6 HOURS

THE DECEIVER

Thursday. Twenty four hours to destination Abuja. The office had booked a return ticket for me from Max Air Limited. My flight was for 10am, and I was packed and ready to go.

I had also arranged for Muhibba to meet me there on Saturday. I was to check in at Nicon Hilton, as the training was taking place in their conference room. The training was going to be facilitated by a renowned project management company called Zaf & Company Limited.

"Take a car to Kaduna", I told her via w******p chat, "then board the train to Abuja"

"It's okay, I understand", she typed back. "Just send the money kawai, I know what to do baby".

"Sure baby, I trust you" I typed back. "I'm gonna go in now, we'll talk in the morning".

"Okay baby. I miss you, and looking forward to eventually spending quality time with you", she typed.

"Me too baby. Bye" I typed and switched off the phone. I opened the glove compartment and flung it there, then stepped out of my car and shut the door.

I went into my house and met Hanan in the kitchen preparing my favorite meal, Jollof rice mixed with grilled fish.

"Sannu da zuwa My Em" she said.

I walked into the kitchen and hugged her from behind.

"How are you? Yaya gida?" I asked, kissing her neck.

"I'm fine, gida lafiya", she answered.

"Where are the kids?" I asked.

"Hmmmm… Kaima ka san they are busy watching cartoons", she replied.

True to type, I saw Hassan and Hafsah sitting close to the TV, watching with rapt attention their favorite movie, Frozen 2.

"This will all make sense when I am older… ", I started, knowing it's their favorite song in the movie. The song was sung by Olaf, Elsa's snow creation.

They both chorused "Someday I'll see that this makes sense…" laughing.

"Daddy welcome!" They screamed and clung to my legs, one on each side.

"Hey! Guys! Don't break my legs!" and I carried both of them in my arms, laughing along with them. Hassan and Hafsah were my bundle of joy, a special gift from God. I had always prayed that God should give me a set of twins among my children, and was so elated when the ultrasound scan showed two fetuses, placentas and amniotic sacs five years ago when Hanan was pregnant.

I was euphoric when they were born, the happiest man in the world. A boy and a girl. What more could a man ask for? My plan had always been to have four children, irrespective of gender, and I was already halfway through. Alhamdulillah.

"How was school today?" I asked them.

"Daddy! Our uncle flogged Hassan today. They were fighting in the class", Hafsah announced in a self righteous tone.

"Daddy!", Hassan raised his voice. "The boy looked for my trouble, that's why I beat him".

"Hassan!!!" I snapped. "Don't ever engage in fighting anyone in your school. Otherwise I will also flog you when I get home, and I will not buy chocolate for you".

At the mention of chocolate, Hassan quickly calmed down. That round had been won by me. My two kids were little lawyers, and we had an average of five arguments daily with them. Sometimes I won, but most of the time they took me to the cleaners. Babies were born smart these days, I guess.

I left them in the sitting room and entered my bedroom. I undressed and stepped into the bathroom. The steady stream of the warm.water from the shower washed away my tiredness and made me feel refreshed. While I was enjoying the water flow, I heard my phone ring in the parlour. It rang steadily for about twenty seconds before the call disconnected. After a while, it started ringing again.

"My Em!" Hanan called out from the kitchen. "Your phone is ringing!"

"Who is it?", I asked from the bathroom.

"I don't know… Lemme check…"

"Ni dai naga 'Zainab' on the screen!", she shouted.

"Answer it and ask her what she wants", I told Hanan.

As I was washing off the soap from my head, I smiled. I could proudly say I was among the very few men who were comfortable with their wife's access to their phones. Men's pathological attachment to their mobile phones is legendary. A lot of marriages have crumbled as a result of the almighty mobile phone. A lot of men have died. A lot of women have been killed, or at the very least abused, because they dared to access their husband's mobile device. A lot of people were spending life sentences because of a mobile phone.

There was a saying "A man's mobile phone is like an onion bulb. If you don't want to shed tears, don't open it". At a point, I thought maybe the manufacturers should include the warning, "Women! Mobile phones can get you killed, or make you a killer. Stay away!".

However, with the recent rise of the concept of feminism and women liberation, people have started to ask questions. Why was it okay for a man to check his wife's phone, but not okay for the woman to check her husband's phone? Why shouldn't a woman check her partner's phone whenever she feels like it? Why should men prevent access to their phones? What were they hiding? If there was nothing to hide, why hide anything at all?

Anyway, my wife had full access to my phone, and I had nothing to fear. My fearlessness was not because I was a saint. No. I was fearless because I had two phones. The one Hanan answered was my main phone, through which my family, friends, business associates and colleagues call me. The other one through which I chatted with Muhibba was what I called "The Undercover Phone". It was always in my cars' glove compartment, and it only came alive when I was in the car or in my office. Whenever I met any girl that I wanted to have an extra affair with, my Undercover Phone became functional. What the eyes don't see, the heart doesn't grieve about. Simple.

Hanan trusted me one hundred and ten percent. She answered my phone calls, played games on it, read books on it and watched #Northflix on it.

Jamilu A Hajaj she deserves a gift from you. As far as she was concerned, I was an exemplary husband that did not have time for any other woman, and she never missed the opportunity to tell her friends that.

"She said to ask whether she should come tomorrow for the interview", Hanan asked me, while I was towelling myself dry in the bathroom.

"Tell her to come as early as possible, before 9am", I answered. I heard her relaying the message, then drop the phone on my bed and went back into the kitchen. I smiled.