Extract  From   A Woman in Need   by Lateef Adeola Sanusi

PART ONE
CHAP TER ONE
Getting up from siesta, I felt like I had been on my
back for two weeks. Indeed, it was owing to the
Saturday all-night party I attended. I had dined and
wined like I had never done before. I went into the
bathroom, had a nice shower, and prepared myself for
the journey back to Rigabiu - a small town of about two
hundred kilometres from Kano, the centre of industrial
and commercial activities in the northern part of Nigeria.
Whenever I came back from Rigabiu to my lovely
Linda to spend the weekend with her, I hated going
back to that locality. It had none of the city's pulchritude
and western or modern frolicsomeness that I had been
used to while I was a secondary school student in
Lagos, and for all my close to seven years sojourn in
Britain.
Moreover, to leave Linda for five days in a week
was to me, like eternity. Rigabiu is the headquarters of
a local government. Our company was carrying on a
construction project in this area, – the construction of a
road that would link Hadejia to Kano, bypassing
Rigabiu. Consequently, after the day’s job, we always
pass the night at Rigabiu. We still had about three
more weeks before we moved to another location
where we could pass the nights if things went on as
planned.
I was about to call Linda to give me some food
when as if she knew what I have been contemplating,
she appeared and said,
‘’Bala, I think you will like to have something?’’
Truly, I needed food more than anything else. I was just
recovering from the adverse effect of drinks. I had taken
too much drink. Therefore, I needed a nice meal before
my peregrination to Rigabiu that was now a weekly
ritual. This was my routine and was bound to remain
that way for the rest of my one-year national service.
After I had eaten, I dressed up and was about to
leave. In fact, Linda and I had all along been staying
together for about three years and it was only in recent
months that circumstance had compelled us to stay with
each other for only two days in a week. And two months
gone, it remained only ten months which were not much
although to me, it seemed like perpetuity before I would
be done with my service year so we could live together
once more and to part no more with my lovely Linda.
We had planned to have our wedding not long
after I might have finished my national service. We were
unmarried and we were great lovers. Between us, we
had a baby girl from the relationship. She was two
years old