Chaos and painkillers

41. My woman, My everything.

Daukan Amarya.

That was what this should be called. This, meaning; that when Sudais mentioned his friends were flying in and had organized a party, Laila hadn't given it much thought. Until Hafsy gave her the details as per her brother's request. His friends had insisted on not just an outdoor dinner party where Sudais would bring his wife, but they had also insisted on reimbursing the popular event of newly wedded arewa folks; Daukan Amarya. It was an event solely for the bride, bridesmaids, and the groom, groomsmen.

They had refused to believe that Sudais got married impromptly and believed he didn't want them making noise about his wedding. Now that he had been crowned the king, they weren't just going to celebrate that, they were also coming in to support their boy and meet the newest addition to his life.

In isolation, Hafsy was a good makeup artist, the fact that Laila was fresh on skincare, henna, hair, and results made her sit for about 30 minutes as Hafsy did her makeup.

An hour or so ago, Laila had again argued with Sudais about her outfit. She had wanted to don a maroon FOXY two-piece and had gone as far as stepping into it and sending Sudais a picture which immediately had him calling back to disapprove of the dress. It hugged her too much, he had said. She had gotten angry at how he didn't even hesitate to say it and was ready to give him a peep into her thoughts until he cut her off, begging her to please not fight him and to wear something queen-ish, and blue.

Since her closet was filled more than halfway with maroon, she had complained to Mami about not knowing what to wear. She set out 3 outfits with blue and asked for her mother's opinion. Mami and Queen Baraka picked the maroon and blue FaJay boubou.

Laila stepped back into the busy room and her mother in-law's closet to wiggle herself into the outfit. With difficulties as to how she was going to style the head tie, Laila stepped out of the closet clothed in the FaJay embroidered boubou gown that gave off Alhaji's wife vibes as she asked for help with her head tie.

Hafsy being the artist jumped to gather the remnants of Laila's hair in a low ponytail and tied the head tie into the famous ture-kaga-tsiya head style. Next, Laila stepped into the anklets Sudais had warned her about and the rest of her jewelries over the sound of Mima announcing the groom's men had arrived and Mama was asking for Laila. 

Almost maniacally, Maya sprayed an unreasonable amount of Victoria secret Seduction perfume on Laila before the girls were veiling her face with a large lace see-through blue veil and steadily walked her into Queen Baraka's most large lounge.

Surprisingly-not to Mima though, the lounge was filled only with the mothers. Queen Baraka, her co-wife, Mami, and her co-wife, Sudais' and Laila's elder sisters, and a few older Arab women she wasn't quite acquainted with.

Queen Baraka and Mami were sitting a few inches apart on a couch, the girls; Maya and Hafsy walked Laila to them and slowly lead their knees to the floor before moving back to let the women address the new queen.

Mami's palm caressed Laila's covered-up cheeks as she smiled, mouthing a nonaudible prayer that had the room going up in an 'Amen'.

Lectures again. About her responsibilities to her husband, her family-his family, and the people of Adamawa until the mothers believed it was enough and the groom and his men could come in.

Laila neither raised her head nor said a word but a few minutes later, the hypnotizing mishmash of woody scent, musk Oudh, and finally tobacco aroma that she had discovered filled her nostrils and the man in sky blue was lowering to his knees in front of his mum, beside her.

Impossibly, Laila's heartbeat surged into a state of tachycardia and she missed a beat, turning it irregular.

Laila gulped in self-consciousness as she brought a hand to her chest over the sound of laughter from people around. What was funny?