Here is Maurice Kirya’s love story about the way that got away:
“I’d always wanted to kiss her, we spent countless months toying with each other, but no kiss, her breasts were just starting to bloom, we were the ultimate adolescents, beaming with lust yet not sure what love was.
On new years eve, everyone is going crazy, blaring music in the neighbourhood, ocassional gun shots from the distance. My father asked me, ‘aren’t you going to join the fun?’…I have nowhere to go, I replied! ‘What about Nakitto? Weren’t you going to join her since she stays just up the road?’ He stood up from his chair and asked if I wanted a lift, an offer I was glad to accept!
In the car I played out a scenario of Nakitto leaning into me and warmly kissing me while the fireworks went up, a typical new years norm that I only watched in the movies.
He packed across from the road and watched me knock on the door, Nakitto came out with her face glowing like I’d never seen before, a skimpy dress that simply said ‘Mom isn’t home’,…we sat by the edge of the road and watched the kaos, piles of tyre burning in the streets as if a hooligan’s bonfire, the yellow from the fire reflected on our bodies revealing her thighs, she caught me staring at them and burst out laughing,… with a corky smile I said to her, Kati Kyo ki? (Now what?) And she replied, “NYoko” (your mama) then we both burst out laughing.
It’s 10 minutes to a new year, and I have a “this year’s” resolution pending, Nakitto wasn’t going to lean in and kiss me soon enough, I am panicking and breathing heavy, sirens in the streets of Najjanankubi and dogs barking everywhere, her thighs brighter than before like the hooligan’s bonfire itself,…I held my breath and all sounds went silent, all sounds but the thumping of my heart beat, then…I leaned in, 7 minutes to midnight…6 minutes to mid night I’m still leaning in, as the world went still, I then miraculously got the courage to lay my hand just an inch above her knee, gently as if I was patting a sleeping beauty, she turned and stared at me , I looked her in the eyes and could see reflections of the hooligan’s bonfire, she looked at me in silence as if there was something she knew, something I didn’t, …her eyes opened wide and at 3 minutes to midnight she whispered…’is that your father in the car across the road???”
