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Chapter 2 
 
Tasi Bello wasted no time and went straightaway to Magama quartets in search of the girl-hawker. 
He didn't know where he begin. believing the Hausa adage that says, The questioner never gets lost, the Hausa boy decided not to look for any of his former classmates residing in the locality. After all, another Hausa popular belief has it the men are the more jealous of other men showing interest in their girl-friends or wives than women boyfriends and husbands. 
He felt that he would make a stronger impressing to tell his friends that he had found a girlfriend than ask them to him to locate her. 
 
He went in the late afternoon, thinking that he Willis find it much easier to locate the house if he went back afterwards at night for the traditional tryst, which often takes place at nightfall, rather than waste time going about in the dark asking people around. 
Tasi found the task (he saw it as that) very difficult, even though, as it  is their wont, men of all ages had come outdoors and sat in groups according to age talking, cracking jokes and sampling any of the numerous snacks men, boy and girl hawkers brought along on their way past. He asked the men who he thought would know about the girl's father more than boys and girls. 
some of these might not even be domiciled in the neighbor-hood. 
Assalamu alaikum, he greeted a group men sitting on benches in front or a house. peace be upon you. 
wa alaikumus Salam, said one of the men. The same to you. 
please, I am looking for the house of Bala Fari. 
Bala Fari? the man asked no one in particular. 
There is no one with that name in this quarter, is there jama'a (people)? He turned to his companions. They all answered in negative. 
Tasi went on and even asked locals dabbling in trade as grain-sellers, fruiterers, vulcanizers, butchers and youth selling small packets of the so-called pure water, but to no avail. Girls Hawking snacks wouldn't be of any help either because Tasi didn't know the name of the girl he was looking for. 
Finally, a barber shaving a boy his head paused from his labours and said, I know Balliya, but not the man you mentioned. 
 
His daughter sells kola nuts, Tasi said. 
Whose daughter doesn't sell something in this quarter? I think it is Balliya you are looking for. He pointed at a house at the end. you see that house with a seating Dakali mound? 
The one painted light yellow with a boy sitting on the mound. That one indeed. Go there and ask. 
Tasi thanked the confident pursuer ( confident in his show of knowledge, rather than in his aviation) 
of a dying trade. with the emergence of the electric clipper, Tasi couldn't remember the last time her he saw a local barber seated with folded legs shaving somebody's head. Since youth affected the so-called °skin-head° synthetic style, but Tasi found it more preferable to have his hair on, rather than have it shaved with trendy, more efficient clipper. 
He crossed the road and approached the house. The boy was still seated on the dakali.Attired in an anklelength. Saudi- Arabian style gown, he showed no resemblance with the girl- hawker. 
Is this Bala Fari's- oh, I mean Balliya's house? 
Yes, it is, the boy answered, looking closely at the newcomer. But he is not at home. 
I am not looking for him. 
who are you then looking for? 
A girl who sells kola nuts. 
Barmani? 
Is that her name? 
Tasi was stuck by the strangeness of the name. He had never met any girl going by that name. Her mother must have lost many babies at childbirth and decided to call the one that survived, Let-her-be. 
 
Yes, the boy was saying, but she hasn't returned from selling kola nuts. Who should I say came here looking for her? 
 
Suddenly Tasi realized with the shock of a heavy punch he didn't see coming that he had not told the girl his name. Hiding a snigger from the boy, he considered himself absolutely beginner in the game of love. He had taken the girl on her word, only to be proven wrong. Should he forget her and go his own way? or should be persevere like the breve man he wanted to show the girl the he was? 
 
on her own part the girl, compared to Tasi Bello, was only faintly interested in her meeting with what was likely to be another boyfriend. She had had several all of who she considered boastful braggarts. 
They tackled life in a hurry and feel by the roadside in the game of the love because in general they proverbially burnt before they even came to the boil.

Chapter Two

Chapter 2 Tasi Bello wasted no time and went straightaway to Magama quartets in search of the girl-hawker. He didn't know where he be...

He had met her by chance-and been helplessly (as he felt it) drawn to her. She was Hawking some kola nuts on a tray. which contained a piece of moist  gunnysack on which the stimulant had been arranged. 
There were big nuts, middling nuts and small nuts, all in an assortment of pale and dark-reddish piles.  He rarely ate kolu nuts, and took them to be a specialty only for the elderly. They consume them in the manner of cigarette smokers not as a snack, but as  part of a habit that leads to addiction. He abhorred addiction; he knew that it led to mental derangement. 
 
Addicts either smoke weed or take drugs. It is commonly known that they begin with smoking cigarrttes, which is traditionally done with an  accompaniment of kola nuts. Thus, because Tasi Bello lumped together kola nuts,Cigarettes and drugs for  causing lunacy, he avoided cultivating a taste for either the least harmful or the most deadly in the order of the kola nut, cigarette and trendy drug. 
 It was therefore the girl that attracted Tasi, not what she was selling. Neither light- nor dark- skinned, but midway between the two, she balanced the tray on her head. Wearing a thin polyester and cotton veil, which showed sharply the twin peaks on her chest. She encouraged the young man to regard her from the head ( only her face was on view)  to the toe (the veil stopped at the knees) and up again. Her face was lightly rubbed with pomade; her eyes were sharply adorned with antimony. He took in her long face, interesting nose and strong white teeth, and  considered her beautiful. 
Catching hold of her attention, he spoke to her before she did. He knew what she would say; she would most obviously ask him to buy nuts. 
How much are the kola nuts? she approached him by the roadside holding the tray. 
 This pile five naira each, she said touching it, this ten naira each and this twenty naira each. 
He paused, forcing her to look up and stare at him. 
Their eyes met; she smiled and inclined her head. 
I am not buying the kola nuts, he ventured to say. I am attracted to you. 
She didn't look up, but look undecided to the young man, making him think, will she go away or will she stay and talk to me? 
sensing that she opted for the latter option, he quickly seized the opportunity and said,  where is your family   house? how can I locate it? 
she didn't answer and balanced her tray more securely on her head instead. she looked away, but, to her companion, at nothing in particular. 
please, he implored fervently, tell me where can I locate your house. 
suddenly he became bold. I am in love with you. 
 
He kept his eyes on her face. 
A car passed in a rush, leaving swirling dust, which cocooned them, making one wave a hand repeatedly about the face and the other start to cough. 
Will you tell me, or should I give up? 
should a human being refuse a human being? 
She asked, raising his hopes. You can find our house at Magama. It is the house of Bala Fari. 
Till we meet then. 
They both went their own ways. 
The girl left the boy feeling unduly regrettable for not asking her name, making him wonder whether she had indeed told him the correct address. Magama wasn't far away from Mararraba, his own hamlet, yet he failed to recognize the she had given him. In fact, the two residential areas, following a building boom resulting from the excess sales of Nigeria's light crude oil, had merged before their eventual sprawl in all directions. Confirming his suspicions, he remembered the claim she had made of one person not refusing another. Generally, young men take that statement with a pinch a salt and think that it is girths girls are playing hard to get. 
He was partly right. 
The girl went away with a smile on her face. Boys! she was thinking. Not all of them are serious. If this one is, let him trace me to Magama ( where she truly lived) and the be disappointment about the name ( which wasn't her father's) But who knows, she asked no one in particular- and thought of a proverb, He might chance upon a bushel while gleaning at the farm.

Chapter One

He had met her by chance-and been helplessly (as he felt it) drawn to her. She was Hawking some kola nuts on a tray. which contained a piece...

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Chapter Two

Chapter One