Ada is fourteen.
She is just budding into womanhood. Her chest is becoming prominent and there is a wiggle to her backside when she walks. Pimples are taking turns to decorate and leave her face. If you look at her again, you see a head-turner in the making.
But Ada is not bothered about all that. Her primary concern is to help her poor, struggling parents and her three siblings. So, she hawks hot okpa on the streets of Enugu. Her ten year old brother follows with chilled Coke.
Today she is alone. He is unwell.
Yaro is a driver's mate; not by choice, mind you.
He can manoeuvre any kind of long vehicle. He just has not been fortunate enough to get another -- since the accident. If he had not fled the scene when he did, mob action may well have been his lot. So, he assisted other drivers who were willing to have him.
Yaro does not have a wife, not even in his tiny village in Bauchi. He does not understand the obsession with acquiring wives and procreating when one is barely surviving.
He hears the voice of a hawker announcing her wares. He looks up from under the lorry where he is taking a nap. One look and he realizes she is why he has remained unmarried.
What will he do? He remembers the talisman his father gave him. He pulls it out, places his hands on it and says the words he was taught.
Then he calls her.
Ada is not seen again for years.
Her parents report to the Police. But she is a young lady and a street trader. She could be anywhere. Were they even sure this was not an extended tryst?
Five years, eight months later, the news breaks on national TV that a young mother of two, stabbed her husband to death in Kano. She claimed that he charmed and abducted her.
The pregnant neighbour who is being interviewed is Ada.
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