WHISPERS OF ENCHANTÉ

22: a leap of faith

Kaduna State, Nigeria.

"Me? I have never been there, Madam Gloria. In fact, I have never gone anywhere farther than Zaria," Yasmin protested with a nervous laugh, trying to wrap her head around what her boss had just suggested.

Madam Gloria, who had been under the weather for the past few days and was now in a hospital bed, looked at Yasmin with a mixture of fondness and exasperation.

Yasmin had been by her side the whole time, along with her daughters, who had just stepped out to freshen up and prepare some food for their mother. She doesn't mind staying here for a while longer keeping the old woman company.

"You are indeed too sheltered," Madam Gloria said with a frown of disapproval. "You lack the exposure needed for an event planner."

Yasmin felt the sting of the words but knew better than to take it personally. This was just Madam Gloria's tough love in action. Still, Yasmin couldn't help but feel a bit defensive. She isn't that sheltered.

"I'll get it with time, Ma. I'm just starting. I'm nowhere near your level of experience," she murmured, hoping a little flattery might soften the older woman's mood.

But Madam Gloria was having none of it. When she stands on business, she doesn't love. Yasmin could see she has a motive for this whole conversation so she will let her land on the main topic.

"You are getting it now. That's the nonsense everyone says before they start procrastinating. Especially you girls buried in that ghetto," she grumbled, her huff more like a challenge than a complaint.

"Okay, okay..." Yasmin raised her hands in surrender, trying not to laugh. "But you're moving the IV drip again," she added, carefully adjusting it for what felt like the millionth time.

Just then, Madam Gloria's phone rang. Yasmin picked it up and passed it to her, letting the woman take the call. As Madam Gloria chatted on the phone, Yasmin's mind began to wander —again.

Marriage.

It's a concept that had always felt like a distant, foggy notion to Yasmin. She was only eighteen, and the idea of getting married felt wild. It wasn't that she was against it, but it just wasn't in her plans.

Marriage was something she imagined would come at the end of her life's book, not in the early chapters. As in not even in the eight hundredth page.

But lately, her thoughts were drifting toward that direction more and more, all because of a man she barely knew. Whisperwind. The thought of him was like a gentle breeze that kept pushing her off course.

The fact that she is also turning poetic? She feels pathetic but at the same time she looks forward to having these thoughts all the time. She's caught herself smiling more times than she liked.

"...Smin!" Madam Gloria's sharp voice snapped Yasmin back to reality.

She blinked, trying to look innocent, but there was no hiding the fact that she had completely zoned out. Madam Gloria was giving her one of those classic scowls that Yasmin found more amusing than intimidating. This woman was all bark and no bite.

"Sorry, you were saying?" Yasmin asked in a small voice, feeling like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

Madam Gloria's brows furrowed as she scrutinized Yasmin. "Why are you drifting off like someone with kids to feed?"

"Oh, it's not like that! I just barely had any sleep last night," Yasmin lied smoothly, hiding the fact that her mind had been wrapped around a certain someone.