Maitar Ido Part 1 Complete Hausa Novel

They all came close to me, each with her own words, until they won me over and I agreed, without knowing what was waiting for me there at the river.
I said, "But you have to help me sell the food."
"We agree," they said in unison.
My name is Sarah. Laila and Farida are my friends, and none of us is over thirteen years old. We share almost the same interests, including a love for playing in water or rain; whenever it rains, we always find a way to go out and bathe.
I am a child of poor parents. Being a helping hand is my job; I help a woman who owns a hair salon and another who sells food, all to get what my grandmother and I can use to sustain ourselves.
All three of us stepped out, and I locked the salon before we headed down the path leading to the water channel. We kept talking along the way until we arrived. We all stood there watching how the water poured down from a tall mountain, filling the massive place we call the river.
They had already plunged in and started bathing. I put one foot in with the intention of joining them, but then I felt as if someone was holding me back.
"Sarah, come on in!" they kept saying. I replied, "Okay," as I placed my other foot, the right one, further ahead.
I felt a sharp sting in my eardrum, like someone being pricked with a needle, and then I began to feel a strange burning sensation right where my heart is, while something moved in my throat as if I had eaten hot pepper.
I raised my eyes and looked at the sky, only to see a pitch-black storm gathering, coming down low as if it were about to crash into the river water. A sudden fear gripped me right then, and splash! I fell face down into the water. "Sarah!" I heard my friends' voices, which was the last thing I knew. From that moment, I lost consciousness entirely until I woke up and found myself lying on our crumpled mattress.
Slowly, I sat up, holding my forehead, which was throbbing with a terrible pain.
"Are you awake?" my grandmother asked me, staring intently at me.
I said, "Yes! But..." and then I fell silent.
"Lie back down and rest some more, I know you are exhausted," she said, handing me a medium-sized calabash. I accepted it with the intention of drinking the water, which I assumed was medicine, but then I stopped dead in my tracks, staring at the very bottom of the calabash where I could see some living, moving creatures.
"Grandmother, what is this you gave me?" I asked, turning my gaze back to her.
"It is floris water," she answered. Floris is a tree that cures any illness, especially those related to evil spirits. I have often heard experts mention it, and I won't forget that I even heard it being used in one of Mrs. Sadauki's books, Ruhin Aljan. However, this water's color looked nothing like the descriptions of floris water; regardless, that did not stop me from drinking it.
I set the calabash down, and not even five minutes later, I began to hear a cracking sound in my forehead, as if someone wanted to split it in two. My tightly packed brain began to shift inside my skull, while flashes of what happened to me in the water returned.
Fish-like creatures, the kind that are half-human, had received me under the water. I was washed with certain waters as if I were a queen, and then something was rubbed onto the soles of my feet. A remarkably handsome young man took off a heavy coin necklace from my neck and put it around his own before tossing me back to the riverbank. I took a deep breath after finishing the flashback I just experienced, and I touched my neck—indeed, the coin necklace (the kind made with money stamped with a human head) was gone.
Grandmother moved closer to me and said, "Sarah, tell me, what did you see?" I remained silent and gave her no answer; instead, I just lay back down and turned my back to her.
She let out a sigh before leaving. Seeing this, I got up quickly and dragged out an old iron trunk that Grandmother had kept for years and years; ever since I opened my eyes, I had seen her with it, and whenever someone's illness became severe, people would come and she would give them medicine from it.
I was deeply surprised to see old photographs that must have been hundreds of years old inside the trunk. I looked through them slowly until I came across a mermaid queen; just looking at her face would confirm that she was evil. I kept encountering terrifying things, and as I stared closely at them, my eyes felt a sudden, sharp strain, as if they were vacuuming something in. Hearing a movement as if she were coming back, I quickly put everything away and pushed the trunk back.
"Come on in," Grandmother said, indicating she had visitors, as she occasionally received them.
