Kanomora lived in a hostel made from rusty train carriages. During the home weekend, he brought math homework. “The circlet objects are the huts, the moon and the kraal,” he said. Kanomora’s mom was a talkative woman, so he put on his headphones. This time, he shook his head right to left, and plotted every word...
Author: Ruben Kapimbi (Ruben Kapimbi )
Short Story – A tense meeting
The brownish-yellow shirts men assembled under an umbrella-shaped tree. Here, a crowd of white-bearded men quarrelled, while the wind flogged the barbed-thorn branches on their baldheads. Between the thorny branches, bee-eaters protested that the meeting was irritating the chicks. Even the cup-shaped nests swayed in the wind, dizzying the temperamental men. Instantly, a woodpecker landed...
Short Story – A journey into darkness
Komondjira needed a lift to visit his absentee father. He was born after his father’s contract of grading the bumpy gravel road had expired. Komoo, as his single mother tickled him, walked the thorn-infested footpath until the T-junction. Then he pinched his ears, fighting to separate the roaring wind from the vrooming cars. Suddenly, the...
Short story – Don’t drink and drive
Sam squinted at his first-class wristwatch, and the tick had struck 12 minutes past midnight. Then he rubbed his fingers on the mac-rims of his Gold Six. He grabbed the coffee-brown bottle, twisted it, and turned towards the driver’s seat. “Don’t, you’re tanked-up!” shouted his buddies. The moneyed guy stuck out his tongue and revved...
Short story – Through a needle’s eye
KARAPI was hand-knitting a pink skirt for Kambakete. Grandma nicknamed her Kambakete because she kept the baby inside a pram-like box of washing powder. Granny sewed up the miniskirt from pink and white textile discards. A minute later, she strolled towards the yellow pee pot behind the purple curtain. The snooping baby, couldn’t hear the...
Short Story – Aids
The princess of Musarakuumba stood 2.7 metres from head to foot, and weighed 150 kilogrammes. Recently, she lost so much weight that her needle-thin legs couldn’t carry her lorry-size upper body. Her legs had become toothpick-thin, and she emptied food through the watery stool. Immediately, the grey-haired woman placed her on a magic carpet. They dragged...
Short Story – The sun is missing
Maendo spread a raincoat on the sponge-soft sand and yelled, “I’ll sleep under the twinkling stars.” Soon, his dog licked his onion-smelling feet. By now, the moon flashed a bright, confusing light into his eyes. The boozer listened to the beats of drumming frogs, while the clicking lizards played the guitars in the background. “Sweet...
Short story – Love is blind
Kaningandu was chopping firewood when a chip shot into his left eye. Soon, he covered his left eye with a loop of leaves to soothe the burning pain. His misfortune did not, however, stop the moon-size-eyed Kasukona from falling in love with him. The girl’s nephews blamed Kaningandu for confusing her with the use of...
Short story – Pa and Ma Mountain
Long ago, when freshwater was soupy thick, two sky-high mountains stood between the teeth-grinding hills. They were separated by clouds of bubbling water. The two red stones on Mama Mountain’s chest hang loosely like emptied breasts. Now and then, the she-mountain smeared her lips with sunbow lipsticks. Soon, the midnight sun mirrored a chain of white...
Short Story – Love without money
Tjimariva tiptoed into his ex-girlfriend’s garden, and pressed his strawberry-like eyes at the sweet-smelling roses that had flowered overnight. Inside the plant pot, sky-blue flowers of smiling ten dollars saluted him, and he picked them. Soon he knelt before the indigo rose buds. Later, he lifted his chin and spotted crimson roses of twenty dollars...