CHAPTER FIVE209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcUAIFAjhll
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. 209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIksD4plpqY
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.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1MQDQ5lkMc
But he wasn’t hearing any of it.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwQATpxpsqS
His eyes were fixed on the far wall.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcSbJNw3gRN
The one they called dunda.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9iQaqslZvM
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.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkHzvfbsbFM
And last night, they’d crossed it.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7UhpGa8jAS
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.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiJ7A1w4WV8
Musa turned from the window, eyes falling on the side pocket of his school bag.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL704veWwhD
Inside, folded carefully between the cover of a torn CRE exercise book, was the first letter.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdstMMQ7xwD
"To the girl with the sunflower hair ribbon..."209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8kbKDVJptH
He never got to send it. Someone had beaten him to the wall.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9iZnySArUd
But now it was too late.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfDqeXWOAvz
Because last night, something changed. For months now, Musa had crossed it.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyE2JEqGUPk
Quietly. Carefully.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDhSjbx0nzW
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.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYt6y3tbn8S
And sometimes… more. Otieno had someone. Musa had... no one.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm0BRRKF11L
Except the smile.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡusRychr9Ln
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.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡux7Hfdcqcv
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.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGdeHjpt0XR
Never the girl with the sunflower ribbon.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrK9htuGtBK
And as his feet hit the ground, he whispered to himself—barely louder than the wind:209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeQhTXGDucj
“I’ll find you. One day.”209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡag09xawyT3
He didn’t know her name. Never heard her speak. But he remembered her.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyt0QlrfLOQ
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.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLFVzw9pdd0
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.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHZ4v9gShUJ
But what caught Musa wasn’t how she stood. It was what she wore.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjtlVULlfBh
A yellow ribbon, tied around her bun.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE5UDrS6T2C
Not school regulation. Not loud either. But defiant.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeRHwlgsKon
A silent flare of color in a world that punished difference.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAj0ffREKGK
And then—she laughed.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhDCLjwdTkJ
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.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz4uAud9uHo
She didn’t look his way. Probably never would.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN8KfyOC62B
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.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3lStkQPVT2
Just a little.209Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxHlvOPuvGT
In case something waited on the other side8964 copyright protection205ＰＥＮＡＮＡaPdLF5pIh9 維尼

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