LESSONS IN SHADOWS (GL)

Clara lay on her side, her room dim and still, the air thick with the weight of unsaid things. On her lap, an old album lay open, the kind with crinkled corners and a faint scent of paper that had aged in silence. She turned the pages slowly.

Cake candles. School plays. Faces she hadn't seen in years.

Then she stopped.

There, under the edge of a faded plastic sleeve, was a photograph: two girls in uniform, standing under a frangipani tree, sunlight dripping through the leaves. Their hair was neatly done, their sides. One smiled freely. The other-more carefully, like she didn't want to be caught smiling too much.

Clara's fingers hesitated on the edge of the photo.

"Final year. 2017." The handwriting in blue ink still clung to the border.

Miss Emily Wairimu.

A thousand things Clara had buried threatened to rise again. The way she walked. The way she looked at you when she was trying to hide what she felt. The voice that could calm and challenge all at once.

And that like that, memory took her.

...

{Flashback Begins-Final Year,2017}

The sun was beginning to set behind the dormitory wall casting long shadows across the path as Clara and Emily walked back from their lab prep. The frangipani blossoms scattered across the concrete.

Clara walked slowly.

Emily noticed. "Why so quiet today?"

"I'm not," Clara said-but her voice betrayed her.

Emily turned, walking backward, her blazer slipping off one shoulder. "You've been quiet since lunch."

"I think...I think what I feel for you-it's not just admiration."

Emily blinked. "Clara"

"I'm not asking anything," Clara added quickly. "I just felt it for a long time. I thought maybe you feel something too."

Emily looked away, lips pressed, heart racing. Then softly.

"Not now."

"But when?" Clara asked, almost whispering. "I can't wait, you know. However long it takes."

Emily didn't respond. Someone was calling them from the building-a teacher, perhaps. Her name echoing through the hallway. And just like that, the moment was gone.

But Clara never forgot the way Emily looked at her before turning.

Something unspoken.

Something not ready.

...

{Flashback Ends-Back to Present}

Clara traced the faces in the photo again. They looked so young. So close to something that never became.

And now, all these years later, that photo was all she had.

She closed the album.

And wondered if Emily remembered too.

Clara leaned against the headboard, the photo still in her lap, her fingers tightening around its edge.

Her eyes drifted to the ceiling-but her mind was elsewhere. Another memory returned. One not captured in any album.

The dusty courtyard of the military recruitment ward, years ago.

She remembered the weight of the backpack, the sun burning her neck, and the tremble in her hands as she signed the form. No one knew-not even her grandmother-that she'd been skipping shifts as the cafe to prepare for this.

She hadn't been able to afford college.

She had no one left to ask.

Not after their parents died in the plane crash when Jennifer was just six. They said it was a storm over Lake Victoria. She remembered the silence . How the relatives came, not with comfort, but with keys. Took the house. Took the land. Took everything.

All expect Jennifer.

Clara had clung to her baby sister like breath.

In those years, she'd done everything. Cleaned floors. Washed dishes. Ran errands. She had been just fifteen when she began raising Jennifer alone.

And when it became clear that she couldn't keep up-that school fees and rent would crush them both-Clara made the choice.

She enlisted.

But not before doing one thing first.

She found her. Emily Wairimu.

The same girl from the photo. Her closest friend in the world . The one person she still trusted.

They met at the school gate that day. Clara wore jeans and borrowed boots, her bag slung tight across her shoulders. Emily was already in her teachings internship then-young, nervous, but with that same quiet strength.

"Please," Clara had said, handling over Jennifer's student file. "Just help her settle. That school, Our Lady of Fatima...it's the only place I can get her into. She needs you. She has no one else."

Emily has taken the file without hesitation.

"I'll take care of her," she'd said. "Like she's my own sister.

That was the day Jennifer transferred from her Rural day school in Machakos-the one where their grandmother had raised them-and started at Our Lady of Fatima in Form Two.

Clara had left for the army the next morning.

She had never forgotten what Emily did.

Not then.

Not now.

She looked back down at the photo-two girls under a frangipani tree. One with a secret. One with a promise.

And in the next room, the sound of her phone buzzled softly.

A message from Jennifer.

She picked it up, staring at the screen before opening it.

"Hey Clara. Miss Emily said we might have a school trip when you were here? Just asking😊"

Clara smiled faintly.

Some memories never really go away.

Clara wiped the corner of her eye with the sleeve of her jumper, still clutching the photo. The past never really left-it simply folded itself into the person.

She stood up from the bed and walked slowly toward her dresser, picking up her phone again. Her fingers hovered for a second before she typed.

"Jennifer, sweetie. Before I forget, could you do something for me?"

She paused.

"Please write down all the things you might need for this trip. Clothes, shoes, school items...even snacks if allowed. If there's any food requirement or special item needed, tell me early so I can include it."

She added another line.

"I want to make sure you're prepared. I'll buy what I can. And please ask Miss Emily too if there's a list from the school."

A moment passed, and Clara added the final part.

"Also...I might come along. Just for a day or two. There's something important I want to accomplish. I'll talk to your teacher and see if it's allowed."

She reread the messages before sending it.

Her eyes softened.

Maybe it was time. Time to not only take care of Jennifer's needs but also to face something from her own.

Something long overdue.

...

The sun filtered through the tilted blinds, casting soft stripes across the desk. Miss Emily sat alone in her office, a steaming cup of tea growing cold beside her elbow. Her glasses rested low on her nose as she flipped through a stack of forms-trip permission slips, student health notes, and the draft questionnaire she had started for the inter-school physics challenge.

Her pen moved smoothly.

"Question 4...Calculate the resistance across the circuit shown..."

She paused to glance at the example diagram she had drawn earlier. A small frown formed. Too easy. She circled it in red and scribbled: revise.

Just then, another folder slipped from the middle of the pile and landed gently beside her. She reached for it absently, flipping open the edge-her eyes for it absently, flipping open the edge-her eyes scanning the parental consents page.

Name after name.

Until-Her fingers stopped.

Clara Mwikali.

She blinked.

Her breath, previously steady, faltered just for a moment.

The name looked so ordinary. Typed neatly, signed with a gentle slant, nothing dramatic. But it struck her like a pebble tossed into still water-soft, small, but rippling deep.

She leaned back in her chair, the weight of the pen still in her hand. A swirl of memories stirred behind her eyes.

"she's coming?"

She whispered to herself, as if saying it aloud would change its meaning.

Clara Mwikali. After all these years. And not just as a guardian-but planning to attend the trip herself?

Emily swallowed.

For a long moment, the office was silent again, save for the soft hum of the ceiling fan.

She closed the folder slowly, pressing it against her chest.

Of all people...You, Clara.

Why now?

And yet, part of her already knew. Some answers didn't live in forms or files.

They lived in unfinished conversations.

And maybe, just maybe, this trip would bring more than just academic challenge.

It might bring questions they never dared to ask-and the ones they still feared to answer.