The Water Thief

by Claire Hajaj

  When he’s finished, she touches the beads, her eyes closing.

  ‘Good morning, Mama,’ she says. A flock of swallows dives as she speaks, something startling them from their roost. Nick watches them go. His hands are on the kissing gate, gripping tight.

  The brother turns to the old woman.

  ‘Watch over Nagode for me,’ he says to her. ‘Until she returns home to us.’

  The girl goes to put her arms around him. Then she pulls away, like someone who doesn’t want to cry.

  Nick turns back from the kissing gate. ‘Come on, then,’ he says to Nagode. ‘Let’s make a start.’ There’s a smile there, trying to come through. Give it time, the old woman wants to tell them. Time is life’s best medicine.

  But instead she takes the girl’s hand, still moist from the morning. Thirteen is just like early summer; everything in you is still waiting to wake.

  ‘We’ll go inside and have some tea,’ she tells her. She points to the sky; it’s hazy with clouds, but the sun’s breaking through. ‘I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out today.’

  Nagode squeezes the old woman’s palm. ‘Wait and see,’ she says.

  Acknowledgements

  This story began life on the remote desert border between Nigeria and Niger, delivering polio vaccines during an outbreak under the eye of a fearless local doctor. One night, she invited her naïve charge to a meal. There, she tried to educate me on the terrible dilemmas she saw playing out between the West and the rest of the world – in the fault lines between different values, between good intentions and harsh realities. I hope this book does justice to her message.

  Eric Fewster of Bushproof was an invaluable resource on the technicalities of well-drilling in Africa in the early 1990s. He did his best to correct several misguided assumptions on my part. Errors that remain are mine alone.

  My family, my agent and my editor in their different manners made this a better book. Throughout the writing process, their collective faith in me helped me keep faith in the story.

  Finally, to those many people I met on my United Nations journey, people from both East and West – doctors, volunteers, peace brokers, relief workers, activists, engineers, teachers and entrepreneurs, each in their own way striving to shape a better life, putting themselves and their choices to the test every day – I salute you.

  A Oneworld Book

  First published in North America, Great Britain and

  Australia by Oneworld Publications 2018

  This ebook published 2018

  Copyright © Claire Hajaj, 2018

  The moral right of Claire Hajaj to be identified as the Author of

  this work has been asserted by her in accordance with

  the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  All rights reserved

  Copyright under Berne Convention

  A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978-1-78607-394-5

  eBook ISBN 978-1-78607-395-2

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either

  the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and

  any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies,

  events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Typeset by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh

  Oneworld Publications

  10 Bloomsbury Street

  London WC1B 3SR

  England