A Weakness Called Love: Memoirs of an African Housemaid

CHAPTER 17: SHE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALL

Musa had visited Shatu once and never went back. Everyday there was a different excuse. But he told my mother that she was a fine girl. I was happy with his declaration.

Since the sad demise of Ubaidah , I had told my mother I will not go to town with Halimatu. Besides, Halimatu And I had our issues. I knew she will never agree to take me to town. I did not want it either. I was not ready to die yet. So, hajiya(my mother) went to another woman named 'Laraba' she also take girls to town. Laraba had agreed to take me to town this time. I started preparing for town. All my clothes were dirty, I had to go the stream and wash. Musa had already washed my mother's. I carried my clothes and was off to the stream. I had put my clothes down and was about to start when I felt someone embraced me from behind. Her head reached the middle of my back. I knew it was a small somebody. But who could it be? I was never friends with any younger girls in town. They were terrified of me. Who could be this confident? whoever it is, she did smell nice. She was actually wearing cologne.

I removed her hands and turned to face her, behold it was the newbie all dressed up.

She had makeup on her face. And her shoes were new also. She wore a flat black shoe not a rubber slippers that everyone wore. She had small nice earrings on her ears. It was not her wedding but she was killing it. Dressed like that, she stood out in the crowd. She was like a town girl and an affluent town girl at that. I had to know how that happened. I decided not to shove her off immediately until I got the gossip I wanted. Clearly she was not there to wash. She had no clothes with her. Only a stupid grin plastered on her adorned face.

"Yanmata " (Young girl) I said, trying to be nice.

After we exchanged greetings, I asked

"How was town? You are home early, what happened? "I asked

Then she started her long narration:

" town had been good. The only challenge I had was at Hajiya Kulu's residence. Thankfully it was short. I was taken to a woman in town, who took me to a great town. A town of riches called "habuja". A town of affluence and beauty. Everything was like magic. There was this thing you press and the room becomes very cold, they call it the ac. You have not seen sorcery until they take you to a machine that has buttons on it. They insert a card, whisper some magical incantations and behold money comes out. No matter how much they desire.

The woman I was suppose to work for, looked at me and asked "how old are you?" To which

I replied "I don't know".

Like most girls the newbie does not know her age. Mother's usually count how many rainy seasons they were after the birth of a child and they almost always forget after a few years for they get tired of counting. Unless there were one of those obsessive parents, in that case they never get tired.

"They treated me well and even enrolled me into this town school." She continued

Through the corner of my eyes I saw Rabi and her gang watching us curiously. I smiled, Knowing them fully well, there were wondering where such a rich girl was from. They were a different breed. They were from a neighbouring village. Although one can walk to their village by foot from ours. The villages are sparsely populated, some villages have only 3 families residing. Though the families have at least 30 people each. Their Village was the Village of the 'tubabbu' 'the repented' the new converts. They had only accepted the religion of Islam 20years ago unlike us that our ascendants were always Muslims. We were not friends but we socialize well with them. It was always a pleasure talking to them, there was never a dull moment. They were a group of 5 girls that had vowed never to marry a village man. They only go to town in search of husbands. Even in town They do not eye the domestic helps or men engaged in manual jobs, their targets were much better than that. So they tend to choose the houses they work for carefully, because the husbands were always their first target. Never be fooled by their age, they had mastered the art of seduction .Their curiosity got the better of them and they came over. They immediately recognized the newbie and were really shocked. They started asking her where she had worked and who took her there? She replied eagerly Halimatu took me.

Rabi the leader of the gang asked her yet again: when are you going back?

The newbie bowed her head and pretended not to hear. Rabi repeated her question louder and in a more intimidating way, the newbie surprised me, because there was no glimmer of fear or intimidation in her eyes. well that was a plot twist I thought. she replied curtly with an attitude 'don't know'. This just got more interesting, I think I might be friends with this girl after all. She wasn't a softie anymore. I liked the change in her.

Rabi had gathered enough information and so she went away, the rest of her gang trailed behind her.

I sensed something was wrong, I wanted to know the rest of the story. After they had left, I asked the newbie: what was that about? Why did you not want to tell her when you are going back?

She replied, can you keep a secret?

I said 'of course and I will not judge you'

she said " I don't know when I am going back" her mood suddenly changed, she was sad when she said that.

She continued:" the people I worked for were good to me, we call the hajiya mamy" She said ,her face shone when she said that and a small smile illuminated her face. " at first they said I was too small, but then she was very kind and she let me stay. She never let me work too hard. I had a lot of free time to play with her kids. Her eldest is my age, we played together all the time. She even buy us sweets. Then one day mamy's husband said he will enrol me into a school, a conventional school. I was already enrolled into an Islamic school. That was when she started looking for an elder maid. She was able to find one and I was enrolled. The elder maid became like a mother to me. She started talking bad about mamy. She said she was unfair to me. That why do I have to go to a public school while mamy's children went to a private one. I started resenting mamy. For ' Iya, the elder maid made me see the light of the day. Everything she did was never enough, I wanted more, I expected more. She seemed very stingy. So iya and I started taking stuff without asking. Iya said we were entitled to it. It was our right and since mamy was not ready to share we have to take what was suppose to be ours. Iya said I was more disciplined than her kids and that I deserve better. From taking her food, we started taking various things. Mamy will look and look and sometimes I even help her look. To cut the long story short, one day she had a guest, a teenage girl with a beautiful phone. I had always wanted one of those. I devised a plan on my own. I stole the phone and hide it in our room. We shared a room with iya. Iya knew all about it and saw it, but bless that woman she never tell on me. I was enjoying myself with the phone, because as fate will have it, I had learned a lot about phones from mamys first daughter who was my friend. She will take mamy's phone and we will play games on the phone. I will take money from mamy and buy recharge card, the recharge card seller always load it for me. Iya will use the phone to call her children and her friends. One night I crept and went to buy recharge card. On my return I met mamy by the gate waiting for me. It was unexpected, I tried hiding the phone but she already saw it. She took it away and said she will take me home as soon as possible. Iya came out and pretended she never knew about the phone. She even scolded me saying

"oh, what is wrong with you, you are biting the hands that feed you. This people had been good to you, is this how you repay them? What more do you want? You have cheated yourself kai! Girls of nowadays. You could have had it all but you have to ruin everything for yourself" iya was fighting back tears. iya said she was sorry for my generation. mamy's house boy took me back to Kano to hajiya Kulu's House and Halimatu brought me back home. I don't know where I will be taken next"

She concluded.