Jatto’s mother was doing housework while Jatto was reading a book aloud in English. Jatto didn’t always like ________ to his mother. She spoke only Esan, one of the languages in Nigeria. Wasn’t it a waste of time to read to someone who couldn’t understand? His mother didn’t even realize when he made ________. Still, she insisted he read aloud every day.

“Let’s bottle nuts when you finish reading,” she said in Esan.

Jatto shook his head. He had so much homework to do. “I’ll never finish reading.”

Jatto said “never” in English because there was no word for never in Esan.

“What’s ‘never’?” she asked.

Jatto cleared his throat to ________ the English word. “It means I won’t stop reading today, tomorrow, or ________.” He drew circles in the air. “Nor the day after the day after tomorrow, the day after the day after, the day after …”

“Oh, OK! That’s forever,” his mother said.

Jatto stared at the nuts. Each one looked delicious.

Now would be a ________ time to eat some. But he couldn’t ask. He remembered the ________ he’d drawn in the air.

Jatto’s mother whistled. Tam-tam, their cow, came up to them. Jatto could ________ cow-milk air as his mother milked her. Tam-tam’s milk was the best he’d ever tasted.

Jatto needed to take his mind off the ________. “Mama, why do you make me read to you even though you don’t understand?”

“I want you to practice speaking English often,” she said.

“I can practice English in my head,” he said, not ________.

His mother smiled. “We share our stories aloud with others, not in our heads where ________ can hear them.”

Jatto nodded. He’d learned about that in school.

She decided to tell him a story and handed him some nuts and milk. “You can eat ________ I talk.”

He ate as she started. Soon, Jatto was singing the story with his mother.

“You never tell me stories,” he said when they stopped ________.

She sighed. “I used to, but when you started school, I wanted you to focus on English.”

“I make a lot of mistakes when I read to you,” Jatto said.

His mother ________. “I guessed so. But I like hearing the sound of your voice while I work.”

Jatto knew what she meant. He had enjoyed listening to her story as he bottled the nuts. It made the work seem ________. “I have an idea,” he said. “Next time, I will read a story to you in English, then I will tell you the same story in Esan. We can even make up songs together.”

“Great! And I will tell you stories in Esan and you can say them back to me in English. Let’s ‘never’ stop ________ stories.”

Jatto smiled. His mother’s understanding of never was even better than his own.