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 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.