A New Story in 'Slow Trains Literary Journal'
The Spring Issue of Slow Trains is out, and it features one of my stories, "Pocket Money". I love this one because it is one of the Mukoma collection I am putting together. Here is an excerpt:
He had bought me three different books. One was for English, a language he said I was going to learn properly at school, the other was for Shona, which he said was the formal name of the language we spoke, and the third was for what he explained as the numbers subject, Mathematics. As he explained each book, he looked in the air as if he was thinking about something serious, then he would let out a brief laugh and continue talking with a boyish joy.
I knew what English was because I had heard him speak it with his friends, then once in a while when Mai said things like "Fokof! Fokof!" I knew that was English. Once in a while, drunk old men and women at beer gatherings at our home would argue, and always ended up throwing in English words like “Blarry furu!”, “I blast you!” and “idiot!” Maiguru, Mukoma’s wife, used some English too, and once she told me that I was “stupet", but had said that I should not tell Mukoma that she had called me that, although the word sounded nice coming from her mouth. English was all around me; even the birds sounded like they spoke in English.
Read the rest of the story here.
In related news, StoryTime will be featuring my newest short stories, "Snakes Will Follow You". More details to follow.
He had bought me three different books. One was for English, a language he said I was going to learn properly at school, the other was for Shona, which he said was the formal name of the language we spoke, and the third was for what he explained as the numbers subject, Mathematics. As he explained each book, he looked in the air as if he was thinking about something serious, then he would let out a brief laugh and continue talking with a boyish joy.
I knew what English was because I had heard him speak it with his friends, then once in a while when Mai said things like "Fokof! Fokof!" I knew that was English. Once in a while, drunk old men and women at beer gatherings at our home would argue, and always ended up throwing in English words like “Blarry furu!”, “I blast you!” and “idiot!” Maiguru, Mukoma’s wife, used some English too, and once she told me that I was “stupet", but had said that I should not tell Mukoma that she had called me that, although the word sounded nice coming from her mouth. English was all around me; even the birds sounded like they spoke in English.
Read the rest of the story here.
In related news, StoryTime will be featuring my newest short stories, "Snakes Will Follow You". More details to follow.
Comments
Nice journal too.