NOTE: The town name has been changed from 'Barnawa' to Mansur.
Chapter 5
I woke up to the sound of something moving in front of me. It was unusual because I always wake up to only my dog's morning barking. My eyes flung open immediately and I sat up on the couch. I looked around but there was nothing.
Before I could put my legs on the ground, I found Kauna lying on the floor in front of the couch. She was sleeping.
"Kauna?" I furrowed me eyebrows, moving closer to her and patted her shoulders.
She opened her eyes tirelessly and looked at me.
"Did you sleep here all night?" I asked.
She nodded.
I was shook by this. If I had known I wouldn't have let her sleep on the floor with no pillow nor blanket. Or even anything.
"What happened to the bed?"
"I is scared of sleeping in the room alone." She replied.
I looked at her not knowing what to say. I think from this time on I may have to be sleeping on the same bed with Kauna.
This whole situation with Kauna doesn't seem to be getting any better at all.
"Get up." I said while trying to lift her up, "let's go to the room."
*****
Afternoon came very fast and we were already eating lunch. And yes I was still feeding Kauna. This time i got used to it and it looks like I'm going to have to keep doing this till her mother comes back. Maybe.
Tuwo semovita with miyan kuka was served for lunch. We barely ate lunch in our house but since there was no school, I had time to cook. Kauna and I shared the food on the big tray in between us.
The feeding was not easy this time. I had to use my hand to feed Kauna. And it got greasy with each scoop of tuwo I gave her because her mouth takes over my fingers and ends up leaving her baby saliva on them.
"We're going to Zainab's house." I told her while putting another handful of tuwo into her mouth. "Today is Halimat's birthday. The first child in the house."
She nodded without any further response after she had the food into her mouth.
"Why doesn't your mother let you eat with your hand?" I asked the question that has been bothering me since.
"We eat only once a day and she don't want me to be like other hungry children in the street." She said, "she think if I eat with my hand, I will be eating food from dustbin like the other children and she don't want me to got sick. She want me to be very hungry than fall sick from waste food."
"But at least if you fall sick, you'll get free food from the hospital." I added, sounding more like a suggestion.
She shook her head. "I can never go to the hospital. Mallam Audu won't be able to pay."
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What of all the money he makes from being a teacher?"
She shrugged. Then I asked the question that I was curious about.
"Why do you call your father by his name?"
"Because he doesn't deserve to be called baba." She replied.
I stared at her in silence. That was so much courage coming from a six year old. I didn't bother saying anything about it.
"He mostly buy one type of juice." Kauna replied to my first question, "the juice is inside a brown bottle and whenever he drink it, he start acting like a mad man."
The last line caused me to scoff. I knew what she was talking about from there.
"Alcohol?" I asked while putting another scoop of tuwo into her mouth.
"What is that?" She asked after she had swallowed.
"Nevermind." I shook my head trying not to corrupt her little mind from the start, "did you ever drink the juice?"
"He never allow me or Ummah. He drink it with Aunty Rosey. Then he giver her money whenever she leave."
"Kauna?" I called her name and stopped myself from taking another handful of tuwo from my plate. "Don't ever call her Aunty Rosey. She is not your Aunty neither is she anybody important to you."
"Then what should I call her?" She asked curiously looking at me.
I leaned forward and whispered, "prostitute."
She didn't smile or laugh but just stared at me, not getting the joke.
"You know the meaning of that right?" I asked curiously hoping that I was not going to have to go through another explanation of what prostitute is.
She shook her head. I groaned knowing that I was not ready to explain what it meant to her. "But Ummah call her Karuwa."
I almost choked on my food when Kauna had already interpreted what prostitute meant in hausa. To be honest, I could not be too surprised because most people in our school called Miss Rosey 'Karuwa'. And because of them I knew what prostitute meant in hausa.
Before I could respond to Kauna, kaka walked into the sitting room from outside and saw me feeding Kauna. She stopped the moment she spotted us and then she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
She pointed at my hand that was already on kauna's mouth in a questioning manner.
