RADIUS HAVWAALA

“SURVIVED BY A WHISKER” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

Submitted to Contest #58

                     SAVED BY THE ELEVATORS “I didn’t steal, no, I didn’t steal,” Juliet kept on assuring herself as she came through the double French doors like a bulldozer. Almost bursting out, running, she swept like a whirlwind towards the west end of the corridors. Her hope was to use the stairs going downwards. She was mistaken, it was a dead end.“Mamaaaaaaaa!” she wailed silently while turning hurriedly to go the other way, b...

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“TRYING TO SET RECORD STRAIGHT” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

Submitted to Contest #57

The white rays of the sun streamed through tall trees like long spears, the wind blew a gentle easterly breeze swaying branches like drunken women in choir practice. Walking deeper into the jungle I came upon a tree bristling with nice fruits. I stretched my hand to pluck one but I immediately pulled it back, shocked by a strange phenomenon. “Hi there, I hope you will help me on this one,” there was a serpent swinging its cylindrical trunk into a sitting position on the very branch I wanted to pluck a fruit. It had opened its red eyes wider,...

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“BANA CASTRO FINDS A FRIEND” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

Submitted to Contest #56

Doctor Jones' bushy eyebrows bristled in a questioning glare, first at the patient then at the yellow apron dressed nurse. A minute passed. Then the doctor found his tongue; “what is her name?” he asked pointing at the patient with the tip of his pen. “She is Stembile,” Juliet was relieved that the doctor was finally talking. However, she waggled her eyes impatiently, using a time-honored paralanguage to tell the Doctor he needed to act more urgently. ‘Stembile who?” he asked while flipping a pen on the notepad, flippantly taking more time ...

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“MEMBERSHIP IS TOO COSTLY” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

“How come that man has no head?” Dansi asked his friend while squeezing his huge buttocks into a chair.“Shi...shi...shi...shi! That is Bishop Panda, our leader,” Sautu quietened his friend.“You must be crazy,” Dansi asked, “how can you be led by a headless person?”“You will be surprised to learn that the same headless man has limitless powers,” Sautu whispered in awe. Fear mixed with mild anger was obviously creeping into his voice.“That is weird my brother,” Dansi sparred with his friend, “but you will agree with me that this isn’t normal a...

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“SOMO-SOMOLOGY” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

Submitted to Contest #54

“I don’t expect you to yap buts to me!” Mr. Sunday Changa banged the table, sending a few files flying about like ruffled feathers. “Tell me why the floor is dirtier than a cowshed when I pay you a salary every month.”“Sir, my child is sick. Please…,” my desperate groans of despair were irreverently cut off by his next bazooka-level volley of insults.“Get out of my sight, useless man,” was the next majestic eruption from the man who poured out venom like lava from a volcano. His index finger pierced the space to his right, stabbing a directi...

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“MISSED COLLEGE” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

Submitted to Contest #53

The sound of a pounding mortar breaks a rather dull morning, hauling you back to the reality of your present milieu. The unpainted walls, the darkened grass thatching, and the reed doors, just unpack the horrors of real poverty before you, dumping it on your conscience like a sewage pile. But somehow, you remember why you came here; to say bye to your parents, because in three days, you are off to college. Your mood somehow picks up; the squalor, no matter how repulsive, cannot square with that.“This diva is off to college. Isn’t that someth...

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“LEAVE THE BABY ALONE” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

Submitted to Contest #52

Jogging in the early morning breeze, Dansi suddenly got trapped in a blizzard sweeping across the village from the Chang’ondo Dam. The cold winds ripped through his vest and shorts even though hot sweat covered his whole body. And not long his skin developed goose pimples to look like a sweet potato field.To prevent freezing to death, he sought a place to hide until the horror winds died down. And where would that be but where a throng of people was streaming into a supermarket, also escaping the horrible weather outside. The shop was owned ...

