IN TWENTY ONE DAYS

47; BOAT.

ABUJA, NIGERIA.

Down at the guest quarters of Masari's where Alhaji Aminu and Hajiya Saratu live, Mika'il's grandparents and their Gigi. There are a few guests that came from distant village to bathe in the riches after coming to help the family grieve for the lost of two people but they keep on prolonging their stay there for they cannot afford to go back to the village so soon and leave such luxurious lifestyle. If they go back home, they will continue eating one meal all the time and they won't even be full after they are done. And then a request came to them from above, that made their whole life better.

"Where is Badriyah?" Hajiya Saratu asked them when she walked into the room one blessed morning. She never stepped foot into the quarters ever since they came so they are surprised with what she wants now. They all rush to clean the place and look presentable when they heard about her sudden visit. She might send them away if they don't tidy up the place, the woman could care less.

"I'm here, Aunt." A small voice of a middle aged woman answered from behind the room as she was watching the scene unfold like the quite woman she has always been. She can't wait to go back home and meet her son, she couldn't come with him because he is old enough to take care of himself in the village.

"I have a proposal for you and I hope you would accept it." It was a request and it should sound like one but no, it was demanding like the matriarch herself. Her words are always straight to the point and she can make you dance to her tunes without you noticing.

"Yes, Aunt." Badriyah answered again feeling all sweaty inside her worn out Ankara oversized blouse and the hijab she refused to remove. Her mother and aunties will keep teasing her that she is matan mallam, she never cared, she likes closing herself because of insecurity.

"I want you to marry my son, Malik." She dropped the bomb and everyone in the room stilled like she suddenly started speaking another language they don't understand. A lot kept webbing through their minds but one thing is for sure, they won't turn down this proposal no matter what. They weren't the ones she asked but they answered her anyway.

Hajiya Saratu don't want her son to end up miserable. She might look heartless but he is her son, she's seen how out of place he looked at his wife's funeral. She's loved that wife of his because she showered her son with the love she couldn't, she changed him into a better person but she is no more, they will have to accept that. If he doesn't get married sooner, he might never get out of that deep pits of self wallow and pity. And then her grandson's death, that is also another reason her son needs a wife asap. The support that comes from a wife is different from any other, he needs that at this stage of his life.

If he doesn't agree to this marriage, she will just have to try one of her many schemes. She is doing it for his sake anyway, even Gigi will agree with her on this for the first time.

And there is no better candidate than Badriyah whose marriage fell immediately after she gave birth to her son twenty one years ago. She has been a single mother since then and Hajiya Saratu is not blind to see that the woman will bring the best out of her son like his first wife did. She is kindhearted, soft spoken, quite but intelligent person and also beautiful in that Fulani kind of way. If she gets them married, she will definitely die at peace. She's loved Badriyah since she was young, she was her favorite niece after all.

Some say she was the only one who could get through her, and they are very right. She wanted Malik to marry her since the beginning but he told them he has someone and they reluctantly agreed to his marriage. But fate has brought them back to the circle again, she can fulfill that dream of hers and unite them.