"It's nothing kaka. I'm just feeding her." I said not ready to explain why.
She shrugged with an unbothered expression before leaving for her room. I sighed and looked at Kauna who was just silently waiting for me to continue feeding her.
Before I could put another food into her mouth, kaka came out of the room and handed me a paper before she left again.
'Come to my room when you're done eating. It's urgent.' She wrote.
Messages like this made me scared and want to rush whatever I was doing to hear what was urgent. Was it some bad news? Did somebody else die?
I quickly finished feeding Kauna and let her off to the room before I finally went to Kaka's room. I knocked on her door and entered the room. She was sitting by her bed side when I entered the room.
"You said I should meet you." I told her the moment I shut the door behind me.
She didn't look too happy at the moment and she patted the space beside her on the bed. I went to sit beside her and silently waited for her to say what she had to say. Or write rather.
She wrote something on her everyday pad and gave it to me.
'Today is Mr Audu's burial. They're doing it behind the central mosque. Take Kauna for it.'
I looked at kaka after reading what she wrote. I knew what she had written was not a good idea for Kauna. Burial was one of the worst part of death. I remembered Mama's burial, it was like I was watching her getting swallowed by a lion.
"Okay I will." I said although I wanted to hesitate.
Kauna was sitting on the bed when I returned back to my room. I didn't know how to break the news to her but I just had to find a way to. I walked to her while staring at her and sat beside her. She looked back at me, suspecting something was wrong.
"Kauna," I started, trying not to have so much pity coming out of my mouth. "We may not go to Zainab's house again."
She just stared at me silently and waited for me to say more.
"Today is your father's burial and kaka said I should take you there." I said.
She looked at me silently like I just said the most normal thing she has heard.
"I think the burial service is this afternoon." I added.
"I don't want to go." She said straightaway.
I sighed and looked at her, "I understand that you must be really hurt. Sometimes the worst thing that could happen to any of us is to lose someone we have a lot of memories with. I've been there and going for the burial was the last way to say goodbye to our memories. "
"All I had with him were bad bad memories. So it get better for me." Kauna replied confidently, for the first time. "Let us go to Zainab house and forget that dead man burial."
With that she got down from the bed without bothering to show any emotion and walked to where her shoe was. I just sat there in my same spot, shocked at what she just said.
Dead man? Like it was the most normal thing someone could say about their late father. In fact this was the first time I see her expressing what she felt about her father.
I looked at Kauna who was struggling to wear her shoe by the mirror. I walked up to her and squatted to help her with. She didn't say anything, just silently watched me help her to buckle her sandals.
"It's okay to be angry." I said with all attention on her sandals.
She nodded her head without any more response.
After I was done, I sighed and looked at her. The girl with the two eye colour.
All I could see was innocence and beauty. Not the witch everyone thought she was, even though her two eye colour made her look a bit like one. I touched the tip of her braided all-back. It was soft and long, unlike my hair that was the opposite. She just stared at me silently, not knowing to do about my weird action.
I stood up immediately and went to get my hair done by the mirror.
It took a whole two minutes to comb and pack my short natural hair that could barely make a bun. Then I was done.
"Good to go?" I asked Kauna who was patiently sitting on the bed.
She nodded and came down from the bed. She walked to her bag that was beside the mirror and removed her black pashmina.
I groaned because I knew what she was up to.
She put it over her head, covering most of her face. I quickly came closer and removed the pashmina.
"You're not wearing this scarf again." I warned, "Not as long as you're around me."
"But they will run away from me." She said looking down.
"Who? The other children?" I asked, "Why?"
"Because they do it every time they see me. I don't know why."
I looked at her expression. She didn't look at me and I knew she was very serious. But that didn't stop me from seizing the pashmina.
Suddenly, I dragged her to the mirror to take a loot at herself. She doesn't look at the mirror as she still stared to the ground.
"Look at the mirror." I demanded. She shook her head and backed the mirror.
"What's wrong with you?" I frowned.
