She did not hate the old man. At least, that was what she told herself.
She hated the pressure, the uncertainty, and the fear that their own future was disappearing beneath the weight of someone else’s problems.
Unfortunately, she began directing that fear toward the one person least able to defend himself.
The first strange incident occurred on a Thursday morning.
Amina kept some emergency cash inside a small envelope in the kitchen drawer. It was money she had been saving for Sami’s school expenses.
When she went to retrieve it, the envelope was empty.
She searched the drawer twice.
Then she searched the cupboard, her handbag, and the pockets of the coat she had worn the previous evening.
Nothing.
Malik was at work.
Baba Suleiman was sitting near the window, rubbing his injured knee.
“Did you take money from the kitchen drawer?” she asked.
He looked up.
“What money?”
