
Except the smile.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU7RrE2WWRk
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.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC9wSgnR4ij
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.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTKG1sozy8v
Never the girl with the sunflower ribbon.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrCK4heOpt5
And as his feet hit the ground, he whispered to himself—barely louder than the wind:18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡESS80jl46W
“I’ll find you. One day.”18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡss7QagJXHB
He didn’t know her name. Never heard her speak. But he remembered her.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLs5nNfLg7G
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.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7baAKKekX7
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.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMn5kBTpjH5
But what caught Musa wasn’t how she stood. It was what she wore.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ghX2G8682
A yellow ribbon, tied around her bun.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBc9adkgdK9
Not school regulation. Not loud either. But defiant.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1fh4iOQ42X
A silent flare of color in a world that punished difference.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfY514fBe8D
And then—she laughed.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPICVVP2mvD
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.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqEl6v4hdOp
She didn’t look his way. Probably never would.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMJnnanERBL
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.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrMRy8mFi0q
Just a little.18Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM0i2Dq2F4F
In case something waited on the other side8964 copyright protection14ＰＥＮＡＮＡKgJxZYDaLj 維尼

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