CHAPTER FIVE224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE1zP9eQk1U
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. 224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4oPZTy2wwV
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIoEUSRXZgr
But he wasn’t hearing any of it.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmFA3iz7uzZ
His eyes were fixed on the far wall.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6vwUdACPmU
The one they called dunda.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAicevkXYEi
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYmsD6k7PmL
And last night, they’d crossed it.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtIACnSLXme
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaLknPx36m2
Musa turned from the window, eyes falling on the side pocket of his school bag.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh79VJB6FKO
Inside, folded carefully between the cover of a torn CRE exercise book, was the first letter.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXJdqimR7iC
"To the girl with the sunflower hair ribbon..."224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNazFMOuiDY
He never got to send it. Someone had beaten him to the wall.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpeydeo73kt
But now it was too late.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcTnHv24Hoy
Because last night, something changed. For months now, Musa had crossed it.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ17zAxsL0IA
Quietly. Carefully.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKqWAnStwYZ
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUIb96YLO3j
And sometimes… more. Otieno had someone. Musa had... no one.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD1sLyJ2NXV
Except the smile.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6zwVuDAPFc
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLsz4aJp4Ur
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbNHlcljS73
Never the girl with the sunflower ribbon.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe2NT9LoQPm
And as his feet hit the ground, he whispered to himself—barely louder than the wind:224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFGB1a8eJdY
“I’ll find you. One day.”224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxk4H2R10Wx
He didn’t know her name. Never heard her speak. But he remembered her.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHIOBZzEnwo
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuvfMC5iou8
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKGUhDRrw4y
But what caught Musa wasn’t how she stood. It was what she wore.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuKfvt8g43x
A yellow ribbon, tied around her bun.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9QRZM95i0g
Not school regulation. Not loud either. But defiant.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9wUNRL8s1Q
A silent flare of color in a world that punished difference.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdwbKf77H3q
And then—she laughed.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ30DlyzUteP
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ52zMxciTES
She didn’t look his way. Probably never would.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWyRdY9jn1b
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX5CoAyZamG
Just a little.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtoeck0e3tB
In case something waited on the other side8964 copyright protection220ＰＥＮＡＮＡO7VhZxvl41 維尼

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