Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson

Author:Christie Watson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Published: 2010-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty

Mama paced the veranda for an hour while she waited for Dan and turned white from the breeze. Still, she was not as white as Dan. I had never seen such pale skin.

Of course I had seen white men before, in Lagos, wearing business suits, rushing from their office to their driver, or from their driver to their office, but Dan was surely the whitest man in the world. I could see through the skin on his arms. His veins were the color of the hottest part of a flame. They branched down his hands and forearms, which were poking out from his short-sleeve shirt. The shirt, its top buttons open, was stuck to him with sweat despite the cool of the breeze. I noticed he had no hair on his chest. Even Ezikiel had three chest hairs. I wanted Ezikiel with me, standing next to me. But he would not come out of his bedroom. He had put a chair against the door to prevent me from getting in.

Dan had red hair, the color of a cockroach wing. His lips were pale. At first it looked as if he did not have any. He smiled. His teeth were see-through at the edges. Had he brushed them too hard?

“How are you?” He stepped forward and stretched out his hand toward me. In his other hand he was carrying a red-and-white basketball and a striped hula hoop.

I stumbled backward and nearly fell off the veranda. He laughed. His laugh was very quiet and tinkly. It sounded like he was pretending to laugh at a joke that was not funny. He handed me the hula hoop. His eyes moved up and down and around me.

“Thank you, sir.” I forced a smile at Dan and held the hula hoop tightly. I was wearing a clean wrapper and a T-shirt that said ‘Nike’ on the front. They were my very best clothes, but they were still old enough that tiny holes had appeared from too much washing. I did not own a bra, and there was a tiny hole on the front of my chest. It was only the size of a Lagos mosquito, but it was all I could think about. I crossed my arms, hugged myself.

“Ooh ooh, oyibo oyibo.” Celestine ran toward the veranda. She had changed from her dress into a Lycra top and wrapper. One high-heeled shoe stuck in the ground. She had to stop running toward Dan, take her foot out of the shoe, and bend down to pull it free. While she was pulling her shoe, Dan looked at Mama and raised his eyebrows high. She smirked. I did not like the look that passed between them.

“Hi. You must be Celestine.” Dan reached out as she ran toward him.

Celestine threw his hand aside and knelt at his feet, her head bowed so low she appeared to be kissing his sandals.

“Get up, get up. Please, please,” said Dan.

He offered her his hand. Celestine laughed as she stood. Soon they were both laughing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.