Chapter seven[the marriage]
1148 Words
"which phone is he talking about"? Jiddah's mummy blurted after Muhammad had left.
Jiddah kept mute, her hands shaking.
"I'm talking to hauwa" her mother semi yelled.
"mmummy he kind-of gave me phh... " she stuttered tearing up
"gave you what? Phone? Jiddah in my house and you can't tell me".
"mummy i was afraid andd.."
"and what? Jiddah i don't even know when you become like this, i don't " her mother continued angrily
"Now tell me how he gave you the phone as in how did it get to you" now, her mother spoke in a soft tone as if she wasn't the one shouting a minute ago.
"dama rannan da nace zan je gidansu khadijah shi ne that day when i told you i will be going to khadija's house.." jiddah quit and stole a glance of her mom to see how angry she is, seeing that her mummy's expression is not too bad, she continued
"so i branched to their house and greeted his mother and she gave me a parcel which he sent.. "
jiddah explained every detail without leaving any information left, she even talked about all the promises she promises to fulfill.
"Good of you for being honest, anyways go and pray" her mother acted as if she never told her something.
Jiddah nodded and wiped away her tears. She prayed and weeped for the reason she didn't know.
After finishing every other thing that is on her to-do list for the day, she waited for her mum to call her and beat her or call her to bring the phone and pound it with a pestle by herself, but there was nothing like that.
"goodnight mummy" she said looking at her mummy.
"goodnight jiddah dearie" her mother said smiling sincerely.
Weird! She thought.
Jiddah is not enjoying the feeling in her, she don't like it the way her mummy did, she wanted her mummy to beat her up but there's nothing like that.
She brought out the phone out of her bag. staring at the screen, popped a message from him, She smiled widely and replied him, thats how they kept text messaging till sleep over came her.
•~...
Who could she tell her problem? Should she tell khadija? No,khadija is a close friend but she won't keep it a secret.
Just tell mummy a voice in her head told her.
"No" she shouted unconsciously aloud.
"whats wrong with you" her mother who was removing the slaughtered-chicken's feather questioned.
"nothing mum I didn't know i shouted"
"okay then, i want you to please take this chickens to mummy jamila's house and make sure you hold the money well because i know how clumsy you can be at times"
Jiddah chuckled and went to grab her hijab from the wardrobe.
pulling out the hijab with great force, it made some of the clothes ripped off and fell on the floor. She packed them and put them on top of her bed with the intention of arranging them back once she come back.
As she made her way out, her eye caught a glimpse of something; it was her letter.
She quickly picked it up, placed her leg on the drawer canter with attempt of hiding the letter on top of the drawer, her being too heavy on the drawer, it followed her as it fell down and covered her.
"mummy, drawer on top of me" she shouted.
Her mother heard her, she quickly washed her hand and walked fast to the room.
Upon reaching, she saw the drawer on top of jiddah and the clothes had covered her completely. She laughed loudly and said
"i was talking about being clumsy and you were laughing, see what you have done now"
"mummy please i admit it, just lift this drawer off me" she said panting.
Her mother laughed at that and then lift the drawer off jiddah.
"you are ever stubborn jiddah, i can still remember those days when you will put your head through the windows' hole(burglar) and be playing, you always do that.
There was a time, you don't know that your head had grown bigger, you struggled to put it through the hole and unfortunately the head refused to come out. I can remember how you cried very much because i told you there's no other option than to cut your head off.
You cried more when i called the iron cutter and you thought he was going to cut your head. He had to cut the burglar to free your head but you never tried putting it again."
Jiddah's mummy laughed remembering every single thing. Jiddah too, couldn't help but laughed at herself.
"where's the chicken " she said still laughing.
"i have packaged it, just be fast and take it to her" her mother ordered.
She walked out, reciting the quranic verses under her breath. Feeling every single word entering her nerves.
The sweetness of reading the holy book!
"Assalamu alaykum" she salaam-ed .
"wa'alaykumus salam" a boy answered her.
"jaafar, how are you" jiddah smiled at the boy bending a bit to be of the same height with the boy.
"I'm fine" he said swinging his hand.
"good, is your mother in? "
"yes" he said running out maybe to play with sand or tyre.
"good evening mummy jamila" jiddah greeted sitting down.
"how are you jiddoh? "
"fine, Alhamdulillah... Mummy said i should bring this to you"
"oh eyya, so she had finished it this early let me have a look" she collected opening the nylon
"wow the chickens had grown very big and they are even too cheap for one thousand naira each, let me bring the money for you" mummy jamila added dancing in her head.
"Assalamu alaykum, peace be upon you " jiddah heard a man coming in.
"wa'alaykumus salam, peace be upon you too " she answered.
"Yan mata sannu ko, young lady weldone" he said referring to jiddah.
"good evening " she greeted.
"here" mummy jamila said giving jiddah the money as joddah stood up to take her leave.
"ohh baffa you came? I didn't even noticed welcome welcome " mummy jamila welcomed her brother.
"take this jiddoh" he brought out a dirty one thousand naira note.
"no thanks "
"just take it" mummy jamila encourage her.
"no, thanks " jiddah rejected again. After so much persuasion, jiddah collected and thanked them reluctantly.
"she's a good girl " mummy jamila told him.
...'
"Mummy see this, its her brother who gave me"
"what is his name"
"something like baffa."
"Ohh it was him" Jiddah's mummy smiled. Leaving jiddah wondering.
"he came here last week, that he wants to start seeing you, if you guys settled, you can marry each other"
"mummmy... Ma..rr..iage??? " jiddah stuttered.
"yes that's my decision because it looks like thats what you want and that's final".
- Writer
