Choices

Chapter 15 (Nurrain)

My heart plummeted to my stomach the minute ammi's voice reached my ears. Shikenan! The end has come. I moved towards them and we met at the center of the room. She had baffa at her side with yah Umar and uncle habu who has apparently woken up from his drunken stupor bringing up the rear. "I can't believe you actually did this! Why Nurrain! Why!" She said her voice trembling with deep seated emotions, I could feel the pain of my betrayal in those words and shame like never before engulfed me but I set it aside because right now I need to do damage control. I grabbed a hold of her hands, covering them with mine and put all the regret I was feeling behind each word "I am so sorry you had to find out this way but believe me Ammi i didn't go behind your back and marry Maya like uncle habu must have told you, all this is just a big misunderstanding and we were just about to resolve it when you walked in. I promise I'll explain everything to you...... She cut me off by pulling her hands away from mine and taking a step back from me. "A misunderstanding you say! A misunderstanding occurs when you put yourself in a confusing position! Running away to get married to a girl I expressly forbade you from seeing is not a misunderstanding! Tracking down your drunkard of an uncle and bringing him to the city to stand as your witness is not a misunderstanding! It's a carefully crafted plan to go behind our backs!"
I instantly tried to protest and explain everything but she stopped me with a raised palm and turned towards Baffa."our son is all grown up it seems, he can make life changing decisions all by himself, he clearly doesn't need his parents around anymo....." She promptly burst into tears after that, the words running together as she gave into despair. I made a move to hold and console her but Yah Umar stepped forward and yanked her back into his arms, he glared at me, so much anger in his eyes and told me to stay away "you've done enough damage already, let her be now" "where have I gone wrong! I have always considered Nurrain to be my son! It never mattered to me that I didn't give birth to him! But it seems he never considered me his Mom! I heard a series of shocked gasp coming from behind, what they think of my parentage is not my concern right now, Ammi is so I tuned them out and focused on salvaging our relationship.
"What are you saying Ammi! you are my mother regardless of birth so please don't say such things!" I begged, she must be really hurt to bring up the issue of my heritage especially in front of virtual strangers, my lineage has always been a fact that exists but is never spoken up because Ammi always feels bad if anyone tries to point out I wasn't really her son so for her to bring it up her self gave me chills, this matter sure isn't going to be resolved so easily now. Baffa spoke up then " that has nothing to do with anything, let's not revisit pass history now Ammi! We will discuss how to punish Nurrain later.In that moment it occurred to me that I was literally on the other side of the fence with my family on the opposition for the first time ever because I was stupid enough to loose their trust in me.
I set my glance to baffa begging him with my eyes to hear me out, he's always been the most level headed one among the two, all I needed was a chance to explain myself and stop my mom's heart from breaking because of my stupid! Stupid mistake but he refused to look at me rather he set his sight on Maya's dad who was standing behind me. And when he finally spoke he spoke directly to her dad not me, he completely ignored his son and led Ammi to sit on the closet seat to them but he said "I know emotions are high on both sides right now but let's all try to calm down and resolve this issue as matured adults"
"There's really nothing more to discuss, the only resolution I will accept is for your son to pick up this paper and divorce my daughter!" Maya's dad declared.
"Hold on a minute, let's backtrack a bit and take a minute to get the full story right now I need an explanation on how this mess happened in the first place because quite frankly I didn't understand much from Habu's drunken rambling other than Nurrain went to get him from the village so he can help him marry Maya."
"Dad there was a mis communication as I said if you'll just let me explain the ..........."
"Shut up! I don't want to hear another word out of you! I know we raised you better than to interrupt a conversation between elders but it seems you are dead set on proving to this people ba muyi maka tarbiya ba ko!" He had furry in his eyes so I decided to sit and keep shut before I get myself slapped across the face.
Maya's dad let out a slight chuckle that had no humor, only bitterness before poking fun at baffa and it all went downhill from there "toh ai, Alhaji it's too late to cry when the head has been cut off! Rashin tarbiya na nawa Kuma! You're worried about him speaking out of turn when we are all here because of him and his friend! But mostly I blame your son for this mess, he was the one who planned the wedding! Got his uncle to witness! And tried to get my young impressionable daughter to turn against me and elope with his useless friend! He ended up married to my daughter and ten minutes later he turned around and told me to my face that he wants nothing to do with her and he will happily divorce her! That to me is the height of disrespect and I will never stand by and watch my daughter be tied to some one like him for life! As far as I'm concerned you two should be ashamed of the way you raised him! You clearly fail as parents for your son to....."
"Enough!" My voice echoed in the room and stopped him mid sentence.
"Don't you dare shout at me in my own home boy, behave yourself ni ba abokin wasanka bane!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice but I can't just stand by and watch you insult my parents anymore. Your problem is with me is it not, then talk to me! Blame me! Shout at me! Hit me! Whatever you need to do to calm your heart,go ahead and do it but do not insult my parents or the way they raised me"
"Kunji irin Rashin kunyar ko! Look Maya at the way your so called husband is treating your father. He is calming insulting me in front of you and you're just standing there like an idiot! What did I do to deserve such a daughter ya Allah!"
