I Still Remember That September Afternoon

This is a story about that girl who corrupted my mind…but first, it was second term holidays and I was only 8. I hated taking those mandatory afternoon naps right after lunch and despite the best efforts of the maid, which included the occasional spanking, I just wouldn’t sleep.

That afternoon was like no other because even this episode Punky Brewster on UTV this time wasn’t as interesting as it had always been. So the search of a much kick led me to my best mate Daniel’s home. Unbeknown to me, he wasn’t home; his mom had whisked him away for coaching classes somewhere in Nakivubo.

That left me and his literature-mad sister who was twice my age as my last hope for salvation from the sickening state of ultimate boredom. I should have walked away in resignation but the devil in me drove me into asking her what she was so preoccupied with so intently that she couldn’t even look into my direction.
So I went closer but before I could bet really close, she reached under the couch she was sited in and from what seemed like a collection, handed me a copy of Spice magazine (remember them?) and told me to knock myself out!

I was only 8!
The magazine cover screamed sex. I still remember that Stella was the name of the cover girl. I still remember that not only because she was hot but also because she was the first bikini I hadn’t seen on TV.
Lingala was blaring from the radio. Papa Wemba I think it was.
Curiously, I read on from the cartoons, Dod Khimji, Pam’s Adventures and yes yes, Peter ‘Now a Pastor’ Ssemattimba’s piece on erotic zones.

All this time I kept on pestering her to loosely explain the what all this raunchy stuff meant and why I was seeing it for the first time there and not in the classroom (like I had no idea).
When she justly got fed up with all the probing, she put down the Spice she was reading, grabbed me by the hand and dragged me to the back of the house under the jambula tree.
Once there, she looked around, then lifted up her dress with a mischievous smile pasted all over her face to reveal her white undies!
That was her explanation. Just like that.

I was only 8!
She then marched into the house without saying a word.
I stayed rooted to the spot, bewildered. At the same time it felt like my crowning moment, my knighthood, my Nobel Prize for achievements in human discovery and anything else in between.
I never went looking for Daniel at his ever again lest I be knighted again.
I hear she is now happily married with three daughters.
I’m betting on one of them flashing her undies intent on corrupting the mind of a boy half her age!