"I promise Ummah that I will never look at a mirror in my life. She never let me even look at one before and I don't want to break her promise." She responded with her eyes still glued to the ground.
"You've never looked at yourself in the mirror?" I asked, debating whether it was true or not.
She nodded her head slowly.
I slowly moved closer to her and squatted to the ground to be on her level.
"Look at me." I said and she obeyed, "She's not here. Just look at the mirror. Even if it's for once in your life."
She stared at me in silence before slowly turning around to look at mirror. The moment she caught a glimpse of her reflection, she became puzzled.
She held her hand to her right eye and touched it in amazement.
"Aren't you happy with yourself?" I asked, smiling this time.
She shook her head like she was going to cry.
"It's blue." She said touching her right eye, "This eye."
"You didn't know?" I asked, "It has always been like that."
"I see why Ummah always cover my face and never allow me to look at mirror." She mumbled, "My eyes is ugly."
"You don't have ugly eyes." I held her arms and looked at her reflection in the mirror, "It's called unique and anything unique is beautiful. You're beautiful Kauna."
"Miriam?" She called in a low tone.
"Yes?"
"What is beautiful?" She asked.
I shook my head and responded, "It is not something that can be defined."
"Why?" She asked.
I sighed and turned her to face me as she still had her hand on her face.
"Because it's different for everybody." I said, "Words like beauty, family and love are the most difficult to define. That's why everyone has different explanations for them."
"Why does everybody has different definitions?"
I groaned, "Because they all change with time. None of them lasts forever... Especially on the outside."
I looked down and sighed, looking for a way to change the topic so that I won't corrupt this little girl's mind. My attention was drawn to the brown catholic scapular on Kauna's neck. I touched the picture on it and said,
"Even if they don't last forever on the outside, they do within. Like the family in this picture" I said, looking at the picture of Mary and Jesus on the scapular, "Do you know who the two people in this picture are?"
"Me and Ummah?" She answered with a question.
I looked at her and chuckled to her response. "No. That is Mary and Jesus." I said, "you don't know them too?"
"I do." She muttered.
"Alright." I nodded and stood up, "I think we have to go now because we're late for the birthday party."
I started walking for the door and stopped when I noticed Kauna was up to something behind me.
"And don't think of taking that scarf." I said lastly before I heard her dropping the pashmina back.
******
We got to Halimat's house in good time. The gate was wide open and we see children running in and out of the gate. Most of them wore traditional wears and some of the girls wore hijabs.
Once we stepped into the house compound from the gate, the first thing anyone could see were children running around. Stubborn little children. Most of them were either chasing each other or playing games like Ten Ten, fire on the mountain or Tinko Tinko in different groups. A few even used long TV wires as skipping rope to jump on. The house compound now looked like a primary school playground or an orphanage home instead of mama Halimat's house.
Ahead of us was Zainab backing us and trying to separate two small boys from fighting as some other children cheered around them. Poor Zainab.
"Zainab." I called out.
She was still separating them as she pulled the two boys on each side of her hand and shouting for them to stop.
"Zainab!" I shouted louder this time.
She turned around and her face turned from a frown to a relieved one the moment she saw me. She immediately released herself from the boys and they continue fighting. Zainab walked up to me with so much tiredness in her face.
"Thank God you're here!" She moaned and pounced her head on my shoulder, "these children will not kill me. I am now the only adult here."
"I've come to your rescue." I patted her shoulder.
Immediately, our eyes glanced at two little, about 3 or 4 years old, kids passing by in front of us. A boy and a girl. The boy was pulling the girl's long hair and dragging her like she was a dog on a rope. For some reason I found this amusing.
"Leave her hair alone!" Zainab shouted immediately and when the two kids realised Zainab was talking to them, the boy released the girl's hair and ran away immediately.
"Children amuse me." I scoffed.
Zainab stood upright and caught Kauna standing beside me. "Oh you brought her too."
"I had to." I said, "besides all her age mates are here."
