Ikom, March, 1986
Kate strolled from the village clinic to her step-mother's house, which she still resided. She gingerly lifted her feet to avoid disturbing the ready to rise dust on the untarred path. She did not want her legs and part of her white uniform to be stained with the red dust that rose as crimson cloud if anything as trivial as stomping feet disturbed it.
Walking along the familiar path brought back memories. It was weird how as a kid she would have been stomping on the path without a care in the world. Raising the rest dust as far as she could manage had been one of the small pleasures she had derived as a child from her kind of home. Not much had given her happiness when her father had been going through dire straits, and had ended up marrying a new wife. What was there to enjoy when her mother had been ill, and they'd had no money to treat her properly?
