Kasarute kicked the tyres and punched the lorry’s windscreen after the owner squeezed a letter into his sweat-dripping hands. The smoker was fired for stealing boxes of cigarettes during the night shift. The next day, he hitchhiked to Omakaja and paid the driver two cigarettes at a lay-by tree. “This is my last cigar,” he...
Ouma straightened her numbed knees and sneezed through her blocked nose. Then she cleared slimy mucus from her throat. Immediately, her grandchild pierced her hard-of-hearing ears with pink-stone earrings. Ujama draped a bead necklace around Ouma’s neck and screeched the tyres out of the gate. Unfortunately, the tyres threw stones at the rattling windows. Within...
“Close that tap!” shouted a white-haired man, before slipping into the sticky mud in front of the tear-dripping tap. Immediately, the kids stuck their tongues and played hide-and-seek with him, as they skipped behind the prickly-thorn bushes. Still, the wrinkled-faced man was worried about the vomiting tap running dry. His heart skipped every time the...
Kambangane and Zakueeua were strolling between the pinching-thorn twigs when Zakueeua tripped over a love-shaped rock. The uncombed hair man landed with his upward-pointed nose, hitting the powdery sand and choked. Luckily, Kambangane punched him, and he puffed air through his sand-filled mouth. Then, Kambangane stretched his crocodile-skin hand and pulled him, while blocking his...
Long ago, there lived three girls. They crushed melons by dropping them on the teeth-like rocks. Then, they sipped lemonade from the sour lemons and roasted the seeds. Their side dish included pigeons’ eggs simmered in the boiling sand. The first girl had an apron stitched from the yellow grasses. The second girl had an...
In a blink, a 100-year-old man fainted, and villagers clothed him in a cow’s skin. Thereafter, mourners waved their arms forward and backwards towards the bush-fenced cemetery. A minute later, his enemy giggled next to the yawning pit. Then he stuttered, “May Kariamata’s knife-sharp soul stabs the rainclouds.” The enemy’s chuckling about Kariamata’s death triggered...
The grey-haired man yearned to marry a girl who sorts bags in a flying car. Soon, Kambangane’s heart skipped because he couldn’t afford the berry-red cows for power. Soon, he sneaked into a young man’s phone and spotted her in a two-piece swimsuit. Suddenly, he missed his flat nose with the accuracy of a boxer’s...
Anna was beautiful with the skin on her arms hanging like diapers. In fact, she could see with her long fingernails and taste with her eyes. Luckily, she could hear the crawling ants. The skin covering her eyes waved like clothes in the wind. Her 1920s smile revealed the remaining tooth, but she smelled the...
Vicky’s dad has been looking for Grade 1 place, and the hunt left rivers of sweat stains on his branded shirts. By now, he would been AWOL from his zula job. The single dad’s Facebook status showed he’d spent many klippers on taxis, only to find the girl’s name pasted with chewing gum on waiting...
Long ago, there was a toothpick-thin boy named Matui. Unfortunately, his tongue would get stuck to the roof of his mouth, making him a joke for his buddies. Of course, the naughty boys were flogged with a horsewhip by the don’t-hide-the-rod uncles for mocking him. The boys sang every word that Matui was wrestling to...