HER WET PILLOW

WEALTH!

Assalamu Alaikum
I am so sorry for the late update.
I had lot of works including my examination. Sincere appologies for keeping you waiting. Pray for your dearest sister. Jazakumullahu Khairan.
CHAPTER 10
WEALTH
I, Fatima and Farida had a lovely time together. It surprised others seeing us together, being with the class nerd. We did hang out a lot together, we spent most of our precious time at school with one another. I and Fatima really learnt a lot from her; she even borrowed us books to read. Farida was full of dreams; she wanted to be a writer and a Surgeon. She wanted to be like Dr Ben Carson, she read his books and read a lot about him. Our company really had a great influence on her as she was able to express her feelings and spend time with people other than books but that didn't stop her from being with her first friends; books. Soon, she started speaking to few classmates. I and Fatima were really happy about the progress in Farida's social life.
It was a bright Sunday, Farida invited us to her house for a full day hangout which I and Fatima were happy about. We wanted to leave the house to avoid all the house chores and sanitations. Informing our parents and them approving wasn't difficult because they knew they had responsible kids. I took my bath and dressed up in my black gown which had white circles on and wore white shoes with a white veil wrapped around my neck. I then took my breakfast and left for Fatima's house. Coincidentally, Fatima wore the opposite of what I wore. She wore a white gown which had black circles on and wore black shoes with black veil wrapped around her neck.
When I got to Fatima's house, she was also ready so we left immediately. We boarded a tricycle from Rikkos, where we stayed to Farida's house at Williams street. I and Fatima had a nice chat as we were going.
"Why did you dress like me?" Fatima asked.
"I should be asking you that question." I replied.
"Wait, we don't even know where the exact house is. We are just going to an unknown place."
"That is very true. But I can remember hearing her saying it was a white painted storey building with a black gate."
"Thank God, we would have been roaming around asking for her house."
We were finally where we supposed to be and we alighted from the tricycle. We started looking around and we could see four to five white houses with black gates and we didn't know which one precisely was Farida's house. We looked around if we could find anybody to ask but there was no one outside. That was not what we expected; we then looked for a place to sit. We sat there for about 10 to 20 minutes waiting hopelessly. Luckily, a black car drove out of one of the houses and we saw Farida's driver in the car. We hurriedly went to the gate of the house and asked the gateman.
"Good morning sir"
"Ina kwanan ku** meaning Good morning in hausa language." the gateman responded in Hausa.
"Is this Farida's house?" Fatima asked.
"Yes, okay na you she dey wait for?" She asked in pidgin.
"Yes sir."
He then allowed us in and led us to the door. I and Fatima sighed in relief that we finally got there.
"Assalamu Alaikum** meaning peace be unto you" I and Fatima said.
"Waalaikumus Salaam** meaning peace be unto you too" Farida responded.
"Alhamdulilllah** Thanks be to Allah" Fatima said.
"Only if you know how much we suffered to get here. It was so stressful." I added.
"Really? I am sorry. I should have given you much detail before now."
"No issues. Can we come in?" Fatima asked.
"Yes you can. Forgive my manners."
Farida had a very beautiful house. Everything looked dazzling; the furniture, the couch, the calligraphy works on the wall, the tiles and everything just looks great. I and Fatima just stood by the door admiring the beautiful features of the house. I was staring at the coloured bob where we were standing as it displayed every colour I knew and maybe more. The walls were painted cream. The furniture and the curtains were brown; made with beautiful designs. The floor was tiled and a beautiful brown rug covered it. I would say using brown for decoration is actually cool. They had a very complex attractive POP above. What a beautiful house! We then walked in and sat on the couch.
"Some people want the moon to disappear this night." Farida said.
"What do you mean?" Fatima asked.
"You both look beautiful." She responded. We had this beautiful smile on our faces.
"Are you sure you used the mirror today?" I asked.
"Why not?" Farida answered.
"Then, it must have cracked while you were using it. It can't handle this much beauty." I responded.
"Thank you." She said with a smile and blushed. She wore a yellow dress and had a black scarf covering her black long hair.
She introduced us to her nanny who was very happy to see us, she was so excited that Farida could have people she called friends. She prepared lot of snacks, made some juice and cooked for us. Farida took us to her room to see what it looked like. It was very big and beautiful, it had a wardrobe, shoe rack, computer, book self, dressing mirror, reading table and more. Everything was pink and it very attractive. It's the dream of every girl child to have that kind of room. She showed us some of her paintings and her calligraphy which looked amazing. We then sat on her bed which was so soft and cozy. Her nanny then brought some snacks and meal to the room and kept it on the reading table.
