---Stands

I could always count on meeting Nene at the akara stand, all fierce and pleading, demanding some price for being a loyal customer, and every time I’d laugh. Nene in herself was an impossible character, and whilst I could associate her with nothing, I could associate her form with something. A kind of slim which I'd associated with some of the palm trees I'd seen, slim and tall, willowy, and she was a sort of black I'd associated with the inside of ebony trees, so so dark and shiny, that it seemed as though her skin reflected the rays of the sun. A smile forever on her lips, and an easy laugh which she took with her everywhere. A sort of happiness I could never feel or fully understand.

She was daring, at least she seemed so to me, so I stuck with her, hoping that some of her courage would rub off on me, and extremely eager to bask in the light which she emitted. Her reputation preceded her, and her thigh length pencil skirts were a given, smoothened to perfection, glaring, her big statement.