Loving Zarah

Made in Marrakech

Made In Marrakech

"La hawla wala quwatta illa billah" Haj Khairiyyah sighed as she clapped her hands dramatically.

"Umma calm down" Shukrah tried calming her mother down. "Dama sha'anin biki ya gaaji haka. Stuff like this happens on weddings"

"Ni zaki gaya wa sha'anin biki? Eh?" Umma snapped.

Shukrah swallowed and turned her face away. Her Umma was more than pissed.

"How do you expect me to get 200 barrels of kayan zaaqi back to Kano. How?"

"Umma..." Ahmad started but she shut him up.

"Dan Allah ni ku qyaleni. Leave me alone"

Shukrah and Ahmad exchanged looks and they instantly knew this was their queue to leave their fuming mother alone.

Haj Khairiyyah sat on the sofa of her living room with a thud and sighed heavily. She had conducted two weddings so far and each of them had turned out quite alright even though they both came with all their calamities. But she was glad she got the chance to bypass all the obstacles smoothly. But this wedding right here was beginning to give her a throbbing headache. Is that what it feels to marry out two daughters at the same time?

She had ordered 200 barrels of the traditional kayan zaaqi which constituted dubulan, alkaaki, nakiya and chin chin from her favorite confectioner in the ancient city of Kano. The stuff was finished at the right time but then the confectioner messed up by delivering the goods to Abuja. Haj Khairiyyah swore that she had told her that the wedding was taking place in Kano so the barrels would be taken to their family house at Nassarawa GRA. But here they were in her courtyard delivered some few minutes ago. The confectioner did not even call her to tell her about the delivery. And what angered her most was that she had to pay a huge chunk of money to the confectioner for the delivery. And she has to find another truck that'll deliver the barrels back to Kano yet again. She was getting frustrated.

"Do you think she's going to calm down anytime soon?" Shukrah asked Ahmad as they walked out of their mother's living room.

"She will be okay. She's just so worked up and getting nervous. This is the first time she's handling 'double' crowd y'know"

Shukrah nodded as she adjusted her head tie over her messy hair. "I hope she calms down soon"

"Aren't you coming to the airport with me?"

The brides-to-be, Azeeza and Lubna were arriving from Marrakech and Ahmad was assigned to receive them and their cargo from the airport. That cargo plane will be arriving by noon and so he had to be at the airport pretty early.

She shook her head "Nope. I have a lot of stuff to do. Ya Afaf wants me to go to her tailor and make sure her clothes are ready even though I know they're not" she sighed as she leaned against the banister.

"And you need to make your hair too" he nodded towards her heap of hair.

"Exactly" she smiled cheekily at him.

"Alright. I'll see you later."

"Bye" she waved as she watched him walked down the spiral staircase. "My regards to dearest Adda Zarah"

"Insha Allah" he answered at the foot of the stairs.

She turned and headed to the left wing where her room was located. She stood by the door assessing the condition in which she had left it earlier. Souvenir samples lay everywhere on the floor. Printed IV's, packets of balloons, bags of confectionaries and party cones were stacked up on her bed. Tiny magic wands and tutus were strewn about everywhere. She was supposed to buy costumes for all her cousins who were going to be present at the costume party. She has been going up and down Jabi Lake Mall trying to find the right costumes for the kids most especially. They were her favorite part.