She was last here five years ago is a writing prompt from my current work in progress, as yet untitled. The paragraph it comes from is shown below. The story is a sequel to River Witch and a dual timeline – having fun with that!
At the T-junction, she returned to the main road near the high school. School was coming out, and young cyclists, pedestrians, mums driving station wagons, crowded the way.
Mara turned right and joined the queue created by a lollipop lady’s stop sign held up for a swarm of students in their white and navy summer uniforms to pass, backpacks slung over shoulders, hair glinting in the sunlight.
Mara bit her lip at the delay, now she was so close. Freed from the lollipop lady’s control, she turned left into Bay Road, and slowed, watching out for the unfamiliar entrance. She was last here five years ago, and then only the once. For her father.
Ed note: Brit English to American translation: a lollipop lady is a school crossing guard 😀
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SHE WAS LAST HERE FIVE YEARS AGO
She was last here five years ago during a time of national turmoil.
Armed soldiers patrolled the streets, while gangs of youths hanging from Nissan Patrol four- wheel drives fired indiscriminately into the air and at any passer by foolish enough to show his or her face.
Somalia had never been a safe place to inhabit, although these days life appeared a lot quieter than those earlier times.
Stella fervently hoped they would remain calm, at least while she was visiting the country. It wasn’t as if she was there by choice – if it hadn’t been for the fact that her uncle, who owned the country’s most productive diamond mine, had disappeared in mysterious circumstances, she would not have been there at all.
However, when the telephone call reached her office in New York reporting him missing, Stella could hardly ignore it. After all, after both her parents had been killed in a coup, she owed her entire life and upbringing to her uncle who not only paid for her private school education and university training in America, but also ensured she remained safe from any further harm at the hands of would-be assassins.
The national turmoil erupted during a visit to her uncle following her graduation with law honours from Harvard University.
All had been peaceful on her arrival in Somalia before a rebel warlord had decided to choose that moment try to overthrow the incumbent government.
It had been bloody, with lots of casualties on both sides, not to mention the severe loss of civilian life. Somehow, Stella and her uncle had escaped unscathed before she was able to board a plane at the airport and return her relatively peaceful New York life.
Now, here she was once more, staring at the familiar dusty streets as the native population went about its daily business.
Her uncle was a powerful and extremely influential man, which meant he had plenty of enemies. Because of that, he was always careful with elaborate security precautions in place wherever he travelled.
What could possibly have happened to him, Stella mused, as the airport taxi negotiated the human throng to the main police station where Inspector LaRue awaited her arrival.