She suddenly stopped. 'What is the matter? Why did you stop? You know that we are already running late. Come on, let's go,' she admonished her.

'Oh, I am sorry. I thought I heard someone crying,' she responded to her.

'I did not hear any sound, nonetheless a cry,' she said to her. 'And who could be in the market crying at these early hours of the morning on a no-market day?' she asked her.

Both women continued their journey, but as they travelled along, the crying got louder and louder. Both women had to stop to figure out from which direction the noise was coming from.

'Yes, that sounds like a baby crying. You are right. You heard right, Obidiya,' said Nwayidiya.

'I told you. I told you that I heard a cry, but you never believed me. Hmm, Nwayidiya, why is it that you never believe anything that I tell you?' Obidiya asked her.

'Okay, okay, I am sorry. You are right this time around, but let's not argue much over who is wrong and who is not at this early morning. Let's pay more attention to the cry and see if we can find out where it is coming from,' she apologized to her.

It was an early morning, a day after the market day, a day after the Nkwo-Orji market day. The morning dews were still in goblets on the cassava leaves just as much as they were on the cocoyam and banana leaves that lay along the bush path that traversed the market before leading to the farmlands. The grasshoppers were still perching on the leaves, and the farm paths were still moist with the early morning dews. Both women had taken a shortcut through the market, heading along the way to their farmland, when they heard the sound of a baby cry.

'Who could have brought out a baby to the market place at this early hour of the morning on a no-market day?' Obidiya asked.

Both women stood still on their paths, trying to ascertain the direction from where the cry was coming from. Suddenly, they realised that the sound was coming from behind the gigantic iroko tree just at the end of the marketplace. They both searched towards the direction of that iroko tree where they believed the sound was coming from.

'Here, I have found it,' shouted Obidiya. 'Nwayidiya, come here. Come and see this for yourself. You cannot just imagine what I am seeing here with my two naked eyes.'

Behind the iroko tree, just at the foot, and in front of the shrine of Igwudu-Nkwo-Orji, the guardian of the Orji people, the god of their ancestors, the women found a newborn covered with banana and cocoyam leaves. Both women stood still in disbelief. Immediately they saw it. Obidiya, who was at her mid-stage of pregnancy suddenly felt the jerky movements of the fetus in her womb. Both women stood still for a while in a state of confusion and disbelief before they proceeded in removing the leaves off the baby.

'Oh my god, it is a baby boy, and he must be very hungry,' said Obidiya.

'Who could have done such a thing? Such an unheard-of thing, an abomination in our land,' lamented Nwayidiya.

She lifted the baby, placed him in her arms, and tears started rolling down from her eyes to her cheeks when the baby suddenly stopped crying and started suckling on his left tiny fingers while gripping firmly to an object in his right hand.

As both women stood there, shouting and wondering what to do next, many people, including farmers heading to their farms, traders going to the next market, hunters returning from their early morning hunts and passersby gathered at the scene, wondering who could have abandoned a child at the feet of the guardian of the village, the god of their ancestors.

Many of those gathering at the scene started wondering what object the baby was gripping so firmly with his right hand. Nwayidiya loosened his clench to the object and realised that he was holding a shiny coin. When the multitude gathering at the scene saw the object in his hand, many speculated that he had taken what belonged to the gods while others thought that the coin was a gift from the gods of their ancestors to the little one.

But the coin was among the many items people left at the foot of the gods to pay homage to them, to ask for their benedictions and to thank them for their good deeds and protection.

Some believed that whoever left the baby boy there left him to the care of the Igwudu, and some believed that he was left there as a sacrifice to the gods.

Nwayidiya sobbed uncontrollably while Obidiya consoled her without knowing why she was such in a mood; why she was feeling so sorrowful and in tears, but within herself, Nwayidiya knew exactly why she could not control her tears.

Nwayidiya never had a child of her own. The rumours had it that she was married for years without an offspring. The husband, being the only male child of his family, was constantly being pressured by his relatives to get another wife, one who would be able to bear him a child or children. He loved his wife so much that he refused to give in to the pressure from his family. But when the family realised that he was not yielding to their constant nagging and pressure, the family started directing the pressure towards Nwayidiya. They started accusing her of not allowing her husband to get another wife. The accusations, the gossips and the taunting continued for years. With the pressure mounting daily on her, she pleaded with her husband, she begged him on various occasions to get a second wife. Because of the love he had for her, he refused. The pressure from the family and from the wife became unbearable to him that he decided to get another wife under one condition: it should be Nwayidiya who should find and present the woman to marry. She reluctantly accepted the condition given to her in other to stop the gossip and taunting from the family.

Not knowing how and where to get someone to be the second wife, she opted for her junior sister, Obidiya, who was then staying with them, and pleaded with him to marry to her. He accepted and went through it with all the marriage rites as demanded by the tradition and customs. The lived happily together, and she bore him many children. She was carrying their first child in her womb when they found the baby boy at the market ground.

At the scene where the baby was found, people were wondering to whom the child belonged to, wanting to know who the mother could be and to which family the child belonged to. Then someone in their midst noted that it must be Gladys's, the mentally unstable woman from the nearby village who wandered in and around the marketplace once in a while, especially whenever she became unstable. People had noticed her recently in an advanced stage of pregnancy, and on the last market day, they had noticed that she was in pain and had wanted to take her to the hospital, but they could not get hold of her as she eluded them. Most probably, she must have delivered herself way into the night after everybody had left the market, many of them speculated.

Nduka, the champion wrestler and the son of the great hunter who was among those present at the scene of discovery was immediately sent off to Umuorgi village to inform Gladys's family that she had delivered a baby boy, left him in the marketplace and she was nowhere to be found. He ran with the speed of a great warrior that he was to the village to deliver the message.

When the message got to Adamma, the mother in-law of Gladys, she and some other members of the family rushed to the marketplace to...