Midnight Echoes (ONLY PREVIEW)

Chapter 50

"Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction."
~Rumi.

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"Are you okay?" Suraj asked, concerned.

"Yes..." Azizah coughed out. "I think I've... inhaled... too much dust."

But the coughs did not stop even when she cupped her palm to her mouth and nose. It engulfed her completely until she dropped to her knees, wheezing in that instant. "I think... I'm having an attack."

Suraj understood that she meant asthmatic attack but was dumbfounded because he never knew she had asthma. But that wasn't important now for she was in need of immediate assistance.

"Inhaler!" He called out. "You have one?"

Azizah shook her head from where she was haunched over. "It's... fine," she managed. "I can... manage."

Then with great difficulty, she sat up straight and started to take long, deep breaths, continiously, until the cough subsided. When she made an attempt to stand up, Suraj placed a hand to her shoulder. "No, don't. Stay calm." He rose up and pulled open all the glass windows and opened the door, letting fresh air into the living room.

And she did. Several minutes passed and Azizah was in that position. Suraj sat accross, regarding her intently. He could see that the reddish shade in her eyes had started to disappear and her breathing had gone back to its normal self.

"Sorry." Suraj said.

She rose to her feet. "Thanks. I think we should get going now." 

"You sure you are okay?" He asked, doubt evident in his face.

"Why, yes." She slung her bag on her shoulder, picked up the photo album, and pulled back her niqab such that it covered her face.

Now, they'd walked a safe distance away from Azizah's parents' house, when Azizah spotted a local tea stand.

"Hey let's have some tea!" She suggested excitedly and begun to walk towards the stand.

"Tea?" Suraj repeated, a little mortified. First, it was almost three in the hot afternoon of Maiduguri's month of May! Tea at that time would be nothing but catastrophic. And secondly, what with the way he saw the tea stand, he doubted if he could drink that tea.

"Yes, they make the best tea!" Azizah said. "C'mon, you'll enjoy it."

"Errrm..."

"Trust me, you will," Azizah reassured. "And oh c'mon I just had an asthmatic attack don't you think I deserve a cup of warm beverage?"

"Hey that's emotional blackmailing!"

"Anything for you to taste the best tea in Nigeria, doc!"

"Salaam, can we have two cups of tea please?" Azizah said once they were at the stand. Its owner was an old man with a virtually white hair and long beard.

"Salaam," the old man simply replied, looked at the duo skeptically.

"He wasn't expecting a lady to drink tea at the tea stand," Azizah whispered to Suraj once the man starteded to brew the tea. "And he's probably mad that he can't see whose rebellious, God forsaken daughter of Bama dares to do that."

Suraj chuckled lightly, relating to what she'd said, because it was the same too, where came from. "I think it's fun to rebel once in a while."

Once their order was ready, they settled on one of the wooden benches farther from the stand and Azizah waited for Suraj to take the first sip.

"How does it taste?" She raised a brow teasingly because she'd already seen the soothing expression on his face.

"Do you think he would be kind enough to give out some of his ingredients?" He motioned to the old man, making Azizah burst into fits of laughter.