"If you say so." Zainab shrugged and looked at me steadily, "so how have you been? I thought maybe you won't come because you may still be in grief for Arjun."
I sighed, "I still feel bad but I have tried my best not to think about it."
"I understand." She gave a small smile. "By now he would have been probably playing with Faisal."
And that was definitely true. How could I forget about Faisal's doing too.
"Where's Faisal?" I asked while looking around.
"He is in his room." Zainab replied, "he doesn't want to play. I'm sure he is probably just mourning for Arjun."
"Poor Faisal." I shook my head.
"Poor Arjun too." Zainab said, "every time I saw him, he reminded me of the Indian series I always watch."
"You and those your Indian series." I scoffed. "If it's not Indian, it's Mexican."
If there was anybody that was an Indian and Mexican series freak, it was Zainab. She has watched practically all of their series that were released in Nigeria.
Zainab jumped immediately, "It's true! You should start watching When You are Mine! Allah that series is too sweet! New episodes are coming out today! In this new episode, Paloma is going to find out that Diego went to jail..."
I cut myself from Zainab's over talking and turned to look for Halimat. This was not the time for Zainab to start telling me about a series I don't watch and was never planning to watch. I looked at Kauna who was just silently standing beside me and watching the children play.
Immediately I looked up, I saw Halimat coming out of the house with two other girls.
"Halimat!" I shouted which caused Zainab to stop talking. She turned to me and I gestured for her to come immediately.
She came closer alone and left her two friends to wait for by the corner.
"Happy birthday." I smiled and she gave me a hug.
She was dark and very very skinny and had short thread done on her hair at the moment, which wasn't a perfect choice of hair to have on your 10th birthday. She was Zainab's madam's first child and she was yet the nicest girl around. Unlike the other children, I could trust her with Kauna.
"Happy birthday." Kauna said in form of a mumble.
"Thank you." Halimat grinned at Kauna and touched her cheek before turning to me. "You brought her with you?"
"Yes." I said and brought Kauna in front of me, "please can you take her to where the children are playing."
"Yes no wahala!" Halimat held Kauna's hand cheerfully and started to pull her to where her friends was.
Kauna turned to me while Halimat was pulling her hand and dragging her to meet her friends. I could tell from Kauna's eyes that she was begging me to take her away from Halimat. I just grinned and waved at her.
I sighed and turned around only to realise Zainab was not there anymore.
"Over here!" Zainab shouted as she stood under the tree near the left end of the fence of the front compound.
I walked over to her while she was setting a long wooden bench for us to sit on. She then sat on it when she was done and I joined her too.
"You really love that Kauna girl." Zainab said immediately, "I don't know how you're not scared she's staying in your house."
I chuckled, "I don't love her. And she's not as bad as you think she is. The more you get to know her, the harmless she is."
"Whatever you say." She scoffed, "If I were you I would have given her to the orphanage a long time ago."
"I considered that but then I think that's being selfish."
"What is being selfish is abandoning your daughter alone with a stranger and running away!" Zainab snapped.
"We can't tell why kauna's mother left her." I scoffed. "Maybe she'll come back."
"Come back my foot." Zainab sneered. "That woman could have carried Kauna if she wanted to. But I'm sure she had a reason for leaving Kauna and you should know that as well. They were beggars and homeless people on the street. You think it's normal for a mother to leave her child in the hands of a stranger?"
Sadly Zainab also didn't know Inna Hauwa was Mr Audu's wife. Nobody still knew today, even after his death.
"You should rethink about keeping Kauna in your house because you don't know what she is capable of doing. Remember she's a witch and nobody here in Kaduna accepts witches." She added.
"I get that you want me to just throw her away.... But Zainab," I looked at her closely, "Rejecting someone will not make them a better person."
I couldn't believe I was the one saying that. What really did Kauna do to my head for me to become this soft?
Zainab rolled her eyes in response.
"Somebody needs to pity her. She's human." I added to piss her off more, "she needs love just like every other human. That is what we're created for. To be loved. If we don't have love around us then we're becoming incapable of being human. Don't you notice that the more unloved a person is, the weaker they become."
