Embraced (#2 Natives series) #ProjectNigeria

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

           THE NEXT FEW DAYS WAS a blur. Ubers to and from the hospital. Doctor checkups. Granite flooring. Fluorescent lights and the pungent smell of drugs filled Fatiha's days.

Soon it was Ramadan and she began observing her fast while still taking care of her auntie in the hospital. It had taken her a lot of courage to call home and inform her mother about what had happened to her sister. She had called her father on the second day and she could still remember her mother's wailing over the phone.

On the fourth day, her mother and Madinah had arrived at the hospital. They had spent two days in Abuja before going back home with the promise of coming again. Fatiha had received calls and messages of well wishes from Noor and Aabidah but nothing from Basmah. The teacher had seemed to somehow vanish from the face of the earth, and none of the girls knew where she was. It bothered Fatiha a lot but there was nothing she could do when her friend wanted to stay hidden. Not even Aabidah who was closest to Basmah knew where she was.

Fatiha's guilt began to sprout even further as the days passed by and her auntie still hadn't opened her eyes.

During the eighth day at the hospital, Fatiha was seated down next to her auntie, reciting a surah from the Qur'an like she'd been doing since Ramadan began four days ago when she suddenly stopped. She stared hard at the woman lying there unconscious with machines hooked to her body. She looked so lifeless yet still harboured an expression that seemed to be filled with nothing but ease.

Frustrated by the lack of improvement, Fatiha put the Qur'an down, stood up and left the room. She started to walk down the hall when she noticed a familiar silhouette seated not too far away.

"Ya Munir?" she called quietly.

He turned around and they both locked eyes as he did so. "Asalamu Alaykum," he greeted with a small smile.

Fatiha sighed with something close to ease, her chest losing a little bit of the tension in her pectoral. She walked over to him without a word and settled down on the bench next to him, making sure to keep an appropriate amount of distance between them as she always did whenever he visited her at the hospital.

He'd been coming regularly since the day her auntie had been admitted into the hospital. She could step out to pray or get some fresh air and there he'd be. Sitting quietly outside in the waiting area, never intruding in her time with her auntie... just patiently waiting. Once she'd stepped out to get a prescription the doctor had written down and there he was, flipping through a forgotten copy of someone's Hisnul Muslim.

It felt nice seeing him every time she stepped out of the dark room. It was like she stepped into a light so warm even her chest grew warm every time he was around. It was comforting actually but she didn't feel that same level of comfort today.

"You came again," she mentioned blandly.

He nodded his head, the only semblance of a response to her sentence. No one spoke after that. They just sat there, none of them daring to break the silence that seemed to speak more than their words could. Munir fiddled with the book in his hands, while Fatiha looked down at her sock cladded feet, letting out sighs that seemed to get heavier by the seconds.

"How are you holding up?" Munir asked in an attempt to divert her attention from the train of negative thoughts he was certain she was having.

Fatiha kissed her teeth as she tried her possible best to answer the questions amicably. "Fine, I guess. Alhamdulillah."

They once again sank into silence, however, it was later broken by Fatiha. "She seems so at peace," she stated with a little heat.

Munir said nothing but stared at the book in his hand as he waited for her to go on.