Short Story
Peter and Ben hooked their catapults to yellow branches and galloped towards the dam. They’d been whistling behind the black-headed goats and now rubbed their
2026-08-192026-08-19By Ruben Kapimbi
Peter and Ben hooked their catapults to yellow branches and galloped towards the dam. They’d been whistling behind the black-headed goats and now rubbed their tear-drowning eyes from the wavy sheet of water.
Instantly, they hung their sweat-smelling T-shirts onto the stool-like rocks. The two tossed pebbles into the water, quarrelling over who could create the biggest ripple ever.
Afterwards, they splashed water over each other’s sizzling backs. In a blink, Peter jumped into the rippling water and an orange fish passed between his c-shaped legs.
“It’s mine!” he shouted, as his splashing created a five-minute ripple that fenced in the fish.
In response, Ben bit his bottom lip and rubbed a vein worming on his forehead. The boy sipped his boiling tears before marching out of the dancing water. Like a monkey, he dangled his legs over a cliff, where the wind pelleted him with bursting seedpods.
Meanwhile, Peter skipped every time the orange fish peeped out of the water. At one point, the fish backstroked, then freestyled before diving with a playful doom!
Unfortunately, stinging tears blurred Ben’s eyes from the swimming lessons, until the sunrays bounced against a finger-like rock, pranking a grey lizard into slipping into the water.
“This one is mine!” shouted Ben.
“Let the game begin,” shouted Peter, knotting his pinkie finger around that of his nephew’s. The orange fish continued its Olympic swimming.
However, the grey fish was drowning; one could tell from the get-go-like ripples ruffling Ben’s feet. Immediately, Ben pounded his chest and sank to the dam’s floor. Later, he floated like a dead log, while gripping a grey lizard with jaw-of-life hands.
In retort, Peter burst into laughter and hooked the fish with bait before placing it into a bucket. A moment later, they squatted on grey rocks, and Ben basked the feverish lizard on a warm rock.
Immediately, Ben tripped over the bucket, and the slippery fish landed on a hot rock.
The lizard now performed its magic; first crawling upward, sideways, diagonally, and sailing downward, its pad-like paws sticking to the rocks before jumping on Ben’s lap.
In addition, the lizard performed ballet steps by lifting one foot up and down while nodding its head.
Finally, the orange fish waved its tail and bid goodbye to Peter before gasping for its last breath.
First, Peter fried the fish on red-hot coals, with a side dish of mushrooms. Afterwards, he served the meal in a yawning bowl, while Ben twitched his nose at the smell coming from the open-air kitchen.
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