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Short Story – A lake of milk

Short Story – A lake of milk

Long ago when hairy roots used to grow atop the bushes, there lived Kangombo.

Every reddish-yellow sunset, he hid in a moon-blocking cave, and swallowed white spider mites. One day, he looked at the stones and wished they could turn into goats. That morning, he hiked on a finger-like stone and shouted swear words.

“I wish I’ve as many goats as these knife-pointed rocks,” he said, rubbing goat-lotion over his toothpick legs. He lit a tobacco pipe, and blew balls of smoke skyward. The next day, he spotted a manna of white goats between the sun-mirroring stones.

The hoi polloi crowned him as their earthly god. He bathed himself with goats’ milk, and the servants built him a swimming pool.

They filled the pool with fresh milk. Now and then, he sipped bubbling milk instead of wild tea. Soon, his goats outnumbered the sand granules. Sometimes, he mistook the sharp-edge stones for his goats. The goat’s skirt man filled a rain barrel with creamy milk. Kangombo teased the poor, as they quarrelled over the milk. 

The Omaihi River drowned jealous villagers during the baptism of milk because they wanted to bewitch Kangombo.  One day, a curse of white butterflies stormed Ongombo village. The teeth-grinding man blew his horn and chased the goats to stomp the butterflies. Afterwards, the swollen teats’ goats sprayed milk into a bottomless pit. Immediately, a lake of milk appeared where the rocks once stood.

The butterflies couldn’t flap their sticky wings on the milk. Kangombo’s trillion goats ate up the green leaves, and the bushes grew white c-shaped thorns. The shrubs cried white tears and the milk-logged tears, filled the lake. Later, white aloe plants replaced the greenery bushes. The goats refused to browse the sour aloe leaves. By now, Kangombo’s wealth had copied his grey hair and the white goat-like beard. He covered himself with a goatskin’s raincoat, and strolled in mohair sandals. 

Soon, he erected a grill stand, and offered sacrifices to the god of goats. The god multiplied his goats until they outnumbered the teeth-like rocks. However, the god became mad when Kangombo toy-toyed with the commoners to drink his milk-flavoured urine. In the end, he was spotted carrying a white rock over his shoulders, thinking that it was a goat. The following day, he slipped on a milk-berg sticking out from the milky lake, and drowned.