She looked dejected and wrecked as if she has lived a thousand lifetimes of hardship, even her dad's instigation could rally you enough energy in her all she said was "I am so sorry Dad for everything that happened today, none of it went the way we planned but I promise we will fix it and you'll never have to see Nurrain again but please promise me you won't force me to marry Walid any more. Please Dad, don't put your pride ahead of your daughter's happiness!" She was down on her knees begging at her father's feet at that point as we all watched for his reaction.
"It's not about pride Maya it's about honoring a promise, I have never failed to fulfill a promise and I refuse to do so now! Not even for you! I promised hajiya you'll marry Walid and you will no matter what, so if you want me to forgive your wrongdoings then you will marry Walid the minute you are freed from all this unpleasantness"
She shakes her head in denial and holds his legs " I can't do that dad, ask for something else. I promise to do anything else but I can't marry him. I am your daughter so just like you, I never break my promises! She encircled both legs in a hug and kept pleading with him to reconsider. Watching her now, in this state makes me feel pain, i know it's due to sympathy but it hurts real bad to watch her resort to begging like that but the next thing I know he used one foot to shove her away from his legs with so much pressure that she went sliding back and hit the floor with a loud thud that spoke of pain. Next thing I knew I was by her side, cradling her head and trying to turn her towards me so I can inspect if she's been injured. She had her eyes shut tightly and wasn't moving, I could tell she is breathing with the rise and fall of her chest. A sizeble lump the size of a quarter has already started forming on her forehead but there was no other sign of injury but she still won't open her eyes. Her breathing started getting more labored and she began panting to catch her breath. That worried me because it looked like she was in the midst of a full blown panic attack. Her breath seizing as she became frantic trying to get away from me and the hold I had on her head, all she succeeded in doing is hitting her head with the cold tile once more, the more she tried to draw air in but couldn't the more frantic she got. Everyone surrounded us, clamoring for someone to do something and throwing out suggestions but none of them were actually helping. The noise made her more frantic and almost looked like she's having a seizure. Some one ran off to get water and someone was shouting to get her to a doctor, the words started running together and didn't make much sense to me. Instinct took over and I went with it. "Everyone move back, she's having a panic attack and you're making it worst! Fall back and let her get some air!" Surprisingly they obeyed. once I got breathing room I brought her head to cradle on my lap so she didn't bang it on anything and brought my forehead within an inch of her's facing inward so she could hear me and feel my presence.
"You're okay Maya, you're just have a slight panic attack but you'll be Just fine I promise" I wiped the tears sipping out from underneath her lashes and continued trying to calm her down and it seemed to be work for the most part "stay with me, you forget everything else and follow the sound of my voice! Breath with me! Come on, one breath at a time, in and out, just follow my lead and try to match your breath to mine, in and out!" On the third try she managed to do it, sucking in a big breath in and matching it with my voice, so we went a couple more rounds until her breathing evened out.
"Well done, that's it, nice and easy. You did it! Now try and open your eyes slowly for me. Come on, you're fine now and I know you're dying to glare at me and shut lasers my way but you have to be able to open those big eyes first to be able to do that"
She tried, I watched her eyes flutter under the lid but she couldn't open them, but the resilient girl tried again and again until she managed to open them slightly. She looked around and the minute she realized the position we were in, an inch apart with her head cradled on my lap and she shot up like a bullet bumping our foreheads together painfully. She cried out as our heads jostled her bump and I instinctively went to rub on it until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see yah Umar looking down at me with questions in his eyes "that's enough,we can all see she's fine now and she's more than capable of rubbing in her bump!"  I got up from the floor and she did the same but when I turned back I saw everyone was in various stages of emotions. Ammi looked at me with bewilderment as if she was looking at someone she had never met before, a puzzle with no road map. Baffa looked introspective as he mulled over something, Maya's dad still looked angry, uncle muhammadu looked smug like someone who predicted a match score and it turned out right, uncle habu looked amused and Maya looked tired on her feet but no one was saying anything they all just stared at us. I didn't notice an integral part of the line up was missing until Maya asked "where did Nurah go all of a sudden?"
And I realized he was nowhere to be found in all the drama, so he must have left since before Maya's attack or he won't have been so quiet. He will have been as panicked as she was and frantically insisted on getting her to the hospital.
She asked again looking right at me this time "where is Nurah? Why aren't you answering!"
I didn't have the heart to confirm what she must already know. He left her behind and he's gone now.
" Noo! No! !no! " She began denying it but there's no point. He's already gone! And what the hell I'm I going to do now!

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Hello beautiful people! As promised.i managed to complete a chapter. Thank you for your patience and I hope you keep enjoying choices.
P:s the chapter isn't edited coz I was in a hurry to get it to you so excuse any typos and other errors. Hope to see you all in the comments and votes or else I'll feel I'm writing for ghost readers😆