18|• Nice Stranger

416 141 153
                                    

So I know, I said no updates. But, I felt so bad about leaving y'all hung up. So during one of my breaks, this came about.

It's mightily unedited and not proofread, so if you spot punctuation errors or typos, biko don't be annoyed.

I hope you understand. lenewhyte this chap is dedicated to you.

Have fun!
____________________________________

Twenty-two years ago, June, 1998.

Her footsteps were hurried, and brisk as she fastened her pace. Tightly held in her palm, was a plastic bag, filled with an assortment of locally made candies and snacks. Candies like Baba dudu, Sisi pelebe, Tom tom and the likes were stuffed inside the bag.

A bonus of two packets of the popular pako biscuits were sitting at the bottom of the stash of sweets. Those ones were for the time, that she knew she'd be really hungry. A hunger that candy wouldn't be able to fill.

Hanging securely on her shoulders was her worn, faded knapsack. She had filled it to the brim with as much clothes as she could fit, and settled to leave the rest. She hadn't wanted to alert anyone to her intentions.

The fearful beat of her heart was sporadic as she tried, and failed, to calm herself down.

Fear had sunk its sticky claws into her naïve mind, and refused to let go. The fear of being discovered gripped her so firmly; that she thought everyone around her could see the invisible brand of, RUNAWAY, on her forehead.

Ten year-old Anjola desperately did not want to be found out. No, not when she had worked so hard to escape.

She couldn't go back to the hellhole that it was, living with Alani, her stepfather. She knew she had to leave. She didn't know where exactly, but one thing that she did know; was that she would be able to get better treatment elsewhere.

Her face hidden from view, under her faded, blue and brown ankara print smock, and eyes fastened to the red, muddy ground ahead of her.

She knew that she was going to have to stop soon, to rest. She had been walking for what felt like years, though it had only really been hours. Her small but sturdy feet were tiring out, and the sun was getting ready to sleep. Those were two signs that she needed to set up camp fast.

Fully raising her head, her frantic eyes deftly swept over the surroundings, searching for a place to rest her head.

She found none, as the area was mostly residential and the people traffic there was heavy.

She ran through a list of possible hiding places. It was glaring to her now, that her plan was not thoroughly thought out. She had acted out on impulse, without thinking about the consequences. That was an inevitable weakness from her thought process as a naïve child.

Disgruntled, but determined, she continued trudging through her journey with no particular destination.

After walking some more; she knew her tired legs had reached their limit for that day. They felt like jelly; and shook with every step, that her cheap rubber slippers, made on the ground.

Spotting a lone bench under a big tree, she dragged herself toward there and plopped down on it unceremoniously.

Her energy had depleted to a mere pinch, she was sure. She thought so as she closed her eyes momentarily.

The Bridge|| Completed✓Where stories live. Discover now