"Miriam," she looked at me amusingly, "this is not you. Who turned the soft spot on you?
I chuckled, "I don't need anything to say the truth. Besides-"
"Zainab!" I was cut by the sound of a child's wailing ahead of us.
We both turned to see two small girls, about kauna's age, both pulling a Barbie doll away from each other's hand as they walked towards us.
Zainab groaned in response.
"She took my doll baby." One said.
"No it's mine! I carried it first!" The second one whined. "Zainab tell her to leave it alone!"
The second one seemed more like the stubborn one.
Zainab just looked away angrily without answering them. This time I knew it was my duty. The two girls kept pulling the doll as one held the legs and the other held the head. This must be a very strong Barbie doll because one of the parts would have pulled out of the body since.
"Do you know what?" I called out as they both looked at me, "cut the doll into half and share the piece. So that it will be equal."
"No!" The stubborn one wailed.
"Yes!" The calmer one agreed.
They kept arguing and this just made me laugh because it reminded me of the story in the bible where Solomon told two mothers who fought for one baby to cut the baby into half. Well in my mind, I was making a wise decision.
"Just give me the stupid doll!" Zainab scowled and grabbed it from them before she stood up and walked away with it angrily.
The two girls started running after Zainab, crying and begging her for it. As they disappeared into the house, It was just me and my lonely self now.
I looked around a bit when I suddenly spotted Halimat walking with her two friends to the gate. They were not with Kauna. I walked towards them with so much confusion.
"Where's Kauna?" I asked the moment I got closer.
Halimat looked at me confused, "I don't know who you're talking about."
I frowned, "the small girl I left you with!"
"Oh." She looked around not knowing what to say, "I left her with some of the other children-"
"Come and see what is happening to Maiya!" I overheard one of the children around us tell another child, "They want to sacrifice her!"
They both ran away to the back gate cheerfully, leaving me confused to what they meant.
Maiya? Sacrifice? Wait!
"Kauna!" My eyes widened and I turned around immediately and ran after the children.
Who was going to sacrifice Kauna?
I stopped running when my thoughts got scarier. The children killer! The one that killed Arjun and Sanusi!
I took off and ran faster than I normally do. My heart was already on my head. I was not going to let those people kill Kauna. Not after they've taken Arjun away from me.
I stepped outside the back gate and the road was quite empty but I see the children running past the house back fence. I followed their lead when suddenly I heard singing from the corner. Once I took the left corner behind the fence, I see few children gathered in front of an abandoned old car. The car was stainless steel, old and completely abandoned. It was parked close to the fence outside and it was facing the wall sideways.
The children were singing and laughing as they stood in front of the left side of the car. They sang in Hausa and kept repeating the word Maiya in the song.
I moved closer to see what they were celebrating about when suddenly I see a human being locked up inside the back of the car. It was Kauna. She was banging against the window and she was inaudible. The windows of the car was up and it looked like she was suffocating as she kept banging on it harder.
"Are you people mad?!" I shouted angrily at the children, "someone is dying and you're laughing!"
They kept quiet the moment they heard my angry tone.
"Before I count 3," I shut my eyes, "I don't want to see one person standing here. One-"
The moment I opened my eyes, they were already in a farther distance as they ran through the breeze.
I moved closer to the car immediately and looked at Kauna still banging on the left window of the back seat. I tried opening the door but it was locked. I tried the front door of the car and it was locked as well. I couldn't even go to the right side because it was clasped against the wall fence and there was no way someone could come out of that side. And all the windows were locked. How did these children get her inside?
"Open the door from inside!" I told Kauna from outside the window.
She seemed not to hear me as she kept banging the window and trying so hard to breathe. I looked around and there was nobody to ask for the key. Time was going and Kauna could die inside the car if I don't bring her out soon.
I looked around me for something to break the car window. I found a big stone few foots behind me. And it reminded me of something. Mama.
