Never complaining. Never stopping. Never asking for help.
One afternoon, out of curiosity, Mama Nneka stopped the girl and asked her a question from a Primary 4 mathematics textbook just to see what would happen.
Adai answered perfectly without hesitation.
Mama Nneka stared at her for a long time.
Then she asked another question.
And another.
And each time, the girl answered correctly.
The old woman leaned forward and said quietly, “Come to my stall every evening after your chores. I will teach you what I can.”
And from that day, behind the market, between stacks of groundnut bags and the smell of roasted corn, Adai got an education.
Mama Nneka gave her old textbooks, pencils, exercise books, and something far more important.
She gave the girl belief.
She held Adai’s face in her wrinkled hands one evening and said, “Your mind is not a kennel. Nobody can lock it.”
For 2 years, this secret arrangement worked.
Adai would finish her chores, walk to the market with the excuse of buying something for the house, sit with Mama Nneka for 1 hour, and return before Blessing noticed anything.
She covered Primary 4, 5, and 6 material. She moved into junior secondary textbooks that Mama Nneka borrowed from a retired teacher on the next street.
Her mind was fast.
Her memory was terrifying.
And for the first time since her mother died, something inside her chest felt warm again.
Something that felt like hope.
