The Woman I am

||Chapter 3||

Jada,Adamawa.

"Assalamu Alaikum(peace be upon you)" Inna said the tasleem as she entered Malam Ibrahim's house. He was seated on a ragged mat eating in a calabash and, another calabash sat beside him containing cow milk.
He planted his eyes on her and quietly said,

"Wurta e wuro am." Malam Ibrahim said coldly and sternly with a face filled with disgust.

"Please we need your help, we have nowhere to go" Inna cried.

"Leave! Leave my house immediately before I ruin you" He roared.

Inna stood there unable to move, tears kept flowing down her face. Safna didn't understand what was going on, all she knew was that her father was mad at her mother for an unknown reason. She hid behind her mother afraid of her raging dad. That was when Faizah came into the house holding a polythene bag while backing Fatima. As soon as she saw her husband's ex wife, she lost it!

"You witch! so you have followed my husband to his house to ruin him too huh? I can see you don't have manners. If Your stupid parents haven't taught you, I will. Leave this house now, calmly, without any trouble, before I call all the people of Jada and tell them that you came to ruin my husband too. Leave!" Malam Ibrahim's wife Fa'izah vented angrily while showing her the door.

Feeling defeated and weak Inna held Safna's little hands firmly and turned around to leave the house. Suddenly, Mallam Ibrahim stopped her dead in her tracks by calling her name. Positive thoughts filled her mind at that moment.

Maybe he has changed his mind! She thought.
I hope so

She turned around to face him smiling with a little bit of hope, only for him to shatter all her hopes with the next thing he said. This can't be happening!

"Your not going anywhere with my daughter." He said, his face devoid of any emotion.

"You can't say that, she's my daughter too. You can't take her away from me". She protested.

"I can, and I will" he said with finality in his voice.

"Where were you when she needed you the most? I took care of all her needs and inculcated good morals in her. Do you know what it's like to raise a child alone? One thing for sure is that it's not easy. Everytime she asks me of her father I'm at a lost of words because I can't tell her something even I don't have the answer to. You abandoned me, you abandoned us for your own selfish reasons. You can't just come after all those treacherous years and say you want your daughter back, if you had cared about her you would've came to look for her a long time ago." Inna said with tears rolling down her cheeks as she spoke with so much hatred.

"You are right. I didn't care and I still don't care, but you don't have anywhere to go to so, I will not allow my daughter to roam about the village. What do you think people will say about me, all I care about is my reputation, nothing more."

"Well I'm not leaving this house without my daughter"! Inna said standing her ground on the matter.

Just then Zainab, the second daughter of Malam Ibrahim who is about six years of age came into the house excited to tell her parents what she just heard, seeing Inna made her to drop the small randa (clay pot)of water she was holding and its contents splashed all over the place.

"Witch...baba she's the witch everybody is talking about. That's what I came to tell you guys and then I met her here."

"What witch are you talking about Zainab"? Faiza asked her filled with curiosity.

"Mama she's the witch..." Zainab narrated the full story to her father and mother.

Their jaws were on the floor by the time Zainab concluded her story. Faizah was the first to recover from the shock and the next thing she did was to drag Inna out of their house while Mal Ibrahim held Safna back. Safna kept shouting and crying for her mother but that didn't stop Mal Ibrahim from holding her, he restrained her from following Inna. Faizah came back into the house and kept rolling her eyes at Safna, she looked back at the father and daughter and hissed before entering her room. Safna kept trying to get out of his grip but he was too strong, she used her teeth to bite his hand off her, as soon as he shrieked in pain she ran off after her mother. She looked left and right but she didn't catch a glimpse of her mother, not knowing where to go, she decided to take the right turn. She kept running and running even though her legs were beginning to give up on her. As she was about to turn around and follow another route, she saw her mother walking to nowhere in particular. Safna kept chanting her name, at the same time running, trying to catch up with her.
The thing that happened was what made Safna yell loudly as she called her mother's name. She got to her mother's place and in the blink of an eye, people crowded the place. Inna lay in a pool of blood with her eyes shut. Safna fell on her mother crying heavily as the people that hit Inna with the car tried to pull her off in order to get Inna to the Hospital. There were other people by the roadside but none went near them, nor helped them. Inna opened her eyes partially and attemped to reach for Safna's forehead but her hands were shaking so much she couldn't.
"Inna please, Inna, Umma Useni, Umma!!" Safna kept repeating these words as Inna managed to say her last words, The Shahada.

"La ila ha illal lah, Muhammadur Rasulullah, Sallal lahu alaihi wa sallam (There is no God except Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.)"
A man who stood near Safna looked at Safna, eyes filled with pity.
"I'm sorry Little one, your mother has been taken away by the one that brought her to this Dunya. Your Mother, is dead." He dropped the bombshell.
"No! Innalillahi wa Inna Ilaihi raji'un. Inna is not dead, she just finished talking now. She wanted to take me along to wherever she was going. Inna Wake up!!" Safna shrieked. One could have thought that she has gone mad from the way she was shouting.

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