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 apron sewn from chocolate-brown leaves. The third sister was naked and trapped green-headed lizards with V-shaped thorn snares. Later, she fed the blue-tailed lizards with tyre-smelling ants and then released the popped-eyed lizards. One day, a mane-haired lion appeared out of waving grass and pounced on the first girl. The lion chewed on her and licked her sun-melted bone marrow. Luckily, the surviving sisters ran into jackal’s hole. There, their pounding hearts shook the earth, and the ear-flapping elephants left Kalahari. The moon-painted elephants were afraid that the gods would shake the ground. 

That day, bushy-tailed squirrels stood on their hind legs and guarded the red dunes. The second girl panted and then popped out of the hole. Immediately, her rumbling tummy invited the hairy lion, and the wild cat ambushed her. The lion crushing her ribs scared the grey pigeons, and they flew far away. A week later, the youngest sister tracked the middle girl’s footmark. Soon she spotted the lion’s footprints and the strewn offal. The tourists in a flying car spotted her and dropped an iron skirt. This time, she skipped into the metal skirt and collected sweetened berries. 

“I’m a steel tortoise,” she said, hobbling. Instantly, her giggles provoked the straying lion lazing under a cool shade. First, the lion grabbed the girl’s buttocks, but the steel skirt broke its teeth. The lion’s jaws mishappened, and it roared from pain. The girl dug roots and fastened a bandana around the lion’s head. Afterwards, she dug water-storing potatoes and fed the toothless lion. 

In addition, she made herself wristbands and ankle bands with the lion’s teeth. Later, the lion followed her to the waterhole. The lionesses could not stalk her because the king of pride followed her like a trained puppy. When the cattle herders saw her, they shouted that she was a magic girl. 

“Will that lion eat our holy cows?” asked a herder as his red-berried cows mooed because of thirst. The girl combed the lion’s hair and opened its jaws. Then she planted her fingers inside the beast’s mouth. 

The visitors camping in nylon huts near the waterhole flashed their cameras when they spotted the cows, lions, and a girl peacefully splashing water. One of the pink-faced journeyers pocketed the girl’s bracelet and necklace and sold them for golden pennies. -mungambue@gmail.