I looked at the stone and fear grew all over me. I didn't dare try touching a stone since I killed Mama with one.
The banging on the car stopped and I turned to see Kauna gradually falling inside the car. She was dying.
Forget fear. It was time to step up. This was my second chance to save someone's life with the same method I had failed the first time.
I carried the stone and got closer to the car. Kauna gradually stood up when she saw me and I gestured for her to move back. She understood and moved away from the window.
I was thinking of throwing the stone but then I remembered that that was what killed Mama. This time I came close to the window Kauna was standing close to and I broke the glass down with the stone in my hand. I made sure the glass pieces didn't get close to Kauna.
It took several hits before I was able to completely get the pieces wide enough for Kauna to come out. I threw the stone away and quickly carried Kauna out from the window. She was coughing and choking on her throat. She was breathing heavily as I carried her and brought her to the ground.
"What kind of rough play did you get yourself into?!" I shouted at her the moment I stood her to the ground.
She was gradually falling but I held her. I squatted to be on her level and curiously looked at her. She looked really exhausted as she kept breathing heavily.
"They forced me inside and locked me up." She responded.
"Why?"
"They said they don't accept witches in this community so they wanted to get rid of one." She said.
"But are you a witch?"
She shook her head.
"Then you're not a witch." I said.
She nodded as she was still panting.
"Look Kauna," I held her arms tightly, "don't ever play with those children again. They're not your friends, you hear me? Not everybody is your friend."
She nodded tiredly. I knew she didn't have time to start listening to my advice as all she wanted was to leave this place.
"Let's go." I said and stood up. I had to carry Kauna up with her arms wrapped around my neck because she was too weak to walk.
The moment I turned around behind me, i saw Zainab, Halimat and her friends standing there in surprise.
"We're not coming back here again." I frowned at Zainab and Halimat although I was talking to Kauna.
I walked pass them and made my way to leave that area without waiting for any of them to say anything.
******
Night fell and I sat in the sitting room watching tv after having a little argument with kaka about not taking Kauna for her father's burial. I know you're wondering how I argued with a dumb woman but it just happened. Her attitude was enough to explain the argument and she kept writing on her note pad and because of this, it took about 30 mins before she finally gave up the argument.
I was trying so hard to watch the late night When You Are Mine series on AIT channel that Zainab told me to watch, but I could barely concentrate as my mind couldn't get over what happened today. And the worst part was that all the actors' mouths were not moving along with the audio, only because they were speaking in Mexican language and the audio set was English.
Kauna was in the sitting room as well. She was writing in her diary as she sat on the floor.
I glanced at the clock to see it was 9 pm and it was time to go to bed. Even though it seemed a bit early, I was tired after I had a long day and sleep was all that I could count on now.
I stood up and turned off the tv. I Walked closer to Kauna and squatted to see what she was writing on her diary. She wasn't writing. She was drawing. She was drawing an image that I could not comprehend with. Although it looked more like a star.
"You don't draw on a diary." I said, "you write."
She looked at me and nodded her head slowly.
"It's time to go to bed." I tell her. We both stood up.
As we made our way to the room, unknowingly Kauna's leg kicked a glass cup that was hidden at the side of one of the chairs. It broke and shattered on the floor. I groaned because I knew I had to clean it up and I was already too tired for the stress.
Kauna looked at it, trying to figure out if she should clean it. I told her not to worry and that I was going to clean it by tomorrow morning.
After few minutes of changing into our nightwear, I finally tucked Kauna into bed. I stood by the door getting ready to turn off the lights when Kauna called my name.
"I'm scared to sleep alone." She mumbled.
I didn't know what to say. I had also forgotten about what happened this morning, waking up to Kauna sleeping on the floor in the sitting room.
"You want me to sleep here with you?" I questioned.
She just looked at me not knowing what to say. I sighed and closed the door behind me.
"As you should know," I said turning off the lights, "I sleep with the lights off."
She didn't respond but just lay there. I walked to the bed and sat on the right side that was facing opposite the room window.
