<p> </p><p>—</p><p>“Lawisa! Lawisa!”</p><p>"Yes, I’m here. Why are you calling me like an old woman who’s 100 years old?" Lawisa laughed as she responded to the person calling her.</p><p>"But you’re not being fair," the other woman replied. “Look at me—I’m still young and full of life—yet you’re comparing me to a 100-year-old woman!”</p><p>Lawisa sat down, adjusting her headscarf. "Oh, Maimuna, the ones who claim to be young and energetic are still active, but you—well, you’re getting left behind," she teased, giving Maimuna a playful slap on the arm.</p><p>They both burst into laughter as Maimuna replied, “I haven’t even gotten married yet, and you’re already talking about me getting old!”</p><p>Lawisa chuckled. “So what exactly do you not know about marriage?”</p><p>Maimuna rolled her eyes. “Are you starting again? You and I are in the same business, after all.”</p><p>"Fine, I was just joking," Lawisa said. “Now, let’s go. Everything is ready, and the person delivering the food has already taken it to the shop. We should leave before customers start arriving.”</p><p>"Let’s go," Maimuna agreed. “You’re the one who keeps delaying us with your long beauty routines as if you’re waiting for someone special!”</p><p>Lawisa laughed. “Our business requires us to look good, especially since we deal with people—mostly men. You know that too! In fact, you take even longer to get ready than I do.”</p><p>With that, they locked the house and headed to the shop.</p><p> </p><p>—</p><p>Maimuna and her friend Lawisa were from Darazo, a town in Bauchi State. Though they were close in age, Lawisa was slightly older. However, Lawisa was an orphan—one night, a man found her sitting under a tree, crying.</p><p>She was no older than nine at the time. The man approached her and asked, “Why are you sitting here alone so late at night? What happened?”</p><p>Through her tears, she replied, “My mother…”</p><p>He knelt beside her. “Where is your mother?”</p><p>Still crying, she said, “She left me.”</p><p>Seeing that it was getting late, he took her home. When he explained the situation to his wife, she hesitated.</p><p>“Honey, I’m afraid of taking in strangers nowadays. What if her mother comes back looking for her? And what if she doesn’t find her?”</p><p>The man sighed. “Please, just be patient. You can tell from looking at her that she’s been abandoned. Give her some food, and we’ll try to get more information from her later.”</p><p>After eating, they began questioning the girl.</p><p>“What’s your name?”</p><p>“Lawisa.”</p><p>“And where is your mother?”</p><p>“She always beats me and says I don’t have a father.”</p><p>Shocked, they looked at each other.</p><p>The man asked, “What does your mother do for a living?”</p><p>“She sells food. One day, a man came to her and said he wanted to marry her. The next morning, she kept beating me, saying I should leave because she was tired of suffering alone with me.”</p><p>“So how did you end up here?”</p><p>“My mother told me we were going on a trip. We got into a vehicle and came here. She told me to wait for her, but she never came back. I looked for her everywhere, but I couldn’t find her. So I sat down under the tree and cried.”</p><p>They sighed in disbelief.</p><p>"Do you know your home village?" the man asked.</p><p>Lawisa shook her head. “When we go home, we have to take two different cars. It’s far from here.”</p><p>The man turned to his wife. “From what she’s saying, they’re not even from this town. They’re probably from a village outside the main city. That’s why her mother abandoned her here—to leave quickly without suspicion.”</p><p>The wife nodded. “I also don’t think she was abandoned because of marriage. I think there’s more to the story.”</p><p>He sighed. “So what do you think we should do?”</p><p> </p><p> </p>
