GREEN(Melody Kuku) GREEN

The house is as quiet as the graveyard behind our church. Daddy has gone to work as usual and I am left with Lara, my elder sister.

"I'm going to see Kenny and Mary in the next house. Do you want to come with me?" Lara asks.

I know she won't be comfortable having to watch over me there. Mommy says it is good to read people's face. So, I shake my head. "No. I'll rather stay here and play. Please, please."

"Okay, just don't step out of the house and don't open the gate for anyone".

"Okay"

"And if anything goes wrong, you know Kenny's house line?"
I nod.
"Dial it. I won't be long. Remember, don't open the gate for anyone. Do you hear me?"

"I'm six years old, I can take care of myself", I say as I push her out of the gate and lock it.

My sister is gone. I look at the purple Hibiscus that Mummy says I shouldn't touch. Now, I can touch it and find out why it is purple. I go around the flower bed, touching them. Mommy loves flowers and we have them all over our house.

I can feel something brush against my hands. Colours. No, a butterfly. It is so beautiful and all I could think of is Joseph's coat of many colours. It dances in the air then it begins to fly away.

"No, wait. Don't run away", I call out to it but it doesn't listen.
So, I chase it around till it flies away from our yard. I want that butterfly. I want to see it dance. The butterfly is all I can think of now. I want to hold its colours in my palm. I opened our dwarf wooden gate and chase it. I can catch it, Lara calls me a sprinter and she says my feet are my wings.

It is almost in my palm, I think. Then it flies to the other side. I follow it till it flies into the William's yard and it disappears. I stop. My feet ache and my heart beats fast like it would fly out of me. I press my palm against the skin that holds my heart.

"Please don't fly away like my butterfly", I say to it.

I guess I said the magic words because it stops beating too fast. I look around. I am standing in front of Mr. William's house. My Cousin says he has a horn on his forehead and two sharp teeth which he uses to bite little children.

Then I notice the flowers and flower bed in front of his house. He has no wooden gate like us. Instead, pots of Lilacs are lined up where his gate would have been. On the ground is a carpet of grass all the way to his front porch and door that is covered with creeping plants and leaves. Beside the door is a dim lit lantern.

I try to peep through the window but it is dark as if it hasn't been cleaned in years. I can hear Mummy's voice in my head telling me not to enter strange houses. I want to turn back, to run, but I can't. My legs do not move, they stay still. I cannot go back. I have to go in; to see. I pick the lantern and knock. As I knock, the door gives way and I stumble into a dark, dark sitting room.

I raise the lantern and try to look around. The walls are covered with thick cobwebs that reach from the ceiling and down the tiled floor. On the walls are dust covered pictures. There are no chairs or sofa in the center, only two rocking iron chairs by the fireplace where dark black coals were.

I am not afraid. I should be. All I want to do is to go on; to see all there is to see. Mummy calls it 'curiousity' and she says it killed a cat once. I can't help having it and I know it won't kill me because I am not a cat and Daddy says I will nevet grow whiskers.

"Who is in here? Hello" I call out.

No one answers me. I can hear my own voice. By the side is a corridor. I walk down it till I get to where three room doors stand as if they were forced into the walls. The first one is locked so, I leave it and move on to the rest.

I turn the knob of the second door. It is dark too, like the rest of the house. It is almost empty. There is a bed by the side and around are cartons of gardening tools that look like the one Mummy uses. Beside them are a little girl's books. On the bed is a small blue gown. I know it will be my size. It is beautiful but dusty. On the floor beside it is a pair of green shoes that can easily fit my feet.

The girl should be the same age as I. I am going to be her friend when I find her and I am going to help her and her family clean their house.
I am thinking of this when I open the next door.

The door is very old and creaks loudly as I push it open. The windows are shut and the curtains, drawn. There is no carpet, carton, books or a little girl's shoe. All I see is a bed close to the wall. On the bed is a very old, old man with white beard that falls down to his throat. He is so thin and the coat around him seems to swallow him up. His cheeks were sucked in and his eyes were inside his head. He looked like my grandpa but my grandpa was fatter.

His eyes are open now and he blinks in surprise. Then, he smiles and says, "Anna..."

I guess it is his little girl's name. I do not know where she is. I want to run around the house and look for her: I want to bring her to the old man and make him smile again. But he is so weak so I do not leave him. His hands are trembling like his lips.

I hold his hands and smile at him. I can hear the sound of his breath. He is breathing sharply; too fast. I want to run to our house and call Lara but I do not go. I stay still, holding his hand.

Suddenly, he grips my hands tightly and then releases it. I do not know how a person's body will be when he dies. So, I do not kbow that he has died. I only let go when his hands become so cold. So, I tucked him in bed and told him that I will tell Lara and Mummy about him so they will help get him food and take care of him.

* * *

Mummy and Lara are very angry with me. They scold me but I do not cry. I wait for Mummy to stop talking and then I tell her of Mr. Williams. She is silent when I finish. Her eyes look like she is going to cry but she does not. Instead, she sends me off to bed. I think of the old man and his little girl. I think and think till I fall asleep.

Someone is brushing my hair when I wake up. It is Mummy. She tells me that Daddy and the rest of our neighbours had gone to visit Mr. Williams.

She told me that his wife and daughter died in a car accident and he had moved into our neighbourhood, a broken man. All he had left was his granddaughter, Anna, whom he planted the flowers for. Anna had been sickly and that was why no one knew about her. She was always in the house or the garden. Then, she died too.

Everyone thought he was evil because his house looked dark and dirty and he never said a word to anyone. But he was an old man who was too weak to do any other thing except to take care of the flowers his granddaughter loved. And when he could do that no longer, he lay in bed, dying.

As Mummy speaks, I cry. She tells me that he thought I was Anna because of the green dress I wore which was just like the one Anna had. She asks me if I know what green means. I do not, but I know that green is a colour I will never forget.


THE END.

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