Saved by my nightmare (A Nigerian Story)

CHAPTER 13

بسم لله الرحمن الرحيم
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Lagos, Nigeria.
2012.

"Assalamu alaikum" Maliya heard the gravelly voice of her father greet from the doorway.

She came out of the kitchen, and without much thought ran towards her dad, with her arms around his waist in a firm embrace.

To say the whole family was stunned would be an understatement.

The twins looked at each other repeatedly with a look of disbelief etched on both their faces, Zahar's look of confusion slowly morphed to one of hurt, and their mother felt a surge of happiness grow inside of her.

Withdrawing herself from her father's arms, Maliya walked back to her room making sure to lock the door behind her.

She had decided to try to forgive her family, and started with the least deserving of her resentment.

All the memories she had of her father, although few were all happy ones.

Due to the nature of his job, he was mostly on courses overseas.

She had thought about it many times, but finally decided to move on before the resentment she felt towards them transformed her into a bitter and evil person.

Her father hadn't been around when she went to boarding school, for the sake of putting everything behind her she was willing to delude herself into believing that he had only gone along with her mother's idea of enrolling her into the school.

' He probably thought it was my own choice' she thought, desperately holding onto that thought.

She had made up her mind a few weeks back to start being civil with her dad, and probably with the rest of the family gradually.

Captain Jamil looked off into space, a hint of a smile playing on his lips.

For the second time that day, the twins were astonished. Their father hadn't ever been one to show a blatant display of emotions.

Yet, there he was smiling at the spot where their sister had been a few moments ago.

****
As if excited for the ceremony, the clock seemed to tick faster.

Maliya, in front of her dressing table looked at her profile in the mirror.

Her eyes scanned over the cosmetic products laid out on the vanity table.

"eyeliner, nude lipstick, concealer, an eyepencil" she chanted silently, picking out the products she needed

Her mother had laid a whole array of cosmetic products, probably assuming her daughter to be some sort of fashion queen.

'I can work with this' she thought.

Distastefully, she threw the eyeshadow in the bin. The mere sight of said object revolted her. For some reason, she had forever revolted the idea of applying colour on her eyelids.

******
Two hours later, the Jamil family were at the naval dockyard, making their way to the NNS CENTENARY.

Zahar for reasons perfectly known to him felt a weight sink into the bottom of his stomach, overcome with a mix of dread and anticipation.

The car pulled up next to a flight of stairs linking the ground to the ship.

Zahar came down from the car followed by his brothers and lastly Maliya.

The car tailing them pulled up beside theirs, and their parents came to stand next to them.

Zahar took a quick survey of their family, wishing that the united front they had assumed could morph into  reality.