Like an enraged lioness, Laraba continued attacking people, striking them with the stick in her hand. She made no sound except for a strange growl. Inno, who was standing aside trembling in fear and confusion, had never seen Laraba behave like this before. She spotted Sankira clinging to the side of a tree. With a furious scream she charged toward him like a helpless orphan with nowhere to run. Sankira cried out pitifully and tried to escape, but Laraba remembered how he had plucked leaves from the tree and glared at her earlier. Without hesitation, she raised the stick and hit him hard on the back. Sankira froze in pain and shouted,
> “Oh, village head! My back—ah! I swear this isn’t a human beating!”
The village head, wrapped in his grand robe, was crawling away in fear, saying,
> “I swear I renounce my chieftaincy. I hand it over to you—you’re the village head now!”
Laraba gave a wicked smile, grabbed Sankira’s robe from behind, and chased him while beating his back. When Sankira saw that Laraba was about to knock him down, he tore the front of his robe into two. Since it was already worn out, it split immediately. He ran off, leaving Laraba holding half of his robe. Dust rose everywhere as he disappeared.
The village head saw Laraba approaching and, in panic, shouted “Allahu Akbar!” like a man in battle. This time he was lucky—he stood up without falling. Fearing his robe might cause him more trouble, he pulled it off and threw it aside. He ran as fast as he could, his shoes and cap flying in the air. Laraba wanted to let him go, but when she remembered the slap he once gave her, she chased him too.
When the village head finally reached home, his wife Salame was with her mother Inna, who had come to check on her after an illness. He dashed into the compound, grabbed Inna’s hijab, and ran off with her. Inna screamed in terror, struggling to free herself as he dragged her, her head tightly wrapped in the hijab.
Hearing the commotion, the household panicked and scattered for safety. Laraba entered the compound growling, and everyone fled—everyone except a little boy of about two and a half sitting on the floor. The way Laraba glared at him with wide eyes and raised stick terrified the boy so much that he jumped up screaming and ran into his mother’s room.
Meanwhile, the village head hid under Salame’s bed, panting heavily. When he touched his trousers, he found them wet. Shaking, he whispered inside Inna’s hijab,
> “Salame, I think I’ve peed myself. I still feel something dripping like a running tap.”
27, October 2025
Hauwa
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