A Place Called Darkness

Chapter 2

The little girl giggled as her sister poured cool water on her foamy naked form.
After the sister was sure the girls' body was well rid of any soap, she pushed her to the side and beckoned on the next girl who was standing by the side waiting for her time to be given the usual mid-afternoon bath outside.

She stepped forward replacing her younger sister and also yelped with a shudder when the cool water made contact with her skin.

Ibrahim sunk his teeth into the sugar cane he was clutching like a dagger then chewed ruthlessly and sucked all the sugary liquid before spurting out the fiber in a rather uncivil manner. He wiped his mouth with the back of his palm.

He was regarding his younger sisters as they giggle gaily and jump on the brown puddle that was forming near their bathing area as if they had no care in the world.

Fatima, the bigger one among the three pushed an unsuspecting and already cleaned up Amina, her immediate younger sister into the dirty pool, they both started laughing.

An angry Sadiya, their eldest sister and the one who was bathing them hit Fatima and from the way she was pointing her finger at the then sober Fatima, the young girl was receiving some serious tongue lashing.

To anyone who was watching, Ibrahim was looking concentratedly at what his sisters were doing but in reality, his mind was far from there, his mind was furiously trying to connect the dots his father had so haphazardly dropped earlier that day.

There was something much bigger to his Fathers case. He had suspected it earlier but it had not been confirmed until then. Every fiber on his body was prompting him to search deeper, to look into the matter with a sharper eye, to find out the real reason his father was behind bars and not the concocted story believed by the world. No matter how convincing the media version was.

His mother, Umma asked Sadiya to go easy on the girls as they were just playing then ordered them to enter the house and wear their night cloths which consisted of a vest and pant.

Umma had not said anything to him after he came back from the visit to his father other than wether he was hungry and was ready to eat.

She did not need to ask to know that something was terribly wrong and that Ibrahim would never tell her. She was contented with the knowledge that Ibrahim did speak with his father. Any decision they made, was right by her.

Later, when the night will be still and the moon will hang over the world like the only lantern of hope to all of man, she will kneel before her Lord and cry out her heart asking him to protect her family, to keep her husband alive.

He threw the sugar cane stub in frustration, how he had finished the entire half length of the cane was a wonder to him as his tongue had not, even for a second registered the taste of the sugary substance.

He still remembered that day, how could he forget?. The day that served as the turning wheel of their comfortable lives forever. The day he came face to face with the other side of reality.

It was on a Thursday, and a very remarkable day was it because it was all smiles and laughter in their house, their father especially. He was finally going on a much prayed for pilgrimage to the Holy land, to Meccah.

If there was anything Ibrahims father, Abba passionately wanted to fulfill in his life before he departed the world was to perform one of the five obligations on a Muslim, Hajj.

So when he went home one day and ecstatically announced to them that his boss, a senator he was serving as a driver for for over 6 years had finally granted him the chance of touching the holy grounds by sponsoring his trip, the family were over the moon. They praised Abbas' boss and prayed that Allah will reward him for his generosity.