The Second Path

Chapter 2

"I will call you Hauwa." I said, "Inna Hauwa."

Inna meant Aunty in Hausa but it wasn't used by many people. I only wanted to give her the respect by calling her Aunty Hauwa, even though she wasn't my aunty, but because she was older than me.

She looked at me like that was the best thing she has heard in ages. "Thank you. You're the first person to call me with respect. Everyone just calls me Uwar Maiya and that is not even my name."

I just stared at her, not saying anything. I knew what people called her but I had to give her that respect because she was older than me. She deserved it.

"So what is your daughters name?" I asked, hoping she wouldn't say 'Maiya' as well.

She looked down at her daughter and smiled, "Kauna. Her name is Kauna."

I looked at Kauna whose face was still covered with the black pashmina. I really didn't understand why this woman covered her face, whether she was embarrassed that her daughter was ugly or she had a man's face.

"Why do you cover her face?" I asked.

"That's the way she wants it and I don't know what is wrong with her." Inna Hauwa gave a light chuckle. "Let me take it off."

She was about removing the pashmina but Kauna placed her hand on it to stop her. After few seconds of curious stare from me, she let her mother remove it.

My eyes stopped blinking once the pashmina was removed. Her face was not what I was expecting. She was not ugly. Neither did she look like a man. It was just something about her eyes. They were not like everyone's own.

Her right eye was baby blue. The most unusual color for any black person's eye color. Her other eye was the normal dark brown eye color everyone of us had. Her skin was very smooth and she had a long natural hair, reaching to her upper back. She was dark skinned like her mother and also had the thick black kohl traced around her eyes.

Kauna looked away the moment she noticed my startled expression.

"What happened to her other eye?" I asked still staring at Kauna in dismay.

"I never figured it out, but she was born this way." Inna Hauwa said with a disapproved expression as she stared at me. "Some people say it's jinn. But I doubt anything is wrong with her, as long as my Jesus knows that my daughter is fine."

I raised my eyebrows at the woman in confusion. My eyes traced at the grey hijab she wore and the dark kohl around her eyes and the faded red henna on her fingernails. Her appearance was that of a Muslim woman, so why did she just say Jesus?

"You're not Muslim?" I furrowed my eyebrows at her.

"Supposedly I am. I was born in a Christian home but now that I am married to Audu, I take it as my second religion." She responded.

This was when I stopped and stared at her in shock. Did she mean mallam Audu?

"You're mallam Audu's wife?" I asked with a surprised expression written all over my face. "The man that lives opposite my house? The teacher?"

She nodded her head without bothering about my surprised expression.

Mallam Audu had a wife? And a daughter?! Who knew.