Friday 7 September 2012

Hadiza's tales

She walked slowly with her head down and her palm to her cheek, she still felt the sting of the slap to her face as tears continuously trickled down her eyes, she couldn't help but recall how fast her life had changed in just six months.
     It was a hot and quite afternoon in the village,the only noise that could be heard were those of babies either crying for food or for attention. Humming the song her mum taught her the previous night before, she lifted the pestle to continue pounding the beans which was to be further washed and grinded before her parents returned from the market. Her mum fried bean cake in the evenings just by the side of the house and she enjoyed the fact that she was now allowed to serve the customers and most importantly she kept the account of the sales each day. A smile came to the side of her lips because today she wanted to give her mum a surprise by having everything set for the days business before she arrived and her surprise was working according to plan. Suddenly, her thoughts were broken by the sounds of footsteps followed by the sound of someone falling to the floor. She looked up and saw her neighbour Adamu who was a diver in the river that passed through her village. Adamu hurriedly stood up and didn't even bother cleaning his shorts which had been soiled from the fall.
          He opened his mouth to talk but words couldn't form and he lowered his head, then
he took a step forward and placed his hands on her shoulders, shook his head and said in a low tone "Hadiza, your parents have passed on". Those words kept ringing in her head even as she woke up ten minutes later.

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