I stood to look around and went closer to the book shelf. There were books like: Gifted hands, Think big, The lion and the jewel, purple hibiscus, Animal farm, Things fall apart and others. She had an amazing book collection which was so awesome. Looking at her paintings, they mostly were imaginative and others express how hurt she was. "She is so lucky" I thought. I then opened a door and there it was; the balcony. The view was sharp and beautiful as a cool breeze brushed my face as I stood there to watch the view below. It almost took my veil off but I held unto it tightly. "This is so beautiful; everything here is. Only if I and my family can have such an amazing lifestyle." I said to myself lost in thoughts but my mother's words came running through my mind: "We all have different destinies. We shouldn't compare ourselves to other people because we are all different. We face different tests and different kinds of pleasure is given to each an everyone of us. Don't worry about this world. Focus on making it in the hereafter. This world is just an illusion". I was fine again, the thoughts of sadness and displeasure were gone.
"Hey! What are you doing there?" Fatima asked.
"Just enjoying the cold breeze and the beautiful view up here."
"I know right." She said with a smile.
"Hey girls! Come here." Farida called as she brought out her game box. There were games like Scrabble, chess, 5 pillars, Ludo and more. Her nanny then brought some ice cream and shawama for us. I wonder who she played the games with as an only child so I decided to ask.
"Who do you play with?" I asked with a curious look.
"I used to play with mom and dad. But now I play with my nanny. She is very good at games. And sometimes when my cousins come over, we play together."
"That's nice." I said smiling.
We had a nice time as we played games, painted, made bead jewelries, watched movies and ate as much as we could. We were all happy and excited as we enjoy each other's company. We started working on our school project at her house because everything we needed was available. I even borrowed some books to read at my leisure time at home. Fatima was more interested in the bead making. She collected some colourful beads to make jewelries for us. Farida was so happy with our presence and I could see the joy in her nanny's eyes.
Few minutes later, we heard the Adhan (call to prayer). We entered the toilet, took some kettles and filled it with water to perform ablution. After the ablution, Farida took us to their mosque to pray. We entered the mosque as first of all admired its beautiful features. There was a shelf which had the Quran and other Islamic books. The mosque was beautiful with long length and short width. We prayed on the rug and went back inside to continue the activities for the day.
Farida's nanny then called us to the dining to take lunch. As if we hadn't eaten enough, we obliged and went straight to eat. The dining setting was equally awesome. I kept staring at the cutlery arrangement, the table, and chairs and how they were beautifully designed. The chair had a very soft cushion; it must be made of feathers, I assumed. The chair was comforting but I almost slipped as I was used to sitting on the mat to eat at home. She prepared Nigerian Jollof rice and chicken with salad and pineapple juice. That seems yummy! The appearance of the rice was exceptional; unlike the dried jollof we used to eat at home. This jollof had a lot of vegetables and ingredients. I just hoped a day will come when I and my family will have such meal. A chicken lap was placed on my ceramic plate; I never had a big chicken lap all to my own before. It sounded amazing! I took the first bite and I was like out of the world. As much as I felt like a village girl, I still tried to compose myself. I wanted my siblings to eat too but I didn't know how to keep it because it sounded embarrassing. It didn't feel nice enjoying alone and allowing them to suffer at home so I decided not to even eat it and I kept my focus on the rice and the juice and left the golden chicken lap. When we were done, Farida noticed I didn't eat the chicken lap so she asked me why and I told her I wasn't feeling to eat chicken right now. Her nanny heard us discussing and for an unknown reason, she decided to package it for me to take it home. My heart was tumbling with joy.
Soon, Farida's father was home. We were in the sitting room watching a cartoon when he came in. He entered inside and we greeted him except Farida. She just raised her head to see him and then tilted it. Her father was so happy seeing us as we could see from the smile on his face. He kept staring at his daughter because he had not seen her in weeks as she kept avoiding him. He asked us to tell him if we needed anything but we declined as we got more than we thought we could have.
Farida took us to her art room. She had a lot of painting, calligraphy and drawings there. It was so colourful and very beautiful. It had pink paint as her room. Around a corner was a collection of brushes and canvas, there was also her calligraphy set. Then around the room were her works of both painting and calligraphy. I was marveled at her works; they were very beautiful. Almost all of her paintings were landscape and imaginative. She also had calligraphy works in both English and Arabic. "Life is a mysterious journey", "Pain is gain", "Even beautiful stories have bad chapters", "Self love is the key to achievement" and other inspirational words of which were designed beautifully. She also made some Arabic calligraphy which most were verses from the Quran: "Inna ma'al usri yusra ** meaning Verily, With hardship comes ease", "waman yattaqillaha yaj'al lahu makhraja**meaning For whoever trust Allah, He will create a path for him".
