Long ago, clouds of flirting soared over Omusarakuumba for years. For now, toothpick-thin children missed circling red spider mites or building sandcastles; therefore, they roasted flying termites. The only full-tummy creatures were the spotted hyenas that giggled over the cows’ skins littering the mud cakes’ waterholes. Kambangane joked that he didn’t care about the rain,...
Vicky skipped inside before the bookstore closed. Luckily, Pop had warned her that the store’s door was a toe-pincher for book lovers. Soon, the red lipstick girl crisscrossed a finger over her chest after numbing her toes. Instantly, the teller pressed her drowsy eyes at the ticking clock above Vicky’s head and tapped her wristwatch....
Hengua hobbled after the sweat-thirsty sun had burned the pus-squirting blisters on his heels. Thereafter, yellow-headed flies dipped their mouths into his rotting cracks. In response, he tore branches from a black acacia and limped on crutches. Soon, he spotted Ngore squatting and pecking the sand like a rooster. “The sun had melted my cow...
Kambangane sniffed the boiling stew from three-legged pots and sneaked out of the graveyard. Minutes later, the crocodile-tearful men had buried Kambaikiha, who had left behind as many cows as the autumn’s leaves. “Not one of his red-berried cows could save him from choking on a housefly,” said Kahozu, rubbing vicks under his eyes. “Who...
“Don’t play with uncultured children,” said the queen, waving a finger at Muniomuvanda. Every day, the queen hid the heir from children who came to beg for churned milk poured into dogs’ bowls. Yesterday, her majesty pinched the heir for blinking at a stick girl. “The sun will melt the red-ochre lotion from your arms...
Kambangane’s sweat-dripping hands clasped a girl whose box braids stretched to the kraal. “This is my soulmate,” he said, his heart skipping. The orange braids girl poses her lemony fingernails on the hips. “What’s up, guys?” she said, lifting a high-five. Immediately, Kambangane’s cousin, Musuverua spilled a wooden spoon of sour milk on her lap....
“Congrats,” said the broker, tearing the ‘For Sale’ sunburned placard after selling the house. Rika bought a black bricks house built on an extinct mountain with tainted windows staring down a tearstained river. The pensioners had never heard about the bedtime story about a widow who had drowned in the now extinct river, but her...
“Don’t take anything from that witch!” Mommy yelled at Lisa not to accept gifts from Aunt Elizabeth. “What’s a wish?” asked Lisa, kissing an orange teddy bear. She chewed her bottom lip because she’d taken a magazine from Elizabeth, who was wearing orange high heels that matched her orange shoulder bag. Lisa clenched her fists...
A TikTok showing six hyenas crushing a faceless man into chunks of meat reached Musarakuumba. Afterwards, Zakueeua pranked Kanairombe that the chewed to bits shoes belong to Kambangane who’d been missing. Luckily, Kambangane had strayed into a bush-fenced graveyard and gathered a bundle of twigs. Immediately, he tripped over an unmarked grave. Instead of running...
Johanna curled in a corner, while her plate-sized eyes counted visitors coming in and out like red ants. She was diagnosed with an itching heart and suffered from daylight nightmares. The mirroring tiles revealed her wrinkling nose as she rubbed her swollen cheeks. The nylon stopwatch around her wrists showed the rate of her skipping...