New Read: "Night in a Drum", in Sentinel Literary Quarterly

Entering the compound, I was supposed to walk with the confidence of someone returning home, but there was no telling what would happen when Mukoma saw me. He sat in the sunlight behind his bedroom hut, carving his wooden stools, so I was going to try to sneak to the kitchen hut before he saw me. Too late: he was already looking at me as if he had seen me walk all the way from Mai Ranga’s home. The stare was calm, as if he did not care about what I was planning to do. But as soon as I reached the chicken coup, he sat up and coughed. I turned and walked toward him like a surrendering soldier.

“Where were you last night?” he asked, licking his lips.

“In a drum,” I said. “Mai Ranga hid me.”

His eyes opened wider, but narrowed as if he had just remembered something.

“You are lucky she did,” he said; then he raised his big hand and sent it flying towards my face. Read the rest of the story on Sentinel Lit Quartely.