Nairobi Days

Those days Mum and I were clashing a lot anyway. It seemed that I was always doing something to annoy her. And the fact that I liked a boy when I was only eleven years old was sure to bring on another interrogation. Sometimes, she locked me in the small bathroom to punish me for my latest masti or misdeed. Tara would feel sorry for me and climb on a chair to push bananas through the window for me. The window was high up and covered with an iron grill. I would lie down in the bathtub with a towel folded behind my neck to make me comfortable; I hid a book in the bathroom for such occasions. So I’d curl up in the bathtub and read and eat my bananas. Once, when Mum unlocked the door, I was so comfortable reading, I stayed there for a while longer.