~3 hours before~
"Mummy take us out please!" Usama begged.
"I'm tired babies." Hajiya Waleeda yawns, stretching her arms behind her head.
"But we passed our exams." Usama persuades.
"Fine," she pushes herself off the chair and carries her bag "Ussy dauko min car key din babanka a kan center table."
She stands up and climbs the staircase to grab her card that she likes to shop with in Aamanee's room. She opens the door and doesn't care to lock it.
Her credit card was kept on the table but Aamanee must've arranged her room so she opens her drawer where she keeps pencils and notepads. There she sees her card and an envelope with Aamanee's name.
She doesn't see Aamanee's name on it until she flips it. She doesn't care to read it at the moment so she puts its in her bag with the card and turns around to see Aamanee at her door.
"Mummy? Are you still taking us?"
"Yes, I'm coming."
Her eyes linger on the edge of the envelope sticking out of the bag with the last letters of her name on it and she felt like crying.
Their mother comes down in a jiffy with Aamanee running behind. Usama brought the key to her and they left with Aamanee and Amira to Grand Square for some ice cream as promised. Who knew the trouble they'd come back to find later?
Everyday it was one problem or the other and because she was never stable like her husband. She'd either not know or he wouldn't know, depends on who remained to be the responsible parents that day.
The mall wasn't close to their house so it took a while to get there. They took turns to tell her stories about the weeks her and their father been gone. Usama won an award in school for the best handwriting and Aamanee got prize money for winning a beauty pageant.
Amira didn't get anything but she argued with her teachers and they all knew but she couldn't let her mother in on her rebellious lifestyle in school.
"We're here!" Hajiya Waleeda states excitedly.
"Yayy mummy. Ice cream!" Usama jumped on his seat, hitting head on the roof of the car.
"Don't embarrass us." Aamanee snaps.
"Abi?" Amira concurs.
"All of you should leave him alone." Hajiya Waleeda scolds with her index finger to their faces in the back seat.
She parked the car and let everybody out. Everyone was getting ready to complain when they saw it was about to rain but if they managed to enter then they'd be going home late.
They spent the rest of the afternoon there, eating and gisting—their mother kept going in and out of sleep—till Alhaji Abdullah repeatedly kept calling his wife and the noise with the several taps from her children's hands wake her up.
"Baban Nadine lafiya na ga 5 missed calls?" Baban Nadine is everything ok that you left me 5 missed calls?
"Ba lafiya." Nothing is fine. He groaned angrily "Dan ki Farouk ya gudu." Your son Farouk ran away.
"Me yasa?" Why?
"I don't know."
"We're coming home now."
"Please do. We need to figure everything out before people notice or the school even calls us."
The rain still hadn't come so they could leave that moment. She rushes them back home and they are forced to disperse to their room while the parents discussed the way forward with the matter.
YOU ARE READING
I See Fire
ChickLitFather, mother and children all have secrets. A child finds out and decides to use it to help them. She decides to run away but without forgetting to write each of them a letter so who's going to find what first? It's a fight to the death. Everyone...
