A fraction of the entire family sat in the living room confused as to what they'd just read.
Not one soul in that room knew the time of her departure—even Amira—the sister she was closest to.
The Abdulrahman Mudi family is a single unit of nine with seven kids and a maid who's worked for them since her adolescence years.
From the parents; there was Nadine who was the first child, the next was the so misguided and discredited Zayda, the handsome Banker Yusuf is the third.
Farouk, the fourth is the silent killer type that would decieve you with his innocent face, the fifth is Aamanee; the troublesome of the pack.
Amira, child number six. She was Zayda's partner in crime and also pretty like her other sisters. The dan auta, Usama was mummy's boy and the only person Hajiya Waleeda couldn't say no to.
He was her spoilt, rotten, brat—his siblings say.
"Who was aware of her intentions to run away?!" Alhaji Abdulrahman asked, perplexed.
They all shook their heads solemnly, frowning.
"Even you Amira." Their father cried, pointing at her as he tore the paper to shreds. They'd never seen him this angry. It was because she was one of his favorites but he wasn't one to show affection to anyone and they'd all accepted it except Zayda.
Her body shook fervently from crying for almost an hour beside their inconsolable mother.
Yusuf left—to work—almost immediately after Zayda left so he was ignorant of the family's state of jeopardy as of now.
He was known to come back home at nighttime so Nadine sent him a quick message to notify him.
It was a weekday so Aamanee was forced to go to school with Usama excluding Amira who seemed sick already.
"Amira I think you should go upstairs and sleep." Hajiya Waleeda ushered.
Nadine rose up from the couch in the living room and broke into a run up the stairs as a yelp escaped her mouth.
"Where are you going to?" Hajiya Waleeda asked.
"I need to..." She stuttered, "I need to..." She'd lost her voice. "Check something." And she disappeared at the top of the stairs.
Farouk looked left and right then left again, between his parents, and stood up akwardly to avoid his parents sturdy gazes and an imminent speech from starting.
He strode to the stairs silently till their father turned to him.
"Where are you going to too?"
"I want to go console Nadine."
Alhaji Abdulrahman nodded but he knew his son very well. He usually smoked in his room whenever he was stressed out, unknown to his mother—but his father caught him once when he was spraying air fresheners to wipe away the ooze of the cigarette.
He tapped his screen again, trying to get to the Inspector general of police on the line while discreetly stealing glances at his wife and daughter—they were the only two who really seemed to care.
They were supposed to be on a flight to Sokoto for Hajiya Waleeda's friends daughter this morning but because of this sudden event all plans they had was cancelled.
He knew his kids—and all that weren't here—could care less.
Nadine stealthily entered Zayda's room and locked it from the inside.
She ripped the mattress off the wooden contraption holding it in place to see if she would find a paper or item she'd never seen before.
Angrily, she dropped it back into the wooden platform before moving to her wardrobe that was currently semi-empty.
YOU ARE READING
I See Fire
ChickLitFather, mother and children all have secrets. A child finds out and decides to use it to help them. She decides to run away but without forgetting to write each of them a letter so who's going to find what first? It's a fight to the death. Everyone...
