The Sun Always Shines

The Shadow Casted Upon Us

‘’Mama, why do I have to take so many drugs?’’ My daughter will often asked me with her innocent eyes lingering in mine.

I couldn’t say much then, she was too young to understand. But later on in her life, she did understood why she had to and still have to. She also learned to live with the fact that her life and drugs are going to work hand in hand.

However, she’s still learning.  And along with her, I’m also learning as she grows. For my daughter, there are questions still left unanswered. Sixteen years had already went by, however the memories still lives. The society and the shadow casted upon us.

It’s a story that started way back in my life, in the growing town of Zuru, a local government in Kebbi state. In the year 2003, a charming young man arrived in our neighborhood. His arrival had put many girls to the test, my elder sister included. She’s charmed by his outstanding personality and fashion sense which’s way different from our town boys. It's obvious he'd seen and went to places our natives wouldn't even dream of.

My sister, Zainabu and I grew up under the care of our elder brother, Yaya Audu. He’s our only parent, we didn’t came from a rich family nor did we had rich relatives. Therefore, for girls like Zainabu and myself, we both have an idea of what our future would be like. It’s nothing much, since we are fortunate enough to have went to school, secondary school was the furthest we can go and the ultimate future was marriage. It’s that simple. Only if someone had told us it wasn’t going to be so.

Nevertheless, not long after my sister got acquainted with the unknown young man, he proposed marriage to her. Zainabu was not an easy kind of girl. So marriage was the only way Mr city boy could to get to her.

Zainabu was already head over heels in love, so it’s easy to fooled her. However, Yaya Audu could sense the underlying danger beneath that so called love. So he declined the proposal, after all no one knew where the guy came from. "I’ll run away with him," she had threatened like a crazed girl one evening after Yaya Audu had ousted the city boy from our zaure.

Zainabu did not took the rejection of marriage proposal well, and that had brought a lot of changes in her. She became insanely  ill mannered and misbehaved with everyone at home, to the extend that she snuck out of home several times to meet up with her boyfriend.  She'd done a lot of things that compelled  Yaya Audu to gave in to her demands. Though, he made sure Zainabu knew what she’s doing. It’s her choice after all, so she knew and agreed to all Yaya Audu's conditions.

Zainabu's marriage was a grant affair, but it was surely celebrated decently, especially with an overjoyed bride. She was so happy. I have never seen her that happy. And at that point, I was also happy for her too. She settled well in her new home and soon she came back to being her old sweet self. Though, that dream was short lived.

My new brother in law,  Sa'id  was shrewd. He’s still as mysterious as ever, not even Zainabu knew much about him. To top it all, seven month into their union, my brother in law fell ill and died. What’s weird,  was that throughout his two month battle with that unknown illness, he refused to visit the  hospital, and also refused to let anyone take him. His neighbor even offered to take him to the hospital in the city, but that didn't work.  He have been ill few times too before their marriage. When he died, everyone in our area was there to give him a proper funeral. Although, no one could reach his family, my brother tried to no avail, up until now, no one knew who Sa'id was, we have no idea if that was even his real name.

Too soon after his dead, tragedy came knowing on our door. My sister's death sentence! Sa'id illness had been a debate to a lot of people, especially the youngsters. So even after his demise some of them did not put the matter to rest, until the dark shadow fell upon my pregnant sister.