The Second Path

Chapter 1

On hearing footsteps near by, I glanced up to see somebody hiding beside the house building by the backyard, peeping to see if I noticed. I just looked back down at the masa and pretended not to see. I heard the person tip toe to hide behind the dog's cage. They peeped from there too but I pretended not to notice again and just shook my head at his silliness. He quickly ran to the back of the tree and hid there too, rejoicing that I didn't see him.

"You can come out now. I've seen you." I said, with my full attention still on the masa.

Junior Junior groaned some complains in Hausa while walking away from the tree and coming to stand in front of me with his blue school uniform.

"You see baa, I could sense the aroma of this masa right from school." He joked, using style to ask for food.

There was always that one person that came to your house for food and for us, that was Junior Junior.

He was a very good friend of mine and the only son of Alhaji Abdullah Maitama Junior, the man Kaka worked for. Junior Junior bared the name of his father and grandfather. Since his father was the Junior, he took Junior Junior and nobody messed with him if he was called "Junior" only. If we did, he was never going to shut up about why you should "respeck" on his name.

He was a slim average-height dark skinned 17 years old. He walked like someone that had bow legs because when he was younger, a doctor failed to give him injection properly and the needle affected his left leg. And ever since then, he has been limping when walking. Sometimes the children in the street made fun of him by calling him "leper"(cripple), because of the way he walked.

He was one of those boys who shaved their hair so bald to the point that you could see the sun's reflection shining on his head like a mirror.

He was dressed in his school uniform at the moment because he attended a private secondary school and private schools didn't have strike like us. He was the only one that went to a private school in his family while all his sisters went to public schools.

"You don't have to lie." I responded, with all attention on the masa.

"Okay but I could actually smell it from outside the gate." He pointed up and grinned, exposing his gap tooth.

"Hm-"

Jumbo's barking distracted me while he started running towards Junior Junior. Junior Junior, who was afraid of dogs, ran to hide behind the big oak tree that was not far away from him.

Jumbo was Kaka's local brown dog that has been in the house for 5 years. Like most dogs here in Mansur, she found Jumbo running around homeless and dying of starvation before she took him as her own pet.

"Miriam take him away!" Junior junior shouted from behind the tree.

I just sat there and shook my head at him. I remembered when I was little, I was scared of dogs too. I always thought they were violent and that was exactly how Junior Junior felt. To be honest, they weren't as bad as we thought they were.

Jumbo stood in front of the oak tree and continue barking at Junior Junior who was clung behind the tree.

"Miriam take him away! Dan allah (please)!" Junior Junior begged.

I sighed and cleaned my hands on my wrapper around my waist before I stood up and walk over to Jumbo. I squatted and start rubbing his head. Immediately, he stopped barking and remained calm. He started moving his head along with my hand direction, enjoying it. This was something he loved.