When A Soldier Loves

13: Your Eyes Are Beautiful

Dear husnaomolori because I'm certain you'd love this chapter, it's for you❤️ Thank you for all those heartwarming comments, they always make my day🌸❤️

He went to the TV while she stood beside him, "Listen, whenever you want to watch something, here it is and I'll show you how to turn it on and off. You can get to watch everything you want, you know what a TV means and what it does, right?" She was staring between him and the TV set before she slowly nodded her eyes. "Good, come closer and see." For all the minutes he had spent showing her how to go about it and a few appliances in the house, Maryam had her eyes fixed solely on him and occasionally on the objects he was speaking about.

She knew that she should panic or even ask him about Intisar, but she didn't know how the words were going to roll down from her lips. She didn't have the courage to ask that, or was it that her brain was afraid of the answer he would give her? Maybe he didn't even know she was Intisar's sister and if she dared spoke about her, he might try to harm her. So, just for today, Maryam decided to gulp everything down and she only focused on being an obedient girl.

She didn't know if he had noticed the tone he used to speak to her, how soft it had sounded when he met her in the bedroom as though she was that Doctor he seemed too familiar with, and somehow, it had cajoled her a bit. And when he asked her to eat her food while Bilkisu made her bed, she questioned if she could watch the TV. Na'im approved as he slumped on the other sofa and while she ate, Maryam focused her eyes on the TV as she watched a cartoon.

She knew they had once went to the cinema they had in Magumeri with Intisar, 'gidan kallo' as everyone called and the TV there wasn't even the quarter of this one per size and to see everything as clearly as she was now and the sound so prominent, she knew everything must've been expensive. She was relaxed, she thought, knowing so well that she wasn't going to stay alone with that girl he had brought to her.

She slowly turned to him, she was afraid to ask but she would do that, nevertheless. Because, she had realized that her fear for being alone with the girl was far much than her fear for speaking with him. "Is she going to leave?" She asked softly, her voice wavering a bit. And Na'im was so flabbergasted that today, she had asked him something without him prompting her to that he had to take sometime to take in everything.

He stared at her for a few seconds before he shook his head, "No, she's going to be living with you here. She's your friend."

Maryam shook her head to let him know that she had no friend and she had given up in that aspect of life. She wasn't destined to have friends, Intisar was. People were afraid of her, they always run away whenever she looked at them and they say she had the eyes of a witch. Sometimes, on days she still used to go to school and islamiyya, her classmates had often beat her and told her that she should stop staring at them unless she wanted them to kill her because if they didn't kill her first, she will do that to them. The bullying was too much that Baaba got tired of reporting everything and everyday, more kids were getting scared of her that both schools decided to expel Maryam from their environs.

"She's not my friend." She argued and looked away from him, the sting of what had been in her life still there afresh that she didn't think she was ever going to let go of it. It was now that she had thought of everything that she wondered if he had once seen her eyes, everyone got scared of her if they did. That was why she tried her best not to look at that Doctor, lest she scared her like she did to everyone in their village.

And now, she tried to test him and see, she knew he was going to get scared too. Even though, she agreed, seeing him a bit scared will be fun to watch. So, she looked up at him just the moment Na'im had his eyes fixed on her to make sure what he was seeing on her lips was indeed a pout and nothing else. And their eyes met, Maryam was focused enough to see the way his brows furrowed together and the slight move of his eyes. But he didn't seem intimidated like everyone else.