I took my slippers off and gradually lie under the blanket. It was very awkward because I can't remember the last time I slept on the same bed with someone after Mama died. I refused to face Kauna as I laid my head facing the opened window.
Once more I was staring at Mr Audu's blue house. The inside of the house was still dark as always and it felt so odd that nobody was living there now.
After what felt like 20 minutes of lying on the bed, I was still wide awake staring outside the window. I just didn't know why I couldn't sleep. Maybe it was the awkwardness that I was sharing bed with Kauna.
I turned to lay face to face with Kauna and check up on her. Once I completely turned around, I see Kauna staring at the ceiling. I looked up the ceiling to see if something was there but nothing was.
"You can't sleep?" I asked, sounding like a whisper.
"She ran away right?" Kauna asked with eyes still glued to the ceiling.
"Who?" I frowned.
"Ummah." She said.
"She didn't run away. Don't worry she will be back soo-"
"I knew that story was about me." She cut me as she still stared at the ceiling. I looked at her in confusion before she added, "The mother bird story she tell us that day. I am the baby bird that will got eaten."
"Kauna-"
"Will you ever eat me?" She asked seriously.
I stared at her in confusion, trying to get what she meant. She turned to look at me in the dark and I looked away from her.
"I am no human eater." Was all I could say even though I didn't understand her question. "Just go to sleep and we will talk about this tomorrow morning okay?"
She doesn't respond but just turned around and backed me. It kept getting stranger every time I was alone with Kauna. She was so unpredictable. I didn't bother saying any more as I turned around and faced the window.
Eat? Why would I eat kauna?
After several minutes of thinking about it, it came to my head what she meant. When inna Hauwa told the story of the mother bird and said why the other birds ate her baby bird when she was gone, her response was that the other birds were like the people in this world.
"Once something does not belong to you, you take it for granted." Inna Hauwa said.
If Kauna needed an answer to that, she needed to know I was not like everyone in this world. I was never going to take her for granted. Not once did I even ever call her Maiya and never will I call her that.
I sighed and closed my eyes. Before I knew it, I drifted off to sleep.
******
"Miriam." I heard kauna's voice in front of me.
"Mm?" I mumbled as I was still sleeping with my eyes shut. I don't know if it was morning but it didn't feel like it. All I know is that I must have slept for at least two hours and Kauna was already disturbing me.
"Miriam." Kauna called again in a low tone.
"What Kauna?" I groaned and opened my eyes.
My heart jumped the moment I looked in front of me. I slowly sat up on the bed and stared in front of me to see if I was seeing well. I rubbed my eyes to be sure I was just dreaming. But I wasn't.
Kauna was standing in front of me by my bed side. She was holding half of the earlier broken glass in her hand as the pieces were causing her hand to bleed. Her mouth was covered in blood as well and pieces of glasses were around her mouth.
"Did you.... just eat glass?" I furrowed my eyebrows.
Before Kauna could answer, she fell to ground and fainted.
"Kauna!" I shouted and quickly went over to her.
I held her head and she was passed out with blood all over her mouth. I couldn't even express the shock that was in me. Why on earth will a small girl eat glass? I thought she said she never ate with her hands? Even if she did, was glass the first thing to think of eating?
I looked up in despair.
There was more that Kauna hadn't told me that I was sure could be possible. Zainab was right, Inna Hauwa didn't just leave Kauna for no reason.
There was something else. Something more about Kauna that I didn't know.
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END OF CHAPTER 5
I apologize for the very late post, been very very busy with school. I may not be able to publish another chapter until the next 3 weeks because of exams.
If you realise, Kauna is not that perfect with speaking English but I'm just trying to be realistic here because she never went to school. If you look closely, Kauna hardly pronounces her singular verbal words with 's' at the end and that is one of the major reason her sentences are not well said.
Please don't give up on this book because of my slow updates 😭 there are many more amazing chapters to come and I promise you'll enjoy it.
Have a good weekend.
- Husseina