The sun dipped like a ball, leaving sundowners rubbing their dazzled eyes. Suddenly, a two-legged lion surprised Kambangane, whose eyes went blank in the orange nothingness. The lion targeted the shooter as the man who minced its legs, and now its razor-sharp teeth were ready to peel the bridge of his nose. For now, Kambangane...
“There’s a kudu in my office,” said Robert, winking at a woman chatting on a two-way radio. The khaki-shirt man’s office was high up the cloud-touching building. Suddenly, the security squinted at the littering shards and pressed the alarm button. “The pieces are from beer bottles,” said a man hugging a half-empty bottle of Kudu...
“Finish your milk,” said Mommy, waving a finger at Junior’s face. Then, she clasped dad’s hands, and they hid behind a thorny branch. Later, they crawled under the bed, while bushy-tailed squirrels popping out of burrows tickled Junior. Firstly, the thumb-sucking boy acted out his dad by hobbling on a twig. Earlier, Papa had spanked...
“Stop snorting like a bush pig,” scolded Kanairombe, squeezing a death-beetle underneath Kambangane’s stone-hard pillow. Immediately, Kambangane blinked his owl-like eyes, and she rubbed her chin at the idea of strangling him. Later, she blew the evil thoughts through the star-shaped holes in the roof. “I’m awake,” said Kambangane, peeling the saddle-like blanket from his...
Karuru purred the engine and screwed a yellow light on the bonnet. Strangely, he couldn’t find customers and jingled the rust-coloured 10 cents. “What bad luck today,” he murmured, wiping the sweat from his armpits. Thereafter, he polished the threadbare tyres and dressed the pinching seats with black nylons. Then he rattled the engine and...
Peter’s mommy showed him how to stalk spoonbill birds with y-shaped catapults or spot guinea fowl’s eggs between the feathery grass. The tot could whistle the calls of grey pigeons or name the colour of cows. Sometimes, Peter shocked everyone by describing black acacia or yellow acacia trees after looking at the shape of...
Patience skipped into the yard as the drizzling rain peed down on her pencil-sharp nose. Immediately, she twitched her nose at the smell of cinnamon and hopped to the kitchen. Without twisting around, Nana lifted the sweating lid from the burbling pot of pumpkin and unhooked a silvery spoon before serving the salivating soup into...
The pregnant clouds float over the spoon-shaped leaves, while the red cows sniff the earthy-smelling rain. Outside the bush-fenced kraal, balloon-tummy calves bounce like springboks to break down litres of milk in their tummies. Underneath an umbrella-shaped tree, Kanairombe is shaking a calabash of churned milk, swinging between V-shaped branches. Meanwhile, Zakueeua, her only son,...
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...