"I don't know, Aluna."

Aluna sat in the corner of the room with her mother. The children ate a piece of old cassava they found in the back of the pantry.

"Mother, there is nothing here for us! We are out of food! We are out of money! South Africa is the only place we might be able to live better!" Aluna urged.

"Aluna, trips like this are dangerous! I don't want to lose any more family!"

"But we will lose more family if we stay here!" Aluna was getting restless.

Her mother sighed. "I'll think about it," she stated. "But now, we need to figure out what we're going to do about surviving here until I make a decision."

Aluna looked at her toes.

"I talked with a man in the market, and he said he would be happy to employ you in return for a few cassava root. That should be good enough."

"But who will look after the children?" Aluna asked.

"Nyari said she could take care of them," she said.

"But taking care of Akinyi, Imamu and Lekan, along with her four other children may be too much!"

"Aluna, Nyari said she could do it, and I trust her, so just let it go. You will start this job. We need you to!"

Aluna sighed. She wanted to help her family. She just hoped nothing went wrong.

"You start tomorrow, ok?"

"Yes mother," she sighed.

* * *

Aluna made her way through the dusty market streets, sticking close to her mother's side. They had already dropped off the children at Jaheem's house, and Aluna was about to begin her new job.

The pair exited the market and made their way to the small field at the edge of the village. There was a man waiting for them, and he smiled warmly as they approached.

"Good morning, Imari," her mother greeted.

"Morning, Zalika," the man grinned. "Thank you for allowing your daughter to help with my work."

Aluna looked at the ground. She didn't want to do this.

"You must be Aluna,"

She jerked her head up to see the man smiling down at her.

"I'm Imari. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand.

Aluna tentatively took his hand and shook it. She didn't want to work for this man.

"Well, I should be off," her mother said. "Be good, Aluna! Work hard!"

Aluna watched sadly as her mother walked away waving.

Please don't leave me here, she begged silently.

"Alright!" Imari clapped his hands, drawing Aluna's attention. "What we're going to be doing today is clearing all the rocks and old roots from the ground here. There are two other girls coming later on today, so you don't have to do it all yourself!"

Aluna nodded.

Imari grinned. "Let's get to it!"

The pair moved off into the small field and began to extract the rocks from the dehydrated dirt.

Aluna pondered whether anything would be able to grow here. It looked very dry and solid.

As the day progressed, the heat was increasing, and because of their hard physical labour, was made much worse.

Aluna wiped her sweaty face with the hem of her shirt. Drips of sweat trickled down her face, tickling her nose and cheeks. A few of the drops fell to the ground, instead of evaporating off her dark skin. She wondered if her salty drops of perspiration would be enough to re-hydrate the field. She smiled in amusement at her strange thought.

"Ah! Girls, you made it!"

Aluna spun around to see Imari greeting two young girls. She walked over to meet them.

"Aluna, this is Hande, and her little sister, Pallavi," Imari said, gesturing to the new girls. "They've been working with me for a while now."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Aluna smiled warmly as she shook their hands.

"Let's get back to work, ladies!" Imari encouraged and the group split up to continue working.

As the day progressed, the heat grew almost unbearable, and the small pile of rocks and old roots was not increasing in size as fast as they hoped.

"Can we take a break?" Aluna panted a while later.

The heat was beating down and boiling her body, her skin shone with sweat and her hands were slippery.

Imari nodded.

"Let's go freshen up and sit down for a bit."

* * *

The sun was beginning to set, the temperature had dropped a few degrees, and Aluna was walking home with a single cassava root in her hands. It wasn't necessarily equal pay for the work she had just spent the whole day doing, but granted, there wasn't much to give.

Her hands and feet were sore and blistered. Her arms ached from having to pull on stubborn roots. She wanted nothing more than to go home and have a rest.

She finally reached Jaheem's house to pick up her siblings. She knocked on the door and when she heard an invitation to enter, she opened the door and stepped inside.

"Aluna!" Akinyi chirped and ran up to hug her sister.

"Hello, Mrs Azikiwe. Is Jaheem back?" Aluna asked, rubbing her sister's head affectionately.

"No, not yet, but he should be soon," A young woman smiled at her. "How was your work?"

"Hard," Aluna admitted.

Mrs Azikiwe ducked behind a cupboard and reappeared holding a jar of reddish-brown paste.

"This should help with the blisters. It's a special mud that I made that soothes the skin." Mrs Azikiwe then opened the jar and scooped out some of the mud. She took one of Aluna's palms and rubbed it in.

"Wow, that feels so nice!" Aluna marvelled.

"Aluna! I wanna go home!" Akinyi complained, tugging on her sister's dirt covered shirt.

"I should be going. Thanks for taking care of my siblings," Aluna smiled.

"The pleasure's all mine. Please, take this mud home with you," Mrs Azikiwe smiled handing her the jar.

Aluna gave her a smile before she picked up Lekan and lead Imamu and Akinyi out of the house and back home.