Extract 3


Therefore, when at the end of the race my foot
touched the earth, it was a thunderous cheer that
greeted me from the spectators. All the students from
my schoolhouse came to congratulate me and share
the moment with me and the house in particular.
Students from my schoolhouse shook hands with me
and when it was Amina’s turn, she gave me a firm kiss
on the cheek.
‘You are great Bala,” she intoned. ‘’I knew you
would make it and give the house a good
representation for I have always watched you during
practice with keen interest, she added as she offered
me some glucose drink to take as it was glaring to
everybody that I was exhausted.
Since then, Amina and I became an appetizing
two-of-a-kind in the school. We did things in common
and those who did not know us well believed us to be
twins. Every one in the school acknowledged Amina’s
beauty, her gaiety, poise, and chocolate complexion as
a rare combination. When she spoke the English
language, one needed no telling that she had a foreign
orientation. She had finished her elementary school in
England. The blue blood that runs in her veins had
made her burglar-proof from many prying eyes in the
school.
The only unhappy and apprehensive moment for
me in the school was when her father withdrew her to
continue her education in the United States of America.
I soon got over it since I was preparing for
my final examination and would in a few months say
good-bye to secondary school life.
I have often wondered what would have become
of us if her father had allowed her to remain in Nigeria.
Perhaps we would have become something more to
each other or perhaps we would have broken up.
Secondary school love was not something as binding
as the kind of relationship that had developed with
Linda across the years. Linda was everything I would
have wanted in a woman. I was perfectly satisfied with
what I had in Linda.
Eventually, I left the room and bid my lovely Linda
goodbye. When I boarded the taxi-cab, she stood still
and would not move until the cab was out of her sight.
I reached Rigabiu at about seven in the evening.

What time it was did not matter to me since I knew
there was nothing to occupy me but to be in bed for the
rest of the night. As I was about leaving the motor park,
I ran into Bello.
Bello was the field engineer in the company
where I served and I was directly responsible to him.
Bello had gained a good reputation from the
management owing to his diligence, faithfulness and
hardwork. Moreover, there was never a time he had
betrayed the confidence reposed on him. He had just
completed his sixth year in the company at the time I
was posted there. I was posted to the company for my
one-year national service from the National Youth

Service Corps (NYSC) secretariat in Kano.

Extract from 3 A Woman in Need