THE CONTRACT MARRIAGE

29-SORROWS

OMNISCIENT

Muhammad Babangida's residence,
Abuja, Nigeria.

In a private jet made for five, eight people hopped on a six-hour flight and arrived before then, pushing against the atrocities of the weather. Aarif desperately asked for the cause of concern during the trip, but no one dared to inform him.

"Aunt Kamla," Aarif announced his presence, all the others trailing behind while he tightly gripped a crying Camila's hand.

Silence.

That was what befell the living room upon their arrival. How they got there was no more than a blur. Sumaira fainted for the seventh time with the eighth being prevented by Alexa who was holding the dishevelled girl in place.

"Aarif, my son. I'm sorry you had to come back this way..." The iron lady cracked underneath the grown man's gaze.

But his eyes looked beyond her to the centre of the parlour where a lifeless person's body was covered in white cloth. His grip on Camila loosened and the temperature of his body dropped as he took tentative steps towards the body, his heart thumping with every step.

Jawad's father inclined his head to the side, not wanting to see what would unfold. Aarif knelt beside the body and with a quivering arm, he lifted the cloth off her face.

Her gentle smile was the beauty of the morning sun as it rises over the horizon. Her once pink lips were now colourless, with the blood sucked out of them. Cotton wool filled the cavities of her face. Even though her entire hair was shaved, it still didn't do anything to lessen her beauty. She looked so alive, so alive that he thought she would move.

"Mother... Wake up, Big Hero is home," He said with a wide smile on his face, incredulity dancing in his eyes.

Still, the woman was unmoving against his words. Everyone watched in pity as he rambled on and on about activities that were never performed, memories that were never cherished and his return that was never planned to be waited for.

"I'm back now, I'll drink away all your tears so the earth doesn't get a taste. I'll take all the wounds so you don't bleed. I'll be hungry so you don't starve. I'll eliminate every menace so you can sleep in peace. I'll lay down my life so you don't die. Just wake up and prove them wrong, Mother,"

Every second that passed was deteriorating his sanity, slowly and excruciatingly. It wasn't until his sister desperately shook him that he finally snapped out of his trance to accept reality.

"Accept the fact that she has left you. She has left us to sail against the tides without her guidance. This is no other than a dead person who can't even get up to defend herself," She was without a single tear, those grey eyes harder than a rock.

Her voice deepened as she became the man she always believed herself to be, surrounded by barriers of unquenchable fire that burned her and shielded her from the pain outside.

"Sumaira Muhammad Babangida. Be quiet! She's not dead," The blood surged through his entire body like an avalanche, eliciting a blaze that overpowered him.

His sinewy arms gripped hers as he quivered with a rage that needed venting. His darkened hazel eyes bore into her grey ones, desperately wishing for her to say something that would calm him. But alas, he sought solace from the wrong person.