Throbbing hearts and bleeding inks

"Why don't you just go the normal way: sit at home, watch TV and trouble won't find you. You always have a seminar on your calendar, a music event to attend. There's always something to do with you."  Daddy's favourite slang. I do understand him though. We have been through a lot in the past few years. Any responsible parent will do same; protect their wards against the stench of society. The news has us all in our safety wears. We slip into our overalls, finger the gloves and boot those feet. The helmets are never forgotten on the dusty racks.Thought we said African germs were not harmful! Truth is, we can't be too careful, we can't be too safe. The next second is not promised. The next oxygen might evolve into a nitrogen molecule and choke on our bronchia. Or maybe, just maybe, the next blink might glue our eye lashes to our lower eyelids, blinding us for the rest of our lives. Or maybe if we had checked the fuel gauge one more time after the 1...

I was scared. In the duo-fanned classroom, I was scared. The teacher might call me to read the next paragraph, or ask me to mention any of the difficult words one can make out in the story; "flabbergasted" seemed worthy of tonguing, I suppose. Words scared me, 'Reading time' in the English periods gave me chills. If anything was closest to the devil, I would say it was reading. Not reading to self, no. Reading to many ears. Not the ears of my 'inner circle' either, but to 'aliens'-- like my teachers'. I was scared they would hear me ghostly- the words halfly, almost quarterly and less of sense than what they actually stood for. Oh the words lost their integrity when I read! No one understood the passage anymore but me, when I had to continue. The story had lost its taste. No one was interested in hearing what Ananse had planned for the king and his elders anymore. So cruel my portion had all the funny parts in them. "Jeez, they are so not goin...