CHAPTER FIVE36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxeTgVzqccx
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. 36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpsNFsGrWy0
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.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0yPcoWBCWf
But he wasn’t hearing any of it.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡItvoPj3K5P
His eyes were fixed on the far wall.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5NeQQWVsdE
The one they called dunda.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwHbAQjqUWc
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.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgPlfUgpzlL
And last night, they’d crossed it.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrNwjujfGsT
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.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7dMDVN8tKb
Musa turned from the window, eyes falling on the side pocket of his school bag.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiVKx1wMNrl
Inside, folded carefully between the cover of a torn CRE exercise book, was the first letter.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡogkuKlBaHf
"To the girl with the sunflower hair ribbon..."36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRQ1eadukyP
He never got to send it. Someone had beaten him to the wall.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡazfJllX6SE
But now it was too late.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUsAX2AopMu
Because last night, something changed. For months now, Musa had crossed it.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2JZloQdCTE
Quietly. Carefully.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTCuABDQpdD
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.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgSFvvYInHa
And sometimes… more. Otieno had someone. Musa had... no one.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMCJunoSgtW
Except the smile.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNP3Yak6VDH
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.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfDw6pI0REG
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.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSAbiarRbFa
Never the girl with the sunflower ribbon.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnujGLNku6S
And as his feet hit the ground, he whispered to himself—barely louder than the wind:36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3wBFjnoLxQ
“I’ll find you. One day.”36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1kHxGlMl6c
He didn’t know her name. Never heard her speak. But he remembered her.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpkTZhqxHAh
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.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpnyJAucZim
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.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsOVgBaq5zC
But what caught Musa wasn’t how she stood. It was what she wore.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6UtW0uy09t
A yellow ribbon, tied around her bun.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLutTRlT39f
Not school regulation. Not loud either. But defiant.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLUghBmTPGQ
A silent flare of color in a world that punished difference.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqqczFWcvJs
And then—she laughed.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm1aLJtaMuL
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.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh0ZGs0iG3t
She didn’t look his way. Probably never would.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD1m04iwtbP
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.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8XH4LyOhLx
Just a little.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrYzC5PQvs6
In case something waited on the other side8964 copyright protection32ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8KtWdJwScK 維尼

3.15.5.184