Hadithi Hadithi

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Sunnys

It was a hot sticky evening; a warm breeze rustled the leaves of the bougainvillea hedge that surrounded the restaurant. The pinkish purple blooms that were scattered around the wooden floorboards of the restaurant’s outdoor veranda lolled about lazily in the breeze.

JJ watched as the sun’s evening rays transformed the blue sky into a deep-purple with streaks of red and orange. The air carried a heady scent of jasmine and wisteria.

“Yes, two combination meat bun bowls. Isn’t that right JJ?” Lee was reciting the order to the waitress.

“Mmmhmm!” JJ nodded, “maybe some rum cocktails?”

“Yea sure, why not.” Lee already knew her favorite, “Two dark and stormy cocktails, thanks”

As the waitress purposefully strode off towards the kitchen, Lee turned to her with a toothy grin. JJ smiled back happily. It was the small moments such as these that she treasured. She pulled out her phone and took a selfie of the two them with the sun setting in the background. She’d look back at this photo on a particularly cold winter day and remember that life wasn’t always so dreary.

Sunnys was their favourite restaurant. They often went there for two reasons. One, the food was always delicious and two, it was filled with foliage, from top to bottom. It often felt like an indoor jungle just walking into the restaurant.

The restaurants veranda overlooked a small alleyway, whose walls had been covered in murals some were portraits of aliens and other landscapes of alien planets. Another reason why this was their favourite haunt.

In the background, a piano rift seemed to be carried in the breeze. JJ swayed to the familiar melody humming the lyrics under her breath. The tune was so faint, JJ felt like she was imagining the music.

“Can you hear it too?” Lee asked smiling, “I thought I was imagining it.”

“Me too!” JJ laughed.

The music seemed to be getting louder and louder. A smooth tenor accompanied the rift. A violin accompanied the throaty yet smooth voice. Soft drum beats and hands clapping. JJ couldn’t help herself, she stood up and began swaying to the beat, her long red braids swaying along with her.

Lee was now smiling up at her and clapping his hands to the beat of the drum. The warm rays of the slowly setting sun fell gently on JJ’s deep brown skin, illuminating the golden undertones on her high cheekbones. Her eyes were closed, in moments like these, JJ was carried away and everyone else seemed to disappear.

By this time, the band of musicians were now slowly making their way down the alley. Everyone on the veranda was up and dancing to the music. Entranced by the music, some were dancing on table tops, while two young waitstaff had taken the centre stage and were performing pirouettes and splits.

“Hunny!” Lee called out to JJ, “Come look! The band is playing down here.”

JJ opened her eyes and walked over the balustrade. A blond vocalist played a portable keyboard while his other bandmates played drums, a flute and a violin. A handful of people were dancing and singing around them.

Elated, JJ giggled and leaned into Lee. His arm around her shoulder. She looked up into his green eyes and kissed his soft lips. He smiled, surprised by the sudden gesture and kissed her back. They turned back to the scene down below and continued laughing and singing.

Featured

Paukwa? Pakawa!

Hadithi means story in Kiswahili.

Whenever a storyteller begins their stories, they rev up the crowd by shouting, “Paukwa!”.

The crowd will then respond “Pakawa!”. This means the people want to hear the story.

I’ve always wanted to write and share stories.

I hope you enjoy my short stories

Aisha

“STOOOP!!!!!”

Aisha stomped hard on the brakes, bringing the rickety Datsun to a screeching halt in the middle of the pedestrian crossing. The lights were red, how had she missed that?

In the periphery of her vision, Imo’s jowls quivered. His head bobbled round to face her, eyes wide behind his round owlish glasses.

“Pull up after the intersection, we’re done.” His voice cracked with a clashing mix of finality and anxiety.

Aisha rolled her eyes internally as she slowly pulled up into a hidden alley way. She knew what this meant. She’d failed, again! The sunlight bounced off the silver cross hanging on the rear-view mirror, reflecting off Imo’s glasses as he filled out the driver’s practical examination form.

“You’ve failed again Aisha. It’s three months before you can try again.” He shoved a copy of the examination marking sheet in her face, “You should be used to buses by now, find one!”

“Whatever Imo!” Aisha had had enough of his holier-than-though attitude, “I’ll pass one day and it definitely won’t be under your shitty tutelage!”

Form in hand, Aisha exited the car, she could feel her phone vibrating in her pocket. Imo, her examiner, tore off in a trail of suffocating exhaust fumes. Waving away the toxic black fumes, she pulled out her phone. Her gut clenched with dread when she saw ‘MUM’ flashing across the cracked screen.

“She must have a sixth sense or something. ” Aisha muttered sullenly to herself as she pocketed the flashing phone. She’d deal with the impending drama later tonight.

It was still early in the day, Aisha was considering calling Hawa to meet up in the city, when a rubbish bag thumped noisily out of a nearby dumpster, startling her. Temporarily distracted from her crisis, she circled the bin curiously. At the adjunct of the two dirty old buildings a little round door slowly materialized.

“What on ear- AAaah!!!”Aisha shrieked when a four-foot kangaroo tapped her shoulder.

It wore a bright yellow checked waistcoat and a lovely flower crown adorned with wisteria and jasmine. The sweet scent had attracted some bees, which buzzed pleasantly around the wreathe.

“Hello Aisha. You’re right on time,” the kangaroo said, peering up at her through its spectacles, a solemn look about its narrow face.

The kangaroo hopped over to the door, as it reached forwards a golden handle appeared just in time for it to twist open the door. The chic kangaroo hopped through the door and disappeared into the darkness.

Aisha stood stock still, incredulously gazing at the little golden flecks floating aimlessly about her head as she re-evaluated every decision in her life that had brought to this moment. She knew it was never a good idea to light up a blunt before exams, but she’d never had this side effect before. Vaguely she remembered stories her father had told her of her late great grandmother, whom he’d witnessed conversing very seriously with thin air. Maybe she liked weed too?

She was still deep in thought when the kangaroo reappeared at the door.

“It only just occurred to me that we haven’t been formally introduced.” It seemed to be smiling.

“We haven’t?” Aisha wondered if kangaroos could smile and why she was talking to the kangaroo. What kind of joint had she inhaled? .

” Waru,is my name.” It paused, as if giving Aisha time to digest this new information.

“Waaaarrruuuuu.” Aisha let the name roll off her tongue, rolling the r and prolonging the vowels.

“We weren’t sure if you would indeed come, but now that you’re here we’re glad we never stopped believing you would come.” Waru’s brown eyes were serious now, “Please come with me, we haven’t much time.”

Waru stretched out its paw towards her.

Surprising mostly herself, Aisha grasped the soft, furry, outstretched paw. Aisha stepped into the darkness, glancing behind in time to see the small, round door disappear into thin air.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.