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“ KEITH AND HIS DOUBLES” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

Submitted to Contest #52

Ya, that is great! But the hair is a bit too kinky,” Christine said as she twisted her neck like a chicken checking the position of a hawk.“How kinky?”You ask, worried that Keith may not approve of anything less than perfect. “Won’t you straighten it up, please?”“Let me use that dark shampoo to wash it down, it will do the trick,” Christine assures you with her trademark finger-dexterity. Indeed you believe her; everything will turn out just fine.She applies all her skills and the temperature in her fingers can confirm that she is doing ever...

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“A WITCH REPENTS” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

The morning was broken by startling screams coming from the furthest house; a little shack where old man Kapuka was the only occupant, really the hoarse shrills could be no one else’s, but his. Presently, he shot out of the house like a cruise missile and started circling a small tree in front of his door which was also used as a shrine. “Mamaaa! Leave me alone,” he kept on chanting while tearing off clothes from his body. “Please people help me.” The sight, though unlikely in the computer age, was so ghastly; it attracted a lot of attention...

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“shooting stars” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

Submitted to Contest #51

When the wall clock chimed twenty-two hours and an owl hooted next to a window, Muchona rushed to try to shoo it away. He was holding a glass of whiskey in one hand, it was almost empty but he was still drinking from it and in the other, a Rothmans cigarette smoldered between two fingers.After chasing the owl, he took a long drag on the cigarette to steel his nerves; no one hears the sound of a hooting owl and goes on with business as usual. His shaking fingers showed that he was still unhinged, anyway. He was just about to pour a gulp of wh...

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“SHIMANI BREAKS HIS GIRL” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

Submitted to Contest #50

“Who is this brown, tall, ample bosomed girl, who dances as if she has no bones? Shimani wondered to himself.The girl had a pale, copper-colored skin and a curvy bounce step that seemed to connive to compel men into thinking dangerous thoughts. She, predictably, got Shimani doing that, wanting her so desperately that he forgot that he was a newcomer, a stranger in a strange land.When the song ended, the girl stood in the glare of the bonfire to spread her beauty for all to see. In a melodious tone that matched her features atom by atom,...

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“FATE IS CRUEL MY FRIEND” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

Submitted to Contest #49

FATE IS CRUEL MY FRIENDThe sun was attempting to climb on the eastern horizon. But the correct time was six hours when the clock hands stretched out like the legs of a squatting ballet dancer. That same time the alarm shrilled cutting into the stillness of the morning coolness. The sound banged Monica’s ears causing her a mild headache for discomfort and significant annoyance for tempers.She started by jerking like a startled rabbit, throwing about a pair of eyes widened to look like dark ringed balls. Her hands, by the instinct for self-pre...

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“LOVE IS OLDER THAN MANKIND” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

Submitted to Contest #49

LOVE IS OLDER THAN MANKINDWalking lazily, bottled mineral water sparkling in his hand, MacKay hoisted his rumpled jacket as he entered the waiting room and headed straight for the counter to buy a train ticket to Monze. There he dropped his bag on the floor to take a long swig from the bottle before edging closer to address a brown diva wearing some green chiffon and a Man U red scarf around her neck.“May I buy a ticket, please?” he was now speaking softly because his eyes started feasting on the diva’s beauty which was far more refreshing t...

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“VENTURES TO ANNOY” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

Submitted to Contest #46

Ventures to annoy. You are still dazed from the previous night’s celebration, called by a few friends to toast your newly published book; ventures to annoy. Only one event still comes glaringly plain to you. The brush with a reporter.“Have you written other books?” a New York Times diva swirls her brunette brush into a wave, a few strands almost sweep the eyes from your face.Her steady pupils stabbing into your eyeballs fearlessly indicate that she is way above your class; you know it and she seems to know it as well.“No it is my first…...

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“SERPENT SCARED OF CHANGE” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

(CW: racist and misogynistic language) SERPENT SCARED OF CHANGE The white rays of the sun streamed through tall trees like long spears, the wind blew a gentle easterly breeze swaying branches like drunken women in choir practice. Walking deeper into the jungle I came upon a tree bristling with nice fruits. I stretched my hand to pluck one but I immediately pulled my hand back, shocked by a strange phenomenon. “Hi there, I hope you will help me on this one,” there was a serpent swinging its cylindrical trunk into a sitting position on the ver...

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