Above Water

7. A lifetime.

It was natural for the mahogany-skinned man in a kaftan, seated nonchalantly on the recliner to defile any form of sanctity Sadiq and his siblings find.

With no choice but to pay heed, Sadiq dropped his sisters at their mother's place and begrudgingly drove to the mansion he had a heritage in but never considered home, kneeling on edge. Long silence enveloped the fruity-scented room, the interiors framed in leather black, mirroring the man's heart, after Sadiq's low greetings.

"Kana zuwa makarantar ko kuma?" The man, Abi, asked with his spectacled eyes roaming the book he was holding.

"Yes."

"Your sisters?"

"Basma is about to join bells University. Fadila just started her externals," Sadiq said, wiping the dirty screen of his phone on his jean.

"She will not join bells. She should apply for Skyline."

Sadiq had opened his mouth to protest; the girl loved that uni with all her heart and he couldn't bring himself to be the beast to break the news to her but was instead cut off by his man's vicious eyes landing on him, burning him. An equally callous voice, "Bakwa jin tausayi na. I had to call or else you wouldn't have come to see your father that has just been released from custody? What kind of children are you? Why are Basma and Fadila not here? Where is Jamila?"

The questions came out string after string. Sadiq resisted the efficacious urge to scoff, dragging his head lower instead and fixing his keen on his clasped phone.

"Ina magana kana sa kai a qasa kamar munafuki?"

"Kayi Haquri," Sadiq apologized, raising his head only for his father to harshly close off his book, sitting upright.

"Shine kuma kake kallon tsabar ido na don bakada kunya?"

Again, Sadiq was tugged between the man's indecisiveness. Everything done was wrong to Abi-one of many reasons his children deserted him.

"Your brothers are busy," Sadiq knew they weren't, he was more efficient than them and his father knew, "My container was seized months back and none of you thought to go and get it checked?"

Heart picking up, he almost bounced from his position as his eyes rose to his livid father. "My container was seized months back too, I went there and they were demanding—"

"Qarya ne!" Abi bellowed, angling a firm finger at Sadiq who dropped his head, "Ni zaka mayar yaro? My container was seized, not yours, and you better find a way to get it back since it was you I left the responsibility to," his voice dialed down and he flicked a hand, "Tashi kaban wuri."

It made no sense hassling or appealing to the man, he was not a judge without reason. Rather than another round of insults, Sadiq rose his aching body. The need to flee from the environment surged each second until Sadiq was out of the swanky, mountainous parking lot of his fathers illegal property, built with prosecutable funds.

Abi, Justice Ali Ibrahim Abdullahi was a Hausa man from Kano closing in on his early sixties. It was ironic that the 'Justice' that came before his name was the total opposite of what his life embodied. The man was infinitely notorious for his intentment on many forms of corruption in the courthouse; extortion, bribing, blackmail, and sending innocent people to their early graves or unjust penalization.

Not only was he loaded, but he also had every felon, nefarious political officeholder, and civil servant on his side.

A judge who made his way to the top through his sharp and resources schemes, all the while covering his tracks was the reason why there was never a prosecutor smart enough to hand him to a court. The only advances they could manage was to silence him for a few months by keeping him under custody as they scout his accounts, books, and life to the same end game; nothing. Bringing the inevitable cause of his release like he was released a week ago. Soon, he returned to the lives of his family who were happier while he was in custody and tempestuously await the next case he was assigned to.