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      ••
        AT THE CHIEF PRIEST PLACE 
"Good evening sir" Musa and Bako  greeted.
   "Good evening my son you people are back"? the chief priest Atinga asked.
    "yes sir ," Bako answer happily. 
    Alhaji Bako reached into his agbada pocket and brought out the small bottle where he put the fingernails. He opened it and brought out the fingernails wrapped in a small piece of paper and handed them to the chief priest Atinga. 
    After examining them Atinga asked, "Are these  fingernails those of mad"?  
       "Yes , sir " Bako answered. 
      "Was the mad man really wild"?  Atinga asked further. 
       "Very ,Very wild sir"? replied Bako.
       " Then how do you get them"? enquired Atinga.  
        Musa his friend help him to get the fingernails narrated how pay some money to someone to be very extraordinary kind to him and how the man . After being overfed one day slept off  and he cut his fingernails . Atinga smiled and said   
    that is intelligent one!   However, you have to go and leave the fingernails with me and go . Love charm takes time to make•••" 
        "Takes time"? Bako  cut in. "for how long"? 
   Up to a week?" he asked miserably with his countenance falling. 
   "What e a week?" replied Atinga the chief priest. It's takes more than that.    Since you have succeed in bringing the fingernails  you can now be certain that the girl is that yours, but do not bother about how long it will takes. Your concern is to get the girl and ever if it takes six months provide you get her what does it really matter? Just go home and do what I am going to tell you now while l prepared the charm." 
    Bako  was gratified by this assurance that Ada  would surely be his , but partially disturbed about the uncertainty of when it would eventually happen. Based on that assurance, he asked Atinga the chief priest
   "What is it you want me to do at home?".  Atinga looked at him intently, and said , "Go home and be even more kind to yours girl than your friend have were to the mad man while I prepared the charm."   
     "You mean l should go and be giving her buttered bread and other cooked food?" asked  Bako 
      " Ha,ha, ha" Atinga laughed. "you mean you don't know what women like? If you don't know fine out from your friend or your female friend.  But  let me warn you and your friend now, closed fists could impede the efficacy of the charm.  lf the charm must work, you must throw your pocket wide open for your girl." 
       Bako and Musa get up and thanks Atinga the chief priest and make for home, though some what doubtful about Atinga the chief priest ability to win Ada hand for him in marriage. 
     Getting home he called Bumi,  a young girl of eighteen years old, who lives in an adjacent house and and enquired from her what in vogue for girls at the moment .
 Bumi made a very long list comprising cocaine chain for both neck and hands, suede and clog shoes, gold plated watch,   Bernini and rawsack bags rapping skirt,weavon , make up kit, gaudy ear rings etc.    Bako jotted them down and the following day  him and his friend Musa went to the bank to withdraw the sum of (£ 50,000,00). He then went straight to Onitsha main market to purchase the item. 
He was careful not to leave out any of the items Bumi listed for him. when he finished, he had only £175.00 left from the money him took from the bank 
    Now he begins to think about how to send the thing to Ada.  He knows Ada obviously despised him ,if he tried to send the things to her by himself , she might not even give him any attention , much less received what he have brought for her. 
   As he parceled the gift, he thought about improving his chances by enclosing some money.
 So  he rushed off to the bank again and withdraw another sum of £10,000,00. This he put it in an envelope alone with the items and with a shot note describing h it himself and telling her when he would be coming to see her. He added the envelope to the contents of the parcel and sent it to Ada through one of his servant.  
      Ada had just returned to her hostel from lectures . She was  very weak because ate nothing for the afternoon. She was on her "1-0-1"for the day. students use this formula to designate the numbers of time they are going to eat each day due to the financial handicap. The three digit stand for morning , afternoon and evening respectively. And where you have zero mean the students well go hungry for the period.
  She took off her dress. put on her sleeping gown and lay on the bed for the siesta.  For about 35 minutes , she lay restlessly on the bed with sleep evading her.  She struggles to sleep but hunger was demanding for it's right. As she kept battling with hunger,  she heard somebody knocking at the door. 
she looked and found that all her roommate were fast asleep. She heaved a deep sigh and inaudible grumble that some body had come to disturb her siesta. 
She reached for the wrapper, which she kept by her bed  She tied the wrapper across her chest and sauntered to the door. She opened it and found a young girl in level 300 in the same department as herself with a very big nylon bag. " Ada," the girl called,  " your brother said that I should give it to you this bag  
"Where is he?" Ada asked.  "He has gone," replied the girl. "He said he was in a hurry." 
    Ada know that the bag was from Alhaji Bako but did not want to the girl the Impression that Bako was not her brother by either rejecting the bag or making some queer remarks. 
She simply thanks the young girl, and gently shut the door and then took the bag to her corner.  She never wanted to take any thing out of the bag, but to keep it intact pending when Alhaji Bako would come so that he can give him his bad back.
   But when she got to her Corner, she decided to see the contents of the bag before putting it away.  Opening the bag the first thing she bought out was the envelope contesting the £10,000.00. When she opened it and saw the money, she was gripped by fear. she pricked herself to make sure she was conscious of herself and that she was not being disillusioned. 
  She dropped the envelope and then picked another envelope. She opened it too and turned the contents into her palm . It's was cocaine chain for both neck and hands. She quickly dropped it and then looked round to see if anyone was watching.
  Finding her roommate were still asleep, she then began to examine the items in the bag one by one without bringing them out. she examine them for a while and then closed the bag and kept it inside her wardrobe and lay down again for for siesta, but she was so excited that sleep could not come. But her excitement was soon punctured by the thought of Bako age and ugliness. Not only that Alhaji Bako was old enough to be her father, but also he was uglier than monkey.  
      Ada tried to comfort and encourage herself but Bako age and ugliness could not be easily overlooked. She struggled again to sleep but the memory of the £10,000.00, she has just received seemed to be adding weight to the demand of hunger in her. After about ten minutes of futile effort to sleep and hunger would not relent, she decided to take cafe and eat.
 There in the cafe, she ate better than she has ever done since she entered the 
 this world?"   she asked herself.  "Is it not to be able to lead a decent life? 
     And what do I hope to achieve through my education?     Here is a man who has already made it. And should I befriend him and our friendship later metamorphoses into marriage,I will have nothing to regret.  By the way of all the girl who have befriending boys or men , how many of them have been put in the family way?"  
         As regards Bako age and physical appearance,  she dismissed that by saying that  "All men are men and possess the same qualities.  After all, of what use is it to me if I am married to the most handsome man on earth, who cannot take care of me?" 
     With these seemingly correct but misleading ideas, Ada left the cafe fully determined to make use of these things sent to her by  Alhaji Bako and to befriend him.