He rocked, softly shaking his shoulders, talking to this woman. He put his hands on his knees and swayed his from hips side to side, going low and rising high, as if surfing on waves of her lust.

Saba gasped, her pulse quickened. She unbuttoned her dress and drew breath from the man who was now in Niger. When Saba clapped, the man undressed. He tucked his penis between his legs. I am more than just a penis. Sometimes, I want to make love with my

Heart

Imagination

Dreams

History

Story

Eyes

Breathing you in whole

Hearing you talk all night long

Washing you

Shaving you

Sinking into your sweaty armpits

Gagging on your tongue

Watching you as you work, dream, walk, study, rage, cry, laugh

Hearing you moan

I want to orgasm by eating your orgasm.

Jamal dropped the character and entered his hut. The yearning lover fell on the ground. Saba picked him up and held him close, his head between her breasts.

The music stopped.

THE NEW BLANKET

Saba had arrived at the apartment built by their grandmother whistling a song. She was holding a letter from her teacher which commended her for another top mark, and a pack of Hagos’s favourite sweets which she had bought to thank him for doing all the chores while she studied. Her thick braids, which he had styled for her the evening before, framed her face like a crown. Saba was about to open the gate when she heard the midwife screaming abuse at her mother. Saba climbed the wall and peered inside their stone-floored courtyard. Her mother stood in front of the midwife, head down. Behind the two women the door to Saba’s room was open. Hagos sat next to the terracotta pots full of herbs cooking Saba’s dinner. She smelt the fried lamb with shoro that she liked to have on the last evening of her school week. The flowers their grandmother planted against the wall for her lover living on the other side quivered in the afternoon breeze.

Saba put the letter and pack of sweets in her school bag and rushed straight past the two women to her room. She closed the door.

Saba, come out now.

Give me one minute, Adday, Saba said. I need to change.

Saba slipped out of her school uniform and checked her underwear, wondering if perhaps she’d become a woman, with her mother having noticed first in the laundry basket. But normally Hagos washed their clothes, and she was sure he would have showed it to her, not to her mother. There was no blood, so no interruption of her studies. Saba clenched her fist and smiled.

Saba rubbed some cream her brother had made all over her legs. Her smooth thighs glistened. Ignoring the waiting women, Saba began to prepare for her evening studies. She arranged her books across one side of her bed, placing her pens and notebooks next to her pillow, leaving the side next to the wall free. Smiling and smelling of rosemary and thyme, Saba emerged, dressed in her black nightgown.