In the wee hours of the morning, a young girl hurried over to a plaza and lay down in front of a locked shop. 

She was in pains as she unwrapped her stomach which she had tied with a couple of clothes. A protruding belly stared at the moon which was still visible against the dark sky.

The young woman grunted in pain as she spread her wet legs open, the moon watching her closely as crickets chirped away in corners and the cold floor licked her back.

She folded a piece of cloth and placed it in her mouth before she willed herself to push. 

Her teeth sunk into the fabric as the first wave of pain swept over her. Tears and sweat rolled down her temple as she struggled. 

She breathed for a while more before she pushed again. 

Blood and water gushed out accompanied by a small head filled with hair. 

The young woman grunted in pains as she pushed again, cool breeze flirting with her sweaty body. The woman's eyes fluttered for a moment, strength ebbing away from her body.

A baby lay in a mass of water and blood in between her legs without a sound. 

The young woman struggled to open her eyes. She massaged her stomach with her hand and pushed. The placenta fell out beside the child.

The young woman forced herself up and carried the soundless baby in her trembling hands. A wave of nausea swept over her as tears shimmered in her eyes. 

She hit the child on the back with three fingers but he did not cry. She grabbed a wrapper and covered him before fetching a pair of scissors from one of the wrappers she had brought. 

Her hands shook as she severed the umbilical cord and the child still did not cry. 

She began to rub his tiny feet with her trembling, cold hands but there was no sound.

At this point, the flood gates opened and tears poured out of her eyes in mass. She could hear her heartbeat thumping against the child's body. 

She continued rubbing the child's back and using three fingers to hit him at intervals for twenty minutes but he never cried. 

A gate creaked at the other end of the plaza and someone was flashing a torchlight. 

The young woman -convinced the child was dead- wrapped a fresh wrapper around her soiled lilac gown. She covered the child with another wrapper, packed her fabrics which were lying on the floor and escaped.

She stopped at a small market where chairs and tables were chained to each other in various stalls. A river was hidden behind the greenery of the market. 

The young woman walked past three stalls and dumped the child behind a rusty, charcoal grill. The poignant stench of decomposed vegetables lingered in the air while the river was stagnant.

She turned back briefly, as though wishing to hear the child cry but she heard nothing save for a cat 'meowing' beside the floating bush. 

She walked away.

A few seconds later, a cat prattled close to the child and unwrapped one of the wrappers. The baby's whitish-redish face made it scurry away. 

A bird's white dump fell on the roof of the baby's nose and he sneezed. He began to cry but no one was nearby. 

An aboki was sleeping in a mat on one of the empty stalls when the cry of a child woke him up. He looked around him but there was no child. The crying continued.

The aboki stood up and rolled his mat before placing it neatly under a cabinet that was locked with several padlocks. 

He followed the cry till he found the baby, covered in soiled wrapper, beside the floating grass. He found a stick closeby and opened the wrapper to get a clearer view. 

The baby's body was slightly bloody and covered in mucus and the placenta was beside his stomach. 

"Allamdulilah!" the aboki exclaimed and carried the baby. 

The moon still hung in the air, faded against the blue sky basking with white clouds when the aboki carried the baby into a general hospital.