Endings

8

2 MONTHS LATER

Over the coarse of three months I had noticed that my life had an intransigent quality to it. It's unwillingness to stay prosaic for even a second was enigmatic. I prided myself in my ability to remain imperceptible and not generate any sort of scandal but recently all my life had been about was scandal and incessant controversy. Was there an underlying incident that proved that my family was doomed from the inception of my parents marriage or was it that we just got worse with time? It felt like our collective progression as a family was being stored in some wooden calabash or something. (Calabash: a wooden bowl with decorations on it dating back to our ancestral times).

"Mum we need to get going if we're going to make it to the airport on time." Jamila shouts

My mum gained full custody of Jamila and I. It was a messy divorce. Neither my mum nor my dad had any intentions of giving up but when your dad is about to have a mistress for a wife it doesn't really set the best example or give a great impression. My mum was going to Lagos for a workshop. She was an lecturer, one of the most boring professions. You might think leaving your kids unsupervised for 2 weeks would be a big deal when you just won a custody battle but think again, my grandma was around. She came all the way from Kaduna to come stay with us and keep us, in her words "in checks". She wasn't that good with English but she tried.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, just hold on and come help with my bag."

Mum looked frazzled. We were the ones that forced her to go for this workshop and she clearly didn't want to but then she surprisingly and reluctantly complied.

"Okay so we're leaving now mama. Please take good care of Jamila and Ali. If there's any problem please call me! Make sure Ali takes his medication everyday twice a day, that's the only thing that's keeping him somewhat healthy right now. Jamila can't miss her doctors appointment on Thursday by 2:15 so Ali you're going to have to drive both of them. When I land I'll call you guys and don't forget there's food in the fridge and I left down some money in case of any emergency, okay?"

"Mum we're going to be fine, trust us. Just enjoy your workshop and don't worry about us too much." I answered

Jamila decided to stay behind and help my grandma with dinner so she sat this one out.

Cruising down the high way on the way to the airport I could tell that my mum wasn't still quite sure about going on this trip but she needed some time off. When she won the custody battle she took a little time off from work to take care of me and Jamila. She wasn't going to slip up and let my dad use that as an oppurtunity to get Jamila, yeah that's right, he only wanted Jamila. He didn't fight for me and I was sincerely thrilled because there was no way I was going to stay in the same house with Funke. Funke was already planning their wedding and I'm sure my dad's bank account was less than effecient to pull off whatever plan she had in that thumb sized mind of hers. The $30,000 fiasco wasn't something that bothered me anymore, if Funke was going to release the video of me slashing her tyres then so be it. The only reason that I'm not worried is because I have her phone, yeah I'm that good. The bitch wasn't smart enough to detect any funny business I was up to when my dad called me and Jamila over to reveal the big news to us so I just quietly reached into her purse and grabbed her phone. I also wipped the memory on her laptop clean so she had absolutely no evidence against me and now I had a choice. I could either hold on to the note she gave and hand it over to the cops saying that she had accused me of some absurd allegations and proving that she faked her injuries or I could just burn it. I was still thinking, I liked having choices.

"Ali, you know we could just turn around and go back home right? I won't be mad just say the word."

We've had a tough 2 months. Jamila almost lost her mind over Khalil. She kept thinking that he was texting Sa'a and that they had a thing but when he finally proved that he wasn't she felt bad so she apologized and they remained together, which was all she wanted. Though, it still didn't explain why he was kissing her. Anyways that wasn't my problem but I still owed it to Jamila to do some snooping.

"No mum its fine trust me, we're going to be just fine. Go enjoy yourself and do some accounting. We'll be here when you get back, we love you. Its going to be okay."

* * *
I looked at her from the window when her plane took off. I was so proud of her. No matter how hard she tried to fight going she still did. She was so strong.

I know she wasn't that worried about Jamila, it was me. I was the problem. Cancer can sneak up on you. When you think you have it in check and you're managing it well it pops up like a pimple on your forehead and surprises you. I was a ticking time bomb. Within the last two months I had, had 2 near death experiences so I couldn't blame her for being reluctant.

"Can I get you anything babe?" Asked Jamila

I came back home to the sight of Khalil and her cuddling on the couch. How convenient.

"Nah, I'm good" he answered

I needed to get into Khalil's phone somehow but I didn't know how. I did notice that he didn't have an imprint of a phone in his pockets and it wasn't next to him so he must have been charging it in Jamila's room.

"Hey Jamila can I go get a novel from your room? I'm in the reading mood"

"Whatever, knock yourself out. I recommend In the Youth of Our Fury, its good."

"Thanks babe." I sarcastically added

When I got into her room I shot the door and looked around for his phone. It was on her bed side table so I scurried over and turned it on. Unfortunately he had a password and fortunately I knew it. He used his birth year as his password, cliche. So I went through the texts between him and Sa'a and they were completely harmless. Not a booty-call in sight, it was refreshing but then a message came up and it read

"Hey baby, gonna see you to tonight? Message me, xx."

I didn't want to just judge him based off of that text so I saw it as nothing but that didn't stop me from tapping on it and then I found out that the text was from Luna, Jamila's best friend.