dusk// then back to me. I could feel the irritation oozing out from his skin, as I stood back trying to decide whom to follow. Zaynab promised pain, but she also guaranteed fun. He said nothing as I made to follow my terror of a sister. Zaynab walked like one who needed to use the pit latrine. I hung back, and talked to my doll, Queen Amina. ' Go back home.'' Zaynab turned and commanded, with a flare in her eyes. I stopped walking and looked to my feet for inspiration. ' Plissss, I want to come to Laraba's house too''. I pleaded in my boldest voice. Zaynab was not listening, or did not care to listen, as she had continued her march. ''Why doesn't anybody ever listen to me?'' I asked Queen Amina. There used to be a small wooden gate at the extreme end of our compound. To get to Laraba's house, we often had to go through the gate and walk right across Buraimi's kiosk and house. I hurried through the gate and walked in on Zaynab and Buraimi talking. From the tone of Buraimi's voice, I could tell that he had been touched by Zaynab's poisoned tongue. ' Come and take some sweets'' Buraimi offered as he rose from the bench beside his kiosk. As he stood, Zaynab stepped back in fear. I hung back in the shadows too, unsure of what to do. All the children in Sabo feared Buraimi. We feared
the Buraimi we had created. The Buraimi who had used his wife for money rituals, and had pounded her head into a paste; a paste which he had then rubbed on the poles of his kiosk to attract small children like us to buy his wares. We feared the Buraimi who had stopped talking to everybody else since the wife died in the big hospital carrying his ugly baby. I stood back as I watched my sister taking on the most feared man in SabonGari. ''I don't want your sweets!'' Zaynab screamed in her characteristic manner. Buraimi stopped walking and looked on her with surprise. He knew we all loved sweets. For a brief moment, he seemed unsure of what to do. Then he smiled and limped back towards his bench. ''So what do you want?'' He flashed his brown teeth at Zaynab. She had no answer for him. I wondered why she was still standing there, talking with evil Buraimi. ''Go Zaynab, go.'' I whispered in her direction. She did not acknowledge my presence, but Buraimi did. ''Hey, Fatima, come here, you fine little girl.'' He suddenly turned and spoke in my direction. I found myself walking towards his voice. His unexpected friendliness drew my feet to him until Zaynab called the world to a halt with her booming voice. ''Leave my sister alone!'' She shouted, as I began to wonder if she could say anything without using that shrill tone. Buraimi was tired of the drama. It seemed he was not expecting such hostility. But Zaynab was not
all the things I would say Abayomi Ogunwale
done. ''I will stone you!'' She announced. Stone Buraimi? Why would you stone someone as powerful and wicked as Buraimi? I asked with my eyes as I turned to look at my sister. Buraimi was amused. ''Stone me?'' He tapped his chest and asked. ''Why?'' He didn't know who he was talking to, but that was not the time to lecture him on what and what Zaynab could do. If Zaynab promises to stone you, you had better go buy yourself the biggest helmet y o u c a n afford. There was no need for
35 Klorofyl