"Sarah, go outside until we are finished," Grandmother ordered me.
I went outside just like any other time she had visitors and told me to leave, and I would normally use that opportunity to go play. Today, however, a thought entered my skull, a desire to know: what exactly does Grandmother do that makes her send me outside every single time?
I waited for about five minutes to pass, and then I attempted to get up from where I was because my heart was racing with anxiety. To my surprise, though, I felt my legs locked tightly; I couldn't stand up, like someone who had suffered a stroke. I remained in this state until the visitors came out, who happened to be two women—a mother and a young lady. Surprisingly, it was only then that my legs released me. Grandmother followed me with a long look, leaning against the flimsy doorframe of our room.
"Since when did you start feeling this change?" she threw the question at me.
I stood up and said, "What kind of change?"
"The desire to see what I am doing," she answered bluntly. I pouted and said, "Well, what is it that you do?"
"Do you want to know?" she asked. I nodded my head to say yes, and she said, "Only after you tell me what happened to you in the water." I didn't know what the reason was, but I just felt like hiding it from her. I said, "Nothing. I fell into the water, so how could I know what happened? Just ask Laila and the others."
"Alright then," Grandmother said, but I could definitely see disbelief in her eyes, though I didn't know the reason why.
At night, after we ate, Grandmother began to tell me scary bedtime stories, because I loved those kinds of stories. As she spoke, I began to feel sleepy like any other night, but tonight's sleep was completely different from my usual sleep. My eyes were closed, yet I could see clearly everything Grandmother was doing to me, things I failed to comprehend.
I saw her attach chicken feathers behind her ears. Before I could finish wondering why she was doing this, I saw her transform into a chicken and then fly up into the air. Instead of me staying confined to the room where I lay, wherever Grandmother headed, I could see it. She went around people's houses, perching on their roofs; I didn't know her reason for doing this until she got tired of wandering and returned home. She took back her human form, and right at that moment, a deep, real sleep overtook me. I didn't wake up until the next morning, without prayers or supplications; I just went outside to urinate and wash my face. I felt a terrible hunger, so I headed toward Grandmother, who was sitting on a woven mat packing tobacco into plastic bags. I froze completely, staring at her feet, which looked exactly like chicken feet. I quickly averted my eyes when I saw she was about to look up.
"Is everything alright, why are you just standing there?" she asked me.
"I feel hungry, and you know I didn't go to help Lantana sell food yesterday, so she didn't give me any," I answered. Before she could say anything, Sailuba entered our house with a greeting.
I greeted her quickly, and she went on to greet Grandmother before turning her gaze to me, saying, "You didn't finish your work for me yesterday before you locked the shop. Where is the key?"
My eyes widened before I started fumbling through my clothes, and luckily, it was inside. I pulled it out and gave it to her. She took it before saying, "Let's go then, so you can finish up." So I followed her, and we went to the salon where she did people's hair and nails, braided hair, and applied henna.
As soon as I saw a car parked, I knew a wealthy city woman had arrived, which is what we all called her. She came every single month to buy the human hair that fell to the floor during styling. I didn't know how long she and Sailuba had been working together, but I knew this was their business.
After Sailuba opened her small shop, she brought out a large plastic bag and dumped out all the collected human hair. Only then did the wealthy woman come inside, take it, and hand her a large sum of money. Sailuba accepted it gratefully, saying, "Thank you, ma'am, until you come again." She escorted her all the way to the car, and when she came back, she was beaming with smiles as she counted the money. For the first time, I felt a strong urge to know the reason behind this business of selling human hair. I said, "Auntie, for Allah's sake, what does that city woman do with this hair?"
"How should I know, Sarah? Didn't she give me my money? That's her business; she can cook it and eat it for all I care. Take the broom and sweep the place before customers start arriving, then take the sign board and put it outside." As soon as she finished speaking, she walked out, leaving me with questions to which I had no answers, but I vowed to investigate them.