BRAVE

Chapter Three

She let out a small scream, hopping to the mat and sitting as fast she could. Her eyes stung with tears as she blew on the injured toe. Nail broken, blood was slowly seeping out of the small open wound.

Lami took a few more breaths to calm herself and tore a piece of rag to tie around the toe to stop the bleeding.

"What happened?" Baaba Jummai walked out of the toilet, her hand carrying a small basket that contained her sponge and soap. "I heard you scream."

Lami stood up gently, applying light pressure on the foot to see if it would be alright. Thankfully, it was alright save for the fact that she couldn't place the toe on the ground.

"I am fine grandmother." She tied her wrapper again. "I just hit my foot against a stone."

Baaba Jummai paused in her movements, her eyes falling on Lami's foot. "Which foot did you hit? Was it the left? Perhaps I should tell that boy to come tomorrow"

Lami was tempted to say yes but Baaba Jummai's firm belief in the old superstitions sounded funny and even more ridiculous.

"No Grandmother. It was my right foot"

Baaba Jummai's smile grew and she grinned from ear to ear.

"That is a good omen child. Hurry and take your bath"

She pushed Lami into the toilet, ignoring her screams of protest. Baaba Jummai looked around the clean swept house again, determined to make sure nothing was out of place.

"Grandmother I've taken a bath already!"

She spent a long time rubbing her musk scented oil all over her body. Somehow, she was feeling giddy and excited towards meeting her future husband but Lami felt it was a bad omen.

She was not a new bride.

He'd never been married  before, he deserved someone better, someone new.

Lami sighed and felt displeasure pool in her stomach. She lost her earlier enthusiasm.

Looking at the setting sun, loads of nervousness piled up so high in Lami's chest that she was unable to do anything correctly.

First, while cutting some onions to make some soup for their evening meal, she cut her finger bringing the number of blood lost to two.

Then she dropped the pot of soup she was carrying from the kitchen at the sound of the door being pushed by the wind and she watched with a heavy heart as more than half of the content she had spent long hours preparing mixed with the brown sand, a helpless look on her face.

She wasn't exactly sure why she was nervous. Perhaps it was the fact that her father came over  unexpectedly and told her the wedding would be held quietly on Friday, after the Jummat prayers which is two days from today. She was not yet sure about how she felt about it.

"Yar'nan, my child"

He had called and she raised her big brown eyes to look at him. He suddenly felt that he couldn't continue looking her in the eye. He felt guilty and his conscience itched him.

Right from his childhood to his youth, he had always been in love with one woman, Fatima. With her shiny dark skin and doe like eyes, she enchanted him and stolen his heart.

After marriage, the young couple were so much in love and spent their days happily. Some months later, they were expecting a child but who would've ever thought that she would die after birth, leaving behind a very beautiful baby girl who's face mirrored hers.

His heart broken, he put up walls and became cold to everyone around him. He blamed Lami for her mother's death even though he called her the same name.