Nuts for her

She’d been paddling her feet in the stream for a good half-hour. I know because I’d been watching her. She was singing softly, her dark curls tied back by a brightly coloured scarf.

“This sweet girl stood up to make bread in the early morn,
And the rooster crowed – ko-ko-ko-kooo – for the prayer at dawn.”

I groaned; this sweet girl had long since captured me with her honeyed voice. Sure, my palms were sweaty and my knuckles sore but in my grasp was the prize.

I willed for the knot in my stomach to loosen then casually strolled toward her.

*

I turned to see where the leaves had rustled and suddenly, through the parted bushes, out came Karim.

He had grown taller, leaner even, but his trademark bright smile remained.

“Hey, Fatima!”

I stared.

“What’re you looking at me like that for?”

“Like what?” I replied, dropping my gaze. His voice had changed too. It was somehow more... husky.

“Never mind. Guess what?”

Knowing Karim, he had probably pinched a few chillies to later use in a prank. Plonking himself beside me, he stretched out two clenched fists. I raised an eyebrow.

“What is it?”

He opened his hands and grinned. In them were three smooth, bright green pods, glistening.

“Fresh walnuts, courtesy of Sidi Ali!”

“But Ali doesn’t sell walnuts...”

*

Her laugh was delightful. I surveyed Fatima’s face, etching every detail into my brain: the way her nose wrinkled, how her lips pulled back to show pearly teeth, the small beauty spot on her cheekbone almost lost in the creases of laughter around her thick-lashed eyes.

Getting my knuckles rapped raw by Sidi Ali, whose tree I’d been caught stealing from, was worth it.

You always get me in trouble, Fatima. And you don’t even know it.

Word count: 300