I was highly impressed with what I saw. It turned out that our school nerd not only read books but was into painting and calligraphy. I wore a mysterious supervising look on my face as I kept wondering around the room looking at her works.
"Hey girls! I am going design the names of you both." She said.
"Oh really!!!" Fatima exclaimed.
"That will be really nice." I said smiling.
She then grabbed her materials and sat on her stool. I and Fatima stood to see how she was going to do it. We looked at her as she grabbed something like a pen with black ink and designed our names. We monitored every movement of her hands as if we were asked to supervise her. She did it perfectly and gave each of us the one that had our names on. It was very beautiful as we kept it close so as not to forget it when we would be going home.
Soon, it was Asr. We then rushed to the toilet to perform ablution. We did our ablution and waited for Farida's dad in the mosque who led the congregation. After some minutes, the prayer ended and we all started to supplicate which we finished and made our way back to Farida's room. It was 4:00pm and the thought of returning home slapped my mind. All these enjoyment will end now; Verily, everything that has a beginning has an end, I said comforting myself. But we still had chess to complete to know who won the game. I actually enjoyed playing chess as I learnt it in primary school; it's my favorite game to play. After the chess, we grabbed some popcorn and watched a movie. The name was pitch perfect, it's a movie basically focused on acapella. It was a nice teenage movie.
After watching the movie, we were sure to return home. I and Fatima packed our things including the design Farida made for us.
"Stay a little longer." Farida campaigned.
"We wish we could but we have to go." I replied smiling.
"Or didn't you enjoy the stay?" Farida asked pushing her lips out childishly.
"We had more than a nice time girl." Fatima replied.
"Then why don't you want to stay? Spend a night here"
"No we have to go, maybe some other time." I concluded.
We also wanted to stay and have fun but our parents will be anticipating us. We packed our things and made our way to bid farewell to her nanny when she gave us a package each. It was heavy, I couldn't check at that moment but I was sure pastry was included. We thanked her and met Farida's father on our way. He asked the driver to take us home and gave us some money. We were very happy; we said our Salaam and made our way to the door. Farida decided to accompany us home. We sat in the car waiting for the driver and gist as the driver start the vehicle until we reached our destinations.
It was a long day. I dropped from the car after Fatima and said my Salaam waving at Farida as they went back. I got home with joy on my face.
"Assalamu Alaikum the people of this wonderful home." With my voice clearer and sharper than ever.
"Wa alaikumus salaam Amina." They all replied. I was walking in when I hit my leg and squealed.
"What's wrong?" mom asked.
"Mom I just hit my leg."I held the place and screeched.
"It's all anxiety, better be careful. I have always been telling to watch your steps."
"Ok mom. Guess what?"
"What??" everyone asked leaving what they were doing focusing on me. I felt like I was in a grave yard. I then giggled to break the silence. I then explained all that happened as everyone watched me like a movie with their mouths wide open.
"Fatty, close your mouth. A fly is approaching." She then giggled and everyone laughed.
I continued telling them about my so called adventure. And soon I ended the story and my siblings were like Wooww!!
"Just tell us you went to paradise on earth." Aliyu said expressing amazement.
"There is more to this in the outside world. But what matters is money." Zeena replied.
"I want to be rich too. I want to live a luxurious life." Aliyu said confidently.
"But mom, is it that Allah doesn't love us that he made us poor." Fatty asked innocently.
"Not really my dear. He loves us more than anything in the world. He chose the best of His creation among the Mankind to be poor despite the love He has for him. Most of His prophets were not rich except the likes of Suleiman A.S. The thing is that, He gives who He wills. He always chooses the best for us. Wealth might not be the best for us; that may be the reason why we are poor. Sometimes you can love that which is not best for you and sometimes you may hate that which is best for you. Just trust Allah and have faith. He tests His servants differently and He tests who He loves." Mom ended and we were all at peace. Mom's talks always had effect on us, sometimes I wonder if she uses charm to speak to us.
I then decided to open the package that Farida's nanny gave me. There was the biggest 5 alive drink, some cakes and doughnuts, popcorn and there was a covered container. I was perplexed when I found two chicken lap; the one I bit and an additional one. I was very happy. We all sat round on the mat as mom shared the things to us. We then ate Tuwo da Miyan kuka and slept.
Things have been going well. Mom's trade have been well and I took some tests at school. I eqally submitted my assignments. Dad didn't appear for the past 6 weeks. We were doing well and things were runing smoothly. After submitting the requirement, I was waiting for my results before writing the final exams in the next two weeks. I did my best to prepare for the exams. I used the school liberary, returned home late and read under candle at night. Hard work pays as mom always say.
The day had come. The results would be out. I got to school early and attended the assembly. We then returned to class waiting for the teacher to give us our results. Few minutes later, we saw the door opening silenty sssskkkkkssss...................